Zero Punctuation: Dead Space

Firia

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I don't entirely agree your your review. I'd give it a 50% agreeability score (cause I know how much you like tagging a number value to what is essentually opinion). :)

I'll agree that the game is more of a Spook fest than real horror. The game was atmoshphereic and scary before I realised 1 minute later the back ground "music" was static and looped in its own way.

The movie comentations were also spot on. While playing Dead Space-- and enjoying it I might add, I thought, "This is basicly 'Aliens,' practicly verbatim." I later thought of Event Horrizion, but the spook tactics seemed to be much more Aliens to me. The nail that drove that opinion home was when help arived. I sighed, and placed a called it right then and there. I won't spoil it for the readers, but you know what happened. And yeah, it happened just like that in Aliens. ;)

Anyway, it was a fun game, utilsed all the genre staples that have been used in FPS and Horror games alike, and has warrented a few play throughs for me. :)
 

SamLowry

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Aug 27, 2008
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Has anyone noted how the plant-growing section of the Ishimura actually looked exactly like the "disco floor" in System Shock 2?

If it rips of anything, it's System Shock2, not Event Horizon (the Space Ship is EMPTY, the horror is psychological, all in the heads of the visitors), not Resident Evil (oh come on! Because of the same perspective? I guess all FPS rip off Wolfenstein, then).

____

I just have to add one thing.
At the moment, I have the opportunity to play 3 brand new games: Fallout3, DS and Command & Conquer. Regardless of anything that has been said here, I chose to keep on playing Dead Space. This, in my opinion, is worth it all. A game has to make you keep on playing. Like any other work of art or media like books, films or music, it has to be interesting first and all. I started to play them all, but DS kept my interest, Fallout will catch it later maybe and C&C will never make it past the first 5 minutes.
 

sixthcircle

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Apr 11, 2008
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i think the game was righteous - the only negative thing i can say i agreed w/in this review was the bit about the main char not speaking. that bugged the hell outta me. the action was awesome, the sci-fi aspect was done very well and if u used the pulse rifle the little dudes r easy to kill. neway - i am starting to lose my respect for yahtzee's reviews that go way overboard on good games...and the silent hill review was uncalled for...
 

alf1985

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Oct 7, 2008
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Well I guess I had it coming. I loved the game but still enjoyed the hell out of the review. But I laughed at my grandma when she threw her prostetic leg across the room so maybe Im messed up. By the way for any one who reads this, the Avatar pic is a joke. Get it, ? Never mind.
 

Mounce

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Nov 6, 2008
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For me personally, I agree to a point of view of course but even as Yahtzee had said that opinions exist and you play the game for what it is and fuck the reviewers, if you like it, that's all that matters.

For me I enjoyed the action and gameplay, story-wise is pretty much true, and I extremely hated that female that just bitches and whines and PMS's at you over the video every level, I despise that character.

Thankfully I had rented the game, played it 2 times, and grabbed every trophy, and so I'm at 100%, and will never have to play the game ever again unless I wish to buy it at a bargain bin 5 years from now to add to my gaming collection, it was good, and great, nothing bad as well as nothing mind blowing, but of course who would have thought a shooting-related game would have been mind blowing? (This doesn't queue anyone to say the name 'Bioshock', it wasn't mindblowing in any department as well, 'In my professional opinion'.)
 

anti_strunt

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Concealed101 said:
I'm not going to say that Yahtzee didn't get the game because honestly every single person takes something different away from the game; however, I feel like he was looking for the wrong things in Issac's occasional interactions with Nicole. They weren't intended to create empathy with the character, they were intended to make you question whether or not Issac was hallucinating. The idea that an unarmed girl could survive alone on the Ishimura when trained military professionals were slaughtered makes no sense, especially considering that she seems to just walk out of the room without worry whenever you see her. Issac's lack of emotional reaction is more of a sign that on some level he understood he was fooling himself. And he was characterized, just never verbally. If you read his notes on each objective, you got a clear sense of who he was as a person-- utilitarian, logical, and level-headed. Which is precisely why he survives when others die.
I haven't actually played the game, but I have wonder about praising the characterisation of a protagonist who's simultaneously logical and level-headed, and possibly a hallucinating crazy. Combining paradoxical traits can make for great and very personal characters, but there needs to be something to tie the opposites together, otherwise you're just mixing random stuff in no coherent fashion, and that's bad writing.

Also, his comments about the level design being cliche strikes me as odd. You can clearly see a practical theme to everything. And the gothic influences are astounding. You can see an amalgamation of old architecture and science fiction. I mean, a ship with influences clearly derived from flying buttresses? How is that not original?
LOLWUT

Also, even though the story is cliche the religious overtones provided by the unitologist add a lot more depth than the standard sci-fi horror story contains. The obvious criticisms of accepting everything on blind faith and inadvertently worshiping the necromorphs as almost god-like because they have a relation to the marker, when in actuality the marker is meant to contain the necros? That's at least somewhat interesting on a story-telling level and it was certainly never explored in Alien/Aliens or Event Horizon.
Religion in a science fiction story? What a new and fascinating idea... Sorry. Didn't Alien 4 already include some speculation along those lines, Xenomorphs as inherently superior beings - the next step of evolution which we should embrace? I'm sure at least one of the movies explored, or at least mentioned the concept. Just replace a belief in the infallibility and necessity of evolution with religion and there you go, hardly a very long jump...

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.

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.
So the point of the game was to be unoriginal? (Sorry, a rather inflamatory way to put it.) Not necessarily a bad thing as such, but everything else being equal, I'd say unoriginality is inferior to originality, and thus a valid target of criticism, even if the devs admit it.
While the dilapidated status of the ship might make perfect sense in the context of the game, it's still unoriginal. The devs could have had the game take place before the environment deteriorated, but apparently they decided against trying something new, and it should rightfully be a strike against them.

I'd say it's basically a question of which half of WALL-E you want to put your Zombies in. Why does no one ever go for the second half I wonder? Seeing a futuristic Utopia overrun by slavering undead would make for a much more effective setting simply by way of shocking juxtaposition. But what do I know...

6) Arthur Clarke reference in the name, etc.
Yeah, it was intended.
Still lame... Like a fantasy adventure starring the ever-heroic J.R.R. Lewis von Eddings.

Still better than "Superfly Johnson", tho.

Wait, what's the name of the black character again?

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
Making an homage/parody/imitation is, in my opinion (and, like I said above, all else being equal, there are always other factors to consider) automatically inferior to creating (or at least trying to create) something that's actually original. Thus it's a perfect valid target of criticism, whatever the devs might say.

("It's not a bug, it's a feature; and it's not an imitation, it's an homage!")

Might still be a very good game, of course, but that would probably be as a result of solid craftsmanship as opposed to any inspired genious...
 

B4D 9R4MM3R

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Of all the spaceships you could choose Yahtzee, why the Pyro GX? You're not trying to make some statement about Descent are you?

Anyway, great review as always.
 

xLiKx

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Nov 7, 2008
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wrong Yahtzee wrong. this game was awesome and was not as terrible as you made it seem in your "review". the best you could say about it was that the good parts were "fine"? do you have some sorta bias against EA or what? this game was polished and fun. even if they borrowed elements from other games, that doesn't automatically make it bad or generic.

your negative schtick is getting mad old. you call Dead Space repetitive? maybe you should look in the mirror.
 

GunslingerUK

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Nov 6, 2008
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Dead space completed it in 2days...brilliant graphics...but same old stuff, and for those who haven't noticed, but Yahtzee is wrong about the system shock. its more bioshock if you ask me, weapon upgrades, and the lack of nodes to upgrade with, other then the over the shoulder spaz look, the body armor looks like a smaller big daddy.

ALSO! one more thing before i leave this to rest, a big 1930's posters everywhere and the story line is pretty much the same as Bioshock......i shall leave it now because it has been punished enough.
 

Poptart Fairy

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xLiKx said:
your negative schtick is getting mad old. you call Dead Space repetitive? maybe you should look in the mirror.
There's more to Yahtzee than a constant string of "OH NOES CONTAMINATION DETECTED" set pieces, tho'.
 

Firia

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People around these parts get so angry over opinion. :)

xLiKx said:
wrong Yahtzee wrong.
Telling someone their wrong is about as futile as trying to *force* someone to share that opinion.
 

HotKakes

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Aug 2, 2008
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Well, I'm going to take the high road and not sound like an uber-nerd by saying some of the statements made in the review were a little off such as the "exwife" comment. Overall, Yatzee has some well founded ideas and opinions on the game and I think he is correct in his views. I will not say that my opinion matches however because I had a blast playing the game. None the less, I think Yatzee is spot on the flaws of the game but I was never deterred by these problems. So, keep up the good work Yatzee.
 

skelegrow

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Jul 15, 2008
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bah. asking space ships to be homey is like asking a final fantasy game to NOT include "summons". it would ruin the atmosphere, upset the player, and make the game as a whole, altogether lacking.

...oh wait.
 

MikePhilbin

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Mar 15, 2008
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sorry,
I've missed the last few of these 'review's and had forgotten how much the ribs ache laughing along as you slaughter some corporate greyness.

well done, milad.
 

acebrainbuster

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Oct 13, 2008
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the game is ok i've been playing scary shit for years and yet when somthing like this comes along you just have to think"where would a bland game maker put a potentially deadly creature in a game like this? hmmmm" ether way it was fun non the less but games theses days need to just have more effort put in them. Hell get one of those fat 45 year old pigmen that haven't comeout of home for weeks becuase of a new game to make a new game addicts like that have some good ideas when they put some god dawm effert into it.
 

OuroborosChoked

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Aug 20, 2008
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At 1:30 to about 1:40...

Couldn't the same be said about HL2? The game constantly tries to tug our heartstrings with that blatantly obvious sidekick bullshit. Am I really supposed to give two shits about Alyx? Why? Because she constantly fawns over Dr. Mute with her doey eyes for no adequately explained reason? Gordon doesn't do anything she can't do... and she could probably do it all better because she doesn't need a powered suit! Oh, and whaddya know... a silent protagonist who uses a physics weapon...

I wonder if Dead Space is supposed to be a parody of HL2...
 

Techni

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anti_strunt said:
So the point of the game was to be unoriginal?
Most games are based off other things. Gears of war was based off Resident Evil 4 for example. Being based off a movie doesn't make it unoriginal. Being unoriginal doesn't make something bad either.

While the dilapidated status of the ship might make perfect sense in the context of the game, it's still unoriginal.
And effing neccesary. It's the site of a disaster for christs sakes, you'd have to be retarded to expect it to be in one piece.

there are always other factors to consider) automatically inferior to creating (or at least trying to create) something that's actually original.
Completely false. Being inspired by something does NOT make something inferior to something not inspired by anything.
 

HeroOfLegend

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Jul 18, 2008
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I didn't think it was that funny this week. The most clever part in my eyes is when he says "It's repetitive," twice. Aw well, better luck next week (Fable 2?)