Poll: Was Dead Space scary?

[Georgeman]

Nope, I didn't find it scary. And to be blunt, it was sometimes unwittingly hilarious. For example, I would know that a monster appeared because I heard that supposedly "surprise!" sound. The monster, however, wouldn't be there yet. Any kind of suspense, terminated.

Personally, I think that the best horror is the subtle, mindfucking one. But, Dead Space was neither.

Edit: Hm, I already suggested above that a bit of subtle mindfuckery would work, but let me give an idea. How about leading the player to a monster without any kind of fanfare and without any kind of lighting? As the player tries to restore the lights to the place or find some lighting equipment, the monster attacks him/her every once in a while and the player will have no idea where it came from and will either run like a scared little girl or shoot the shit out of everything like he/she is Rambo or sth. And then, just like Rambo, he runs out of ammo! Oops!

 

[Disaster Button]

It was more jumpy than scary I feel. It didn't really create much of a scary atmoshpere but it did have its moments.

I think the next one's planning to focus more on the atmosphere than just jumpy spots.

 

[reg42]

The ZP on Dead Space said it best, DS doesn't scare you, it only startles you.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Unfortunately I've become completely desensitized to horror, but I can imagine if you were new to that sort of thing it would be quite scary.

 

[Captain Schpack]

Spoiler: OP

I was on the john reading the GI article about Dead Space 2, and I just learned that a lot of people were truly frightened by the first game.
Some could only go half an hour before turning it off, I knew people were scared, but not that scared?
Im not trying to sound like im a bad mofo who never gets scared, because that is very far from the truth, but I was not scared, not once throughout the entire game.
I came close at the beginning when the monster was chasing me, but once I got my gun, i was pretty much unstoppable.
It was like putting rambo in a room full of zombies (this was on normal too.)
Now Im not trying to say the game was bad, quite the contrary, Im really looking forward to the sequel, im just saying I wasn't scared.

How about you folks, were you scared?
If not, share with me a few ideas on what you think they could do to really make it scary.

Here is a short one I had.
Your outside, in space, running along the ship.
You lost your weapons and your low on health.
you look back briefly to see the horde of necromorphs getting closer and closer, but all you hear is your ragged, panicked breath using up the last of your oxygen.

Any ideas?

A Cookie to you sir, for you have ninja'd my thread idea.

I played it. In the dark. Twasn't scary. All it did was startle really, like "oh, snap. didn not see you *slice*"

 

[IanBrazen]

A Cookie to you sir, for you have ninja'd my thread idea.

I played it. In the dark. Twasn't scary. All it did was startle really, like "oh, snap. didn not see you *slice*"

By all means give me your take on the subject, I really would like to hear it.

 

[MetaKnight19]

I thought it was scary at times, like when that giant arm rushes around the corner and you have to shoot it before it kills you, but then again Dead Space is the only survival-horror game I have actually finished. But I find Condemned 2 a hell of a lot scarier, especially in the dark.

 

[one eyed monster]

I was on the john reading the GI article about Dead Space 2, and I just learned that a lot of people were truly frightened by the first game.
Some could only go half an hour before turning it off, I knew people were scared, but not that scared?
Im not trying to sound like im a bad mofo who never gets scared, because that is very far from the truth, but I was not scared, not once throughout the entire game.
I came close at the beginning when the monster was chasing me, but once I got my gun, i was pretty much unstoppable.
It was like putting rambo in a room full of zombies (this was on normal too.)
Now Im not trying to say the game was bad, quite the contrary, Im really looking forward to the sequel, im just saying I wasn't scared.

How about you folks, were you scared?
If not, share with me a few ideas on what you think they could do to really make it scary.

Here is a short one I had.
Your outside, in space, running along the ship.
You lost your weapons and your low on health.
you look back briefly to see the horde of necromorphs getting closer and closer, but all you hear is your ragged, panicked breath using up the last of your oxygen.

Any ideas?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/333-Dead-Space


follow the link and it shall answer all of your questions...

 

[TimeLord]

I jumped at a couple of bits where the aliens poped out of nowhere and shit myself when undead Nicola jumps you at the end but apart from that it wasn't scary as such

Meh, I don't consider "jumping" as scared. That's just getting startled; that can happen to anyone. It's an instinctual reflex of self-defense, not genuine fear. I get startled occasionally, but I don't get scared of monsters, or dark quiet corridors.

I never said jumping was scary :S

 

[squid5580]

The ZP on Dead Space said it best, DS doesn't scare you, it only startles you.

Frankly that is the best I can hope for when it comes to horror. i have spent to much time watching horror movies and playing survival horror games that I have become unfortunately desensitized to it.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

No it wasnt scary, it was the jump out and scare you scary, which isnt real fear, its just jumpy.

I guess sometimes it could be scary from anticipation of whats going to ring your neck around the next scary but eventually you get so used to it that it loses its effect.

 

[TransMando]

Sometimes when stuff jumped out at you it was startling, but I wouldn't say that's an uncommon quality in a lot of games that are trying to catch you off guard.

 

[dreamtime]

The vacuum-sections, where you couldn't rely on sound, could get quite tense. But otherwise it was kind of like your run of the mill horror-flick. Cheap scares and unoriginal plot. Too bad, since it was overall a very well-designed game.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

I never played so I'll ask you guys.

Resident Evil 4 was a great thiller/scary game for me. Would Dead Space give me the same experience? If so, then I really should look into buying it.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

Nope. Penumbra scared me, Silent Hill 2 scared me, Theif's cradle level scares me, but giving me loads of ammo, an arsenal of weapons and loads of predictable closet monsters does not.

 

[twostripe]

dead space has the same flaws as a lot of horror games
at first when you dont know whats going on ite freaky to have those weird munsters chasing you and jumping out of vents
but later in the game when you know wat your doin and the enemies tactics havent changed it switches from jumping out of your skin when one thing leaps from a vent behind you to mowing down hoards of bads that charge straight at you like retards with whatever youv decided your fav weapon is

 

[IanBrazen]

I never played so I'll ask you guys.

Resident Evil 4 was a great thiller/scary game for me. Would Dead Space give me the same experience? If so, then I really should look into buying it.

it follows RE4 formula to the letter but it dose it so well that I say you should go get it.
And if you want a game that will scar your soul go get Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Fuck SH2, SH2 had the best story by far, but SH4 was the scariest.
Its the only game that I could not finish, and I dont scare easily.

 

[Exocet]

It was stressing for the first hour or so because you were getting used to controls and were trying to kill enemies correctly with your pistol by aiming for legs/arms.
Then I got the line gun.
A zombie?
*fires line gun*
What zombie?
Also,giving you the oportunity to make weapns even more powerful with upgrades didn't help the atmosphere.
What was supposed to be an epic battle against a huge monster became a more gory version of duck hunt with the light gun replaced with a pistol probably capable of shooting through the hull of the fucking ship.

 

[Jumplion]

For a professional horror-playing gamer, no I suppose it wouldn't be genuinely scary.

But for people who very rarely play horror games (IE Me), Dead Space is definitely a good start for most people into the genre. It's a very enjoyable horror game that you can really get into if you're just starting the genre, and I'm just a sucker for games that have upgrade trees/branches like getting powernodes and upgrading the tree trying to find the most resourcefull branch to use or decide to save it for a door that might need it.

Overall, I personally found it to be quite tense and only played it a little at a time, but for more experienced horror players I could see why it would feel less scary and not horror-y as some other games like Silent Hill.

EDIT: And I must agree with some poster here, the parts where you're in the vacuum of space and all you can hear is your breathing becoming more labored the longer you stay out there can be extremely intense in itself. Those parts, I thought, were damn fine.

 

[captain wow]

Wasn't the scariest game in the world but it had its moments, not a patch on the old Resident Evils or Silent Hills. Great atmosphere though, thought the sound design and the music were very effective. especially the high pitched string pieces that slowly fade out just after enemy encounters. kind of like a rapid heart beat returning to normal. Or something.