Dead Space




Posted by Speedfreak

It's, from what I can tell, a survival horror game set in space. Here's a gameplay demo from E3 where a Steve Austin lookalike talks about the game's various unique gameplay elements.

[URL]http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36348.html[/URL]


I was interested in this because good survival horror games are few and far between these days, but then I learnt of the sheer gimmickry that was paraded in front of E3 goers at Microsoft's conference. The HUD system is mostly hidden, not a new idea by any means and certainly not a bad one. The fact that the menus actual holograms being projected by your character's suit is supposed to offer a deeper level of immersion. Nevermind the fact that you can see your own back and the ammo counter on your weapon is unreadable, it's the assumption that the character pulls crap out of his backpack via a bloody 12 foot wide inventory menu that does my head in. We don't need explanations for stuff this basic and obvious, there is such a thing as suspension of disbelief.

Apparantly the designer also has a problem with having to shoot enemies in the head all the time and concluded that a game where you shot limbs off would be far superior, no doubt not realising that playing too many shooting games is probably the more likely core of the problem. I suppose it would make sense for some alien life forms, and it's not like there's another certain [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_evil_4"]3rd person survival horror-themed action game where shooting enemies in the head wasn't always the best way to go.[/URL] I just can't see it as that big of a deal and worth talking about at E3.

Dead Space looks shockingly generic and the crappy art isn't helping it. I could forgive it if at the conference he described one mechanic that makes it beter than or different to other survival horror games, but the most I could extract from it was "it's in space".

Oh, and it's "very M rated", apparantly.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: and the ammo counter on your weapon is unreadable,


I could read it fine, even from just watching videos.

But I honestly don't see the appeal of this game yet. Third-person and "immersion" do not exist together, and the game hardly seems scary to me. Sticking you in a dark tunnel with limited ammo does not make a game frightening. Plus, everything they've showed has looked the same.



Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=Vampiro V. Empire;865845]I could read it fine, even from just watching videos.

Compare it to ammo counters in any other game and you'll see it's needlessly small. On an SD screen I can imagine it'd be very hard to read, especially for someone with poorer eyesight.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Maybe! but that doesn't seem to be the case from what I've seen. Though I'm not sure how you'd make it bigger without putting it closer to the screen (like an FPS) or throwing in a HUD or slapping it on the dude's back like some of the other HUD pieces. Guess we'll see once the demo comes out.




Posted by Velvet Nightmare

i'm actually interested in seeing what dead space has to offer. after seeing a commercial for it a few times over the weekend, i was reminded of its presence at comic con this last year. i can't recall actually playing it or not - there was a multitude of games nearby, in particular i can really only recall mirror's edge, but i digress - but i started looking into it more

the game itself doesn't seem to be too 'innovative' as it is borrwing the over the shoulder survival horror playstyle we've seen a bit lately, but the story intrigues me somewhat. it seems to have been relatively well recieved, but i think the verdict is still out until i actually play it. i remember playing metroid prime the first time when it was released, and wondering what a survival horror style game in space would be like, so this seems to be fitting of that notion, but i'm not going to discount that it has been done before.

if anyone picks it up, let me know how it is!




Posted by Dexter

From what I saw it's about as generic as Dark Sector.




Posted by #061402

Eh, sort of want. I think it's worth checking out, at least.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: From what I saw it's about as generic as Dark Sector.


So, so wrong.

Played it with my buddy and I was more than impressed. Didn't buy it myself because there's four major titles coming out within the next two weeks and a friend is buying it for me for christmas, but yeah, it's pretty ****ing great. It's like every good game and movie wrapped up into one package and given its own identity. Personally, I'd place it just under Bioshock in terms of great new IPs.

Great new ips that shouldn't get a sequel.



Posted by Velvet Nightmare

watching some play of it online, good ***, it's extremely long. it's divided into chapters, and from what i've seen the first four took about six hours. looking forward to getting it today




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Extremely long? No. More like 15 hours.




Posted by Alastor

If you line up the first letter of each chapter name, it spells [spoiler]NICOLE IS DEAD[/spoiler]. No joke.




Posted by #061402

Huh, like that thing you can do with Vin Diesel. Awesome.




Posted by Velvet Nightmare

anyone for impossible mode?




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

No thanks. Especially if they limit ammo even more in that mode.




Posted by #061402

The limited ammo can be really ****ing annoying. I remember how I ran out of ammo against the last boss of Resident Evil Veronica with no other save.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Luckily it's not that hardcore limited. Limited enough to make you think of using bullets strategically and conservatively, but not so limited that you'll come across a boss or something and have no ammo whatsoever.




Posted by #061402

Well, that's how a horror game should be. A lot of ammo sort of takes away the scary-effect, if you ask me. *Cough*Resident Evil 4*Cough*




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Resident Evil 4 did a good job of giving ammo and creating a creepy atmosphere. I mean, one of the best OH **** OH **** moments in any game is RE4 and the barn/house you have to hold down.

In my opinion there's better ways to convey survival/horror than "YOU GOTS NO AMMO LOL." Which Dead Space pulls off pretty well if I do say so myself.




Posted by John Rambo

I played the first 10 stages before Fable 2 pre-occupied me but I really enjoyed what I played. It felt like a mix of Doom 3, Bioshock and RE4 though not quite as good as any of those.

My only real complaint was the enemies. After enough time they started to feel more like obstacles slowing down my progression rather than threats. I don't feel it's easy enough to need to bump up the difficulty, more that the enemy placement becomes predictable after awhile.




Posted by scott349

Saw the trailer

Doesn't look too appealing to me.




Posted by #061402

Huh, the trailer just made me want to play it even more.




Posted by twite934

I also watched the trailer

It was pretty good

I am definitely gonna buy this one.




Posted by #061402

I absolutely love the HUD.




Posted by Speedfreak

[QUOTE]The very first Action Challenge in the game requires you




Posted by #061402

The elevator door is actually closed. And yeah, Dead Space is ****ing amazing compared to their other games.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Who runs into the elevator and doesn't close the door?




Posted by #061402

It took me a while to realize you actually had to close the door manually. Though I didn't see that Morph run stupidly around.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Ran in and immediately closed it. Though in most games it's pretty easy to break scripted events like that.




Posted by Speedfreak

I doubt most games ridicule themselves as much as that. Then again, most games are bad.




Posted by #061402

Holy ****, Speed. do you ever stop complaining?




Posted by Fate

No, he doesn't. Dead Space was worth playing.




Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=#061402;919881]Holy ****, Speed. do you ever stop complaining?

If you can't tell the difference between complaining and ridiculing then you're kind of stupid.

Try walking through the game backwards, you'll see monsters appearing out of thin air!




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Honestly, I don't really see an issue with that. Who purposely breaks scripted events and walks through a game backwards? No one on their first attempt.




Posted by Speedfreak

Enjoy your farce.




Posted by #061402


Quoting Speedfreak: If you can't tell the difference between complaining and ridiculing then you're kind of stupid.

Try walking through the game backwards, you'll see monsters appearing out of thin air!


I guess the developers never thought you'd be so stupid as to not close the door/run through the game backwards.



Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: Enjoy your farce.


I am! Pretty great game.



Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=#061402;919963]I guess the developers never thought you'd be so stupid as to not close the door/run through the game backwards.

When enemies always appear behind you, walking into a room backwards isn't all that stupid.

You're missing the point, though. Regardless of whether a scripted event is being broken, that is shit level design. Besides, how is it creators of good games manage to have scripted events that aren't as flimsy as a cardboard western sets?




Posted by #061402

Yeah, you're either pretty stupid, or Dead Space isn't your kind of game. If you think a game is bad because you find flaws when you're deliberately trying to find them, then yeah, that's pretty stupid. If they were extremely apparent when playing normally, that'd be bad, but if they aren't, why complain? Geez.

I guess I could always ask you to tell me of one game where you cannot possibly find some kind of scripted error.




Posted by Speedfreak

Walking into a room backwards because the first 500 times a monster appeared behind you isn't trying to break the game, it's trying to beat the game.

I like that challenge though. Would bugs count as a scripted error? 'Cause with Dead Space that's just really s[COLOR=lightgreen]h[/COLOR]it design. What if I found a game with events that didn't break because of something so obvious, yet had a bug with obscure repro steps that messed up one event?

Actually, it doesn't matter. We had errors like that all the time on Harry Potter and they had to be fixed because it's retarded. They didn't see it as a bug in Dead Space because they considered it part of the design.




Posted by The Judge

I thought Dead Space was well worth the money I spent buying it, and very replayable.

While the story rips off quite a lot of things (Combine Aliens with Event Horizon and you've basically got this game), but the added bit about the religious aspects of the story really set this game apart and gave it a fresh twist. Yeah, the script is lame, and you can't empathize with Isaac because the tin man never says a single word, but the game is well done.

The atmosphere is creepy, the enemies are well-designed, and overall nothing in the game feels too hoaky. I'd say the game was a bit easy if only because the weapons (*cough* ripper) were overpowered, but the game did something a lot of games don't do, which is make basically every gun balanced. With a weapons upgrade system and an extremely sparse amount of Power Nodes, you're basically ensured to find one of the guns to be your favorite and stick with it. It's not like RE4 where you run through the game with crappy weapons as a challenge. Each weapon is good in its own right. in addition, the idea of making the main character's armor look clunky instead of streamlined did the job of making you feel tha tthis guy was more a mechanic than an interstellar warrior.

Granted, there was no pacing with the enemies, since they were all just leaping at you screaming bloody murder from the word "go," but that complaint, to me at least, is pretty instantly nullified by the fact that the game isn't trying to be creepy. It's trying to place you on a ship where it's sheer balls-to-the-walls f[COLOR="black"]u[/COLOR]cked up, so why should there be any pacing?

Overall, I liked Dead Space. Definitely a 9/10. Not perfect, but what is aside from Final Fantasy Tactics?




Posted by #061402

Fine, whatever, think what you want. I still think you're an idiot for, basically, playing the game wrong and then complaining about how much it sucks.

Edit: Ninja'd. Oh and the Military Suit kinda makes you look more like an interstellar warrior.




Posted by The Judge

Well obviously. But that's only on the second runthrough.




Posted by #061402

Indeed. I noticed how I kinda just calmly went cruising by the rooms with heavily upgraded stuff. Was awesome.




Posted by ExoXile

Stormtrooper yo-ho!




Posted by Speedfreak

[quote=#061402;920108]Fine, whatever, think what you want. I still think you're an idiot for, basically, playing the game wrong and then complaining about how much it sucks.

Even if you "play it right" the game is still full of enemies appearing behind you every time you walk down a dead-end corridor. It's bad level design. This is terrifyingly obvious.




Posted by #061402

Yeah, they use the vents. They flank, like any smart enemy do.

Jesus christ.




Posted by Fate

Even in the game they're like, "HEY THEY COME FROM THE VENTS."




Posted by ExoXile

More like: "EY, THEY USE THE VENTS, THAT'S HOW THE GET AROUNDHFHDHSFERJAJFJEFJEFJA..dfffdffsfsf*crackle*."




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: When enemies always appear behind you, walking into a room backwards isn't all that stupid.


****, seems like others have beat me to it. I'm in the last few minutes of the game and there are only a couple points where a monster appears behind you. Both times are you exiting from the bench or store. Otherwise they never just appear, they always use a vent or were playing dead.

Quoted post:

Granted, there was no pacing with the enemies, since they were all just leaping at you screaming bloody murder from the word "go," but that complaint, to me at least, is pretty instantly nullified by the fact that the game isn't trying to be creepy. It's trying to place you on a ship where it's sheer balls-to-the-walls ****ed up, so why should there be any pacing?


There's quite a bit of pacing. The last few levels throw a ton more enemies at you than the earlier levels. That, and they're more varied. In the early stages it's just a couple regular morphs and at the end they're throwing a ton of everything at you. Not to mention they slowly introduce new morphs over the course of the game including the super versions. So there's pretty good pacing in that regard.



Posted by Speedfreak

Super versions = bigger and more arms to shoot.




Posted by #061402

Actually they're just black and do more damage/take more to bring down.




Posted by ExoXile

Don't forget glowing eyes!




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: Super versions = bigger and more arms to shoot.


Wait, you haven't even played Dead Space?



Posted by Oblivion Playa

this game owns especially when all the monsters swarm you. I love chopping them up and stomping on them .the movie it was nice.




Posted by #061402


Quoting Vampiro V. Empire: Wait, you haven't even played Dead Space?


I've been asking myself that same thing..



Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Pretty much what I'd expect from speed




Posted by The Judge


Quoting Vampiro V. Empire: There's quite a bit of pacing. The last few levels throw a ton more enemies at you than the earlier levels. That, and they're more varied. In the early stages it's just a couple regular morphs and at the end they're throwing a ton of everything at you. Not to mention they slowly introduce new morphs over the course of the game including the super versions. So there's pretty good pacing in that regard.


Gameplay pacing, yes. Storyline pacing to try to breed a scary atmosphere, not really. There's no subtlety in the approach whatsoever. On the other hand, that's not what the game was going for, so like I said, it doesn't really matter.



Posted by Fate

Why didn't I figure Speedy didn't play it? It's obvious now. There isn't anything that is bigger with more arms to shoot. Bigger, yes, but not by much. Even those huge pregnants that gave out little swarms when shot were killed in about as many shots as the other ones.

Did anybody else die a few times on that asteroid thing where you had to plant a charge and jump off it? I got chopped up too many times.
:(




Posted by #061402

I think I died twice before getting it right. That was annoying.




Posted by Fate

I died like six times. I didn't know there was another side to get to.




Posted by #061402

Took me some time to realize that you could get outside.. But yeah. Have you gotten the achievement for keeping the hull integrity above 50% while shooting asteroids?




Posted by Fate

**** no. That's an unfair one to get. Hard enough getting above 30%.




Posted by #061402

It's especially hard since it's just a bunch of different scripts, so trying to learn where they're coming from is useless. Tried some 20-ish times, and I've always failed. The Slug Boss was a cake walk in comparison!




Posted by Fate

I think there's an Achievement for beating the slug at such-and-such percentage. I don't think I got that one, either. :(




Posted by #061402

I knew there was, so I saved before. 50% hull integrity and you get it.

It's quite easy, really, as long as you take out the explosive tanks; **** things swipe 10% right off.




Posted by The Judge


Quoting Fate: I died like six times. I didn't know there was another side to get to.


I died a lot on that too actually. I was trying to figure out any possible thing I could do left in the room, analyzing the stupid hologram images of the thing before shooting each rotator. Ah, took forever.

And I'll never get the achievement for keeping hull integrity. I always manage to survive with only like 2% left. It's pathetic.



Posted by #061402

I think I'm gonna try that Military suit glitch.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire


Quoted post: Gameplay pacing, yes. Storyline pacing to try to breed a scary atmosphere, not really. There's no subtlety in the approach whatsoever. On the other hand, that's not what the game was going for, so like I said, it doesn't really matter.


Thank *** there was no pacing in the atmosphere. Right from go it's 100% which is nice.

As for the hull integrity thing, even the developers said "uh, we didn't mean for it to be that hard, oops" so yeah, it's a bit ridiculous. At least the slug boss one is so much easier. Got it on my first attempt.

Same with the asteroid. Surprisingly didn't get chopped up once or die that entire time. Only times I died was from those tentacles that grab you. Often I'd be caught with the wrong gun out and I'd be trying to blast away at it but always miss. If I didn't have the plasma cutter out, I didn't survive.



Posted by The Judge

You can still swap out weapons. It just takes longer.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Yeah pretty much realised that on the last boss. Not sure why it never occurred to me before, but there you have it.


Speaking of games like this, played the new FEAR demo... whereas dead space is always creepy, FEAR 2 made me jump, like, ten times. Surprisingly effective at cheap scares and creepiness. Might actually pick it up in february.




Posted by #061402

I died when the Hive Mind grabbed me. Nice death scene.

Hm, I don't remember FEAR being all that scary, but maybe I'll check the demo out.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Not scary but in the demo there's a whole section where you're fighting these ghost things, not really sure what they are, but pretty much every time you turn around there's a ghost RIGHT in your face or below you or something. Took me by surprise pretty much every time. Then there's instances where the screen will go all red and you'll look around and BAM Alma's right there hanging off the rafters or something.

Very cheap, but it works. They're pretty good at making you turn around and flashing a ghost or something on the screen for a couple seconds.




Posted by #061402

Oh, I love those effects. I'm usually way too tense to be surprised by them, but when you're playing with someone else it's fun as hell to hear them squeal in terror. Like when I let my friend Rebecka go up against Yawn in Resident Evil, even though she's scared ****less of snakes. I've never seen her so mad!

I can be such a dick. <3




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

When it comes to games I'm pretty susceptible it seems. Movies or real life, cheap scares never work. But I really focus in on games, so I tend to jump. But it has to be done right. Like, in FEAR it comes pretty much out of nowhere and it's on screen just long enough to glimpse it. But then you have instances like the end of Dead Space where Nicole jumps out at you. That didn't make me jump at all, simply because you see her crouched just a split second before her jumps at you. Makes all the difference.

But yeah, anyone who's played an online shooter with me pretty much knows that stuff gets me good. Numerous times I've gotten shot, not expecting it and all, and jump right out of my seat. Or I'll round a corner and a teammate will jump out at me. Scares the **** out of me.




Posted by #061402

I saw a shadow in the background at the end of Dead Space, and I remember going "Oh c'mon.." (albeit the Swedish counterpart), so I knew something was coming. I remember when I was playing FEAR with a friend a long time ago, and at the very first level of a game there comes this ghost up on the screen. I didn't react as much as I would've wanted to.. I think I'm the kind who prepares in accordance to the game. Like Dead Space I was always ready for something to come jumping at me.

Although I do remember one instance that I jumped while playing Half-Life 2. It was close to the end of the game when you're assaulting the Citadel, and you're going through a house full of Metro cops. So I'm just going there and killing enemies as they come, and then I suddenly hear a loud bang and take damage. Made me jump pretty bad. When you get something like that in a game where you don't expect it, that's when I can get scared for a second.

Then I usually rage and empty a mag or two on the poor soul.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Oh yeah, HL2: Ep2 made me jump. When you get ambushed in a mountain resort area and trapped within a house you hear enemies swarming around you. Then you turn around and BAM, hunter sitting in the window ready to **** you up.

That got me good.




Posted by #061402

Don't remember that.. although I just begun Ep. 2 on the 360 (Finished it on the PC already, but y'know.), so now I'll remember that one.




Posted by The Judge

Nah, the ending of Dead Space scared the **** out of me. Did on my second runthrough as well. Pretty sure it's the weird *** sound she makes.

But yeah, on the last boss, I actually had to swap the inversion on the controls just to aim up and down correctly. Hard as hell for me.




Posted by #061402

It was a lot harder to aim at that time than it was when those tentacle things grabbed you on the ship.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Yeah, it really was. Had a lot to do with the fact that I was having trouble making out where the beam was pointing though.

Man, was reading threads about kids trying to explain the discrepancies of the story like how you have to protect Nicole when she's opening the door on the other side of the room and how the locked door opens in the final cutscene... ****, hilarious ****. I don't know where people come up with this stuff.




Posted by #061402

Indeed. There was one time when I was aiming down his throat and wondering where the hell the beam went. Then I died.

But yeah.. that part is kinda puzzling. As for the door opening at the end, I think it was the Marker, but I still don't get why you had to protect her. I'm guessing you were just trippin' balls or something, but still.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Pretty much entirely forgot that part with nicole made no real sense until I read people debating it. Then I was like "oh yeah..."

The door at the end was just the developer being like "NEEDS TO BE INTEEEEEEENSE" and nothing more as far as I'm concerned.




Posted by #061402

Yeah, you're probably right. I bet it was just the crushed corpse of Kendra that spasmed and clicked a button, opening the door.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

In my game she was thrown way away.




Posted by #061402

Huh, for me she was basically just crushed then swept up against the wall.




Posted by Vampiro V. Empire

Oh yeah, that's right. Must've been thinking of when I flung her body away. idk