Stasis

The Good
Indeed it is very Event Horizon & Sanitarium, looking much like an amalgam of both. One may also cite Dead Space and System Shock 2 as influences - the first for STASIS's body horror galore and the second for its many crew-written logs which tell a lot more than the actual gameplay.

Not saying it's a bad thing - STASIS's log-reading makes for an experience more diverse than the main plot, which features John Maracheck (you), a survivor in a derelict ship looking for his wife and kid. Unlike Maracheck's journey - a gruesome, perhaps monotonal, trudge through falling bridges, despaired survivors and limb-salad monsters - STASIS's logs feature many colorful characters who narrate interesting, day-to-day, even funny things before falling to the usual gloom-n-doom. There's a "nice guy" that serves as an useful idiot to some woman, all the while another character, someone who actually likes the idiot, comments on the sad situation; there's a self-aware psychopath responsible for many horrid experiments, all the while not sounding like a caricature, more like some dry, pragmatic person; there's one lonely wife doing it with a lab assistant in order to diminish her solitude; there's a security guard that at first sounds like a jerk but is actually a sober guy trying to help some newbie; all of whom succumb to the inevitable killer organism or crazed saboteur, but aren't necessarily tangled heavily in the chaos.

I mean, play Dead Space. It's monotonal: every single log features someone dreading things with utter dread or being drilled in the head by some loony lunatic. Without something to balance it - some actual humanity, for instance - it ends up being a tad boring. STASIS is sensible in this aspect, making it easier for the player to bear Maracheck's humorlessness, adding some other notes besides the one that's being played ceaselessly. (Granted, it is indeed despairing to search for one's family members in hostile territory, so such monotony isn't necessarily bad writing - it fits).

As for our actual hero, John Maracheck, you'll help him solve wonderful puzzles with cool objects like severed hands and neural drills, that aren't bad at all - most of them feel correct, no Sierra dung here. There's no control over dialogue, but that's alright, since STASIS never seems to be about choosing. His search takes you through many memorable setpieces detailed in tasty old-school 2.5D isometric view (think Sanitarium or Fallout).

It is actually very important to expand on this - STASIS is a 2015 game with 1996 graphics. So much that it's actually low-res - expect blurriness, as if it was scaled beyond its actual depth.

This, my friends, is excellent. Not only it helps with the grimy, hazy atmosphere of the game, but it also harkens and nods to old games - in an age of too much detail and things blowing up due to little limit, it feels like the old Star Warses in comparison to unbridled Lucas's air-flipping Yoda.

It actually represents a new freedom: the freedom to restrain oneself from excesses, something I doubt would happen without the actual indie scene, with its independence from big publishers and the possibility of crowd-funding (this is, after all, a crowd-funded indie game).

Pretty good.

The Bad
This might be not challenging enough for you hardcore adventurers out there. I ran into a few head-scratchers, but I'm sure they're not very hard.

Voice acting may sound a bit awkward occasionally, such as when Maracheck has his "Khaan!" moments. Even so, it sounds like the actor's putting some effort into it, rather than being apathetic.

The story, while decent and not cringeworthy, is very standard. Fortunately, the writing and scenery make up for this very much.

One particular Big Bad character is very silly - didn't care about him; you could kick a tree and 20 alike would fall off it.

Didn't like the ending, felt like another kick in the genitals after a long session of genital-kicking - that is, not much of anything left in one's crotch for one to feel the intended pain.

The Bottom Line
Are you a derelict spaceship screw-up fan? Will you settle for an OK story, good environs and some fun reading? Do you think Fallout, Sanitarium, Crusader, Baldur's Gate et al's graphics are the best thing since sliced bread and you sure hope more people would do 2.5D isometric games in this sad age?

Well, this last item might be optional - too personal, I guess.

But it's a cool hit in the niche mainline, if the answers are yes.