Should I buy Dead Space?

[shihonage]

Well, it's fun for a while, but soon enough you'll realise you're doing the same thing over and over again. I didn't finish it.

Same. And I bought it too. Blargh.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I will castrate anyone caught wasting money on Dead Space. I'm hundred percent serious. It's a fucking financial crisis and you're even CONSIDERING wasting money on absolute garbage? You fucking worthless piece of eagle excrement. And that goes for every one of these stupid fucking "should I buy it"-threads. If you have to ask you shouldn't fucking buy it, end of fucking story.

Well, there goes that idea then. It's out for $5 on Steam right now. Figured it might be worth it at that price given all I've heard about it but Codex reviews seem to be not that great.

 

[Gragt]

Meh, it's fun enough to warrant a purchase for 5 bucks.

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

It's perfectly worth $5. If the idea of RE4 in space without QTEs appeals to you, pick it up. The zero-g and vacuum sequences are lots of fun. Weapons are varied from standard shooter fare and fun to use. And like I said two years ago, it's substantially better than RE5.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Eh, I'd wait until it's worth even less than 5 bucks. I personally didn't like the entire gameplay mechanic of entering a room and waiting for all the monsters to come in, sorry ambush you, from the ventilation system.

Dead Space was a huge yawn for me all the way to the end and the action isn't good enough to justify it. As a matter of fact, there's very little action. You're moving, you see monster, you shoot monster, you continue moving. Occasionally there's tentacle that come from ventilation systems that try to drag you in with them and it's instant death if you mess up shooting it during the brief "shoot monster" periods. QTEs.

Also, don't worry, Deejou. Don't worry.

edit: Man, I was fucking angry in this thread. Must have forgotten my medication.

 

[torpid]

My action game standards have crumbled to the point where the absence of popamole cover mechanics and regenerating health are enough to make Dead Space good for what it is. It's got that damn consolized sluggishness that so many games have nowadays, though.

And it's only a survival game for those who've been raised at the teat of popamole and try to run to the nearest ledge to get into cover. I can imagine them: "Why is teh cover not activating?? I'm humping teh table, why doesn't it workkk???"

The tentacled babies that eat your face if you let them jump you were pretty cool.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Survival horror is another term for monsters will come from windows, according to Penny Arcade. I agree completely, unfortunately.

I'll give Dead Space one thing. Unique deaths depending on what monster killed you is pretty lulzy. But then you'd have to actually get yourself killed, which is near impossible if you're not doing it intentionally.

 

[Metro]

It's only $5 if you preorder the sequel (or have a friend who preorders the sequel buys it and gifts it to you) -- otherwise $6.80ish or so. Not a big difference, but meh. Game never really appealing to me as I'm not a big fan of cover shooters that don't have some interesting tweak in game play a la Mass Effect with its RPG elements.

 

[asper]

It's worth $5, not more.

 

[Dele]

Not worth buying. Not scary.

I liked the atmosphere, setting and the death animations.

Sequel to be released next tuesday, but expectations are low.

 

[Gragt]

Yeah, as much as I loved Dead Space, the sequel gives me a bad vibe.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS THE PLASTIC IS STILL ON MY FAGBOX COPY BUT THE REVIEWS HERE HAVE BEEN SO-SO ENOUGH FOR ME TO EVENTUALLY PLAY IT

 

[el Supremo]

I have really enjoyed it, however the mere fact that it takes place on the starship can, in my case, override great many of flaws.
I still remember how, when playing Cold Fear, I kept thinking "it would be so much better if the game would have taken me somewhere into deep space, instead of a shitty whailing ship" And there it is. Dead Space.
My only gripe is, why the fuck they have to hand held me all the fucking time? C'mon let me solve some puzzles on my own, no need to comm me about every fucking button I need to press.

 

[denizsi]

Poor man's consolized SS2. The first 1/3 was promising and fun, then it became a retarded meat grinder.

 

[DraQ]

Occasionally there's tentacle that come from ventilation systems that try to drag you in with them and it's instant death if you mess up shooting it during the brief "shoot monster" periods. QTEs.

Far from actual QTE. In a proper QTE you're generally required to punch keys in sequence with proper timing to do something (usually something awesome). Here you use the exact same aiming mechanics as normally except that you're being dragged and shaken which makes aiming difficult.

Game never really appealing to me as I'm not a big fan of cover shooters

Good, because it's not a cover shooter.

Now, I still wouldn't buy the game, but that's because DRM it uses.
I played it however, and my impressions were positive.
Indeed, it isn't very scary and it's clearly been made with consoletards in mind, as certain scares are in a repeated manner that makes them predictable to anyone with fully developed brain. It suffers from horrid controls, bad suit design, and save points. It's a poor man's System Shock 2.
All of those are true, but:

It still manages to be quite atmospheric and even pulls a decent mindfuck. Other than issues mentioned it's surprisingly well ported, looking well and working fluidly. Apart from retarded looking suits, the game is well designed in terms of visuals. The game uses dismemberment meaningfully. 0G and vacuum sections are nothing short of sheer brilliance. There is upgrade mechanics to spice things up. Melee combat is convincingly rough and brutal - you are not playing badass performing acrobatic feats to kill enemies with style, you're playing a scared shitless tech who hopes to bludgeon things to death by swinging heavy mining tools at them, repeatedly. Poor man's System Shock 2 means, among other things, that it still contains recognizable shock-like elements and shock-like elements are good.

It's not perfect, but I'd be perfectly happy to buy it was it not for DRM.


BTW:
Does anyone remember old Project Firestart on c64?
I think it was the seminal survival horror game.

 

[Gragt]

I never really had troubles with the controls. Bit sluggish but it somehow fits the character being an engineer instead of someone trained for combat and tactics. That said I found the mouse too sluggish at time and I've pretty much solved it by disabling vsync in the game and forcing it as well as triple buffering with another app. Works nice now.

 

[DraQ]

I never really had troubles with the controls.

Hello? Southpaw here. Mouse being sluggish was noticeable, but it was the least of my problems - southpaws cannot into WASD and the game was neither as old nor as awesome as SS1 or TN:SFC which made me endure WASD in silence, knowing that in enduring I shall grow strong.

 

[Metro]

Game never really appealing to me as I'm not a big fan of cover shooters

Good, because it's not a cover shooter.

The game play is essentially the same. Cover shooter was probably a poor choice of words on my part -- how about: generic third person shooter?

 

[DraQ]

Game never really appealing to me as I'm not a big fan of cover shooters

Good, because it's not a cover shooter.

The game play is essentially the same.

No it isn't. In cover shooter you sit behind an indestructible box and pop moles.

Cover shooter was probably a poor choice of words on my part -- how about: generic third person shooter?

Ok, so it's a generic third person shooter with excellent vacuum, cool 0G, meaningful dismemberment, shock-esque vibe and moderate mindfuck pulled of rather successfully. Sounds pretty decent to me. Not stellar, but still worthwhile.

 

[ghostdog]

...It was a generic shooter with mundane survival horror mechanics and a dismemberment feature that was fun the first couple of hours. Graphics were good, atmosphere/sound effects ok, guns were pathetic, plot and mindfucks were laughable. After a while it got really repetitive and the occasional vacuum gimmick couldn't save it.

 

[torpid]

Ridiculous Dead Space 2 trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKkPFDEiC6Q

"It's revolting... it's violent... it's everything you love in a game...

AND YOUR MOM'S GONNA HATE IT"



And the site advertized is yourmomhatesthis.com, no joke

 

[Tycn]

Sir Isaac of Clark



I found it, well, shit. Monsters jumping out at you predictably was not in any way frightening and making leg shots the new headshots is pretty much the extent of their innovative new dismemberment system. Zero-G while novel isn't that much of a redeeming factor. Plus console port, etc.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS YET ALL YOU FUCKS STILL PLAYED IT KNOWING IT WAS THIRD PERSON CONSOLE PORT AND EVERYTHING PEOPLE HERE HAVE TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD NOT LIKE

BROS FOR EXAMPLE SHIT SMELLS BAD AND LOOKS BAD AND IF IT EVER GETS CLOSE TO MY FACE I CAN TELL IT IS NASTY

MY SOLUTION IS TO NOT EAT IT

LOOLOOLOLOL I KNOW IT IS FREE AND MIGHT BE FILLING BUT I WONT EAT IT STILL

 

[Undead Phoenix]

I never really had troubles with the controls.

Hello? Southpaw here. Mouse being sluggish was noticeable, but it was the least of my problems - southpaws cannot into WASD and the game was neither as old nor as awesome as SS1 or TN:SFC which made me endure WASD in silence, knowing that in enduring I shall grow strong.

Blaming lack of skill on being a lefty is your problem. I've never had no problems with WASD

Personally I couldn't get over how horrible the mouse felt - even after fiddling with the settings it still seemed to have a delay and I couldn't stand it. From what little I've played it was fun enough, there's better out there that's for sure, but it's still enjoyable.

 

[Jaesun]

I personally didn't like the entire gameplay mechanic of entering a room and waiting for all the monsters to come in, sorry ambush you, from the ventilation system.

This is what really ruined the game. It was still ok (I got it for 5$). The environments and sound were simply fantastic.

But Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush. Enter room, ambush.Enter room, ambush got old quick. Sad really.