Jimquisition: Dead Space - The Best New IP This Generation?

Jimothy Sterling

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Dead Space - The Best New IP This Generation?

This week Jim proves his love for the often maligned Dead Space franchise.

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Proverbial Jon

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Nov 10, 2009
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I was ready to rage quit when Jim declared Dead Space a better IP than Bioshock but then I went on to listen to his detailed analysis and every one of his points actually makes sense. I'd never really thought about Dead Space on those levels before. To me it was always a pretty dumb action shooter that wanted to make me jump a lot.

Admittedly I had a lot of fun with Dead Space 1 and 2; I certainly haven't found a console game this generation that gave me the willies quite as effectively as those games at any rate. Dead Space really put the survival back into survival horror, even if the actual horror elements were sometimes a swing and a miss.

Can't say I was ever compelled to play them again after the initial play through... but maybe I might revisit them both again before DS3.
 

Imp_Emissary

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:) Jim, you are too awesome to look like a prat.

Thanks for once again showing that just because you are critical of something, doesn't mean you automatically hate it, and if fact can love the things you criticize the most.

Thank God for you Jim.
 

charliesbass

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I can't bloody wait to get my hands on Dead Space 3. I don't have as much respect as Jim for the Dead Space series, as my favourite new IP of this generation is Portal. I appreciate that Jim loves Dead Space's aesthetic, him being a big fan of Alien, but I honestly found Dead Space 2 to be schizophrenic, not being able to make up it mind whether it wanted to be scary, claustrophobic survival horror or Michael Bay shooty action. But hell, that's just my opinion.
 

Chessrook44

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Awww, I wanted to see Jim pass out at the end due to how hot it was in the bucket...
 

T3hSource

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Proverbial Jon said:
Dead Space really put the survival back into survival horror, even if its horror elements were a swing and a miss.
It definitely puts back survival,but the "horror" swings more towards ham-fisted attempts to shock you,so I think I should stop treating Dead Space as a "survival horror",but as a "survival thriller",because jump scares are not horror.Once you throw the entire idea of horror away and just focus on actual survival,the tension is there.
 

MortisLegio

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I keep forgetting how "new" Dead Space is. Yeah I would say it's probably the best new IP of this generation of games. I really like the series and it's environments but the micro-transactions (despite being "optional") is one of the very few reasons holding me back from buying the 3. I love Dead Space but... sadly... I guess it was not meant to be on this (probably) final voyage.
 

Yellowfish

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Gotta argee with you on the replayability thing. I've played through Dead Space 2 at least ten times. Only completed the first one once, though - the camera feels somewhat wrong (at least in the PC version). I also like Dead Space 2 more overall, because while both games have great atmosphere, the first game tries to be horror while not exactly being terrifying. Jump scares are okay on the first playthrough, but being able to take almost any threat head-on kinda undermines the whole "horror" thing. That one part where the Hunter chases you around the ship is perhaps the only moment in Dead Space that made me genuinely frightened. I'm fine with the third game being even more action-oriented than the second if they keep that awesome atmosphere. And if that cardboard soldier they introduced for co-op fucks off when you're not playing with a friend (I really hope he does, the guy may not be the worst character ever, but I just don't like the idea of playing an action-horror game with some NPC following me around)
 

Jimothy Sterling

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T3hSource said:
Proverbial Jon said:
Dead Space really put the survival back into survival horror, even if its horror elements were a swing and a miss.
It definitely puts back survival,but the "horror" swings more towards ham-fisted attempts to shock you,so I think I should stop treating Dead Space as a "survival horror",but as a "survival thriller",because jump scares are not horror.Once you throw the entire idea of horror away and just focus on actual survival,the tension is there.
It's a "horror" the same way Left 4 Dead is. It's not about trying to spook you out or frighten you as much as it is about inducing sudden panic and "fight or flight" instincts. Its scares are based in things going to shit very quickly, rather than trying to get psychological with you.
 

Dire Sloth

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Jun 23, 2012
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Glad to hear there's hope for my favorite series.
Awesome cosplay, Jim. The glowsticks really give it some flair.
 

Proverbial Jon

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T3hSource said:
Proverbial Jon said:
Dead Space really put the survival back into survival horror, even if its horror elements were a swing and a miss.
It definitely puts back survival,but the "horror" swings more towards ham-fisted attempts to shock you,so I think I should stop treating Dead Space as a "survival horror",but as a "survival thriller",because jump scares are not horror.Once you throw the entire idea of horror away and just focus on actual survival,the tension is there.
Yeah, I think you're right. Tense is probably a better word to use for Dead Space over fear.

I was never scared of going round a corner and seeing a necromorph, it was simply the fact that I would probably die and have to start the section over that made me apprehensive.

However, in the original Silent Hill games, I would often be frozen to the spot, terrified of seeing a monster because of how twisted and utterly horrifying the whole scenario was. Dying in Silent Hill rarely seemed like the worst possible outcome.

That's two very different reactions to games that both essentially call themselves "survival horror" titles.
 

Callate

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Best IP this generation? Huh. No wonder EA is trying to find an excuse to kill it. ;)

But seriously, I've enjoyed Dead Space. I even have Extraction for the Wii, and Dead Space 2 was the last game I purchased from EA.

Unfortunately, it's also the last game I'm going to purchase from EA, barring a notable change in business model or a massive turn-over in upper management, so... Good luck reaching 5 million, Visceral. No sarcasm intended.
 

Frontastic

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I'm considering finally giving DS2 a go because 3 is looking interesting. DS1 just did nothing for me, I was really looking forward to it as the previews made it sound like the next, great horror IP and while it had some great moments near the start and the end (and generally interesting boss fights and zero-g bits) it felt on the whole very dull, repetitive and the atmosphere just wasn't there for me. The mythology and Lovecraft influences were great but I felt the dull third-person-shooting really killed it when you approach every new corridor not with fear but with an attitude of "where's the next monster du jour going to jump from and further slow my progress toward the interesting stuff". More puzzles, less action would have worked.

I agree with the panic of the firefights but that only lasts for so long before they become irritatingly awkward opposed to excitingly so. However different strokes and all that.

Still if I can find 2 cheap it may get a play.
 

DrunkOnEstus

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I finally beat the first one last night...and it really is a fantastic game. I was jaded and put off years ago due to being informed that it was supposed to be "survival horror" and it just plain wasn't. It does have foreboding atmosphere in spades, though. Honestly, Resident Evil 4 wasn't survival horror and it was a damn fine game, and Dead Space 1 is what RE5 should have been if Capcom decided to take it to space. Visceral uses such subtlety in their game design while large screaming things are right in your face, and it's brilliant. I wouldn't call it the best new IP of the generation, but I am excited as hell to get started on the second one now. Just...dying a lot, playing around with the store/bench like the "straaanger" guy from RE4, the game actually remembering that it's a game and playing to those strengths.
 

SomebodyNowhere

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I started playing the first game a long while back but after an hour or so I just wasn't feeling into it. It's one of those games in my back catalog that I intend on giving a solid play though, but I can never find the time or the sufficient urge.
 

Piorn

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I really love Dead Space, but it's unfortunate how quickly the Necromorphs lost their shock power. I love everything from the setting to gameplay, but once you get used to mutated dead people, it doesn't matter how many limbs you add or substract, you've seen them all.
But that's just nitpicking, the rest is fine.
 

Casual Shinji

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I suppose this is in the end just personal taste video, because every point in which Dead Space apparenly succeeds I've seen done just as good or better in dozens of other games.
 

Falseprophet

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Jim, stop talking out of your as....

Wait a minute. Third-person shooter that isn't cover-based? The scales have fallen from my eyes! I've been unfair to this series!

Thank God for Jim!