Dead Space 2 Is No Resident Evil 4

[GasparNolasco]

Ah, don't pick too hard on the fold up helmet thing, those 25th century engineers worked hard to make it look cool and it's doing it's job pretty fucking well!
But if wasn't for the cool factor I'd agree with you -- the proposed singularity simply wouldn't do it. Some things LOOK indestructible on Dead Space, but they grind too much and make too loud noises to be, maintenance free, working correctly all the time. In a scenery where a workbench makes the sound of a trainwreck I'd seriously be conservative about the state of my fold up security helmet after a few bumps.

 

[Aziraphael]

Not to mention that the girl carries the iron man suit. The only reason that he can walk in it is because it walks for him... because it weighs a tonne. And that chick is just walking around like it had maybe two small bricks in it.

----edit----

I am prepared to admit that dead space two is far flung enough in the future to utilize nano-bots to deconstruct and rebuild a helmet... but the animation doesn't really look like nano-bots.

 

[gl1koz3]

Spot on. Again.

The way everything (that doesn't make sense) is just swallowed these days is disturbing in itself.

Disturbing how? What I find more annoying is how even the most insignificant detail (like the helmet) gets over analyzed, it?s just a video game it doesn?t have to be 100% realistic.

Who cares about realism... it's simply painful to watch, because it's impossible. (wow, thinking about things a lot - that's herecy, right). And you are to witness it over and over again, then the question "how" overshadows the rest of the work (they can fix it by somehow "explaining" it, but they don't). Sure, idk; no obligation to watch it. But then you wake up one day and realize that all the people started calling it "normal" a while ago, and you missed the train to explain your concern. And then you find a lot of people bashing any less idiotic ideas because they think unfolding helmets are "cooler".

And thus genericness is born.

Difference in tastes. I realize that an average Joe just wants to shoot things (that yell at you). I guess it comes from the hastily selected wives or something. I don't care; wild guess.

On another note, there's just no implied value to such creations (you have to build the value - but they mostly don't care to). They are imaginations of someone.

If it were a believable helmet, you have a lot more to associate it to. It triggers tenfolds more of thought/value/emotion than that of somebody's crazy imaginations that don't make sense.

Not to mention the inputs are conflicting. On one side - very serious game. On the other - total lack of attention to detail. So which is it? (This is what Yahtzee says, in short.)

In the end, the fact I have no idea what did the artist imply is a major issue. Apparently, they just cough up random imaginations these days and call it a day... and it gets more and more prevalent. That's what disturbing - you're using such high technology for what? Random imaginations that make no sense? This is a sure way to spiral into dark ages of google-idiots who know nothing but what the technology tells them. I'm not saying this is what will happen - smart people don't treat games seriously and will probably keep us in order with new gadgets. But it's just people like me who treats this as a form of art and who will get upset because of how illogical it gets further down the road.

Look at the games of the past. You can't treat them seriously; it's apparent they're purely for fun. Now look at the games of today. They treat themselves oh so seriously.

So... who's "just the video game" now? Look at them; they are serious. Yet they totally fail at it.

 

[FlipC]

The problem with games that try to be multi-genre is that some types can be combined easily and others need work.

Consider the progression of the Jak and Daxter series from platformer to racing game. There's little to think about from switching from one to the other. To highlight that consider including a racing section in Soul Reaver or Silent Hill.

From that it can be seen that action and horror don't mesh easily. It's difficult to be frightened of monsters when you're toting five bad-ass weapons; difficult to take in the subtle psychological message while pelting down a hall; and mostly difficult to be shocked by the leaping monster for the fifteenth time around.

As it's difficult the tendency seems to become to either artificially remove the players weapon capability (by losing the guns, ammo, or making a monster immune to nearly everything); forcing you to pay attention to the deep horror of the game through a cutscene (interactive or otherwise) or make more things jump out of you and shout boo.

This doesn't mean it's impossible to combine the two though. Consider System Shock 2; it's not perfect but it melds the two genres very well. The classics - a deserted ship and an infected crew. You have always have a small inventory so limited ammunition and weaponry; and you get the horror of the crew attacking you while both apologising and warning you at the same time. But this type of game takes time and may not appeal to the right 'demographic' so just throw some gore around and make things jump out at the player; much easier, much quicker, and thus much cheaper.

 

[googleback]

Yahtzee's always going on about the finger removal in Heavy Rain... when I played that it had no effect on me whatsoever. the whole game was a shambles when I realised you couldn't actually die during any of these "trials" Ethan had to go through... so i was just saying "oh get it over with you wimp, you're invincible!"

Where Dead space 2 is concerned, its followed the path of most american horror series... its the sequel to a game thats already revealed all the horror, so you know what's coming. i played this game on the hardest difficulty from the start exactly because of this. What difficulty does yahtzee play games on?

harder difficulties are made for people wanting to be scared while the "casual" setting is to make it accessible to your dad who saw The Thing in the seventies and thought he'd try a horror game.

I'll agree though, this game was even pretty easy on the hardest difficulty available from the start, its a shame you have to beat the game to unlock the HARDEST difficulty.

The scares in this game went the only way they could have. Isaac knows the enemy, you're playing as the guy who's seen it all. He's like Van Helsing now.

 

[DTWolfwood]

These helmets come from hammerspace [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Hammerspace] they don't exist in material form until they are needed! XD

 

[Unca Bob]

Eh. I'm not particularly interested in the im/practicalities of the helmet.
I'm of the opinion that people should ignore the intention of horror and treat the game like a gory 3rd person shooter. I find that works quiet well for me.

 

[Angstysquirrel]

I'm not sure if it was mentioned by someone before me, but Isaac is an engineer and does welding and the like. The 'helmet' in question is probably just a fancy face shield you see welders use all the time. They aren't designed for taking massive hits by anything. They are made just to protect your eyes from damage and your face from the sparks. Even the design slightly resembles a welders mask.
As for the rest of the article, I agree with Yahtzee. Including actual helmets that fold-out.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I remember when Stargate did it (not the TV series, the original movie).. As far as I'm aware that was the first time anyone had seen foldy-out helmets in a visual medium and it was awesome.

I think it's just been done so many times in a vain attempt to recreate that moment that it's lost all credibility. We need to push the envelope.. how about a foldy helmet which simultaneously catches fire and summons bears whenever it is used.

 

[Trent_Steel]

"If there was anything still recognizably human about them, if they had intact vocal chords that scream or beg for death like an actual person in pain"

Can't believe they still overlook stuff like this for horror games. Fictional monsters are far less scary than twisted, contorted and anguished humans.

 

[beema]

"like psychological horror as attempted by Michael Bay" perfect one-line description there.

I don't really agree that RE4 was more horrifying than Dead Space (although I haven't played DS2). It's about on par, although I liked RE4 more, just because its gameplay was so revolutionary at the time, and genuinely fun. The camp humor also worked fairly well. I'm not sure the "human" element really made it much more terrifying, as all of the enemies were pretty cartoony in nature. The only thing in RE4 that significantly creeped me out was the first time playing the village scene, the first time with the Novistadors in the sewers, and then the Iron Maiden's/Regeneradors in the labs.

The rant on the helmets thing was pretty hilarious. I have to agree about how preposterous they are. It's clearly one of those things that is done for one reason only: because it looks cool.

I appreciate that you can always poke fun at your own criticisms. The Half Life line at the end was great.

Ceramics dude. I don't know if metals can be ceramics but I do know ceramics make some of the best impact proof suits available.

As I understand it, they make the best bulletproof vests, but it's a one-time affair. Once you're shot, the vests protective capabilities in that area are done (because the ceramics shatter). So Isaac would be needing to change suits every 5 minutes. Then again, Isaac really isn't being shot at much. Mostly stabbed and clawed at. I dunno if ceramics would help him with low-velocity stuff like that.

It's not post credits. It's this slideshow thing that plays during the end credits.

It starts at 4:12.

That is kinda messed up though, you assume the whole way through they're bad people (even if they are full of worms), but to then find out they were completely controlled...guilt.

Was this only in the Wii version? I totally don't remember it being there when I beat RE4 on Gamecube.

Also, how did you not know that's what happened to the villagers already? It was explained throughout the game, especially in the documents you find.

 

[Knytemare]

Oh yhatzee, are you running out of things to rant about. Dude has a forcefield time altering gizmo that he duct-taped onto his arm, and you think his helmet has to be pressurized?
Hes got a forcefield.

Also, the suits are welded onto you, in a giant machine. Pretty sure they are customized to each wearer.

In addition, the people who transform into necromorphs were , in point of fact, waiting several hundred years to turn.

I know you were joking, but thats the actual fluff of the story.

 

[Seneschal]

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

Agreed. Every time the helmet just rolls off, it feels like the game is reenacting that scene from Lost in Space where their helmets fold down into NOTHING. It's jarring and meaningless because nothing else in the universe seems to work similarly. Even in Mass Effect, an arguably soft-sci-fi, you have this consistency - mass effect fields are used in everything, vehicles, construction, personal shields, weapons, artificial gravity, propulsion... The main thing is that plausibility doesn't get damaged.

Here it seems that helmets are the only gimmicky foldy mechanisms in the universe. There's no folding furniture, vehicles, rooms, something that would make you speculate "oh, this seems to be a universe with advanced micromechanics and smart materials, and probably a dire lack of space", which improves immersion, makes the setting more palpable and uses the environment to convey information about the world around you.

But no, Dead Space is gratuitous. Half the game could be happening in a mall on Earth, except when you get thrown into zero-g, the only remotely sci-fi element in the entire series.

 

[samaugsch]

Hey, it's my viewpoint, but I didn't have to say it! Thanks, Miracle!

PS what he said.

Yeah, I always find it amusing how so many people just automatically agree with everything Yahtzee says even when they haven't played the game.

Judge for yourselves, folks!

Well, one important thing to remember is what kind of games Yahtzee likes. If you don't share a whole lot of preferences to games that he does, it's probably not a good idea to use him as a source. Another important thing to remember is that he tries to be as critical to most of the games he reviews as possible. If you happen to like a lot of the same type of games that he does, you could follow these guidelines: If he says a number of good things about a game, it probably means that he couldn't think of enough faults that the game had and therefore is a possible choice. If he doesn't say anything good in particular about a game, it may be around average. There are certain reviews he has made that has made it clear that buying the game is simply a waste of money (I.g. Kane & lynch 2, where he has even said quote by quote "there's nothing fun about the game."). Even if the game wasn't quite as bad as he made it out to be, the chances of it being more enjoyable than most other games are slim to none. Of course, it's important to use other sources, too, but I think yahtzee is definitely a good one to include, as I believe he is one of the least biased reviewers out there. It's really about how you interpret his reviews.

 

[Silviu Iordache]

How do light sabers in STAR WARS work? HOW? a light saber is impossible!
Stop arguing about stupid things.If u think a game is ruined just because you can't bend your mind around how a piece of technology works then you have some serious issues.Sure the helmet is an important trademark of the product,but it's not a thing to worry about in this game,because it has alot of other great things to offer and to learn from, as a gaming experience and a as a story.

 

[EonEire]

What annoys me is there are 2 scenes (that I can recall anwyay) where the Helmet retracts and leaves Issac in danger. It almost seems to do this intentionally to PLACE him in more danger. If the helmet stayed where it was, both scenes (not mentioning to avoid spoilers) were defused or very much less of a threat.

 

[tahrey]

The bike riding side of me says ... hell yes - that complaint (about folding helmets) actually has some grounding in reality. I wear a flip-front (aka "system" or "jet") helmet for the great extra convenience and comfort I get out of it. However, that ONE point of articulation/single clip has measured disbenefits in cost, weight, protection level (only has to survive one major blunt-trauma hit, after which you junk it, rather than loads of bullets - but it's still less effective even for that), sealing quality and noise, and can of course fail (coming apart at the joint or the clip, etc). Mine is quite well made, so it's no worse than an everyday one-piece lid at half the price, but if the same level of tech and build quality was applied to a one-piece as to this you'd have a VERY nice helmet. (strong, light, etc)

Plus of course most of the protection comes from the thick layer of toughened polystyrene foam that it's lined with. Good luck making THAT fold up or slide smoothly in multiple layers.

However that side also wants someone to go all Tony Stark and make a fold-up one, as the weight isn't really so much of an issue (about 1.5kg) - but the bulk can be. Particularly when trying to attach it to my bike's pathetic helmet lock. Be so much easier if it could just pack up tight and go in one of the cubbyholes behind the engine along with the toolkit and manual.

The movie-watching/gaming side of me says ... dude, he's got a miniature fusion reactor (zero point generator? something else? i dunno. wasn't paying attention. isn't important) that chucks out a couple hundred kilowatts IN HIS CHEST and doesn't suffer any effects from heat and radiation, has made some kind of electrically powered impulse engine-cum-photon torpedo thing that fits in his hand, and built the first version of both the generator and his power armour in a desert cave from scrap metal. The dude is both a genius, and clearly operating under cartoon physics. He's got license to make stuff like that.

(BTW thinking of cartoon stuff, I'd like to put the blame squarely on Michael Bay for starting all this when he changed the transformers from sheet metal to chaotic piles of shrapnel)

Now, story universes where they're trying to impose some measure of reality on the situation, that can't fly - your character SHOULD be hobbled by having to deal with a bulky, fixed-size/shape helmet (maaaaaaaybe with a "jet" option, given that the name comes from fighter pilots using them). Save the folding awesomeness/silliness for the more outlandish ones.

 

[stuhacking]

I did like the Iron Man armour, but I could not accept Iron Man 2's suit in a suitcase.

 

[Shieldage]

Hey, Yahtzee. You should make the helmet rant into a one-page comic. You know, like they did for the two-minute segment they did on capes in the Incredibles

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Well, Dead Space it's not actually a horror game. It's a gore-fest, like Splatterhouse for example. Things like the eyeball are thrown in to make the game look less pants-on-head retarded (and it's a very stupid game at it's core).

And I totally agree about helmets.