Dead Space 2 Is No Resident Evil 4

[DeliciousCake]

Actually, the intro to Dead Space 2 is the fastest a transformation has ever occurred in the games. Usually, the person has to be dead for a fair amount of time before the flying vagina has its way with the it and even then it takes anywhere from ~5-10 seconds of sinew snapping and bone exploding before the shambling monstrosity is battle ready. Hell, I think that's literally the only occurrence where life->death->necromorph was so fast. I really believe Yahtzee is grasping for straws with that scene...granted, the fast-pass transformation is one of the first things you see in the game, but still.

Oh, and don't tell me the Stalker necromorphs didn't freak you out with their bloody bone dog faces quizzically peering out behind corners before they blind sided you and took 1/2 of your health.

Spoiler: Somewhat of a Spoiler with Argument Concealed Within

Also, what about that lovely little trip into the Ishimura where Nicole kept whispering to Isaac? That was a fairly nice bit of subtle, atmospheric horror. You go into the ship and atmosphere and tension are built for 5 or so minutes before the first monster appears...in a massive dark hallway...and when he's dead you hear a great roar and necromorphs start coming from every which way. The ship was nearly completely clean without a corpse or drop of blood to be seen (at least until the places where the cleanup crew didn't get to yet) and covered in plastic garbage bags which I must say freaked me out almost as much as the odd scene of a bottle rolling from behind a corner and when I rounded said corner, nothing was there with no way in or out from that corner besides a door which I would have heard open, ogeez

 

[hermes]

And yes i do agree with one thing Yahtzee said (or wrote), the game is just inconsistent in its messages. Gameplay is a sci-fi/gore fans dream and the story just feels like it was just stapled in then revelant cutscenes added afterwards.

That is a pretty serious problem in most games, even the good ones.

Some of the examples I can think of include Niko Bellic (troublesome, angsty past vs running over hookers and shooting cars with a bazooka), Chuck Greene (concerned parent of his motherless daughter vs riding on a tricycle over zombies wearing a bra) or even Bioshock's Jack (all the deep, intellectual conflicts can be solved with a hand that shoots bees and a wrench to the face)

I believe the main problem is that designers have a hard time marring a relatable character (which most confuse with troubled and angsty) with a badass force of nature most designers want to evoke. One of the best characters in that sense was Kratos in God of War 1, until the new directors make him extra angsty and extra badass at the same time for no good reason.

 

[jebussaves88]

Why does everything have to do one job? In the example of Dead Space 2, it is a mixture of psychological and action horror, with both done in moderation to achieve something in the middle. True, I never felt scared, but the point of the necromorph's, like zombies, is that they make a risky encounter with them more tense than a similar situation with mere human opponents. I thought it was pretty well paced and enjoyable, and applaud the small humorous event on the Ishimura.

"Isaac, they're coming through a hole in the Medical Bay"

"Good thing I'm not going through there then"

EMERGENCY TRAM SHUTDOWN. TRACK AHEAD BLOCKED. WELCOME TO THE MEDICAL BAY.

"Oh, great"

 

[unwesen]

Those helmets really fold away into trouser space, much like the stuff you used to pick up in adventure games.

 

[DeliciousCake]

Actually, the intro to Dead Space 2 is the fastest a transformation has ever occurred in the games. Usually, the person has to be dead for a fair amount of time before the flying vagina has its way with the it and even then it takes anywhere from ~5-10 seconds of sinew snapping and bone exploding before the shambling monstrosity is battle ready.

You think 5-10 seconds is a long time?

The point is they've been dead for a while before the actual transformation. I'll concede the actual transformation is rather quick, but the point is that the first transformation you see in Dead Space 2 is not a common occurrence.

 

[NeverKnowsBest]

I haven't played the game, so I can't be sure how good a point he's actually making. Maybe he's right about the tone being inconsistent, I mean those little baby necromorphs I've seen in some videos looked kinda funny to me and that's probably not what the developers were going for. I don't know, maybe I should rent it.

And I am so glad that I'm not the only one who has a problem with the damn folding helmet!

 

[The Harkinator]

Ah, folding helmets. Trying to find the balance between making a character more personal and showing practicality means lots of games sit on the fence.

Would Master Chief be a more human and personal character if he took off his helmet and you could see his face? Or even if his visor did that ODST fade in/fade out thing? If you could see his face move when he talks? It would be easy to picture it trapped inside that helmet during gameplay sections. The same goes for Isacc, if we never see his face we don't have a connection, he could be difficult to identify with. Also, he must have taken his helmet off at some time, just like Gordon Freeman must have spoken at least one word at some point in his life. Or he might be the most socially awkward person ever.

A characters head is its most defining feature. In RPGs the opportunity to customise a characters appearance is very head centric, a helmet (especially a full face one) takes this away. In games where the option to wear a helmet is there, both myself and everyone I know shuns the added protection that could make the difference between victory and defeat in favour of seeing their characters face. Even ones that don't cover the full face get left behind. They make a player character, the special chosen one destined to be awesome in some capacity, a RANK AND FILE. Exactly the opposite of what is wanted.

Theres no proble with taking off a full face helmet in a properly safe and secure place, however, in the middle of a necromorph attack is not the best place to show what the character looks like.

 

[Labcoat Samurai]

Books leave far more to the imagination and consequently create far more varied interpretations. Most films and games don't, they, in far more direct way, project an idea/theme/emotion etc. in order to create a specific response in a viewer.

Books leave more to the imagination, but that doesn't mean that they don't intend to elicit a particular response. Not all of them do, but then neither do all films.

Edit: to add to this, I would point out that a work of literature may have more varied interpretations among amateurs not familiar with the work and its context than they have among those who are well versed. So it doesn't only matter *that* there's disagreement, but it also matters *who* is disagreeing.

There may be some interpretation as to the meaning of certain things, but themes/maturity/seriousness would not be one of them, especially in an EA game with heavy reliance on cliché's to develop itself (nothing wrong with clichés mind you, as long as they are done right). The game tries, like its predecessor to be deep and engaging, but as yahtzee said, fails to avoid wanton gore and scares, when it should have focused on the context of said gore and scares.

Sure, I don't tend to think that Dead Space is something that's hard to interpret, though I personally don't have a problem with it having gore and startle tactics on its toolbelt. Really, my point was just that disagreement isn't a clear indicator of messy thematic development and unclear direction. I personally think it *is* clear that the game is meant to be serious.

 

[JakobBloch]

The first trandformation of the game is pretty stupid to be honest. While I can live with the idea that the necromorphes can take over dead tissue and use the biomass to essentially great new life it should be somewhat harder when done to an essentially living organisem (as in someone just killed so that the whole body hasn't died yet). The immune system should be fighting back or someothing. Then again a procces that can revive and transform a body to the degree we see in the game might be able to overwhelm the immune system I suppose.

As for the helmet I might be able to live with it if it was just the front part that folded up a bit. Maybe having it being in 3 or 4 parts. As it is I must agree it is kinda silly.

Ultimately I like the game. I think it tells little stories well. Walking through the unitology residential area is really disturbing. Seeing text on the walls calling death a necesary step and then running across all the suicides. Walking into appartments and finding text on the wall saying "I don't want to die" - in the childrens room. A personal favorit moment is when 2 people are running from a room or rather one is dragging the other as the other is trying to return, evidently to get someone who is obviously doomed. Then after going in to the appartment they came from you fight... something (can't remember)... then as you leave a necromorph shows up. Inspection of it shows that it has the same hair cut and clothes as the second of the 2 people that "escaped".

Incidentally I can say that it was the Zero Punctuation review of the first game that made me buy that one and my enjoyment of it, that made me buy the second one.

 

[Jonsbax]

Dead Space is way scarier than RE4 if you ask me, not counting the Regenerators, but totally agree on the helmet-rant.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Rule of Cool Yahtzee, Rule of Cool.

 

[Kopikatsu]

A page dedicated to a badass helmet? Blasphemy, I say!

In Dead Space: Extraction, they actually did pull of their helmets and set them down (RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WALKWAY. Inconsiderate jerks.) and it took painfully long. I prefer the automatic fold-down helmets, if only for the aesthetics.

Anyway, I agree with the above posters, Yahtzee. If you played Vanquish, it must be reviewed! (I thought the game could have been better if 99.9% of the enemies weren't RUSSIAN and robots. So...I don't even know how to describe it. 'Hey, we beat the Russians!' 'Yeah, about that...' 'I bet we killed all them dirty, dirty commies!' 'Well...no. They were all robots. They lost enough metal to build a city and a few billion dollars.' 'Well, we lost less, right?' 'Weeeeeell...we lost most of our fleet, and pretty much 95% of the army. But hey, we still have Sam Gideon! Oh. Wait. This report says he died of lung cancer. Well FFFFFFFFFF-'

...I lost my train of thought.

 

[Silviu Iordache]

I'm sorry Yahtzee i really appreciate your work and you are one of my role models,but i have to disagree with you on this one.So..let's cut straight to the chase: the helmet in dead space 2.Yea well... you see plot holes like this are in any sci fi game and even in other fantasy games and resiliently defending the opinion that it just cracks up the game because it is a major plothole is just silly to me.I can give you a trillion examples of plotholes like this for mass effect 1&2(great games btw), deus ex,or any star wars game(/movie) in fact.
Reducing plotholes to zero can only be done by hiding technological details in such great depths,stuff that ordinary people cannot explain(im reffering here to stuff like worm holes,transportation at the speed of light,hell even circuits are a fucking mistery to me ).And i'm not saying that they should exist,but i'd rather put my dev team to focus on more important stuff like character development or storyline progression,stuff like this.


p.s: i think that the dead space 2 helmet is fucking awesome and it actually acts like a trademark for the game.As a gamer i say that,fuck me if it's not bulletproof or air-sealed,it looks fucking cool!

 

[Random berk]

I know exactly what you mean. The bit in Iron Man 2 where the entire Iron Man suit fits into a briefcase just made me say, "Really?" That thing can't possibly stop bullets AND make you super strong AND fold into a tiny briefcase. I think you'd have trouble fitting a suit and a pair of shoes into a briefcase.

Ninja'd by quite a length of time. Indeed, there's no way the suit could fit into that little suitcase, and even if it could, it wouldn't have room for all the complex mechanical parts as well as the actual armour plates. Not to mention that even if it did, for the suit to open out and encase a human body the way it did would require even more complex mechanical parts that couldn't fit into the suitcase. The original Iron Man suit was a bad-ass idea, even if it could never be expected to actually fly, but the portable model was just stupid.

 

[BrunDeign]

He really doesn't think the folding helmet is believable? It's entirely believable. IT'S THE FUTURE. THEY CAN MAKE SHIT UP AND MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

And does Yahtzee even comprehend how many great moments would have been ruined if Isaac had to take his helmet off manually and then hold it with his hands? That "eye scene" you mentioned? Where the heck is Isaac going to put his helmet when that's going on? Several quick time events wouldn't have worked (or had the urgency) if Isaac's helmet was just a detachable piece.

Also, about the transformation thing with Necromorphs - he does realize that when he says all the negatives about it, the VERY FIRST SCENE does everything he says the game doesn't do? Skin resists, you see the poor guy's pain when the transformation takes place on a living person, etc. This is textbook bad ranting Yahtzee. I expect better of you sir! I am disappoint.

Also I agree the the Spanish is VERY iffy in RE4. To borderline stupid levels. It shows me how much 5 years of Spanish classes can ruin some parts of a game. "A la reloj!" Pretty sure that's the game designers' attempt at saying "To the ruler" but I think "reloj" is just the classroom kind of ruler, not an actual leader. "Al maestro" would have been more appropriate I think, or at least the correct way to say "To the master" if what I have is wrong.

 

[odolwa]

Maybe atmosphere and setting has become more impactful, from a horror stand point, rather than the nightmares that roam the corridors? If so, consider a horror theme in which you find yourself in terrifying locations simply going mad, with no monsters at all. If psychological horror is the best kind of horror, take it as far as it can go. I'm reminded of that scene in Silent Hill 3 when Heather meets Vincent and she explains she has been killing monsters, only for Vincent to act surprised by this, leaving the player to assume that you have, in fact, been bludgeoning people.

Also, the 'eyeball' scene being scary? That pretty much killed the tension for me. The 'I've just been stabbed in the eye performance' was laughable. Furthermore, could Ellie really manage to stop the haemorrhaging all on her own? Advanced med-tech or not, I find that hard to believe. Lastly, when you stab someone in the eye it ruptures, it doesn't end up like an olive on a swizzel stick!

 

[Sonicron]

Aha, someone else is bothered by those helmets!

Don't get me wrong, they look really cool, but they gotta be as thin and weak as tinfoil in most places, which kinda goes against the idea of a helmet as protective gear.
It's the same thing that's been bothering me about the original Transformers cartoon from the 80s. With all those fold-out components, bots like Megatron or Soundwave would either have to weigh sixty tons while disguised, or possess the structural integrity of a soufflé (sp?) in robot mode.