Dead Space

[frogbeastegg]

If you take a pinch of Bioshock, a good handful of System Shock 2, a handful of Resident Evil 4, and a dash of Aliens, put them into a pot, throw in some crazy ideas about interfaces, season with fancy graphics and sprinkle some sound effects worthy of Looking Glass, stir it all up and let it bake, you get Dead Space. Or at least that's my opinion on the first two chapters.

Knowing the people here, it will be the System Shock 2 comparison which gets the attention. Dead Space is not System Shock 3 in all but name. It does have quite a few similarities; it seems like a worthy cousin than a son and heir. I'll let the "space ship where something has gone horribly wrong" plot and setting speak for itself. It's not as scary as System Shock 2. That's the only game which has truly scared me, so others' mileage may vary. It is tense, very tense, and very atmospheric.

The strongest comparison to SS2 is the upgrade system. Like SS2 you can upgrade your equipment; there aren't enough resources to have everything, so tough choices need to be made. More health, or more oxygen, or upgrades to either of your two support skills, or more damage on one gun, or more ammo capacity on one gun, or faster reload on one gun, and so on. You find a few nodes lying around, and you can buy more for 10,000 each. That means you need to choose between selling off ammo and supplies or having fewer nodes. Nodes also open certain locked doors into optional areas. So far the balance has been spot on; I'm having to work for my upgrades and play a delicate balancing act. Conserving ammo by blowing off legs and then swapping to melee to finish enemies off is steadily giving me a surplus to sell, as is my sticking to a single gun. That saves me credits on buying a new guns, plus enables me to sell on all the ammo I find for other weapons. I have more upgrades then I would if I didn't take this approach, however there's always the lingering feeling that I may be scuppering myself by neglecting to buy extra weaponry. I shall see ...

Thus far the plot isn't as good as SS2's, or Bioshock's. As of the start of chapter 3 it's capable and may improve. The comparison is made mainly because the story is told in much the same way as those two games, that is to say via audio logs left lying around, messages from survivors, and through the environment itself. Bioshock's influence is also felt in the cute little signs and adverts plastered about the Ishimura.

Unlike SS2 and Bioshock you get to meet real, live, actual human beings face to face and without any sort of barriers! More than once! You're not perpetually watching the set pieces play out while safely isolated or paralysed; you're in control and involved. The results are frequently disturbing.

The combat is one of the game's most talked about aspects. It performs as promised. Blow limbs off with careful targeting and you survive. Aim for heads and torsos as per most other games and the results vary from little damage to er, interesting.This is very similar to the bit of Resi 4 I played. The emphasis is a little different though; Resi 4 was about controlling space to keep the zombies at bay. Dead Space is more about standing in place and keeping a calm nerve and steady hand as three blood-smeared cancerous-looking things with too many limbs and two heads charge at speed towards you; the sweet spots are small and easy to miss. Blowing limbs off with a mining ore cutter is satisfyingly visceral, as is stomping downed foes until they splatter apart.

Dead Space's other much touted feature is the lack of an interface. This works far better than I imagined. Isaac’s health is on his spine, his ammo above his gun when you aim. Your map, inventory and video logs project out from his helmet into the air in front of him. That brings me to my only issue with the set up: the text on the text based logs is very small and a bit hard to read, and it's hard to read the map if you zoom it out to look for something several rooms away.

And as for the babies, ugh! :shivers:

[frogbeastegg]

On chapter 4 now. The tension keeps growing. I had to stop playing because it was getting to me, and that's frankly embarrassing considering the number of reputedly scary games I have not been bothered by.

The System Shock 2 links are multiplying. The areas I am going through are in both games: medical, engineering, bridge. Space ships have to have those sections, so it's forgivable. The whole crew member -> mutated zombie thing is another significant resemblance, and the further I go the more advanced the mutations become, again as in SS2. Hard to see how it could have been done otherwise.

In some areas I can hear the ship’s computer talking in the background. I can’t fully make out what it says; it seems to be status reports. They are all delivered in a flat, artificial female voice. To my poor addled mind it comes across as a combination of Shodan’s sound and Xerxes’ dialogue.

Other links have to have been more conscious. Very minor spoiler for both games:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Parts of the Ishimura is covered in a fleshy growth. The ship in SS2 was partly covered in The Many's fleshy growth.

A slightly larger spoiler for both games:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The problems in SS2 started when a group went down to Tau Ceti's surface and found an artefact. Logs are suggesting the problems on the Ishimura stem from an artefact brought back from the planet it is orbiting.

A large spoiler for SS2 and a suspicion for Dead Space:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Polito, your guide at the start, turned out to be long dead. Shodan had taken her identity to make it easier to manipulate you. Nicole, Isaac's girlfriend, is one of the ship's crew and keeps sending him radio messages. They are becoming increasingly bizarre. I suspect she's dead or working with whatever this alien/disease/whatever is.

The most remarkable thing is that Dead Space doesn't feel like a SS2 rip off.

I wonder if it's the SS2 links which are causing it to unnerve me so much? SS2 is the only game I have played which outright terrified me, so badly that I never finished it despite many attempts. It's like playing two games at once: as I play Dead Space my memories of SS2 are jittering in the background.

If a deranged AI with delusions of grandeur shows up I'm going to be sweating

[Marius Dynamite]

I have to say I don't really go for the survival horror games but I seen a few video previews on Xbox Live and I was impressed.

In particular I thought the camera angle looked spot on for the gameplay and the square gun looked made for strategic dismemberment!

On chapter 4 now. The tension keeps growing. I had to stop playing because it was getting to me, and that's frankly embarrassing considering the number of reputedly scary games I have not been bothered by.

This worries me I'm afraid. I get scared very easily (Bioshock, for example) so if this scares a pro like you, it may well kill me.

I think I will get it nearer Christmas since I need all my money just now, but it's definitely going onto the "games to get" pile.

[frogbeastegg]

Dead Space more of a shooter with RPG elements and heavy atmosphere than a survival horror. Similar to Bioshock and System Shock 2.

It's not that I'm scared so much as worn out by being in a constant state of tension and alertness. The medical area in Bioshock is the closest it gets to what is on offer in Dead Space. That area was built to be creepy in order to suppliment Doctor Steinnman.

Dead Space is employing all of the tricks. It has sudden shocks. It has creeping dread. It has tense audio and atmosphere. It has psychological tricks. It has monsters you catch a glimpse of and then lose track. It has obvious trap rooms. It has blood, guts, gore and horrific ugly monsters. It has surviving people driven into terrible states. It has safe rooms which turn out to be not so safe on your final trip through. It has build up from audio logs. Out of all of these only the atmosphere touches me. The rest bounce off, same as normal.

The default gun is neat; it's all I am using. It packs a punch, is accurate, reloads and fires at a good pace, and provided you are a good aim the clip size is good. The alternate fire mode demonstrates the game's idea about combat quite well. In standard mode the gun fires a beam which is like this - In alternate mode it fires like | The beam set up is the only difference; power, accuracy, nothing else is affected. Different modes are better for removing limbs from different monsters.

[TevashSzat]

Regarding the ammo issue, from what I have heard, at one point, ammo becomes extremely scarce up to the point that you almost have more enemies to kill than you do ammo for all of your guns combined so it would be a good idea to stock up on them while you can.

[frogbeastegg]

Ugh. This morning has not been so good for the game. I have discovered two things I consider to be sins in gaming.

There's a bad mini game that's required for progress. A turret shooting section where you have to gun down asteroids. Randomly generated asteroids, so the difficulty of each run is wildly different. The controls are dreadful; they have mapped movement onto the right stick instead of the left. Both triggers fire one half of the cannon. I'm left holding the controller awkwardly so I can't try to use the left stick to aim and die. The cannon itself is skiddy and not as responsive as it should be. Frequently the asteroid sets it generates force you to take hits. You can't shoot down a whole screenful of little rocks, and there isn't time to shoot up multiple big ones plus the little rocks they break up into. I have survived right up to the end several times, only to die on what must be the final set because it generates a series which requires you to have more than a couple of hits left to survive. I went looking to see if anyone else is struggling with this section; there are quite a few topics complaining about it. The difficulty level you are playing on doesn't affect it at all, nor does repeated failure.

So I am now completely stuck. I will have to replay that mini game over and over until I get lucky, or I will have to leave the game. I've already failed it for 9 or 10 runs in a row. A pity; level 4 was tremendously enjoyable. Using stasis on enemies and shoving them into malfunctioning gravity panels never gets old.

The other sin is Microsoft's, not EA's or the developer's. If you buy the game in the first week you are supposed to get a free suit exclusive to the xbox version. This is advertised in many places, always as a freebie and with no mention of anything else being needed. I went to download mine and I can't - it's exclusive for people with gold Live! memberships. That's false advertising, and disgusting. Worse, Dead Space is a fully single-player game. There's no reason at all to assume many of the people buying it would have the paid subscription which enables you to play multiplayer online. Sony's equivalent suit is freely available for all game owners. I'm not that bothered about having the suit but that's not the point.

Regarding the ammo issue, from what I have heard, at one point, ammo becomes extremely scarce up to the point that you almost have more enemies to kill than you do ammo for all of your guns combined so it would be a good idea to stock up on them while you can.

I have 11 full bundles of ammo for my gun of choice in my storage locker plus 5 full bundles and 1 partial bundle in my inventory at all times. I have 2 large health packs and ... oh, around 7 medium ones in storage plus 3 and a small one in my inventory. That's so much I wonder if I should have played on hard mode instead; resources are a lot scarcer there.

There have been situations which caused me to chew through a couple of bundles of ammo in a single go. They always leave me worried; two situations like that in close succession and I'm bled dry until I can get to a store and withdraw some of my surplus. That’s good; it stops me from feeling unstoppable.

You can buy ammo once you have discovered the schematic for the type you want. Careful selling of unwanted items would carry you along for a bit.

I do suspect that my using a single type of gun is helping me considerably. Enemies only drop ammo for the gun I am using, so drops must be tied to the weapons you are carrying. Better to have lots of ammo for one type than not much for several. I have more money and nodes to plough into fewer areas too, meaning I have the best suit available at this point, my gun is almost fully upgraded, and my rig and stasis module have a few choice upgrades.



Gah! I like this game! I have to get past that nasty turret game. :wishes she could swap control over to the left stick because that would do wonders for her ability to shoot: I completed the sadistic asteroid shooting bonus level on Rogue Leader with a silver medal back in the gamecube days. Surely I can get past this!

[Kekvit Irae]

Enemies only drop ammo for the gun I am using, so drops must be tied to the weapons you are carrying.

This is true. Although I haven't bought a Line Gun yet, I keep finding Line Gun ammo in set locations but never on monster drops. I'm tempted to just ditch my Pulse Rifle and Ripper, and use my Plasma Cutter exclusively, saving the Flamethrower for dealing with those stupid miniature spider things.

[Kekvit Irae]

I'm already up to chapter 6, and I'm already feeling like this game is a ripoff of System Shock 2 (not that it's a bad thing) with a good bit of Doom 3 mixed into the fray.

Unknown aliens invading an isolated ship after uncovering something on the planet surface? Check.
Audio logs? Check.
Poison the hydroponics deck? Check.
"Friends" helping me that will eventually betray me in the end? Check. Not a spoiler; betrayal hasn't happened so far, but it's SO predictable.
Crazy alien life that wants to merge with humanity? Check.

[Xiahou]

I'm already up to chapter 6, and I'm already feeling like this game is a ripoff of System Shock 2 (not that it's a bad thing) with a good bit of Doom 3 mixed into the fray.

Unknown aliens invading an isolated ship after uncovering something on the planet surface? Check.
Audio logs? Check.
Poison the hydroponics deck? Check.
"Friends" helping me that will eventually betray me in the end? Check. Not a spoiler; betrayal hasn't happened so far, but it's SO predictable.
Crazy alien life that wants to merge with humanity? Check.

Sounds like they both ripped off the Aliens series.

[Kekvit Irae]

I just got to chapter 10, and one text log had me laughing. They are clearly parodying Scientology in the game.

[Reverend Joe]

I just got to chapter 10, and one text log had me laughing. They are clearly parodying Scientology in the game.

That sounds promising, actually.

[Kekvit Irae]

That sounds promising, actually.

The text log describes "Unitology" in virtually the same manner as Scientology. Except for the fact that it's SCIENTOLOGY IN SPAAAAAAAAACE, it's pretty damn accurate.

[Kekvit Irae]

I just finished the game, and it has a decidedly System Shock 2-like ending. I just don't have the willpower to play through to get the other trophies I'm missing, so it's going back to GameSpot tomorrow in exchange for LittleBigPlanet and/or Fallout 3.

[Fragony]

I like what it tries but not what it is, it's a little bit of everything but it doesn't really deliver anywhere. I had high expectations, and it is a good game, but it could have been much better. Biggest complaint, it isn't very scary, don't know why, it has excellent creature design, great sound and great graphics but the magic touch of 'being there' is missing. Wish I was the guy in charge saying 'good work guys, almost done'. It is very good, it's kind surprising it isn't any better.

[frogbeastegg]

I got past the turret mini game on my third attempt after that post. May it and its backwards controls rot in the darkest bowels of hell, and never darken my xbox again. Inevitably this sentiment means it will show up on a later level. Yay.

I'm now on the very start of chapter 5. It's hydroponics. Each time I played SS2 I got overwhelmed by the atmosphere and quit playing at the same area. Hydroponics. Whatever Dead Space has in store for me it can't be worse than SS2.

The effect hearing I was headed to hydroponics had on me leaves me in no doubt: this game does affect me because of the similarities to SS2. If it weren't for them I think I would be as immune to it as I am to the likes of Condemned.

[Kekvit Irae]

I got past the turret mini game on my third attempt after that post. May it and its backwards controls rot in the darkest bowels of hell, and never darken my xbox again. Inevitably this sentiment means it will show up on a later level. Yay.

And resurface it will. Thankfully as just a boss battle than an asteroids game.

[Praxil]

All in all, simply a great game. The atmosphere is slightly better in AvP 2 due to its radar sound.

Other than that, was it scary? I'm not sure, maybe I'm too old for being scary. Creepy? Yes indeed. Any panic attacks? They are coming for you, run! Atmosphere is great in this game. I think that Isaac should have had some lines for some situations and definitely in the battle.

[frogbeastegg]

And resurface it will. Thankfully as just a boss battle than an asteroids game.

I will look forward to it.

Heh. This game is keeping me away from Fallout 3 and Fable 2. I don't want to try either of them until I complete this, so here both games sit, opened with the manuals read, and otherwise untouched. Not bad considering they are far more my type of game. More impressive when you know I had preordered collector's editions of fable and fallout months ago (shortly before the prices skyrocketed to nastily expensive ) and Dead Space only got its order a week beforehand based on the "It's almost system shock 2.5" word of mouth.

[frogbeastegg]

Completed it. Apart from a few niggles it was a thoroughly enjoyable title. Enjoyable enough that I'm now on level 3 of the playthrough which carries over your guns and upgrades, despite intending to start Fallout 3 the moment the credits finished rolling. I suppose I will complete the second run by playing a bit now and then. Going back to the start with all your goodies is so much fun, and I didn't use anything other than the plasma cutter so I still have most of the other guns to try out.

I found I sped through it after level 5. The unique factor on that level killed the System Shock 2 flashbacks, meaning the game no longer bothered me. It's amazing how much quicker you get about when you're not peering into the shadows and inching along.

One thing which I was disappointed in:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The mad doctor said we would die together. I never saw him again. Gah! Blowing his head off would have been oh so much fun and I was looking forward to it, thank you very much! Ditto blasting Kendra's trecherous little behind.

[Kekvit Irae]

One thing which I was disappointed in:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The mad doctor said we would die together. I never saw him again. Gah! Blowing his head off would have been oh so much fun and I was looking forward to it, thank you very much! Ditto blasting Kendra's trecherous little behind.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He got killed by a facesucker at the end of his rant/speech.

[frogbeastegg]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

He got killed by a facesucker at the end of his rant/speech.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh. I didn't see him get attacked in the video; it broke up into static and I assumed he was coming to kill me. Then, as I opened the door into the room with the bench, save point and store a white-clothed body collapsed onto me and a hugger ran off. I stopped and wondered for a couple of seconds before deciding that couldn't be him because it was too lame a way to remove a principle antagonist.

[Kekvit Irae]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh. I didn't see him get attacked in the video; it broke up into static and I assumed he was coming to kill me. Then, as I opened the door into the room with the bench, save point and store a white-clothed body collapsed onto me and a hugger ran off. I stopped and wondered for a couple of seconds before deciding that couldn't be him because it was too lame a way to remove a principle antagonist.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You could see him through the glass window, and how he goes out is quite dramatic. A shame you had to miss it, though.

[frogbeastegg]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You could see him through the glass window, and how he goes out is quite dramatic. A shame you had to miss it, though.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I don't even remember seeing windows in that big square room with the red carpets, only doors which led into the 4 executive cabins and the pair of exits. That's where I got the transmition. The next sign of life/unlife I encountered was that body with the hugger, and there weren't any windows there.

Something to look for in my second playthrough, I guess.

[Drunk Clown]

So I bought this game and am currently at chapter 2.

My question is: What items do I buy?

Since I'm not intending to make a second run through the game, I want to make it as enjoyable as possible. (since the PC controls are horrendous I'm certain I will only play it once).

So what weapons are the most fun/effective? Where should I use my nodes for? And what about suits? etc. etc.

[Fragony]

Line-gun is your best friend, can't go wrong with maxing it out. Just avoid the plasma rifle and flamethrower. Awesome survival horror game, but whoever thought the astroids sections were a good idea should be shot on sight

[Drunk Clown]

Do you own Dead Space 2 too?

Also due to controls, I set the difficulty to normal. Ammo everywhere :/

So in Dead Space 2 I think I will turn the difficulty up.

[Fragony]

Yes, great fun. Totally worth playing if you like the genre. Somewhat less scary though

[Drunk Clown]

This game has been sitting on my shelf for months, and I've never opened it. Looks like I'll have to give it a try! For some reason I assumed it was just another multiplayer-oriented shallow-arsed shooter. I am relieved to see I was wrong.

On what platform do you own it? And are you talking about Dead Space 1 or 2? Or both?

[Kekvit Irae]

I'll just leave this here. Anyone who has played DS2 will get the joke.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[frogbeastegg]

In Dead Space 1 you can't go wrong with the plasma cutter. It's great at everything; the more you upgrade it the better it gets. I completed the entire game without using a single shot from another gun. In Dead Space 2 you can't go wrong with ... copy and paste the above, except this time I did try the other weapons and always returned to the cutter.

It's strange to see my thoughts on DS1 resurrected, especially in light of how I felt about the sequel. DS2 threw out everything which I enjoyed about the original in favour of becoming yet another dreary 3rd person shooter. Even the things I wanted them to do - like Isaac talking - were grating in their implementation.