Dead Space

[Mozg]

Confirming 60 FPS cappin' makes M+K feel pretty right

Favorite moment so far was going into the store interface without noticing that there was one of those stingray guys that can make corpses into dire zombies in the room. Enemies are able to act while you're in the store, but they don't seem to be able to actually attack you - but for stingray guy "acting" includes turning all of the 6 or 7 corpses in that room into zombies.

Edit - also the window back to 2008 when the internet hated Scientology instead of white people was nostalgic

 

[Mozg]

The worst late 360/PS3 era AAAism shit I feared would be in DS1 all shows up for real in DS2. Constant shallow-shitty setpieces, shitty movie writing and characters, repetitive stupid minigames used to replace switches at random, long dumb QTE cutscenes.

I should have known that all mainstream critics agreeing that Dead Space 2 is much better than 1 meant that it's terrible. Even basic received critic knowledge endlessly repeated like the idea that DS2 has fewer cat scares than DS1 was wrong.

 

[Multidirectional]

DS2 brought some gameplay improvements but yeah, it's overall a weaker game than DS1. Still fun enough and worth playing through.

 

[Sceptic]

I should have known that all mainstream critics agreeing that Dead Space 2 is much better than 1 meant that it's terrible. Even basic received critic knowledge endlessly repeated like the idea that DS2 has fewer cat scares than DS1 was wrong.

Next time ignore "critics" and just read my posts (some in this very thread), and save yourself the pain.

 

[Mozg]

DS2 brought some gameplay improvements but yeah, it's overall a weaker game than DS1. Still fun enough and worth playing through.

I think even in terms of pure moment to moment gameplay it's pretty lateral. Making it so the physics gun and the slowdown spell are powerful and "free" in terms of money means you ought to be using them all the time, which makes the guns less important (and means you aren't as forced to spend equal time using the creative/unique guns you've picked to use up the equal amounts of ammo that drop for all of them) and making it so you don't have to drop out of aim mode to have a decent turning speed just takes a lot of the combat's character away.

Although that said the contact laser is fucking useless in DS1 since you can't charge it without being in aim mode (which cripples your ability to track targets) and it's awesome in DS2.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

So in my ongoing project of working through my Steam library backlog of unplayed games I have now played Dead Space. Overall I liked, not loved it, but there were also a fair amount of sequences that had me rolling my eyes and calling bullshit. Basically any set-piece with environmental hazards that one-shot you had me sighing and shaking my head.

The Good:

+ Combat feels good and the limb-severing gimmick is novel and satisfying
+ Environmental art and creature design both look really good, even 15 years later. I do wish there was more variety to environments, but oh well.
+ I’m not really a fan of straight horror, but Dead Space does it well enough. I would still prefer it if there were a bit more camp and comedy, but they clearly weren’t going for that.
+ Sound design is terrific.

The Meh:

)Character models look a little prosperous
)Isaac seems to have a really severe case of scoliosis and runs like an 80 year old man who’s had several BMs without a diaper change
)The zero-G sequences don’t really do it for me. I think they succeed at their design goal of disorienting the player, but speaking as someone with generally low spatial intelligence I mostly just found them tedious.
) The game could use a little more variety in its encounter design. It has a pretty good bestiary, but too often you’re just fighting a group of the same 4 or 5 basic slasher dudes.

The Bad:

- Pacing in the game is off. My save-file says the game took me just a little less than 12 hours, and some of that was afk, but man if I didn’t have that playtime counter I would have said it was more like 25 hours. Was definitely going through the motions by the end. This is not helped by:

-The writing. It starts out fine, but man does it go full pants-on-head by the end. The plot makes no sense when thought about critically, and most of the plot action is just a string of nonsensical bullshit happening for no reason other than the designers shuttling you along to another set-piece.

-It doesn’t really work having Issac be a Gordon Freeman-esque voiceless protagonist. They want to have their cake and eat it too, but it’s mostly just a crutch used to facilitate lazy plotting.

-The game has a fairly large arsenal, but does a terrible job incentivizing the player to experiment with different guns. In fact it does the opposite by incentivizing you to pick a couple weapons and exclusively use and upgrade them.


So yeah. Decent game, not amazing, and doubt I will ever replay it. I would say 5.5/10. If I were more a fan of horror I’m sure it would hit stronger for me. I have the sequels sitting in my library as well, but I’m pretty fatigued on the series and the general consensus seems to be that each game is worse than its predecessor, so I don’t know that I’ll be playing them anytime soon.

 

[baturinsky]

So in my ongoing project of working through my Steam library backlog of unplayed games I have now played Dead Space. Overall I liked, not loved it, but there were also a fair amount of sequences that had me rolling my eyes and calling bullshit. Basically any set-piece with environmental hazards that one-shot you had me sighing and shaking my head.

The Good:

+ Combat feels good and the limb-severing gimmick is novel and satisfying
+ Environmental art and creature design both look really good, even 15 years later. I do wish there was more variety to environments, but oh well.
+ I’m not really a fan of straight horror, but Dead Space does it well enough. I would still prefer it if there were a bit more camp and comedy, but they clearly weren’t going for that.
+ Sound design is terrific.

The Meh:

)Character models look a little prosperous
)Isaac seems to have a really severe case of scoliosis and runs like an 80 year old man who’s had several BMs without a diaper change
)The zero-G sequences don’t really do it for me. I think they succeed at their design goal of disorienting the player, but speaking as someone with generally low spatial intelligence I mostly just found them tedious.
) The game could use a little more variety in its encounter design. It has a pretty good bestiary, but too often you’re just fighting a group of the same 4 or 5 basic slasher dudes.

The Bad:

- Pacing in the game is off. My save-file says the game took me just a little less than 12 hours, and some of that was afk, but man if I didn’t have that playtime counter I would have said it was more like 25 hours. Was definitely going through the motions by the end. This is not helped by:

-The writing. It starts out fine, but man does it go full pants-on-head by the end. The plot makes no sense when thought about critically, and most of the plot action is just a string of nonsensical bullshit happening for no reason other than the designers shuttling you along to another set-piece.

-It doesn’t really work having Issac be a Gordon Freeman-esque voiceless protagonist. They want to have their cake and eat it too, but it’s mostly just a crutch used to facilitate lazy plotting.

-The game has a fairly large arsenal, but does a terrible job incentivizing the player to experiment with different guns. In fact it does the opposite by incentivizing you to pick a couple weapons and exclusively use and upgrade them.


So yeah. Decent game, not amazing, and doubt I will ever replay it. If I were more a fan of horror I’m sure it would hit stronger for me. I have the sequels sitting in my library as well, but I’m pretty fatigued on the series and the general consensus seems to be that each game is worse than its predecessor, so I don’t know that I’ll be playing them anytime soon.

Try Dead Space 2. It fixed most of the bad parts of the first one.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

So in my ongoing project of working through my Steam library backlog of unplayed games I have now played Dead Space. Overall I liked, not loved it, but there were also a fair amount of sequences that had me rolling my eyes and calling bullshit. Basically any set-piece with environmental hazards that one-shot you had me sighing and shaking my head.

The Good:

+ Combat feels good and the limb-severing gimmick is novel and satisfying
+ Environmental art and creature design both look really good, even 15 years later. I do wish there was more variety to environments, but oh well.
+ I’m not really a fan of straight horror, but Dead Space does it well enough. I would still prefer it if there were a bit more camp and comedy, but they clearly weren’t going for that.
+ Sound design is terrific.

The Meh:

)Character models look a little prosperous
)Isaac seems to have a really severe case of scoliosis and runs like an 80 year old man who’s had several BMs without a diaper change
)The zero-G sequences don’t really do it for me. I think they succeed at their design goal of disorienting the player, but speaking as someone with generally low spatial intelligence I mostly just found them tedious.
) The game could use a little more variety in its encounter design. It has a pretty good bestiary, but too often you’re just fighting a group of the same 4 or 5 basic slasher dudes.

The Bad:

- Pacing in the game is off. My save-file says the game took me just a little less than 12 hours, and some of that was afk, but man if I didn’t have that playtime counter I would have said it was more like 25 hours. Was definitely going through the motions by the end. This is not helped by:

-The writing. It starts out fine, but man does it go full pants-on-head by the end. The plot makes no sense when thought about critically, and most of the plot action is just a string of nonsensical bullshit happening for no reason other than the designers shuttling you along to another set-piece.

-It doesn’t really work having Issac be a Gordon Freeman-esque voiceless protagonist. They want to have their cake and eat it too, but it’s mostly just a crutch used to facilitate lazy plotting.

-The game has a fairly large arsenal, but does a terrible job incentivizing the player to experiment with different guns. In fact it does the opposite by incentivizing you to pick a couple weapons and exclusively use and upgrade them.


So yeah. Decent game, not amazing, and doubt I will ever replay it. If I were more a fan of horror I’m sure it would hit stronger for me. I have the sequels sitting in my library as well, but I’m pretty fatigued on the series and the general consensus seems to be that each game is worse than its predecessor, so I don’t know that I’ll be playing them anytime soon.

Try Dead Space 2. It fixed most of the bad parts of the first one.

more like play the REAL dead space

 

[Wunderbar]

None of Dead Space games were particularly good.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

+ I’m not really a fan of straight horror, but Dead Space does it well enough. I would still prefer it if there were a bit more camp and comedy, but they clearly weren’t going for that.

There's a few gore gags in the player & enemy death animations e.g. the infamous baby punt or divider head replacement.

The game always reminds me of Metroid Prime. Not sure why. Maybe it's the blue lights on doors?

I should try to finish a run at some point. Always manage to drop it halfway through despite enjoying it.

 

[MuffinBun]

more like play the REAL dead space

If you like the original game's story then you should watch this one on youtube. The initial scenes when the colony is still mostly safe are really atmospheric, especially the police department.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Been playing a bit of Dead Space 2. It's... fine. I just got to chapter 4, but thus far it feels very much like more of the same, so I'm not sure I get the complaints that it was a massive decline into cinematic action territory, but maybe I just haven't got there yet.

It does feel like they polished up a lot of the "front-facing" stuff. NPC models look much better, lighting is vastly improved (and allows for some more impressive environments), and having Isaac as a voiced protagonist does feel much more suited to the nature of the game. I will say though that I think bringing Isaac back as protagonist was a mistake. Even though he was essentially a non-character in the first game, playing as him again really reinforces that "more-of-the-same" feeling.

 

[Zombra]

I also found the original Dead Space to be lackluster, and I am speaking as a horror fan. It's not that you have to be a horror fan to enjoy this - it's just a weak horror game. All I really remember is "Go into a hallway, and it's dark, and then .. aliens! Then go into another room, and it's dark, and then .. aliens! Now go fix the elevator, but while you're doing that .. surprise! You guessed it!" I don't remember any dynamics to the story or gameplay, or any real tension building. Also I spotted the one big story twist, without even looking for it, in the first 10 minutes; so the big reveal 10 hours later was like "Yeah obviously." If you want to click on aliens, this game has it. That's about it.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Ded Space is a major guilty pleasure of mine, I still replay it sporadically and am, brace for it, cautiously optimistic for Calisto Protocol.
Now there's little chance it will actually be good, but without EA meddling it will at least be a different kind of bad than whatever DS3 was.

 

[Multidirectional]

I also found the original Dead Space to be lackluster, and I am speaking as a horror fan. It's not that you have to be a horror fan to enjoy this - it's just a weak horror game. All I really remember is "Go into a hallway, and it's dark, and then .. aliens! Then go into another room, and it's dark, and then .. aliens! Now go fix the elevator, but while you're doing that .. surprise! You guessed it!" I don't remember any dynamics to the story or gameplay, or any real tension building. Also I spotted the one big story twist, without even looking for it, in the first 10 minutes; so the big reveal 10 hours later was like "Yeah obviously." If you want to click on aliens, this game has it. That's about it.

I didn't even think it was supposed to be a horror game when I first played it. I thought it was a cool atmospheric shooter. I liked the dismembering mechanic and weapons, also enjoyed the fact that monsters looked like the ones from The Thing. Only later I started seeing people on internet talk about Dead Space as a horror game. Fucking Doom 3 was probably scarier to me than this and that one is also far from what I would consider horror.

 

[JDR13]

It's action-horror, not straight horror. It's more comparable to something like Resident Evil than pure horror games like Alien Isolation or Outlast.

DS 1 & 2 are two of my favorite non-RPGs. DS3 was a big step backwards by comparison.

 

[Zombra]

Well - there's no such thing as a "pure horror" game, any more than there is "pure fantasy" or "pure science fiction". These are setting genres, not gameplay genres. A fantasy game might be an RTS or a sidescrolling beat-em-up; neither is "more fantasy" than the other. In terms of the setting, DS is as firmly a horror game as any other game out there. Watch any trailer if you doubt this. The sad fact is that DS doesn't do horror well.

As far as gameplay goes, yes DS obviously does take its cues from survival horror such as Resident Evil. I was actually impressed by how well it sticks to that formula. But without a solid atmosphere (ha ha) or substantial dynamics in that gameplay, it fell flat for me. The only part that stands out in my memory is the section with the zero gravity room where you have to open the dome or whatever under tremendous time pressure, and if you screw up you instantly die. Not great. Unmemorable horror setting and unmemorable survival horror gameplay = disappointing game for me.

Seriously, good to hear there are folks out there who like it though. The devs were coming from a cool point of view and I wanted to like it.

 

[JDR13]

To each his own. The first two games had great atmosphere. Every good game is going to have outliers though that just don't click with it for whatever reason.

 

[Multidirectional]

Well - there's no such thing as a "pure horror" game, any more than there is "pure fantasy" or "pure science fiction". These are setting genres, not gameplay genres.

Except I do think it's the gameplay that makes game "horror" more than setting does. Otherwise I would be calling stuff like Dark Souls "horror" because it has zombies and ghosts in it.
There's nothing scary about horror themed action games and thus it's hard for me to consider them as part of that genre.

 

[BruceVC]

Ded Space is a major guilty pleasure of mine, I still replay it sporadically and am, brace for it, cautiously optimistic for Calisto Protocol.
Now there's little chance it will actually be good, but without EA meddling it will at least be a different kind of bad than whatever DS3 was.

I played and enjoyed all DS games, I thought the first 2 games created a good horror experience. Fighting aliens and hearing there strange noises made me nervous but a fun, gaming nervous

 

[BruceVC]

Well - there's no such thing as a "pure horror" game, any more than there is "pure fantasy" or "pure science fiction". These are setting genres, not gameplay genres. A fantasy game might be an RTS or a sidescrolling beat-em-up; neither is "more fantasy" than the other. In terms of the setting, DS is as firmly a horror game as any other game out there. Watch any trailer if you doubt this. The sad fact is that DS doesn't do horror well.

As far as gameplay goes, yes DS obviously does take its cues from survival horror such as Resident Evil. I was actually impressed by how well it sticks to that formula. But without a solid atmosphere (ha ha) or substantial dynamics in that gameplay, it fell flat for me. The only part that stands out in my memory is the section with the zero gravity room where you have to open the dome or whatever under tremendous time pressure, and if you screw up you instantly die. Not great. Unmemorable horror setting and unmemorable survival horror gameplay = disappointing game for me.

Seriously, good to hear there are folks out there who like it though. The devs were coming from a cool point of view and I wanted to like it.

Fighting cannibals and mutants in caves in The Forest provided a good horror experience

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

Isn't horror more subjective anyways? A video game or movie isn't going to scare me because it's not real and I'm not 6 years old anymore. Getting startled doesn't count. Yet I still can find it kinda scary if I uh, immerse myself a little, for lack of a better word.
I found alien isolation more frustrating than scary for example (because I'm SHIT at stealth and survival games) while the dead space atmosphere worked very well for me due to music, sound and enemy design. As has been mentioned the throwback to event horizon and The Thing, for example, because I liked those movies a lot.
The one moment I usually point out because it's my favorite is when going back to the med bay and stuff looks even more fubar than the first time around and you just might wonder with some looming sense of dread what new horrors are in store this time. There's also part of the sound track or ambient that are mixed from distorted and garbled radio transmissions, I dunno why but that makes my skin crawl.
The enemy could theoretically take any form so I guess it's a bit disappointing that they rely so much of the most basic scrub, the slasher, unconvincingly playing dead and then jumping at you. Just shoot them when they're still on the ground to remove 80% of cheap jumpscares.

 

[BruceVC]

Isn't horror more subjective anyways? A video game or movie isn't going to scare me because it's not real and I'm not 6 years old anymore. Getting startled doesn't count. Yet I still can find it kinda scary if I uh, immerse myself a little, for lack of a better word.
I found alien isolation more frustrating than scary for example (because I'm SHIT at stealth and survival games) while the dead space atmosphere worked very well for me due to music, sound and enemy design. As has been mentioned the throwback to event horizon and The Thing, for example, because I liked those movies a lot.
The one moment I usually point out because it's my favorite is when going back to the med bay and stuff looks even more fubar than the first time around and you just might wonder with some looming sense of dread what new horrors are in store this time. There's also part of the sound track or ambient that are mixed from distorted and garbled radio transmissions, I dunno why but that makes my skin crawl.
The enemy could theoretically take any form so I guess it's a bit disappointing that they rely so much of the most basic scrub, the slasher, unconvincingly playing dead and then jumping at you. Just shoot them when they're still on the ground to remove 80% of cheap jumpscares.

I am very similar to you, I dont enjoy stealth games but I have learnt to enjoy survival games like The Forest. I loved Event Horizon and The Thing. If you enjoy supernatural horror you must watch The Conjuring movies and the new remake of The Thing is almost as good as the classic

And yes the atmosphere in DS was a huge part of the enjoyment, remember the space echo sounds and when you see an alien coming after you when you outside the ship. And also the alien infants in the baby room were a nice scary feature

And then I also loved the narrative and the flashbacks, evocative stuff

 

[Multidirectional]

new remake of The Thing is almost as good as the classic

Nope, it's an utter piece of shit. Even special effects look worse.

 

[Mary Sue Leigh]

The remake honestly wasn't "my thing" either
Ba domm tchhh
Crickets

Okay I'll see myself out.

But really I even had more fun than expected with Dead Space 3, there was some promise there with the new "mummified" look for necromorphs and alien necromorphs, floating in space to find derelicts in the spaceship graveyard, and even these random feeling side missions. Also the game ending with its answer to the Fermi paradox why are we alone in space, elevating it to true cosmic horror.
I'm sure it could have been great without EA meddling and it really is not a Dead Space game. That's clear with that generic "le epic music" in the main menu already, where the previous games had sparse but tense space spook tunes.
Then again DS2 already started walking down the wrong path and I don't usually replay it much unlike DS1.

Also why tf did they have Isaac and Ellie's whole relationship plus marriage and divorce skipped over in between games when they could easily have had Ellie as the co op second player instead of some rando we have never seen?