Dead Space

[Square King]

I find the game to be pretty fun and the graphics are the best I've seen. I dont like how on at least normal difficulty the only "difficulty" is having ammo and how the enemies start coming at obvious/illogical spots, like enemies decide to attack you out of nowhere every time you push a big button.

This game looks like Doom 3.2.

The spots actually aren't that random. They come from vents about 90% of the time when they're not creeping around.

One thing's for sure: Doom it ain't.

[Zaarock]

Another thing which IMO lowers the shock factor is the cheesy musicey thing that turns on every time an enemy appears, if you didnt hear it there would be more fear of the unknown, getting attacked from behind without hearing anything is more scary imo than hearing some music before it shows up.

[neorichieb1971]

I personally believe unless your an FPS expert then easy is the best mode. A level 5 suit costs 60,000 credits on easy.

I think I could handle normal mode once I got used to it, which I think I have now. The game could have done with a training mode to iron out alot of crap in the game. Instead they put target practice in chapter 10 which is really stupid.

Some sub missions are quite hard to figure out. There will be times when you'll wander around wondering what exactly you have to do. So far I've been highly frustrated the most on the "release the asteroid" level. Which is in zero G and 50% of it depends on going outside the ship where you run out of air, then get attacked by aliens as well

[Zaarock]

You get more credits at higher difficulties. I dont see how "FPS skill" is related much to doing well at the game, you dont need super fast reflexes or anything.

[neorichieb1971]

PS3 dualshock dual analog control is a skill.

Some of these aliens in this game are quite small, especially the spiderish ones with jelly fish type characteristics. If you don't have precision aim they jump at your face.

It doesn't help when the game says to go for the limbs either. I did that throughout the whole game and my mate came round and went for the head and used 50% less ammo than I did. Rather deceiving me thinks. This is the first FPS (controlling) type game i've been into. Its worth more in merit than in faults. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have put this many hours into it.

[neorichieb1971]

Completed the game now. 12 chapters in total each spanning approximately 1 hour each.

You get quite a few unlockables. If you can play through again with the power ups I would enjoy it alot more. Its quite a ride near the end. I am happy there were few bosses in the game because its always a repetitive motion that kills the darn things and is usually too hard for me.

The game could have done with some sniping, but apart from that I can't see how the game could be improved.

[DBH87]

I love this game

[CMoon]

*Necropost!*

Just picked up this game for little of nothing. Pretty impressed with the high production values and how good a job they are doing with the environments (steam, strobe-lights, dripping water, etc.) I can say with certainty that few horror games have really done such a good job of freaking me out (pretty immune to this sort of thing), but when I locked myself in a room only to have the morphs come up through the floor...wow, amazing! A nice contrast to the games I'm playing now that are hundreds of hours long.

[Square King]

Oy, I still haven't finished it. I don't have a good place to set up my surround system right now and I refuse to play it without a specific decibel level and ample bass response.

Still one of the better titles in the 360 catalog if you dig survival horror.

[EinhanderZwei]

I totally love this game - played it on my friends peecee, and now looking forward to order a PS3 version. Actually I remember myself being so excited that I even called Dead Space a worthy successor to Marathon, Half-Life and System Shock Especially the very beginning has impressed me - after she said 'Don't worry Isaac, we'll find her' I knew - this is going to be one fuckin' creepy ride

[Shocky]

Dead Space is easily in the top-5 games of this generation. The only gripe I have is that the plot (especially the crappy animated comics that appeared in PSN) is so-so and cliche. IMO Dead Space should be played at a higher than normal difficulty level, otherwise it's just too easy. The only difficult spot I encountered was when I had been careless with my ammo and ended up in a room where there was a duct/shaft and on the other side the aliens attacked a woman (great scene, btw). I didn't have enough ammo and had to aim super carefully, make every shot count *and* throw body parts etc. across the shaft to weaken the bastards!

Dead Space succeeds very well in creating an atmosphere of claustrophobia (especially when the shuttle was in flames and I was cornered), horror and fear. This is exceptional, because usually in order to make a game REALLY scary, it would require:

1. Worse controls. Seems that certain popular horror games are scary because their control scheme is clumsy and unresponsive (early Resident Evil games..). I'm currently playing Siren: The Blood Curse, and it's scary as hell because it's hard to see anything and hard to turn the character to face enemies when they are close. But Dead Space's controls are highly intuitive and smart.

2. A vulnerable feeling hero. Unlike Dead Space, Siren TBC has a very good script and plot, and of course e.g. guiding a little, unarmed girl out of a hospital filled with horrible possessed "zombies" IS scarier than strutting around in a space armor suit and a flamethrower.. Limited ammo also falls into this category, and that was quite well balanced in DS.

Dead Space did well in the xenophobia-department. For the first half of the game, I never did know what to expect so I advanced slowly and stomped to bloody pulp all the corpses I found, just to be sure they won't be coming back.. in one room I suspected that they will revive, so I dragged the corpses to great piles in room corners, so that I could easily toast them when they awaken. Too bad they didn't, except when I came back later and the game had returned them to their original spots

[Zaarock]

I was disappointed with the finale of the game. Chapter 10 revealed more story (in a way) than the finale and the last boss was a disappointingly simple and easy boss.. and didnt make much sense considering how many limbs you had to cut off necromorphs, the nature of the regenerator, etc. Wasnt too scary either, was expecting some mindfuck sequence or something.

[EinhanderZwei]

My PS3 disk has arrived!!!

Now I'll know will Isaac find her or I've shittted (shat?) my pants in vain

[EinhanderZwei]

Just beaten this masterpiece on my PS3!

Positive impressions:
- Holy fuck is it scary
- Holy fuck is it gory
- Graphics and visual designs are amazing
- The plot, characters and level designs are fantastic
- The gameplay is intense, rewarding and NEVER EVER boring, especially counting my prejudice to everyting that EA publishes
- One of the best control schemes I've ever seen in PS action games
- System Shock homages here and there (especially the very last second of the very last cutscene - you WILL shit bricks)
- Marathon homage (vacuum rooms and walking on the ship hull's exterior)
- Half-Life 2 homages (Kinesis and silent protagonist)
- Line Gun is one of the most badass guns ever. Being a brutal homicidal space plummer is fun!
- Russian localization is the best I've ever seen/heard - thank God someone has told the voice actors to act like for a Hollywood flick, not a Disney cartoon

Negative impressions:
- The bosses are TOO easy, including the final one (I've played on Normal difficulty, BTW)
- No Trophies for 'tomp all the green boxes' and 'never use locator'

Summary:
Is this System Shock 3?

[Square King]

I don't think I'd say it's System Shock 3, but it's really damn close to giving that similar sense of dread. But yeah, Dead Space is survival horror refined and nearly perfected.

[neorichieb1971]

Dead space 2 developers say its going to be more Uncharted 2 this time around. Perhaps the atmosphere will stay.

[xris]

The current king of survival horror.
The game is of the highest quality. It did so many things right. It was a little easy. High hopes for the sequel. Said they want to deal with dementia.

[Engineer]

Dead space 2 developers say its going to be more Uncharted 2 this time around.

I certainly hope this isn't true...

[neorichieb1971]

Make your own mind up

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/106/1067171p1.html

[Square King]

Ugh. I want zero MW2-style gameplay in Dead Space.

"Then, the publisher said that series hero Isaac Clarke would prove more aggressive and that the sequel would also include a new online mode."

"I can tell you that we're a little more focused on action horror as opposed to survival horror."

Please no. There are too many blockbustery action-packed testosterone-fueled wankfests out there already.

[CMoon]

Going that direction will effectively destroy the franchise. I'm not saying it won't become something else that some players might like, but it won't be Dead Space anymore.

[Zaarock]

Sound like it'll essentially be like Resident Evil 5 then, though maybe not with such a crap coop based campaign. (loved coop mercs in RE5 though)

[EinhanderZwei]

I don't think I'd say it's System Shock 3, but it's really damn close to giving that similar sense of dread. But yeah, Dead Space is survival horror refined and nearly perfected.

I think, they knew that they'll suck ass at System Shock-esque RPG elements, so they dropped it entirely. I'm OK with this