Dead Space appreaciation thread

R

RivaOni

Dandy Guy, in Space
One thread to rule them all, MAKE US WHOLE!

I love the Dead Space games, in fact I've always been a big fan of atmospheric survival horror although Project Zero/Fatal Frame got a bit too much for me, and Silent Hill seems to be more about the shocks, much like Resident Evil always was. That leaves me with Dead Space, which I have to say I was sceptical about, I didn't think a US studio could do subtlety, and whilst there are many jump out your seat moments in the franchise, its the atmosphere that rules overall.

Anyway, I loved the first game, and really enjoyed Dead Space Extraction on the Wii, so was obviously looking forward to reviewing Dead Space 2, unfortunately its taken me a couple of weeks to get my hands on a copy, EA finally got one delivered to me yesterday and thus far I'm an hour in and Visceral have not dissapointed me.

The links are my reviews, I'll be posting more about the game as I play it :)
 
I have F.E.A.R. on PC somewhere, for some reason it runs really poorly even though my PC should run it (pretty sure its system requirements are lower than those required for STALKER and it runs that anyway).
 
My only concern with Dead Space 2, as i mentioned on the chat and countless times elsewhere, is that it feels like the shortened the single player experience too much to add in that pointless mediocre multiplayer. It's whats stopping me from giving it anything higher than an 8, to be honest. Cutting the single player experience down from 12 hours to 7 and a half just annoys me.
 
I remember you saying, I was suprised that, when half an hour in it popped up with "Chapter 2" in the bottom right hand corner. I like how each chapter in Dead Space was an hour long, it made it feel like you watching a TV serial or something.

Not sure its been cut short because of the multiplayer, though, but I've not finished so can't pass judgement on that, it may just be a case of thats the story they told and, as is often the case with franchises now, its the middle section of a trilogy?

The multiplayer is very very poor though, had a quick go last night with a friend, he's a CoD addict, I don't care much for CoD and prefer Team Fortress or Halo for FPS multiplayer action (although I enjoyed Bad Company 2 for a wee while), but both of us said we wouldn't be playing that again.
 
Oi, this is an appreciation thread. No disapproving comments must go down here! ... The only form of Dead Space, apart from demos of both the games I've played is the iPhone version. It looks like a cool series if you are into that type of thing, I'm not.
 
Ok, now i call peeved. They must have planned this early on like, but DLC for Dead Space 2 has been announced. "Severed" brings in 2 new stand-alone chapters to the game for single player. Here be the blurb, no worries since it isn't spoilerific to the game itself:

This digital pack will take players through the haunting story of Gabe Weller, who fans will remember from the award-winning game Dead Space Extraction. As a security officer, Weller comes equipped with a one-of-a-kind security suit and an upgraded, more powerful Pulse Rifle that will help him unleash his own blood-curdling adventure across the Sprawl. Lurking behind every corner is another bloodthirsty monster but the big surprise for Weller (and fans) is the return of the Twitcher, a grotesque enemy who first appeared in the original Dead Space game.
Click to expand...

March 1st release, 560MS points on XBL and $6.99 on PSN, though europe for some reason don't get the DLC on the PSN until the 2nd, probably to match up with the normal PSN updates, but hey.

EDIT: trailer http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sever ... e-2/710844
 
First game had its moments and was well worth the £20 or so I paid for it. Second dropped in price pretty quick so I'll give it a go.
 
I think the problem is that it is that close to the release date, which makes the developer's just seem a little bit lazy and/or greedy.

I won't say much here because at least the chapter isn't essential to the main storyline, and is perhaps a semi-sequel to the extraction prequel, which pre-move/kinect no one without a Wii cared about.
 
RivaOni said:
Silent Hill seems to be more about the shocks
Click to expand...

I can't be bothered to argue about it and derail this thread already, but I really cannot agree with this at all. Have you actually played the first Silent Hill back on PS1?
 
Godot said:
RivaOni said:
Silent Hill seems to be more about the shocks
Click to expand...

I can't be bothered to argue about it and derail this thread already, but I really cannot agree with this at all. Have you actually played the first Silent Hill back on PS1?
Click to expand...
I'm not going to start either, Silent Hill 2 had it's fair share of atmospheric/psychological horror and that's all I will say.

As for Dead Space, I used to own the first game, and I have to say that even on normal it felt like a survival horror as soon as you get past chapter 5, but I found that the only genuinely scary moments were when you meet the first necromorph and the ending, I find that fear is always best when you're unarmed like in the Forbidden Siren series.
 
Ah, I missed a bit out, I meant to say "nowdays" since the series was moved away from its previous Japanese developers its lost its sense of tension, of course I've played Silent Hill 1 and 2, I've played a small chunk of 3 and half of the PSP release. Not played anything in the series from after the PS2 era as from everything I've seen its quality level has dropped and whoever's working on it now doesn't seem to know what to do with it.

Silent Hill and its sequel are two of the finest examples of how to make a horror game, particularly in Silent Hill 2.

I'll mention something about myself right now, I'm not one of these internet types that spouts ******** without knowing what they're talking about, I'll happily admit when I'm wrong, or made a mistake or genuinely ask a question about something that is on my mind in order to learn more, look at my contributions to the Ghost in the Shell thread for example :) Likewise my Tactics Ogre thread where I've admitted from the outset that I'd never played the previous versions of the game or any other instalment in that series so can't compare them.
 
Haha! I was gonna say, the first two SH games are classics in the genre, I don't know why Homecomming gets all the bad rap though, I thought it was quite enjoyable, anyway this is getting a little off topic :lol:
 
Think Dead Space 2 is great, the first one pretty good and from what I've seen of Extraction, it's a credit to light-gun style shooting but...

I still don't get the 'universe'. I know 95% of the appeal of the story is in the events happening in the here-and-now tension of it all (Dead Space 2 is a lot better in that regard. The first was too repetitive and heavy handed), but the various factions doing their dance in the background are just so utterly unremarkable. Space Zealots versus Earth Military Dictatorship round 23,752.

And then the creative director went on record saying that his membership-fee based crazy sci-fi religion totally wasn't in any way intentionally reminiscent of Scientology. Yet another pair left un-grown by the games industry.

But I love the way Dead Space 2 flows from one event to another, and the variation they managed to get out of the locales without compromising the 'industrial space complex' feel of the series. The solar array level (Chapter 7?) was a pretty exceptional environment. The lighthouse-keeper like loneliness of the one guy who lived there, the 2001-style deactivation of the AI antagonist, the visual of being kilometres above the station and the pay off in the final sequence... all added up to a seriously slick piece of work.

Ok, have I earnt a little towards my negativity allowance? Good. Dead Space 2 has officially killed all justification for hoodie wearing female sidekicks. They were an innovative but still daft idea 7 years ago, but in this game that character design is so far beyond utterly ludicrous it's sickening. Better female character designs needed please.
 
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