in which Nick plays Games: Dead Space
I borrowed EA's newest entry into survival horror, Dead Space, from a co-worker. Last week I got around to starting it. I beat it a mere 5 days later, having had to basically force myself to put it down for work, sleep, and life. It's good. This is not to say it doesn't have it's issues, mind, but it's a highly enjoyable 10-15 hours for the initial playthrough.
Things I Liked:
- The steampunk aesthetic of the suit was top-notch.
- The feel of the game was what it should be, as a zombie-movie in space - dark, dank, cold, and strangely organic at times.
- I liked that all of the weapons (save the plasma rifle) were mining tools first, weapons second. This is not to say that they weren't ridiculous - a buzzsaw gun, really? - but it wasn't just rocket launchers and shotguns like every other survival horror game. It was less "Physicist Ass-Kicker Doing Good" and more "Engineer with really nasty tools", and that was great.
- Deaths were gory, violent, and largely impersonal. Also, terribly disturbing - that fucking baby head? UGH.
- The story was a nice, twisted take on human sorrow and the depths people go to - religion, logic, hope - they go to avoid it.
- The game wasn't terribly creepy, but it did have it's moments - being chased in Chapter 10, the lullaby (shudder), and the one time I was jumped while using the Bench.
- I really liked the non-HUD mechanic, and it made me somewhat more paranoid about where I took breaks.
- I've said it before, and I'll say it again - listening to the diaries of the damned while fighting their (possibly) former forms? Glorious.
Things I Didn't Like:
- Only 3 things in the game made me scream at the TV - the fucking small necromorphs (both horde and 'tall-man' variants), the wall spitters (which apparently had an instant death attack?), and the FUCKING ADS CANNON. Really, why not ruin a perfectly good over-the-shoulder horror game with a fucking rail shooter!?
- The "strategic dismemberment" mechanic was fun, sure, but it didn't make a lot of sense. I'm fighting one of the fat necromorphs, and chopping of a leg and an arm drops it? It's dead! No organs! WTF!?
- It's a little heavy-handed in leading you by the nose. Picking up an audio log that says "Aim for the limbs!", then having your NPC call you and say "Aim for the limbs!", then getting a dialog popup to remind you that limb-shots do more damage all within 30 SECONDS is overkill.
- It suffered from "bad DM syndrome", where every person with a name ended up a villain or a victim. Or both, in one case.
- The boss fights were pretty lackluster, really. Inexplicably large masses of organs and bile, sure, but they coat their weak points in explosive yellow pus. Right.
- The non-HUD was neat, but it was still pretty obvious where enemies would show. Picked up a log? Nothing. Store/Bench/Savepoint? Very unlikely. Ammo or story-critical stuff? Horde time! I'd really like to see a survival horror game with pre-programmed monster jumps, but also a roaming band of 20-30 zombies that'll just roll in when they feel like it. Maybe during the boss fight, maybe at the beginning of the level, whenever. The goals of the zombie should not be to be predictable, but to EAT YOUR FUCKING FACE.
- The FUCKING ADS CANNON.
- A time-stopping mechanic? Really?
- Apparently, some of the DLC is truly broken, which is less of a problem for me in that I didn't buy any. Still, the game wasn't too hard without it - at one point, I mopped the floor with like 40 monsters of various flavors with only reloads to keep me in check. I didn't even get HIT, mofos.
I beat the game in about 12 hours, and unlocked all the achievements save 1 for the ADS cannon (really - Google how many people that shit pissed off), several for weapons I never bought, and one for X-Treme Difficulty. The game wasn't terribly hard, given my play-style - I horde shit and aim/shoot well, and thus I rolled into the final fight packing 7 Full Healths, 200+ shots for my favorite gun (the first one you get, fully upgraded) and 500+ shots for the plasma rifle, and used basically none of it. So eh. I purchased the buzzsaw cannon and the gravity-push gun as well, but neither was used as often as the first little beam gun and the rifle. Hell, most of the time I forgot to use the time-stop power, too - I was just a good shot and moved well. YMMV.
Final Verdict:
Worth $30-40, or a good long rental. Replay is basically nil unless you're Achievement Whoring.
Things I Liked:
- The steampunk aesthetic of the suit was top-notch.
- The feel of the game was what it should be, as a zombie-movie in space - dark, dank, cold, and strangely organic at times.
- I liked that all of the weapons (save the plasma rifle) were mining tools first, weapons second. This is not to say that they weren't ridiculous - a buzzsaw gun, really? - but it wasn't just rocket launchers and shotguns like every other survival horror game. It was less "Physicist Ass-Kicker Doing Good" and more "Engineer with really nasty tools", and that was great.
- Deaths were gory, violent, and largely impersonal. Also, terribly disturbing - that fucking baby head? UGH.
- The story was a nice, twisted take on human sorrow and the depths people go to - religion, logic, hope - they go to avoid it.
- The game wasn't terribly creepy, but it did have it's moments - being chased in Chapter 10, the lullaby (shudder), and the one time I was jumped while using the Bench.
- I really liked the non-HUD mechanic, and it made me somewhat more paranoid about where I took breaks.
- I've said it before, and I'll say it again - listening to the diaries of the damned while fighting their (possibly) former forms? Glorious.
Things I Didn't Like:
- Only 3 things in the game made me scream at the TV - the fucking small necromorphs (both horde and 'tall-man' variants), the wall spitters (which apparently had an instant death attack?), and the FUCKING ADS CANNON. Really, why not ruin a perfectly good over-the-shoulder horror game with a fucking rail shooter!?
- The "strategic dismemberment" mechanic was fun, sure, but it didn't make a lot of sense. I'm fighting one of the fat necromorphs, and chopping of a leg and an arm drops it? It's dead! No organs! WTF!?
- It's a little heavy-handed in leading you by the nose. Picking up an audio log that says "Aim for the limbs!", then having your NPC call you and say "Aim for the limbs!", then getting a dialog popup to remind you that limb-shots do more damage all within 30 SECONDS is overkill.
- It suffered from "bad DM syndrome", where every person with a name ended up a villain or a victim. Or both, in one case.
- The boss fights were pretty lackluster, really. Inexplicably large masses of organs and bile, sure, but they coat their weak points in explosive yellow pus. Right.
- The non-HUD was neat, but it was still pretty obvious where enemies would show. Picked up a log? Nothing. Store/Bench/Savepoint? Very unlikely. Ammo or story-critical stuff? Horde time! I'd really like to see a survival horror game with pre-programmed monster jumps, but also a roaming band of 20-30 zombies that'll just roll in when they feel like it. Maybe during the boss fight, maybe at the beginning of the level, whenever. The goals of the zombie should not be to be predictable, but to EAT YOUR FUCKING FACE.
- The FUCKING ADS CANNON.
- A time-stopping mechanic? Really?
- Apparently, some of the DLC is truly broken, which is less of a problem for me in that I didn't buy any. Still, the game wasn't too hard without it - at one point, I mopped the floor with like 40 monsters of various flavors with only reloads to keep me in check. I didn't even get HIT, mofos.
I beat the game in about 12 hours, and unlocked all the achievements save 1 for the ADS cannon (really - Google how many people that shit pissed off), several for weapons I never bought, and one for X-Treme Difficulty. The game wasn't terribly hard, given my play-style - I horde shit and aim/shoot well, and thus I rolled into the final fight packing 7 Full Healths, 200+ shots for my favorite gun (the first one you get, fully upgraded) and 500+ shots for the plasma rifle, and used basically none of it. So eh. I purchased the buzzsaw cannon and the gravity-push gun as well, but neither was used as often as the first little beam gun and the rifle. Hell, most of the time I forgot to use the time-stop power, too - I was just a good shot and moved well. YMMV.
Final Verdict:
Worth $30-40, or a good long rental. Replay is basically nil unless you're Achievement Whoring.