Poll: SPOILERS Dead Space 2 has gone too far.

[the Revenator]

Good for you.

I thought the exploding babies were hilarious.

I second that, but then again I was as scared as I was amused (I am fucking terrified of children, for some reason) but not really, plus actually -and don't call me a psycho- why is killing a fully aware adult more messed up that an infant that doesn't even know, or care, about what is going on?

 

[el_kabong]

how was that a spoiler? I haven't played either dead space and I knew you shot babies, does sound pretty funny though.it always annoyed me that thing involving death and destruction seemed to skim over the young, like your immune to death until your old enough to drink.

Agreed. I don't necessarily want to kill kids, but take the Fable series. You can murder any adult you come across. There's kids running around, but they don't even take collateral damage, running away because they have a boo boo. If you have a game that is essentially about murder, either allow kids to be killed or don't include them. It's a real immersion breaker.

OT: I'm only parroting what most have already laid claim to. The babies aren't human anymore. If I dress a badger in a bonnet and diapers, are you going to not kill that when it's attacking you because it has some characteristic of humanity?

Also, although now it's overdone, some of the best horror movies involve things happening to kids. Although I hate kids (to a point), I still recognize their vulnerability and relative defenselessness. When combined with big scary monsters, it's a good tension builder because the kids in the movie have essentially no hope of winning. We all know, realistically, what is going to happen to the kid(s) and it appears inevitable, but we still hope that it doesn't. This difference between what we want in the outcome and what is assured by reality creates dramatic tension on the audience. Watching a tyrannosaurus coming to punt a small child into the sun is way more exciting and dreadful than watching that same creature stalk adults with guns.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Good for you.

I thought the exploding babies were hilarious.

Srsly. It's meant to annoy the nay-sayers, and anyone who says this will make people want to go out and slaughter children is wrong IMO

 

[spartan231490]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

you have been warned.

basically, im playing thorugh Dead Space 2 now, im about 3 hours through, and i'm shooting babies. i've already shot about 60 children no older than 12, but im now walking thorugh a nursery, listening to crying children and shooting mutated babies, which explode.

fuck MW2's airport scene, fuck Medal of Honours Taliban, this strikes me as over the line. had i known in advance there was this sort of content i would probably not have bought it.

You do realize that you did the same thing in Dead Space the original right? I don't think it's over the line, they are no longer children but undead, horrible zombies.

 

[colson91]

...they're practically zombies, whats the problem?

 

[Blazingdragoon04]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

you have been warned.

basically, im playing thorugh Dead Space 2 now, im about 3 hours through, and i'm shooting babies. i've already shot about 60 children no older than 12, but im now walking thorugh a nursery, listening to crying children and shooting mutated babies, which explode.

fuck MW2's airport scene, fuck Medal of Honours Taliban, this strikes me as over the line. had i known in advance there was this sort of content i would probably not have bought it.

You just shouldn't have bought the game then. This is what the survival horror genre needs to be fresh; to just skip over what is morally right and wrong, and honestly that is some of the horror around it, the psychological horror anyways.

These are babies, children, yet they are not. They are undead and want to see you dead, so it can bring up a very deep psychological conflict in people, and believe me that shit is scary. When you aren't even sure that you want to kill the thing that's trying to kill you? That is some nice psychological horror right there. Besides, if you played the first game you killed babies too, they just didn't resemble babies TOO much, unlike the crawlers, or as I like to call them the zombie baby suicide bombers, of this game.

All in all, it's a game about zombies, what else did you think would happen? You run away from them for 12 hours screaming? That'd be pretty hard to market. Take the game for what it is; a good psychological horror where your every enemy used to be human, and might retain some level of human consciousness trapped inside a lumbering monstrosity trying to murder the bejeezus out of you.

I can't imagine what you thought of a certain part at the end should murdering undead babies shock and awe you, however. I know I didn't do very well with some of the end game scenes....

 

[Diligent]

Sounds like the game achieved exactly what it had intended to achieve. Sure, it made me sick in the stomach just a little bit, but I don't look at it as "FUCK EA MAKING ME MURDER KIDS!" I see it as the Necromorphs are a completely relentless threat, unbiased regarding age gender race whatever. They see us as lumps of flesh to add to their collective...whatever the hell they're supposed to be, and it makes them even more unlikeable as an enemy.

Did you have no issue with the first boss of the game which is a series of corpses sewn together in a sickening tableau to form a creature? Is that less terrible than a bunch of kids?

 

[alinos]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

you have been warned.

basically, im playing thorugh Dead Space 2 now, im about 3 hours through, and i'm shooting babies. i've already shot about 60 children no older than 12, but im now walking thorugh a nursery, listening to crying children and shooting mutated babies, which explode.

fuck MW2's airport scene, fuck Medal of Honours Taliban, this strikes me as over the line. had i known in advance there was this sort of content i would probably not have bought it.

i take it you never played doom 3 then

http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Cherub

 

[Nick Angelici]

maybe its Dead space making a dead babies joke? idk

 

[Painstake]

i was wondering when i'd first come across someone thin skinned enough to be offended by this

turns out i just had to come to the escapist.

 

[Firetaffer]

OK, let's for a minute imagine that these were in fact normal babies.

Say there were a couple of toddlers which for SOME odd reason are trying to kill you.

Do you:

1) Kill them, or at least injure them enough to prevent them from killing you.

or

2) Let them kill you.

I believe most people would pick option 1. Sick isn't it! But it's because we want to survive.

 

[Paragon Fury]

After I realized how to deal with them, I found them more useful than scary or annoying. They're basically free insta-kill bombs for you to use against enemies.

Hell, at least the screaming little brats have a use now.

 

[brainslurper]

exploding babies? i am going to buy that game RIGHT NOW

 

[Zakarath]

wait a second you kill mutated babies? I knew I should've played this game! Maybe it's just me but i don't really believe in the imaginary line of good taste. it is what it is. kill babies, don't kill babies, the choice is yours. personally I'm kinda glad to see child killing back in games, because fallout 3 wouldn't let me murder the residents of little lamplight. haha too far?

Not at all. I'm usually Mr. Nice Guy playing those games, but everyone in little lamplight needs to die. Preferably by fire.

 

[sharkinz]

If you are ok with killing defenseless civilians in an airport then you should be ok with killing babies. Especially babies that are now monsters than can easily kill you, and will kill you if they get the chance.

 

[Lem0nade Inlay]

Doom 3 had them...

 

[sycoesis]

i dont think it was to far but i did find it annoying for some reason i never see the exploding infant crawling towards me and then i have to start again from checkpoint

on another thought i think that as long as it fits the game type and it doesnt cause any physical harm its not over any line..... unless its clearly, honestly and on purpose racist then the developer should be shot

 

[dagens24]

You're not shooting babies, you're shooting hostile aliens. Big difference.

 

[mechanixis]

Well, fantastic. Then the developers' childish efforts to provoke you succeeded.

Frankly I think the whole thing reinforces the stereotype that games are about meaningless violence and shock value.