A Puzzle Game for the PlayStation VR system created by Tarsier Studios, Statik presents places the player as a participant in an experiment, their hands locked inside a puzzle box. The player must manipulate the controller's various buttons and two joysticks to figure out how to solve the puzzle, all while being observed by a scientist who offers no help whatsoever.
This game provides examples of:
- Androids Are People, Too: Solving the puzzles in a certain way lets you view a cutscene after the end of the game, clarifying that the puzzle boxes are apparently a cognitive test for a series of androids.
- Bizarre Puzzle Game: The puzzle boxes themselves are just mechanical devices, but the creepy setting makes it lean towards this trope.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dr. Ingen is a dedicated researcher, but he is very quirky. Whenever a new puzzle begins, the player hears the tail-end of a silly anecdote or bizarre non sequitur by Ingen. During one quiz, he forgets to tell the player what the answer buttons represent, then shrugs off his mistake. And in general, he shows eccentric habits such as writing detailed notes and then immediately discarding them.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Dr. Ingen makes many of these, especially during his repeated phone calls to his associates.
- Downer Ending: Upon finishing the final puzzle your human body is released from the puzzle box, while you remain in machine form. The body falls into a pit for disposal, and a secret ending adds that the machine is placed in storage.
- The Ghost: Mrs. Taylor is an associate who is clearly important to Ingen and the Institute, and Ingen repeatedly calls her to give updates about the project. However, Ingen just leaves messages, and Taylor is never heard nor seen.
- Grid Puzzle: The first puzzle the players face is a variant on this idea. But before you can solve it you first must figure out the device to set all the pieces in place.
- Noodle Incident: We can only imagine how one of Dr. Ingen's experiments resulted in an entire room getting covered in dog excrement.
- Pixellation: Even though he's in the same room with you, Dr. Ingen's face is blurred out, adding to the player's feeling of isolation and helplessness.
- Robo-Cam: When the player's human body is separated from the machine controlling it, the visuals change to this. It has a blue tint and is initially very pixelated, and interactive icons are overlaid when you can perform an action.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Dr. Ingen hints that if you solve all the puzzles you'll be freed. You are. As one of Ingen's mechanical creations, you are freed from the human body that you have been controlling. The scientist compliments you on your success, but his future intentions for you—if any—are never stated.
- Surveillance Drone: Edith, a simple robot with a security camera for a head, which she uses to scan the completed puzzles.
- One of the experiments involves you operating a remote-controlled, roomba-like robot with a built-in camera.
- Tomato Surprise: In the end, it turns out that the player character is not in fact a human volunteer, but rather a machine which is controlling a Wetware Body as a test of the machine's intelligence.
- You Wake Up in a Room: The player begins the game sitting in a chair in a lab, their hands already locked inside the box. Why they are there, and whether they're participating voluntarily, remains a mystery.