Zero Punctuation: Dead Space

[darkrisingstar]

Hi Yahtzee,

Now listen here old chap, I could not disagree with you more; this game is a cinematic masterpiece IF played on the right setup. If you're playing it on 20" or so PC monitor with stereo speakers and the lights on it's going to be a completely different experience than playing it on a 50" Plasma with 5.1 surround sound and the lights off.
Now I know that's a lot to ask and they (the developers) don't even suggest that the latter is the way to play it but in this modern era of gaming it's the only way to go.

I do agree with some of your points, especially with regards to the wife which almost derailed the entire experience for me. But overall, the game has exceptional level design and some moments of awe and brilliance which is all I ask of these days

I await your next review with anticipation; good job!

Respect,

James

P.S. Can't wait to here you're opinions of Gears 2 (almost finished) as I know you'll do the right thing (tear it a new one)

 

[_Nocturnal]

I enjoy your yellow backgrounds, Yahtzee!

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

This isn't really a "survival horror" - so I'm sure he came in with the wrong idea. This is more of a "3rd person horror shooter". Those who think the game is scary are just a bunch of people who jump at everything they see in the corner of their eye. Which is pretty good for this game.

 

[daedrick]

Damn, I was hoping for a Fable 2 review. Oh well this review was still good although not great. I hope we get a Fable 2 review next week and if we don't then Yahtzee better have a bloody good reason.

The bloody good reason would be; Fallout 3. Nihehehehe, seriusly, who care about the childish fable expension ( yes, expension because theres absolutly nothing new in that game, just more of the same )?!? Certainly not mah! Oh no... At least fallout have new features over oblivion unlike your stand alone expension.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

Hi Yahtzee,

Now listen here old chap, I could not disagree with you more; this game is a cinematic masterpiece IF played on the right setup. If you're playing it on 20" or so PC monitor with stereo speakers and the lights on it's going to be a completely different experience than playing it on a 50" Plasma with 5.1 surround sound and the lights off.
Now I know that's a lot to ask and they (the developers) don't even suggest that the latter is the way to play it but in this modern era of gaming it's the only way to go.

To be fair, it jut depends on your perspective. People who have their face up against the monitor and have headphones on will probably get the same experience. You've just got to make it work. I don't have a 50'' plasma, but I've got a 26'' LCD, with my PC and 2 very good speakers hooked up to it. So far, I'm satisfied.

 

[spazzattack]

Review Far Cry 2 man! It's a fun game with some minor flaws that you can harp()on like an angry sea fisherman going after a particularly large white whale.

That or wait for Left 4 Dead. Its fun to watch Yahtzee flail about looking for imperfections in a Valve game.

 

[VMerken]

I remember being at the shop and hearing people talk about it,
that it was good etc. So I decided to have a look at the box.

A few quick glances at the screenshots and the ominous EA logo
then told me to stay far away from it at full price level. EA
releases of this type do not have a clue about horror yet.
Rightfully so it seems. May have a curiosity crack at it when
it costs 5 Euros or something.

 

[amodelmerol]

I didn't like this game a lot, but it is not as bad a Yahtzee says, in my opinion. ZP was OK

 

[Chattermouth]

Review Far Cry 2 man! It's a fun game with some minor flaws that you can harp()on like an angry sea fisherman going after a particularly large white whale.

Minor flaws? You should pop by the UBI forums and have a gander at the 50 page rant about everything that's wrong with it. There's even a 4 page rant about ONE thing that's wrong with it (all weapon ejection ports on the wrong side). And that's the minor problem.

 

[lord667]

Ok ppl... if you think it's a rip off why don't YOU come up with anything better??

We're not video game developers.

 

[almo]

Alien ship sound effect from Jaguar Alien vs. Predator. Awesome atmosphere.

 

[Eleo]

Wow this review was harsh.

I also found that the game was fairly derivative yet still good in its own right. Every game borrows from the games before it. I don't think that's a bad thing. I never heard anyone say "Gears of War is Resident Evil 4 with a cover system" just because it's an over the shoulder view, geez.

That said I'm not sure if the game ever intended for you to really care for his wife. Anyone who didn't have a hunch that she was dead all along wasn't paying attention to all the hints that were dropped. I think the real tragedy they wanted you to care about was how he was chasing after something that was only a figment of his imagination. To me, his silence almost gave him an added naivete that made his predicament pretty sad to me at times.

I also felt that the game did a good job of maintaining a scary atmosphere by establishing early on that the vents are a source of danger and then making pretty much any given area dangerous by having it full of vents. Not to mention the great sound design that often creates the illusion of threats that aren't there, the faint whispers that grow louder as you progress through the game, or the feeling of uneasiness you get in a vacuum due to enemies being silent.

My only real beef with the game was that the final boss in all of its grandiosity was a pushover (well actually it got me a few times on impossible difficulty). Oh, and they killed off the black guy for no reason at all pretty far into the game (kill him off early or make his death worthwhile).

Overall I thought the game was better than the sum of its parts and definitely worth the price.

 

[almo]

Ok ppl... if you think it's a rip off why don't YOU come up with anything better??

We're not video game developers.

Yeah, you tell 'em. That's such a cop out. It's the game dev's *jobs* to make better games, not ours.

 

[chronobreak]

It's not a survival horror, it's an action game with some atmospheric scares and such. If people just looked at it like that, 95 percent of complaints would be null and void. I truly think Resident Evil spoiled the gaming community, now if anything isn't up to the standards of a 10+ year old game, it's not worth the hype. Give it a rest, Dead Space is a good game.

I'm waiting for someone to design a game with no guns, no monsters, just walking around in a foggy mansion hearing some screaming sounds with ambient music. That's the only thing that would make survival horror fans happy.

 

[Proto Cloud]

Kinda saw this review coming. Now I know I'll stay away from it.

Oh please let the next one be Fallout 3. (Screw Fable II and screw Peter Moleneux!)

 

[Kross]

I would have bet money that Yahtzee would have come down on the sheer ease of the game, though. Ammo is everywhere, so much so that you end up selling most of it, and you never once feel like you're in over your head or in a hopeless situation, which is kind of a key point for survival horror games.

Not that I'm saying to play on a harder difficulty to 'better' experience the game, but the main difference in the higher difficulties is quantity of ammo and how tough the enemies are. A lot of the crates that are green/unlocked are locked in higher difficulties, reducing the amount of ammo you have available to you, which, combined with tougher enemies make the game feel quite a bit different to play. It would seem like it would be more annoying then scary, but when you're low on ammo and actually have to run from an enemy rather then kill them all, things can get a bit interesting (similar to the fights with that one monster from the good doctor).

Oh yeah, the ammo in higher difficulties drops in smaller stacks as well I believe. So where you might get 8 rounds for the Plasma Cutter on easy, you'll get 6 on normal, etc.

Actually having to resort to shooting off the legs of an enemy just to slow him down, but unable or unwilling to spare the ammo to finish him off... Awesome. As opposed to the enemy dying right when you shoot off their legs and not being very intimidating at all. I played through on normal initially, and still managed to run low on ammo in a few spots, and looking back, those were probably some of the more fun moments where I had to get creative.

While the audio stabs can get a bit annoying when it happens with almost every monster, the audio in general I found to be amazing. The way it would build based on your movement through a room (you can walk through a room and have the music get more tense, movie style, but if you stop moving it kind of hovers around the same point, only to build as you walk forward again), or do false spikes/etc to mess with you were great. The pacing in general for the game, while reliant on surprises rather then scares, was really well done. I never felt bored with the pacing, and very rarely predicted where they would actually attack me, which is a very difficult task in a game this long and with so much ground to cover.

 

[mairsil]

aaa, Yahtzee, admit it, u love this gamemany people sayd this game will be a pice of...... before it eaven got out, but now lock at it, it cool.

\

I am geting so sick of people who have the grammar skills of a dead person.

And I really liked dead space as a game. It is like all other horror games you have to play with the lights out. they should state that in the manual I think

 

[rbnttn]

Then you get to EAT SHIT space cowboy!

 

[SatansBestBuddy]

Dead Space: an excellent game, and little else.

I also didn't find it scary; it wasn't until the very, very last scene, right before the credits, that I actually jumped at anything, and even then, it's one of the most cliched scares ever.

But I still like the game a lot; it may lack a soul, but it's got a heart.

 

[emptyother]

Damnit! Of all the games in this new wave of games, why o'why did he have to choose the ONLY game who already months ago proclaimed itself to be repetetive, boring and without any personality... No, i haven't played Dead Space, but NO amount of trailers ive seen for it have made me EVER want to play it.
So, did Yatzee sit down a few weeks ago, and said to himself... "Let us see... A game in space, with a nameless mute and masked character, looming around a gray, loomy and gritty space ship... Let us play it and see if they got it right THIS time..."? I bet my money they did NOT get it right this time either.

PS: But it was, like his other reviews, worth watching this review as well. And maybe next time he will review a game more fun to play, like say Far Cry 2 (which i KNOW he will slaughter, because this game has plenty of faults, but in the end it is quite entertaining) or Fallout 3 (i am pretty sure he will be pleasantly surprised to find very little wrong with this game) or Red Alert 3 (still to buggy to be reviewed at this date, though).