Dead Space 2: Shooting with Gibs

[Lesd3vil]

I just bought and played through Dead Space 2 on Steam last night, (with the lights off and headphones for the best creepy experience) and completed the story on normal in just under 8 hours. So, here's a thread to ask what you thought the game did well, and where you feel it fails to achieve...

Personally, for me, I'd say the game isn't a horror game per se. It's more like an action game with gibs. Once again, the gore is hilariously over-the top, and the inclusion of the ability to rip blades from dead necros and skewer their mates with them is amusing; but, like it's predecessor, it fails to really scare... There are a few 'BOO!' moments (again) but mostly it's flat out blasting and running. You can tell that there's big money backing it, the graphics are crisp, the soundtrack is just as unnerving, and Isaac actually has voice acting, which helps to flesh out the character a lot.

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't played through but intend to, stop reading!

Gone?

Yes?

Ok. In my opinion, the part of the game where you go back onto the Ishimura to use it's gravity tether really shines... For the first ten minutes or so. With it's atmospheric lighting, the plastic covering the walls, spooky noises, and the experiences of the player character in these familiar environments in the first game, it actually manages to build up some serious tension. Coming round a corner and thinking, 'Oh, this is where...' 'This place!' 'Isn't this where I...' is a genuinely creepy feeling. The problem is that it's spoiled as soon as the first necromorph appears, bringing with him an army of screaming mutants that run, scramble, crawl and shamble at you down a massive corridor asking you to rip their legs off.

In fact, around halfway through the game I realised I wasn't even thinking of them as reanimated corpses anymore, but as animals that I was intruding upon the territory of and who were therefore attacking me, and I was defending against. In many cases the mutations demolish all but a token human aspect of the corpse they infest, which is sad, because the main staple of the zombie trope is that they still look human, which is what gives zombies a more psychological edge. One touch I did like was that the 'naked woman' necromorph runs around with her hands holding her breasts, because it would imply that there's some sense of human dignity left in that mutant husk, which would be psychologically unnerving. Maybe.

Which leads me to posit that the LEAST scary part of Visceral's games, is the beasties that are supposed to be scary... The environments do a good job of unnerving you, with lights casting shadows you that just can't tell if it's a tailoring dummy or a slavering beastie waiting to bite your cheeks off, bloody scrawls of ex-survivors, and the occasional living person running or dying; the soundtrack can be suitably harrowing when necros aren't on screen, with subtle audio cues and effects that build up tension; the level design is quite gorgeous at times (example: the church of unitology); the set pieces have a chaotic feel to them which adds to the overall effect; the zero-G sections are enjoyable and have a very authentic 'weightless' and physics-y feel to them (including the fact that when you're in vacuum, you can hear no sound except Isaac's grunts of exertion and him choking on his air tank when it runs low... Kudos to Visceral for good science on that one); but as soon as an enemy comes on-screen I found myself thinking, 'right! Who's first?'.

I would have preferred the Ishumura refit if no necros at all had shown up, or maybe only a token one or two. It started off really well and descended into a whirling maelstrom of shooty bang bang and severed limbs. If they'd just let you wander round, soaking up the atmosphere, using your own memories of the first game to wind yourself taught, THEN dumped a few necros on you... Then repeated it... That would have been scary, man.

 

[oplinger]

Personally, for me, I'd say the game isn't a horror game per se. It's more like an action game with gibs. Once again, the gore is hilariously over-the top, and the inclusion of the ability to rip blades from dead necros and skewer their mates with them is amusing; but, like it's predecessor, it fails to really scare... There are a few 'BOO!' moments (again) but mostly it's flat out blasting and running. You can tell that there's big money backing it, the graphics are crisp, the soundtrack is just as unnerving, and Isaac actually has voice acting, which helps to flesh out the character a lot.

Ok. In my opinion, the part of the game where you go back onto the Ishimura to use it's gravity tether really shines... For the first ten minutes or so. With it's atmospheric lighting, the plastic covering the walls, spooky noises, and the experiences of the player character in these familiar environments in the first game, it actually manages to build up some serious tension.

I said it in another thread, and I will say it here. A horror game, can in no way scare you by itself. You have to let it scare you. The game poses no real threat to you, you have to imagine it all, put yourself in the characters role. The game can just create tension. It's up to you to take that tension and use your imagination to scare yourself with it.

No, Dead Space is not all that scary when you figure it out. Dead Space 2 is pre-figured out, so it can't really be all that scary right out of the gate. But you can let yourself run wild and be scared or unnerved by it's atmosphere.

Silent Hill is also not scary, because nothing poses a serious threat to you in real life, or in the game as you can just run by everything without a care in the world (with few exceptions)

Games are not scary, they are tense. They thrive on creating tensions that you act on with your own imagination. Movies are the same way. Jump scares are the catalyst for this feeling. They make you slighty afraid as the adrenaline pumps through you, you get jumpy, and start waiting for the next jump scare, or anticipating something to jump out and tear your skin off and gnaw on your limbs.

Really, blaming the game for not being scary makes no real sense, especially when you say it can create tension. Fear is created by you in games, and movies. You have to scare yourself. Tension can easily be created. Some of us just work better under tension.

 

[Lesd3vil]

I said it in another thread, and I will say it here. A horror game, can in no way scare you by itself. You have to let it scare you. The game poses no real threat to you, you have to imagine it all, put yourself in the characters role. The game can just create tension. It's up to you to take that tension and use your imagination to scare yourself with it.

The point I'm trying to get across here is that every time the game starts to build up tension and your imagination starts ticking at you, it dumps a dozen necromorphs - very well lit, very obvious, very easy to see, and not even really that disgusting once you've seen them all - on your head. Where's the potential for imagination in that?

I played the game straight for 8 hours. I didn't intend to, but I looked up when I finished it and realised it was past 7am. The story was interesting and the game itself is compelling and immersive. The few parts where shadows move or sounds rattle around you, or you hear something shuffling through an air vent... Those were quite scary... But the idea that a game is not scary because it poses no threat to you in real life is misguided. Of course it doesn't pose a threat to you in real life, the idea is laughable! The environment poses a threat to the character and you have a big hand in keeping the character alive. If you're playing games as they should be played and immersing yourself in the story, getting to grips with the character, their drives and emotions, a game can be incredibly scary on that ground alone (Amnesia: The Dark Descent anyone?) but, while I never found myself being jarred out of the game by bad gameplay or plotting etc, I still found myself to be almost completely uninvested in Isaac's survival...

As to Silent Hill, I'll have you know that Pyramid Head (the original one from 2) still to this day haunts some of my most harrowing nightmares. Not because he was a threat to James, oh no, this fear is completely irrational and has no real point of reference. The thing that was most unnerving about the Silent Hill franchise was it's subtle sense of off-ness - Is that his head? What the hell is under it if it's a hat? Why does he twitch like that all the time? - Unfortunately the movie and the newer games completely missed the point of that and the Pyramid Heads in those are different and completely unscary.

In many cases, yes, imagination is key to fear. But I put it to you that in some cases not being able to understand something is just as scary.

 

[Sovereignty]

I said it in another thread, and I will say it here. A horror game, can in no way scare you by itself. You have to let it scare you. The game poses no real threat to you, you have to imagine it all, put yourself in the characters role. The game can just create tension. It's up to you to take that tension and use your imagination to scare yourself with it.

The point I'm trying to get across here is that every time the game starts to build up tension and your imagination starts ticking at you, it dumps a dozen necromorphs - very well lit, very obvious, very easy to see, and not even really that disgusting once you've seen them all - on your head. Where's the potential for imagination in that?

I played the game straight for 8 hours. I didn't intend to, but I looked up when I finished it and realised it was past 7am. The story was interesting and the game itself is compelling and immersive. The few parts where shadows move or sounds rattle around you, or you hear something shuffling through an air vent... Those were quite scary... But the idea that a game is not scary because it poses no threat to you in real life is misguided. Of course it doesn't pose a threat to you in real life, the idea is laughable! The environment poses a threat to the character and you have a big hand in keeping the character alive. If you're playing games as they should be played and immersing yourself in the story, getting to grips with the character, their drives and emotions, a game can be incredibly scary on that ground alone (Amnesia: The Dark Descent anyone?) but, while I never found myself being jarred out of the game by bad gameplay or plotting etc, I still found myself to be almost completely uninvested in Isaac's survival...

As to Silent Hill, I'll have you know that Pyramid Head (the original one from 2) still to this day haunts some of my most harrowing nightmares. Not because he was a threat to James, oh no, this fear is completely irrational and has no real point of reference. The thing that was most unnerving about the Silent Hill franchise was it's subtle sense of off-ness - Is that his head? What the hell is under it if it's a hat? Why does he twitch like that all the time? - Unfortunately the movie and the newer games completely missed the point of that and the Pyramid Heads in those are different and completely unscary.

In many cases, yes, imagination is key to fear. But I put it to you that in some cases not being able to understand something is just as scary.

Trying to understand, is your main point they littered the game with too many enemies?

 

[oplinger]

But I put it to you that in some cases not being able to understand something is just as scary.

Firstly, I'd like to point out I said you needed to put yourself in the characters shoes. That's just it though, some people don't let that happen, and thus the games aren't scary.

However to the part I quoted. That's the entire basis of fear in the first place. Not understanding. We fear the unknown more than we fear anything else in the universe. That's why Dead Space 2 is at a huge disadvantage. It's just not scary because you already know everything there is to know about the threat. Dead Space 2 is more about Isaac's internal struggles and the fear of being crazy, rather than mutated zombie people, we already know all about them from the first game!

I mean look at Resident Evil. The original was scary, you had no idea what was going on. You were helpless and for the most part, alone. You couldn't beat the zombie threat, so you basically just try to survive the entire game. In the end you know the zombies, you know their behavior, you know why they're here. They aren't scary anymore. In Resident Evil 2, you had the same zombies...but you also had newer threats. A completely different mystery to solve. It really added to it, and made the series scary again. Fast forward to game like Resident Evil 4....it's all mostly just explained to you in the first couple chapters, just kinda waves it in your face. There was no mystery. Yeah it was fun, but ...eh

But that sort of comes back to the post I made in the other thread. There really isn't much of a direction to head in once you reveal the threat. Other than combating the threat(Resident Evil 4 and 5). Or just revealing a new threat (Code Veronica, Resident Evil 0) and then it just get's weird sometimes (Leeches.) Horror games are possibly the worst games to have sequels for.

Also Pyramid Head never really scared me...He was just a symbol to me, a very well done symbol, but I never found him scary, because I never saw him as a threat.

The combination of mystery and threat are the biggest keys to horror. If you have a mystery but no threat, it can't be scary at all. If you have threat but no mystery, everythings there for you to see, and it's hard to be scared by that (which happens a lot in action games). It'll never affect the same person the same way as another, so it's "difficult." But sadly your own imagination is important for horror to be successful.

 

[josemlopes]

Yeah, this game is very action oriented, like most horror games these days.