Zero Punctuation: Dead Space

Techni

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Oct 6, 2005
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I disagreed with the review completely.

1) Ripping off Event Horizon.
Yeah, the devs admitted it was one of their sources. It was the point of the game.

2) The cheap 5 cent attack of giving birth to little bastards
You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to shoot the pregnants legs off rather than blowing open the stomach.

3) Your comment about it being a combination of other games
I felt it was the result of taking lesser games and getting a better game in result.
And the devs admitted RE4 was one of their sources. All the other games you listed I actually gave up playing out of boredom.

4) Your comment about it not looking like a place worth living in before the disaster
The place did look significantly better before the disaster. Lights weren't always out like that in every section. The unlivable conditions are a result of the disaster. They even said it was odd how all the lights were out during the opening cinematic.

5) Your comment about we're not given enough backstory to care about Nicole
She was his ex wife actually. Plus there were other things like how you're told the Marker causes you to hallucinate about dead loved ones, right before every encounter with Nicole.

6) Arthur Clarke reference in the name, etc.
Yeah, it was intended.

7) Your comment on how there was no pause of monsters
There were tons of pauses. Tons of spots where they set you up to expect an attack and dont give you one

8) Monsters playing possum
That doesn't happen very often. I think it only happened three times for me. And I actually expected and planned for them the second playthrough.

9) Physics gun even though hands could do it
Arms don't reach very far. I used the gun to pull stuff from far away, especially in the zero g environments

In short, I was excited you choose this game. I found the game very likeable, the singular best EA game I've ever played and one of the best games this gen. I expected your review to be a lot more positive. But I found most of your complaints to be either invalid, or picking on the point of the game
 

Techni

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Oct 6, 2005
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Nazulu said:
Games with great atmosphere like Metroid Prime, Starcraft, Halo 1, Ocarina of Time, etc. The developers need to use these games as an example.
They did use MP and Halo as examples. The game is so MP-like that even the menu looks similar. And it rips off halo's flood and gravemind
 

orberon

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Apr 23, 2008
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I really wonder how and When Fallout 3 review will be. It would be nice to have a game that's liked for a while.
 

Squilookle

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Nov 6, 2008
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Can't believe this turd of a game got to get it's own review while Far Cry 2 got the eat shit and die treatment
 

Indrid Cold

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Jan 30, 2008
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I'm still amazed at the number of people here who base their game purchases on Zero Punctuation reviews. Do you own anything other than Psychonauts, Call of Duty 4 and Portal? Honestly.

As for Fallout 3...it's drab, lots of brown and gray. Hence a terrible game.
 

currymutton

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Nov 6, 2008
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I have to admit I play first at Medium, plenty of ammo droppings, "survivual horror" only works only for the first few minutes. Once you grab your first gun, and boom, it becomes a shooting gallery and it gets rather annoying after that tumble dryer because the designers paint some old monsters black and trick us into thinking they are something new. May be I should try hard level next. And no, at an early level, those little things just happen to jump onto you out of nowhere, so be very careful space cowboy.

The only thing I find really scary is the elevator door -- it chops you into pieces if you happen to get in-between the doors while closing. Safefy regulation, CEC?

Have to agree on the character devemopment, atmosphere and the immersement. I have really no attachment whatsoever with the "girlfriend" thing and to one point I really let her die (and yes she can!) but well, that means instant game over. Whew. Gotta waste some precious ammo for her.

I think he misses one point that some weapons (note the pural) are actually quite "useless" or may be: not-so-effective. The first gun is probably the best for most situations till the end. If you really desparate for cash, the game design actually encourages you to sell it for some handsome money!

I am not saying it is not a bad game, I acutally find it quite enjoyable, and finish it instead of CoD4. Go figure.
 

Jaythulhu

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Jun 19, 2008
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Maybe I'm just a bit deadened after years of horror movies (good ones, not that bollocks american style where fear is replaced by gore), but I didn't find the game to be spooky at all. A little startling at times, but so was grabbed by the ghoulies on 360 :p I don't think I've been really scared by a game since the Alien TC for doom.

Good review, but I thought it was a little light in the funny deptarment. Normally I get at least one good laugh out of each ep, but this one only made me smile. Oh well.
 

NewClassic_v1legacy

Bringer of Words
Jul 30, 2008
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Yahtzee Croshaw said:
This week Zero Punctuation explores the USS Kill Beast Buffet and reviews Dead Space.
Quoting this for no reason other than making Yahtzee get a PM in his inbox. Assuming he does, heh heh. Assuming he doesn't, then good, he made good use of the off setting for that particular forum feature.

I feel no guilt.

Moving onto the content, I'm going to wax poetic a bit here. Pointlessly, I'm sure, as no one actually reads what anyone says in these threads, just posts their own opinions. Call me hypocrite if you want. I know, I'm doing it too.

Regardless, I feel Yahtzee's reviews as of late been lacking in the "Take this!" department. Almost like he's lost his drive to really rip the game a new one for having the audacity to exist. The problem, though, is that's his niche, so he can't really lose it. Instead, the things he picks on seem rather superficial, more... sparse.

Then, when he points out the shining parts, it's just in passing, like it's a topic not really worth mentioning, but he does so out of some compelled need, for whatever compulsion is hidden behind his monitor. It all sounds kinda stiff, as if Yahtzee is doing it out of a need to do it, there's no joy behind it.

At least, it doesn't feel like it. Just, forced. I don't like forced... I guess what I'm trying to say is this review, along with his more recent ones, come across as something I would get out of a soul-less video game review generating machine. You feed it a history of interesting, well-toned reviews, and asked for something less thought-out and review-centric. Which are, admittedly, becoming repetitive.

[sup]All in all, I feel like the reviews are just a facade of what they once were. All of the things done right back-when are now feeling done hurriedly, shamefully, without the heart. Although, if I ever feel forced to listen to nothing but mindless praise or shameless drudgery, I'd probably lose heart too.[/sup]
 

MercurySteam

Tastes Like Chicken!
Legacy
Apr 11, 2008
4,950
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Aye, Dead Space is a very good game. And it could probably be nominated for GoTY. It is in fact extremely easy to tell when a monster is playing dead, except for once where a slasher was hiding under a dead body (Bioshock did the same thing with the splicers, but it was harder to tell who was playing dead and who was dead).

And yes, Dead Space is alot like Event Horizen, but it also has a bit of Resident Evil in it as well.
 

YoungZer0

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Nov 28, 2007
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Oh come on Yahtzee. You love Half-Life and Gordon Freeman also doesn't talk at all, so why is it here a problem?
 

ElArabDeMagnifico

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Dec 20, 2007
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YoungZer0 said:
Oh come on Yahtzee. You love Half-Life and Gordon Freeman also doesn't talk at all, so why is it here a problem?
First person perspective, and attachment to characters, and well-written script.
 

Allan Foe

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Dec 20, 2007
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I'd say DS is an ok game, but sadly not very scary one, monsters that jump out at you "on cue" rather than patrol the premises don't frighten me much. Encounters in the vacuum are the only time these bastards can really surprise you, too many aural cues that warn when they pop up, there's just no sense of lurking terror.

Too bad about the game, I really liked its animated comic ads on youtube.

ElArabDeMagnifico said:
YoungZer0 said:
Oh come on Yahtzee. You love Half-Life and Gordon Freeman also doesn't talk at all, so why is it here a problem?
First person perspective, and attachment to characters, and well-written script.
I believe you're right ElArabDeMagnifico, in third person perspective you're more of an observer than a direct participant and from my observations Issac may as well be a faceless, soulless humanoid construct rather than a human being -- he has no personality either way.
As for how it's done in Half-Life, the game makes you care for NPCs because they face the same hardships as the player, you get gradually acquainted with them in the course of the game. And why should you care about Isac's ex if you have no emotional attachment to him?

P.S. The in-game holographic GUI was the thing that impressed me the most in Dead Space.
 

entropy3ko

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Jan 17, 2008
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Techni said:
I disagreed with the review completely.

1) Ripping off Event Horizon.
Yeah, the devs admitted it was one of their sources. It was the point of the game.

2) The cheap 5 cent attack of giving birth to little bastards
You're doing it wrong. You're supposed to shoot the pregnants legs off rather than blowing open the stomach.

3) Your comment about it being a combination of other games
I felt it was the result of taking lesser games and getting a better game in result.
And the devs admitted RE4 was one of their sources. All the other games you listed I actually gave up playing out of boredom.

4) Your comment about it not looking like a place worth living in before the disaster
The place did look significantly better before the disaster. Lights weren't always out like that in every section. The unlivable conditions are a result of the disaster. They even said it was odd how all the lights were out during the opening cinematic.

5) Your comment about we're not given enough backstory to care about Nicole
She was his ex wife actually. Plus there were other things like how you're told the Marker causes you to hallucinate about dead loved ones, right before every encounter with Nicole.

6) Arthur Clarke reference in the name, etc.
Yeah, it was intended.

7) Your comment on how there was no pause of monsters
There were tons of pauses. Tons of spots where they set you up to expect an attack and dont give you one

8) Monsters playing possum
That doesn't happen very often. I think it only happened three times for me. And I actually expected and planned for them the second playthrough.

9) Physics gun even though hands could do it
Arms don't reach very far. I used the gun to pull stuff from far away, especially in the zero g environments

In short, I was excited you choose this game. I found the game very likeable, the singular best EA game I've ever played and one of the best games this gen. I expected your review to be a lot more positive. But I found most of your complaints to be either invalid, or picking on the point of the game
I think you just make the point Yahtzee wanted to make: it's repetitive and ripps off too much from previous games and movies. Not a bad game but nothing new or original either.

I have not played the game (so I will not say it's good or bad), but from trailers & gameplay movies I saw it looked pretty cool and I am sure it might be fun to play as well, it is probably just not the super-dupe mega exithing thing that EA hyped about. I mean... on a video the developers said you'd be kicking babies in the game! BABIES! Necromonstruoisity babies of course... so I do not see why get so excited :p

I still might check it out. After all I bought Bioshock and even The Witcher after seeing the ZP review.

And that name "Isaac Clarke" (do not forget Asimov haha)... just lame... yes we know who they are EA! It's like the name of the female companion of Stallone in "Demolition Man" who was called 'Lenina Huxley'.
When a character ins a game or movie has a name which is a combination of the name of 2 or more SF or Horror writers it's just spells shit I think.
 

Allan Foe

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Dec 20, 2007
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DeathSnipa1992 said:
who haqs played this game. should i check it out?
You may want to try it if never played a space horror game, just don't expect it to be exceptionally scary.
 

Death916

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2008
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Allan Foe said:
DeathSnipa1992 said:
who haqs played this game. should i check it out?
You may want to try it if never played a space horror game, just don't expect it to be exceptionally scary.
That doesn't really matter to me. Games never really haven't needed to be scary with me. Just fun and challenging.

EDIT my avatar still hasnt changed on here but it has on warcry :/
 

entropy3ko

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Jan 17, 2008
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'bout Fallout 3

Well it's true that FALLOUT 3 has a lot og brown and gray, and also greenish and yellow in it... and the landscape looks very dull... but it's not a bad game.
Estetically it is a little bit like a let down... but perhaps it was intended to be like that. You are in a post- apocalyptic wasteland, not DiZney's Color Park. Although I admit that a little more color and a little more variation in the locations coul'n't have hurt.
Also a little more variation in enemies would have been fun.

Quests are ok, or at least better than Oblivion's, the 50's music you can hear on your Radio is great, although a few more songs could not have hurt either. Three Dog is fun to listen by the way.

One might say F3 is Oblivion with guns... and it's true, but it's quite fun too and is also more challenging than Oblivion.

Voice acting is quite good.

Toilets are present, and you can drink from them too haha (if you like irradiated piss)

A good game, if you like the genre, but a game that could have been much much MUCH better with a few extras here and there...

PS: what I liked is that I could take off a whole band of raiders with one well placed granade and then loot their dismembered corpses :p
 

Moravich

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Aug 17, 2008
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the poor brick : (
i was excited to go buy this game, but i'm second guessing myself now... >.<