[360, PS3] Dead Space 2

The Thing wasn't like that at all though. That movie was mostly about humans turning on each other in desparation. The actual monster was used very sparingly.
 
I'm quite pleased at how minimal the specular aliasing is on console.

Anyways, I had fun walking through on casual the first time around. The sound is once again quite effective in immersing me. Running through the game just seems a sin as you miss out on that.

I did try New Game+ on zealot, but I ran out of ammo and health packs by the time I hit Chapter 9, so I'm starting over to stock up on everything including upgrades. Their implementation of new game plus is quite nice this time around, and not so elitist in the sense that you can carry over your inventory through any difficulty (except hardcore or whatever mode it's called). It definitely makes me want to play it over several times just to get all the upgrades and not frustrate myself with lower difficulty levels becoming too easy or starting out on zealot with next to nothing then building my way up with the inventory.

Can't wait for the Severed DLC chapters. It's a shame they aren't releasing those on PC.
 
The Thing wasn't like that at all though. That movie was mostly about humans turning on each other in desparation. The actual monster was used very sparingly.
True but the monsters remind me of The Thing's monsters.
 
The game is starting to remind me of Bioshock in some ways and that's not the impression to strive for.

I don't really like the way all of the doors lock everywhere whenever there's a scripted "monster attack barrage moment" either..... Obiviously this is how the original game worked too but I guess I hoped they change their formula this time.
 
Finished DS2 yesterday. I definitely liked the first game more. Both games fall apart towards the end a little, and both games go on for much longer than they probably should. For a 12+ hours long campaign, severing the limbs of 5 different enemy types just isn't enough gameplay variety, especially when the story is crap and everything looks more or less the same. I also think that DS2 is more cheap than challenging most of the time, and that's something I find extremely frustrating. Especially once you get close to the game's climax, you will more or less get slaughtered the very instant you open a door. It's nothing but trial and error after a certain point.
DS1 had similar issues, but nowhere near as constant. It also had the better setting. The Ishimura was a much more effective haunted house than the Sprawl (except for chapter 10 in DS2)

I'm also wondering why they even bothered with the multi colored locator beam. The game is entirely linear after all. The only chapter where you can wander around and backtrack a little is the one with the Unitologist church.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
I've actually maxed out my banked inventory. I can't store any more items and I've got 999,999 creds, all upgrades. :oops: 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. :p

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?).
 
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. :LOL: 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.
 
lol yeah, I tried that once. Isaac deaths are like half the fun of the game. :p 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.
 
lol yeah, I tried that once. Isaac deaths are like half the fun of the game. :p 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.
 
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. :)
 
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