Hi all. Choosing for a long time, in which the world it is better to plunge into the world, I decided to stay at the game in the genre Survaval Horror. And I did not lose: the last couple of weeks I was scared to the illusions that someone terrible was breathing in my back. Well, I won’t start more to simultaneously – my choice fell on the game “Anabiosis: Dream of Reason”. And if you are interested in a video version of the blog, you will find the video below the post 🙂

This is a computer game that can tickle nerves. Its developer, Ukrainian company Action Forms, worked hard to glory. I was terribly throughout the game. And the game is scared by the Russian gamer for 9 and a half years. Separately, thanks for this, the company-publisher 1c.

According to the plot of the game, In 1981, the scientist Alexander Nesterov, according to the order, left the drifting station Polyus 21. On the way to the appointed meeting place with the crew of the North Wind atomic icebreaker, he lost the dog harness and fell into an ice crack. In search of help, he still came across an icebreaker, but met him on board not at all what expected. And so in the life of the scientist a new goal appeared – to find out about the crew of the icebreaker and its mysterious story. True, it is not clear why he wanted to do this, well, okay, for the whole game they will not tell us why he needed it. Probably he is very curious.

And the developers offer to know the fate of the “north wind” at the same time Struggling for survival. This gaming activity is supported by secondary mechanics: the murder of enemies and the accumulation of forces. Considering that Nesterov, apparently not giving the TRP, due to the fact that he quickly gets tired and slowly runs, surprisingly he easily copes with the zombie attacking him. And the treatment mechanics are made with a claim to originality. To recover and restore strength, everything is used: starting from electric heaters, ending with table lamps. All this comes across the path of the protagonist while he explores the mysterious icebreaker.

And he is teeming with terrifying monsters, as if the hero got into the series “Walking Dead”. But in anabiosis there are Interesting types of zombies. Some of them have a human appearance, for example, those in the welder’s costume, others only vaguely resembled people. One of the representatives of the local revitalized meat in my head has a small room. Well, what, your own real estate …Or movement … Okay, let’s lower it. The other has spider paws instead of legs – I have not seen this in any of the experiments of the film industry.

But despite this huge assortment of an expired meat, Nesterov is not eager to recognize them closer. He likes the zombie of the same species – those who do not try to kill him. Killing one monster after another, Nesterov is brazenly and selectively dug up to those who could not wait for his arrival … due to death. And this is thanks to the so -called "Mental echo". Touching the next frozen dead man, the hero teleports into his mind and can change his past. Also, during the game, we can stumble upon a flashback from the "life" of the ship itself. Why is this incomprehensible in the same way as and why developers weave a legend about Danko for the authorship of Gorky into the plot of the game. As the developers count, why this should be done to everyone to become clearly closer to the finals of the game. But by the end of the game, questions remain unresolved.

But what the developers did not miscalculate – so in interface. It is simple and more modest enough, like Keanu Reeves in his daily life. In the lower left corner of the screen is an indicator of endurance, air and body temperature. This is important, since not only monsters, but also the ubiquitous cold encroach on the life of the hero. And on the right we see the available cartridges in the store.

Compared to the interface The https://amigo-wins.uk/ design of the game world much more colorful. The world of Anabiosis is represented by a huge atomic icebreaker. Dog cold ramms on each floor. Ice patterns flaunt on the walls. These snowy drawings melt before our eyes when Nesterov includes heating systems. All the objects present on the ship look realistic: on the packs of cigarettes we meet the brands “Friend” and “Prima” familiar to the smokers, and all the available utensils are puffed by the color of Soviet times.

But not so realistically represented Arsenal of the scientist. He carries with him a fire ax, rifles, a submachine gun and even a water gun. Everything would be nothing, just why the developers offer one Mosin rifle with an optical sight, and the other, exactly the same, but with an open sight? The most annoying thing is that the mosinka with optics was also useful to me, like a red diploma of higher education, only a couple of times. But I expected more.

Another moment causing disputes in my head is the endurance of the protagonist. How he drags a pile of weapons behind his back (PPSh weighs 5.3 kg with an equipped drum store, Mosin-Nagan rifle-4.13 kg, and SVT-3.9 kg and this is not the entire arsenal) weighing more than 13 kilograms. The question is rather not even “how?”, And“ why?". But the game does not pretend to be realism, so the question.

Nesterov himself is painfully silent. Although with whom to talk to, not with the walking corpses. By the way, About intra -game dialogs. They are represented only in the memoirs in which the main character is immersed, touching the dead bodies of the crew of the “north wind” and all in the same story of the legend about Danko. The connection of this legend and the plot line of the game is not too clear for me. Either the main character is associated with the character of Gorky, or the icebreaker with Danko himself, and the captain of the “northern wind” with his heart. In general, I have not seen such skillfully confusing philosophy before.

And along with this, the player is tormented by other inexplicable questions. For example, that they used the outfits to come up with a chapter in the cinema hall of the ship. When Nesterov was there, he began to shell the zombies directly from the movie screen. And this still had to be realized. And after from the film to the world of Nesterov, a nonhuman with two rifles on his shoulders came down – and showed him where the crayfish winter.

But what is not in doubt is a tense Anabiosis atmosphere. The fact that the hero alone passes all trials is already giving passions. Especially against the backdrop of superior music, although what else can be expected from the horror of the game. Here we do not collect mushrooms. The creak of doors, howl of wind, the sounds of approaching monsters, a rapid breathing – all this and much more create the necessary mood. Plunging into it, you will really feel that cold and fear surrounding the meteorologist Nesterov on board the “north wind”. In a word, an audio row is delightful, if only because closing our eyes, we feel how something inside us is compressed by everything that we hear.

Moving to the places of deployment, there are practically no problems. In this The main feature of the balance Anabiosis. Everything is built in such a way that intuitively the player goes to where. There are visual tips: cartridges and weapons glow brightly with blue, with a red glow, pipes are indicated where you can warm up, the buttons that need to be pressed on, the corpses of crew members burn the same color. But, climbing the stairs, some difficulties may arise, since the chief hero can just get tired of moving. Anabiosis makes you think logically – how to get to one or another place, how to save a person, what to do to be a floor above or raise a stair passage. And the game will not let go further until the task she has set. In general, using logic is a holy cause, but you also need to be hyper careful. For example, at the most necessary points, you can forget why the eyes are needed and easily not notice the right door.

But the biggest mystery of the game remained for me Her ending. All those who are touched by spoilers, please move away from the screens. So, questions began in the final chapter.

In the course of the passage I saw a lot, but here … this is chrono. Yes, Chronos got out of the ship’s reactor. The protagonist has marks in his arms and he begins to shoot fireballs. Initially, I thought that I needed to kill a chronos, but, as it turned out, I needed to kill more zombies than chronos. Or rather 10. After he carries Nesterov into space. On his fingers, the scientist goes to one of the scores of the plot and eventually changes the story of the ghost ship. Yes, if you listen to this description, despite the video sequence, you might think that this is the plot of arthouse cinema.

But that’s not all. As a result, Nesterov falls into the initial screensaver, only now he is saved by already living crew members. Here, as it were, is the “Happynd”, but one phrase does not give me rest: “We have a difficult path ahead. And we will send your wonderful dogs back. Unlike us, they will always find the way home ".

Why send dogs to an already empty station? Why is this their house? And people? What about them? That it was generally?

The only logical conclusion from the ending for me was the death of Nesterov and everything that we saw and through what we went through is the wandering of the lonely, unwell the soul of Alexander Nesterov. Confirmation of this is the lines added to the final of the game from the biblical Old Testament book of Ekklesiast. Of these, we understand that Nesterova’s soul still found peace and went to God. In addition, at first, the main character meets bodies that differ from all the rest of their outerwear. From here you can assume or even understand that this is the main character. After all, touching these bodies, Nesterov falls into his own memories.

And as we know, the “mental echo” makes it possible to plunge into the past of the person whose body we touch. Based on this, now it is clear why Nesterov has a “mental echo”. In his illusions, everything is possible.

This is my theory. Those who went through the game, write in the comments what you think about the ending and what thoughts it caused you

In general, in the final chapter, a very large amount of incomprehensible horror occurs. It looks, of course, cool, very stylized. But as soon as you ask the question: “What did you just see?", You will not hear an answer and is unlikely to find somewhere. The ending of the game, although it is a very strange visualization, is the most atmospheric and ambiguous part of the game. For several days I “digested” what I saw. This is really a very interesting story. Flashbacks of three secondary acting characters are made so that I want to forget about the chronos and about the strange phrase of the captain.

Although the ending left more questions after it than gave answers, the story seems complete, regardless of whether Nesterov is alive. I hope they all found the way home.