Dead Space 2 Is No Resident Evil 4

[thereverend7]

Its hard for me to get "scared" in horror games. i might get startled or disturbed, but rarely scared. RE4 comes to mind as one of the first times I can recall being scared: the first time fighting an el Gigante. He is so big and imposing, all you feel like doing is running away. even if you shoot him, he absorbs your gunshots like your throwing skittles at him.

To me, thats horror done well. Making you (feel) helpless terrified of what you can possibly do to get out of your unfortunate situation.

I haven't played Dead Space 2 yet, but I loved the first one. It wasn't very "scary" but it did have its disturbing and "HOLY SHIT TENTACLE" moments, and it kept a creepy atmosphere of tension throughout. at least for me, it did.

 

[Bwown]

I know it's a weird thing to suggest, but the haunted mansion level in Super Mario 64 was probably the most fun I'd ever had being frightened, just because the environment and atmosphere were well-placed and things were good at startling me.

I remember the scariest moment for me in a video game was playing the Twinkle Park level with Amy when you go inside the Hall of Mirrors. The music is so creepy.

 

[thebreadbinman]

boy you must've hated the bit in Iron Man 2 with the suit-in-a-suitcase...

 

[duchaked]

really good points...except that this is the third time he's made them (Dead Space 1 review, Dead Space 2 review, and here now) lol

regardless, games like Dead Space and other "not-quite-horror" games are still a bit much for me. guess I'm still having trouble stomaching my losing my stomach and other organs in grotesque ways on screen

 

[MercurySteam]

My only issue with the helmet is why it decicdes to fold away during some executions or when you have to wrestle with Stross or Nicole. If those are Isacc's standard social encounters then it makes sense why he's so screwed in the head.

 

[TitsMcGee1804]

hahaha, great ending paragraph, i lol'd

I think there is definately a balance between realism and gameplay, sure, carrying only a pistol and a machinegun in HL would be more realistic, but it would make the combat too unvaried, so the devs thought, unrealistic, whatever, deal with it, we want to make a fun game

on the other side, opting to go for the more realistic choice of a good old solid helmet would make more logical sense, but would not affect gameplay. And in games like dead space, where the subtle details really contribute to immersion, stuff like this sticks out like a sore thumb

 

[Xanadu84]

I really liked Dead Space when I realized that it wasn't a Survival Horror. It was an action game in a spooky atmosphere with some horrifying visuals. In that regards, it's a pretty damn decent game. Not particularly scary, but very fun and entertaining. They even manage a few scary spots now and again. It doesn't make it a real survival horror, but those few spots still worked.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I've always hated the Dead Space helmet. It's a really lame design, and EA seems to think it's "iconic" or something. It's not. It's a fucking tin can with slits in it. This is but a nit to pick.

 

[octafish]

I kind of always wished the necromorphs were more like The Many in System Shock 2, wailing "kill me" and "I'm sorry" as you beat their brains in with a wrench. Now that was creepy.

 

[Faegis]

I have been wondering about those helmets too. What if your hair or beard gets stuck or indeed your ears or neck wobbles get sliced and diced? Makes me cringe every time. Plus a hit to a sensitive spot might fry the circuits and jam the mechanism and then you'd have to weld the thing off your head. Ouch.

 

[lumpenprole]

I keep thinking about the Dead Space developers freaking out. "First Yahtzee hated that Issac was an anonymous space marine, and now we show his face and he bitches about how we show it? WE CANNOT WIN!!!!!"

Which is how it should be.

 

[MrGalactus]

Oh pfft who cares about the helmet thing. It looks cool.

 

[Caktuar]

Dead Space 2 was a fun game. Who cares if it wasn't always scary? It was fun. Remember fun?

 

[roostuf]

Wow your actually going to bash HL, you've changed.

 

[Scrythe]

Brief moment of clarity: We're discussing realism in Dead Space, right? The same series where it's common practice to harvest entire planets without any repercussions or consequences?

The same series where flamethrowers and remote mine launchers are considered "mining tools" and can be purchased at any magical Final Fantasy shop?

The same series where a space bug can go Alien all over ships or colonies without restraint, despite facing the same exact problems the the Alien series faces, that with the whole energy consumption and being a creature that somehow needs human fucking bodies to survive?

This is also the same series where Scientology is the majority religion.

So yeah. Lost In Space [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHCeCKfWyM#t=0m40s] style folding helmets are completely bullshit.

 

[Trolldor]

I was describing to my friend what the game was like, as I was playing it.
I was currently sprinting along a hall way being chased by a regenerating necromorph, and I said to him:
"The game is not really all that scary, it's just tense."

And I think that's pretty much true.
You aren't scared, nothing forces you to hit pause and stop playing out of fear, instead you're just a little taut trying to anticipate when the next Necormorph is going to leap out of that all-too-familiar vent.

The first time you go through a maintenance shaft you aren't scared, just tense. Thereafter that tension disappeared because you realise that - if you experiment with controls - can't shoot or aim in there, therefore you know you won't ever have to fight. You can't crawl with speed, so you know you won't have to run.

You spend the entire game trying to anticipate, until you become familiar with the triggers at which point all that tension disappears and it becomes a stock-standard shooter.

 

[Spydiggity]

He was supposed to be IRON man, but he became Artificial Spiderman... my bro had the same reaction as you did, and all I had to say to him "u jelly?". You know, I think it wasn't supposed to be a serious movie (unlike the comics, which came across quite so) but Dead Space 2, yeah that is really trying hard at being serious.

For a movie that apparently isn't trying to be serious, it sure as hell isn't trying very hard to be anything else. sept maybe pure crap, and if that's the case, they nailed it.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

First, the fact that people argue over the intention or meaning of something doesn't mean that it did a poor job of getting its meaning across. There are whole college courses taught in literary analysis, and not a single one of them consists of a whole group of people trivially going through every work agreeing on what it was trying to say or do.

I hope you were being sarcastic, because I've been in literature college courses where they literally do just that, no pun intended.

In fact, I think more gamers should be made to sit English in college, because a lot of them could do with being introduced to the intentional fallacy. Every time someone levels a shred of criticism at any game, someone pops out of the nearest manhole and declares that 'it's not trying to be this!' The value of individual response is strangely out of favour compared to lofty ideals of some meta-criticism that overrides everything else.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Having just watched Iron Man 2, the same thought is in my mind. All those tiny folds would have to fit together so precisely that the interlocking alone would be a pain in the ass. Any beating those parts took, any minor deformities, and the properties keeping your head from getting all mushed up diminish exponentially.

Still unsure of how you would make a piecewise object airtight, though. Imagine making a helmet out of Lego--even the pieces directly against each other would have to be quite tight. Sliding parts over each other means smooth surfaces, and it's not like you could get a rubber seal in there, because with all moving parts you just know something would get pinched. Hope he gets it regularly put in for maintenance/replacement.

 

[kurupt87]

Snip

Indeed. I am becoming convinced that triple A developers haven't exposed themselves to any media except videogames, they don't seem to take onboard lessons from TV, movies or literature; or sometimes even the established games.

As for the foldy helmets, they're to help cutscenes I believe. To let the character seemlessly (and near-instantly, which is important for action games) shift from combat to non-combat and let us see the persons face. Take Mass Effect 2 or DA:O for example, in those games your helmet is either on or off. What happened? Either mods got made to hide the helmet in cutscenes or the helmet wasn't worn.

There are silly things that make no sense in all games, loads of them. If you're unlucky enough top be bothered by one that serves an actual purpose then, well, suck it up.