Dead Space

Geez, R1.

I was just about to say the opposite. So far the scariest part of the game was due to the fact I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

Fear through uncertainty.

I'm going to start over again this afternoon and see if I can figure out what is happening.

It was "scary" last night, but mostly because I had no idea what was going on and didn't know how to make my guy do what I wanted him to do.

Then again, that all started with the fact that its a 3rd person shooter and not a FPS which I wasn't aware of.

I hate moving the camera around in 3rd person shooters.

 

I'm hearing so many good things, but Fable2 is out next week, then Fallout3, then Gears 2, then Left 4 Dead .... there's just too much.

 

I'm trying to finish it up before Fable 2 just for that reason On level 6 on 12 now...

 

I'm on Chapter 4. I really like using the Ripper and the Line Gun. The flamethrower is useful for the bug-like creatures (usually, I stasis them and then use the flamethrower). I have the Obsidian suit, with one upgrade to air and heath each. I usually keep a spare power module around in case there's a special room I need to unlock.

Having a blast. Has anyone checked out the anime prequel, Dead Space: Downfall?

 

It looks like I have made the mistake of getting Socom instead of this. Everybody seem to be enjoying Dead Space while everything I've got from Socom was massive server errors and disconnection.

 

I just rented it tonight and played the first 20 minutes or so and it's damm good so far. Much more than I expected from a new franchise and from EA to boot.

 

the only game that scared me was Silent Hill (1999) for the original PlayStation. i may give Dead Space a try next year because there's several other games i would like to play soon (i.e., Bioshock, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Mirror's Edge, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King, et cetera).

 

While I got used to the controls, it's still very micro intensive when you get swarmed (you will by level 6!). Trying to quickly determine which power to use along with the right weapon combination left me frozen in "fear" a few times already I wouldn't say the game is scary more like very tense and on the edge. The fear comes from being mentally overwhelmed with the options you have! It's cool that doing the right combination of things can make life a lot easier. I like the emphasis placed on using your intelligence vs point and shoot.

 

The ripper was cool at first becomes useless quickly when you start encountering more in one area since it takes a while to work. So far the Line gun is badass if you aim it right. Stasis the one coming at you, then the others will line up behind it, then Line cut them down

I'm going to upgrade my Plasma Cutter to it's max since it seems the best all purpose and with the cheapest ammo. I'll keep a node on my also to open up the rooms. I'm not using the suit off Live download so that'll save me money to buy nodes to upgrade. I really like that, so far, you have to keep an eye on ammo. I think that goes a long way to keep the intensity level high.

 

I'm at the end of chapter six and having a bit of trouble. Looks like I need to either get some more ammo for the Contact Beam or improve my aim with telekinesis!

 

Has anyone run across any side by side comparison screen-shots for DS (or seen both versions running)? I'm trying to decide which version to buy.

 

I've been hard pressed to find good multi-platform comparisons. And with no strong preference for either controller (in most cases), I just flipped a coin. I don't think you'll be disappointed either way. Especially since there's no multiplayer component.

 

If you are talking about a boss battle, I killed the tentacles with cutter and the rest with kinesis. It didn't require much aiming skill for kinesis though. Since I didn't have to move much, it was a simple catch and throw game with plenty of time to target.

Anyhow, so I played this baby of Half Life, Doom 3 and RE4 threesome.

Up until last couple of chapters, the game wasn't scary at all, and felt repetitive and predictable. During the last chapters the main difference was ramped up difficulty, making moving shadows and unexpected sound effects significantly more stressful.

I guess it delivers in terms of scary surviver horror premise. And such production values were there too. Unfortunate the game is not for me at all. Of all the hyped ideas the game had, the thing that delivered was mobile visual story telling, and that's because story was so bad, I wouldn't be able to watch or listen otherwise. Too bad there wasn't a way to escape boring starship setting, and likewise unoriginal bloody flesh monster design.

One can argue inconvenience is probably heart of the genre, still, for me it's just bad design. Thankfully combat felt much better than RE4. I really liked "cutter", and targeting limps was quite fun. Of course the game didn't want me to enjoy that because it kept giving me the ammo that I didn't need. That became an especially serious problem before boss battles or stuff like protect the NPC mini games. My inventory was full of "Ripper" ammo that couldn't reach anywhere, leaving me no way to progress. Normally there is no need to panic, just go to a store, buy the damn ammo, right? Where is the store? The other side of the ship. That is bad design. I had to sell the ripper after so many upgrades, such a waste of money.

What else? Checkpoint is only spatially triggered. You enter an area, encounter 20 waves of enemy, move shit around and die before the last guy (because camera sucks when you wisely put your back against a wall), you start over. While I'm at this, is there not a single third party game that can restart from checkpoints without loading? It shouldn't be a rocket science.

I'm not big fan of realtime inventory management either, aka pointless self torture in the middle of combat. One thing that really bugged me in terms of gameplay though, was that stasis module would be much more fun if recharge stations weren't far and between, or better yet with auto-regen however slow it might have been.

Well, I can go on. The game wasn't bad at all, at least good enough for me to want to continue playing, that means a lot nowadays. It's just that, and I cannot really get it out of my head, how better this game could have been with little touches here and there. Really surprising that they bothered to show the objective path.

 

Betan,

I've barely played the game, but my initial impressions would mirror yours. It really does seem like they used what you call 'bad game design' or 'bad interface' as a way to control difficulty level, which is disappointing. The camera controls are just flat out poor, but the lack of ammo for specific weapons, the position of the save points, the long trips back to resupply are all rather shallow means in which to increase difficulty level.

Unfortunate, I really wanted to love this game. I really should have known better. With Fable II out now, this one'll just collect dust. It had a weekend to capture my attention and failed.

 

Wow, I thought each of those points were vast improvements over most games in the "Survival Horror" genre. I felt the save points were placed far more liberally, the ammo more generous, the store a great option and well placed, camera control far better, and level design aimed at reducing back tracking. I'm only into chapter 4, but everything I've seen so far made me feel like they were trying to get rid of the bad interface and level design handicaps that many other Survival Horror games impose in order to make things more difficult.

However, it may simply be the case that the game hasn't tested my patience and frustration yet, so, I may be overlooking (glaring) issues because of the smooth progression.

On a side note, I would say that the game isn't very scary (at all, so far), but maintains a very creepy atmosphere, keeping tension high.

 

Yeah, I don't know what those guys are on about. To each his own, I guess.

 

http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/10/23/dead-space-2-already-underway/

 

The version I got has a 18+ Pegi Logo. I bought it from a German online vendor, and he got it from Austria himself as far as I know. Spoken languages are German and French, but sadly no English. If I knew that beforehand I would have imported the UK version, but the German voice overs are supposedly very well done.

 

http://gamersyde.com/news_7258_en.html
the fist ten minutes.

 

I just finished it on hard, and it was frustrating at times. I would just get swarmed and be stuck in a corner getting the crap kicked out of me until they tore me in half or something.
It's a good game and is worth buying, but like a few reviews said about halfway through it seems like they ran out of new stuff and the game should have ended. Overall this game feels like a good combo of Resident Evil 4, Bioshock, and Doom 3. I'm glad I picked it up and after all the rewards I got at the end I want to jump in again and test out so more weapons.