Dead Space for PC

[samus]

so i recently bought and downloaded this title from steam and must say, i was very impressed by the story-line and how intense it was. i'll have to admit, i did scream a few times. i'm a pansy.

anyone play this? if so, what did you think?

i believe it helped bring back the horror genre big time.

[CyberTractor]

I really enjoyed it. I thought the fact that you had to aim for appendges instead of pumping an enemy full of bullets was creative, and a welcome change.

I loved the atmosphere, but found the characters to be a little bit annoying.

"HEY ISAAC! ISAAAAAAAC! DO THIS FOR ME! KTHXBAI!"

But I still liked the story overall, and would definitely say its worth a playthrough.

[Lyinginbedmon]

I am almost certain there's no computer in my house that could play it, but I'm not really a fan of "faux" horror games, that use gore and shock to generate fear. To me, that's not real horror, real horror to me should have me genuinely scared of something without needing it to be bloody or jumping out of shadows.

That said, the gameplay and the setting both seem interesting and the storyline definitely looks at least like they've been planning certain elements to carry through onto sequels and such.

[samus]

[quote="Lyinginbedmon"To me, that's not real horror, real horror to me should have me genuinely scared of something without needing it to be bloody or jumping out of shadows.[/quote]

that's not the only thing that makes this game "scary". it's more intense then scary. the tension just keeps building and building.

[wedrinkritalin]

Scarier than STALKER? If not I ain't playing it as any horror game that doesn't scare me to the same level that empty cities teeming with unseen mutants has some explaining to do

[Red Charlie]

Stalker still scares the crap out of me no matter how many times I play through it.

[davefp]

I'm intrigued by the dismemberment mechanic, as well as the microgravity parts (or 'zero G', if you like). I'm not usually a fan of survival horror games, but I may have to check Dead Space out.

[Sable]

Dead Space scared the shit out of me. It borrowed liberally from all of my favourite sci-fi/horror stories, and I really enjoyed it.

The commentary in this thread has, so far, reminded me hugely of the bottom two panels in this classic Penny Arcade comic:

[MostlyImprov]

Been interested in this one for a while, but missed it when it first came out. I'm still not sure whether I'd enjoy it more on PC or 360, which is mostly a matter of atmosphere, I suppose. If I did have to jump up in surprise and terror, it would be more difficult for me to hit my head on anything if I was sitting in front of the TV than it would be if I was sitting in front of the computer. Just something to take into account.

[Nomadic]

I'd like to say that this is one of my absolute favorite games on the 360. The reason for this is that it took some epic elements from other games and combined them into a coherent whole.

The biggest thing that I appreciate? The corruption of a sterile atmosphere...think Bioshock.

[Genghis Ares]

I'd like to say that this is one of my absolute favorite games on the 360. The reason for this is that it took some epic elements from other games and combined them into a coherent whole.

The biggest thing that I appreciate? The corruption of a sterile atmosphere...think Bioshock.

I loved this game, I have it on 360, and a lot of what made it great was the atmosphere that worked so well to keep you in. I wasn't really scared by toom much, more of just the ominous mood and the occasional "OMG what was that". Fortunately I have a really good ability to see those things before they happen anyway.

But I totally had a BioShock feeling during the game. Another great game with a good atmosphere.

[Lyinginbedmon]

I'm a big critic on what constitutes "horror" and for me Dead Space didn't meet the criteria.

What happens a lot that, I personally believe, people mistake for horror is when they get spooked. Getting spooked isn't horror to me, it's preying on another emotion: Surprise, instead of fear. Surprise is an instinct based on self-preservation, you don't leap at something because you're afraid of it, but because it's might be a hazardous predator or somesuch.

Dead Space also uses another shortcut, gore. Just about every piece of equipment on the Ishimura is covered in blood, skin, bones, or some other human appendage or organ, including the enemies (Who, granted, are composed of them anyways). Gore utilises, again, an alternative emotion to fear, which is disgust. I'm disgusted at the condition of my brother's bedroom, but it doesn't frighten me.

So then, what do I actually consider "fear"? Well, back in the mid-90's, my brother and my mother and I went to see a Star Wars film in the cinemas. I don't recall which specifically, but it was one of the elder ones. And I distinctly remember sinking into my seat, paralysed, whenever Darth Vader came onto screen.

For me, "fear" is when you are terrified of something, when you do not want to open a door or push a button because you don't want to meet what's on the other side, regardless of threat or difficulty. When the idea of it simply appearing elsewhere fills you with dread and anxiety. It doesn't need to leap out of the shadows and it doesn't need to be covered in you're wife's blood and guts, it just terrifies you.

Dead Space, at least from my perspective, doesn't do that.

[Genghis Ares]

Well you have to ask yourself, What is Horror?

Is Horror fear? Is it Terror? Or is it a type of atmosphere or mood, or general emotion. Dead Space was definitely horror in many ways and it wasn't in other ways. I would say Horror is more then Fear and more than being scared or surprised.

I would say that Dead Space is Science Fiction with Horror and Action.

[Nomadic]

SPOILERS AHEAD.
(That being said, if you haven't played Dead Space by now, what kind of loser are you? )


See, I agree. Dead Space did freak me out in the beginning. Thing was, it used shock value for that "scare" and that wears off after a while. Once you got to a certain point, the scare wasn't there. What Dead Space does do properly is follow a certain "what if" scenario that is rather logical. It's like playing through a "horror" movie wherein instead of watching a few idiotic teenagers (or twenty-somethings pretending to be teenagers) stumble around having rampant sex and awkward-fests, you get to control one person through a logical and reasonable set of events. In Dead Space, if something breaks, you go and you fix it. One thing leads to another, and before you know it, you've hit the final credits. Throughout all of that, however, you aren't so much in terror as you are freaked out. Allow me to elaborate.

If you are terrified, you want to release what is in your bowels in a giant pile underneath your current seat. Your heart rate increases dramatically, and adrenaline is pumped through your body like crack through an addict's veins. Your palms sweat; your vision narrows; your senses go crazy. That's terror. Freaking out is when your body prepares to be terrified. You know something is going to happen to cause you to freak out, but you don't know what. Some of the same symptoms occur: adrenaline, heart rate, slight increase in sensory data. However, you are not terrified.

What Dead Space does is realize that it cannot properly keep someone terrified for the many hours of gameplay. It will get dull at moments. The feeling of death and terror will go away. What Dead Space attempted (and in my opinion succeeded at doing) was keep the suspense high. This is similar in part to Bioshock. In Bioshock, that suspense came from not knowing, from having small pieces of seemingly incongruous data force fed to the player. It was terrifying when I finally pieced it all together and figured out what happened. I saw the decline and destruction in Rapture, and I cringed. It was glorious. The same applied to Dead Space, one of the reasons I loved it so much. Dead Space had the logs, the writings on the walls, and everything in the environment to play with in order to tell the story of the Ishimura. It did so with great fluency. At the beginning of the game, all you saw was a derelict ship with weird monsters running around trying to kill you. You just wanted to get off. By the end, you were not just running from the necromorphs, you were running from the past that surrounded these once-human beings. Furthermore, the religion (the name slips my mind at the moment), once fully viewed through the glasses of hindsight, was even more creepy and weird than the monsters which chased you around!

Admittedly, by the end of the game, the horror from the monsters was gone, and I felt somewhat invincible. The massive amounts of health packs, ammo, and weaponry sitting in my vault in the store made me feel like every boss fight was a tea party and every necromorph just a way to get some weapon and action specific achievements. I get that the game lost its terrifying luster throughout the playing. However, what kept it unusual, what kept me on the edge of my seat, was the same thing as in Bioshock and that was the environment. That's why Dead Space was good.

In my opinion.

[Cureless_Poison]

Kick ass story, creepy game-play, and curb stomping.

Enough said.

[masamune]

SPOILERS AHEAD.
(That being said, if you haven't played Dead Space by now, what kind of loser are you? )

:(:(

[teknotheef]

I thoughroughly enjoyed it, once I turned off V-Sync and the mouse worked.