[swaaye]

I guess it depends on how much one enjoys this "action horror corridor shooter" genre. I probably should not have bought the game as I really didn't like Dead Space that much but I'm always suckered in by sci-fi settings.

[AlStrong]

Just finished it for the 5th time... Can't wait for the DLC! I want a ridonkulous suit to attempt Hardcore a second time though. That's just nuts. -_-


The end credits music is really nice. Reminds me of Max Payne for some reason.

[tongue_of_colicab]

The gameplay decision in this game are absolutely pathetic. All the action scenes are designed to frustrate the player, not challenge him. Isaac is slow as hell, everything he does takes forever. Aiming, shooting, hitting/kicking. Enemies spawn right next to you, camera doesn't show you what you need to show (suddenly have 3 enemies in my pack), the guy who did the timing on hitting the A button to free you from a enemy needs to be fired because it just doesn't work. And if it does you always get fucked over by 6 other enemies waiting right next to you. Weapons are too weak compared to how much damage you take from enemies. 3 hits and you are dead while you can waste whole clips on enemies without killing them. Yes if fight against 1 enemy it's no problem because you got time enough to aim for the limbs but you don't have that time when you got slowass isaac fighting against all those fast running enemies that jump at you.

[AlStrong]

Frustrating? What difficulty are you on? I'd hardly say it was a frustrating game, maybe one of the least I've played. :s What weapons are you using? Sound is important when trying to identify enemies too, same with the darkness. Isaac is slow, but I'm assuming you're holding the sprint button down all the time right? It's limitless...

Are you upgrading the weapons too? Maybe you just have to put the difficulty a notch down. It's really quite an easy game on the harder difficulties when you go through on new-game+.

I'd also take time to make sure you've gotten all the items in the area including schematics or hidden power nodes to help you along. You should also be using the Stasis a lot to slow down enemies if you're having trouble aiming.

FWIW, I ran through Zealot in about 6 hours on New Game+ versus ~8.5 hours on casual on a fresh start just taking time to absorb the environment.

[swaaye]

Well maybe he does have the difficulty cranked a bit but I agree that the fights tend to be rather annoyingly setup... The evil zombie monsters seem to have a grasp of strategy even though they fight completely mindlessly lol. Thankfully there are save points absolutely everywhere, combined with frequent checkpointing and stores available after almost every major encounter. And thankfully ammo is stored in boxes littered everywhere around the station and inside mutated corposes. It's pretty goofy when you think too hard about it.

[tongue_of_colicab]

Isn't that the case with every game?

I play on zealot. It's not that the game is hard, I manage with the ammo and health I collect but there seem to be a few points in the game where you have to fight a whole bunch of enemies at once but I don't have much chance in those cases. You can run ofcourse but you can't outrun those things with arms and only a tail. Also the problem is they jump from you from all sides at the same time which just doesn't work with a isaac that doesn't seem to understand that being impaled by monsters is a bad thing an thus makes no effort to help me save his ass. I usually run to some dead end and have them come to me head on. That is the only way to do it for me when they send 6+ enemies to me at the same time.

Ofcourse I do upgrade my weapons. I now have the old plasma cutter, Javalin and pulse rifle. I think I should also get the line gun, believe that was pretty strong in DS1. But I spend a lot of money on my suit and power nodes so I can't buy it right now.

[Sigfried1977]

Originally Posted by tongue_of_colicab

The gameplay decision in this game are absolutely pathetic. All the action scenes are designed to frustrate the player, not challenge him. Isaac is slow as hell, everything he does takes forever. Aiming, shooting, hitting/kicking. Enemies spawn right next to you, camera doesn't show you what you need to show (suddenly have 3 enemies in my pack), the guy who did the timing on hitting the A button to free you from a enemy needs to be fired because it just doesn't work. And if it does you always get fucked over by 6 other enemies waiting right next to you. Weapons are too weak compared to how much damage you take from enemies. 3 hits and you are dead while you can waste whole clips on enemies without killing them. Yes if fight against 1 enemy it's no problem because you got time enough to aim for the limbs but you don't have that time when you got slowass isaac fighting against all those fast running enemies that jump at you.

I pretty much agree with all of the above. All of the game's challenge essentially comes from how incredibly cheap most of later mass enemy encounters are designed. You enter a room, get ambushed by two black necros from the front and immediately immobilized by an annoying puker from across the room or some other place you can't even see clearly. Throw in a couple of exploding babies and a necromorph with an exploding arm who conveniently breaks through a vent shaft right next to you and it's right back to the nearest checkpoint. The insane speed and reach of the jumping necromorphs in combination with a pitch black room isn't exactly a ton of fun either. I did like the game a lot more on my second playthrough because I knew what was gonna happen and was reasonably well equipped.

PS: I don't know whether you started Zealot difficulty from scratch or with the new game+ option. If you really did start from scratch then I don't think there's much reason to really complain though. Zealot in D2 is basically Insane from DS1. It's meant to be tough. Even with my fully upgraded Isaac it isn't exactly a walk in the park thanks to the enormous amounts of damage enemies dish out. Still, even on normal difficulty, the game simply throws you into tons of situations that are basically designed around trial-and-error on the player's behalf. Don't know where the necros are going to spawn? - Sorry, and better luck next time.

[tongue_of_colicab]

New game+? I guess that is a second playthrough + gear from the first time? In that case no, its my first playthrough and I only got the extra plasma cutter from my DS1 save file.

[Sigfried1977]

Exactly. Unlike in the first game, your gear carries over to higher difficulty levels in DS2. Doing a clean Zealot run should be good practice for hardcore mode, though.

[AlStrong]

I've actually maxed out my banked inventory. I can't store any more items and I've got 999,999 creds, all upgrades. Last achievement I need is hardcore, but I'm not touching that until they release an armour that gives me god-like damage protection. I like replaying with badass weapons.

I think you can change difficulty mid-game?

There seems to be a bug with keeping the retro plasma cutter or hacker suit and hacker contact beam saved in inventory. I think you can just toss the standard one and keep the one with the bonuses in inventory and that's fine. Upgrades to a particular weapon apply to all variants it seems (whatever bonus items you got a code for or bought?).

[Arwin]

I heard on a podcast that you should let the end boss get close to you at least once, because the death animation that follows then is apparently rather cool.

For me personally, this type of game is just too disgusting. And I have unpleasant memories from running out of ammo in other games too. So right now I'm totally not seeing an appeal. Even the Dead Space Extraction demo, although I was highly impressed with the quality and the depth for a light-gun game, turns me off thematically. But the gameplay was great even in that 'simple' game.

[AlStrong]

lol yeah, I tried that once. Isaac deaths are like half the fun of the game. It's rather appropriate when you see the end boss variation.

Casual or Normal should have pleeeeenty of ammo. Trust me. You'll see a higher chance of ammo types being dropped depending on what weapon you carry with you, so it may even be worth it to carry only two weapons to stock up on your favourite weapon + backup.

[Cyan]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

lol yeah, I tried that once. Isaac deaths are like half the fun of the game. It's rather appropriate when you see the end boss variation.

Casual or Normal should have pleeeeenty of ammo. Trust me. You'll see a higher chance of ammo types being dropped depending on what weapon you carry with you, so it may even be worth it to carry only two weapons to stock up on your favourite weapon + backup.

I'm playing the game on Normal, as I've bought it the other day, and it's scary to death. I began on Hard difficulty but I switched to Normal.

This game reminds me of Doom 3, although I was a lot more hyped about that one, EA did a good job on this one. IT also reminds me of Killzone -PS2-,

I mean, wasn't Killzone, the supposed "Halo killer", released on PS2 a few years back? Weren't the controls abosolutely terrible?... And there was no jump button so little half foot bricks would keep you from walking a certain direction. Or am I thinking of a different game?

Dead Space 2 shares the same flaw. You can't jump on anything, a little obstacle like a fridge lying down and idle on the ground is enough to prevent you from advancing.

If you can run, why can't you jump? The corridor shooting setting is ok to me since I understand you're in a ship, so that's not a problem.

I am enjoying this game. Not as much as Halo Reach and RDR, for instance, but it's good.

[AlStrong]

I guess I just used the telekinesis to move things around.

[ban25]

Yeah I'm in Chapter 7 right now, playing on Normal. The school was pretty creepy and I love the hunters, although I hate fighting them.

[AlStrong]

Quite enjoyed taking my time walking around with the sound pumped. Some nice "gotchas" here and there. That made me jump a bit.

Hm.. are any of you finding the audio to skip on 360? I've played through it several times and there are times when the audio just skips during heavy action. I'm not sure why. It's like the audio signal resets. :s I have it installed to the HDD.

[V3]

Do Dead Space 2 support PS Move or is it just DS Extraction ? Is PS3 DS Extraction a standalone game I can buy by itself or do I have to get Dead Space 2 to play it ?

I am picking up Sharp shooter and KZ3 thought I'll get a few more games that support it.

[AlStrong]

I believe it's just DS Extraction with Move support. Not sure if you can get it separately.

[AlStrong]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

Hm.. are any of you finding the audio to skip on 360? I've played through it several times and there are times when the audio just skips during heavy action. I'm not sure why. It's like the audio signal resets. :s I have it installed to the HDD.

Seems like other users on GAF have reported the same issue and it might be related to being connected to Live. Hope they patch it.

On another note, if you're running low on flamethrower fuel, one favourite of mine is to start burning an enemy then throwing a stasis at him to extend the burning. Takes some practise to figure out what's a good enough amount of fuel to use though. When you fully upgrade the flamethrower it's rather potent.

[ShadowRunner]

Originally Posted by V3

Do Dead Space 2 support PS Move or is it just DS Extraction ? Is PS3 DS Extraction a standalone game I can buy by itself or do I have to get Dead Space 2 to play it ?

I am picking up Sharp shooter and KZ3 thought I'll get a few more games that support it.

Pretty sure you can buy it on PSN. DS2 doesnt support it, shame really im playing it now and move would have made it a whole lot better and more fun, the whole dissmemberment gameplay is a great fit for move and a lot of the more frustrating encounters with lots of enemies would be a lot more fun.

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by AlStrong

I believe it's just DS Extraction with Move support. Not sure if you can get it separately.

Yeah, it's on PSN, including a demo. If anyone's unsure about getting it, definitely try the demo. The demo gave us a good impression that it is both very well made, and not for us. It's an amazingly well put together on-rails shooter, but the horror theme just didn't cut it for us. If you already like Dead Space 1 and/or 2 of course that's not going to be an issue.

I did hear (on the Giant Bombcast) that there are a handful of annoying bugs which, if you encounter them, may force you to replay a section of up to 15 minutes long. But they liked it a lot nevertheless.

[AlStrong]

My review of the Severed DLC (560MSP/$7USD, ~1.4GB).

Once you download it, you start a new game and there's a prompt for you to choose between DS2 and Severed.

Length: If you run through with no fear of things, it's not very long, but then neither was the main game if you played similarly. FWIW, I spent about 8H30M in Dead Space 2's story with mostly walking around and looking for everything. On my NG+ runs, I shaved that down to ~5H40M. Severed is two chapter's worth, and my first time through I took my time: ~1H30M. My second run was around half that.

Items, Weapons, Upgrades: You start off with the Patrol RIG, specifically made for Gabe Weller. It's nothing too fancy: 15% damage protection, +5% damage for Pulse Rifle and Seeker Rifle, 15 slots. There are some upgrades applied already, so you're not quite so naked. You also start off with 50,000 cR, a regular pulse rifle and a specialized Seeker Rifle with +5% reload & shooting speed. The workbench has a new function: after selecting something to upgrade, you can push Y (or triangle on PS3?) to remove all nodes (put back into inventory) at a cost of 5000 cR. There's no need to find schematics. Gabe Weller has access to the full range of weapons at the store, which makes sense. He's a security officer. Do keep in mind that Gabe Weller isn't an engineer so he won't be opening any node-locked doors either.

Level Design: Most of the two chapters are recognizable from the main story, but there are a few new areas. Each chapter takes place at different times from the main game, so it still feels different. I thought it was a bit fun seeing how the areas changed since before or after Isaac was there. Truth be told, I was hoping Severed might be longer and show more parallels with Isaac's journey. Ideally, they'd have come up with entirely new levels, but I suppose that's the path towards a new game. *shrug*

Gameplay: Heavy on the gun-play. Some nice surprises here and there. *shrug* It's Dead Space. No engineering/telekinesis puzzles. No jumping around space either.

Story/Acting: Voice acting was pretty well done and on-par for the main game. I haven't played Extraction, but I still felt a little something by the end. The way it plays out is rather different from Isaac's situation, mostly because A) the damsel is alive, B) she's in distress. Nothing mind-blowing revealed.

Replay Value: For some crazy reason there is no New Game+, which is bizarre considering that the saved game still mentions the current Round that you're on i.e. forever Round 1. So... replayability is basically... uh... other difficulties. *shrug* I was pretty disappointed considering I just finished DS2 for the 8th time. In Severed, there really isn't much cash for you to fully upgrade a weapon by the end, let alone two (unless you're on casual selling everything you pick up). It's not that you really need it, but why remove the option of NG+? I suppose you can find the new RIG and Seeker rifle for free in the store of the main game when you finish, something for the Hardcore runners.

Verdict: Disappointed mainly with the lack of NG+. That would have made the $7 much more appreciable for me. $5 would have been "ok" I suppose.

I'd like to see something leaning away from gun combat for the future though. The telekinesis and stasis have so much potential.