Shep gets Dead Space (Technical Review)

[MKSheppard]

Original Dead Space Thread from back when

So I got Dead Space on PC for $9.99 through Steam's Halloween Special.

(Had to install Steam to play Fallout:NV; so I started looking thru their specials and Dead Space's concept of a derelict spacecraft was always intruiging to me).

So I downloaded it (7 GB) and started it up. Intro was pretty awesome, and the game ran smoothly on my system which is fairly old by now, even at 1920x1080, which is always a plus.

Another big plus was that it was subtitled -- that's something that's forgotten a lot by game developers these days.

So the intro was pretty awesome and all science fictiony. I like that kind of stuff.

Even if Doctor Big Tits was distracting me.


Doctor Big Tits is on the Left. Generic Military Hard-Ass on Right

Anyway; it's once the game starts that the problems begin.

"Wait, where's the toggle to go first person view."

"Ok; so it's a third person only game, like Metal Gear Solid..."

The difference was with Metal Gear Solid, you actually had a useable POV that wasn't always blocked by Solid Snake's body. Dead Space's POV is always permanently locked into a dumbass 'right over your shoulder' mode that only pulls back to generate a useable POV when you are running.

I tried to like the game, but the horrible camera controls basically made it unplayable for me -- along with the rather worthless GUI that tried to make it appear like it was 'floating in space'. I'm sure that was a great selling point in whatever Tech Demo that spawned this game, but as a game mechanic it's confusing and rather pointless.

Where do I need to go next to accomplish my next objective and move the game/plot along?

*hits B, Isaac holds out his hand and does some glowy shit from it that highlights a blue path on the ground*

All good and fine, until you have to whirl the camera view around a lot to find the path to go follow.

Gets better. Your character's body blocks a lot of the POV, which is such a great help in the dark corridors which inhabit this game, artificially inflating the difficulty.

Finally, there are a whole bunch of dumb puzzles that center around the 'stasis' mechanic which is a magitech slowdown device that your character can fire at stuff.

Even more fun is the way combat is handled -- enemies don't go down from basic center of mass shots. You have to basically dismember them which can be done if you're only facing one enemy at a time at the end of a long corridor, giving you the time needed to line up your shot in ha-ha-fuck-you-third-person-mode. It's when multiple enemies appear that the fuck-you-factor increases.

Oh, did I mention that you can't save at any point? The save system is basically an old style console save system with 'save points' scattered throughout the ship, with random restart points throughout the ship in case you die, so you don't have to repeat a whole first half of a chapter.

I think the best way to describe Dead Space is that it's got a whole clutch of "innovators" piled together. It probably would have worked if they had done it as a traditional FPS, since then the controls would not be confusing and you would be able to line up your shots to dismember graboids easier. But they must have gotten seduced by the whole "lets dispense with a traditional HUD and show everything floatying in space, with a inexplicable blue glowing spine on our characters back standing in for health." to tick off the INNOVATION thing when they whored it out to game review magazines.

At least I didn't pay that much more than the average $7 USD cost for a console game weekly rental so I wasn't completely fucked by this purchase.

EDIT: Oh, I just remembered. Of course they do the game mechanic of "oh noes, you got cut off from the rest of your team of explorers, so you have to explore and fix shit for the lazy bastards so they can explore deeper into the ship."

That was god damned old and lame when the original Alien vs Predator or was it AvP 2 did it during the Marine side of the game and had you dungeon crawl by yourself to fix shit for your worthless squad mates.

[raptor3x]

If you were using mouse and keyboard, did you know to turn off vsync? If you don't the controls are atrocious.

[General Zod]

itt Shep can't adjust to third person. I never had any problems adapting to Dead Space's controls or anything else really, and found the UI being integrated into your suit a nice touch. The only real problem with the game is the fact that ammo gets absurdly easy to come by later on.

[White Haven]

Third-person is fine, but I too had major issues adapting to the 'hi, you can only see things to your right' camera in Deadspace.

[MKSheppard]

itt Shep can't adjust to third person.

ITT ZOD is a dumbass with poor comprehension. I specifically mentioned Metal Gear Solid -- which actually had a sane third person camera set up and a wide enough FOV that enabled you to see more than just your character's ass or backside.

[Stark]

Third-person is fine, but I too had major issues adapting to the 'hi, you can only see things to your right' camera in Deadspace.

They probably thought it was scarier that way.

Considering subs a selling point is bizarre; I can't remember the last time I played a game without subs. It's not like Dead Easy had anything important to say, anyway.

[MKSheppard]

Considering subs a selling point is bizarre; I can't remember the last time I played a game without subs. It's not like Dead Easy had anything important to say, anyway.

*point to signature*

Some games are good about subtitles and subtitle just about everything. Others are....worse and basically don't do anything at all.

[Sarevok]

Also being a non native english speaker I appreciate subtitles. Sometimes I cant catch what people are saying. Subs help me here.

[Stark]

Heaps of games even default to subs on, which is truly annoying. Maybe you should look at more consoles?

WH, did you play on PC? I'm not feeling these references to camera or difficulty. Apparently it was a bad port but this sounds like a bigger problem than the inferiority of keyboard n mouse.

[White Haven]

Yeah, I've got a 360, but I tend to prefer the control style on PC games, so I buy there when possible. Also Steam > Gamestop.

[General Zod]

Yeah, I've got a 360, but I tend to prefer the control style on PC games, so I buy there when possible. Also Steam > Gamestop.

Speaking of Steam you can get Dead Space for like $10 on sale for Halloween.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Interesting to see second take on it.

Myself, I felt it worth the full price on console back when it came out. Despite it being rather short, and fairly easy once you got the hang of it. Infact, I'm looking forward to the sequel that's slated for January, last I checked.

Never looked into the PC version, but it's interesting that VSync would affect the controls so negatively.


Counter-points I guess:

I never found Isaac to be much of an obstruction. Although he does take up a fair amount of real-estate. Early on, the enemies are almost always infront of you, and down a corridor. Even later on... if you're genre savvy you can pretty accurately predict where/when stuff will spawn.

The integration for the HUD may be drastically different on PC... but it wasn't particularly wonky on 360. Turning the camera, did render it unreadable... but, you don't really have to access it at any pressing point, so the fact that it doesn't pause the game becomes somewhat moot. (Primarily since you never had to use something out of your inventory. Guns reload, healthkits are used, and weapons are swapped all off hotkeys. The store(age) is effectively a safe zone... so even when inventory management is an issue, you're free and clear...

Somewhat hilariously, the game gets vastly easier if you stick to the plasma cutter you get off the bat. Ammo drops are heavily weighted by the guns you're carrying, so with only one gun, ammo stops being an issue. Combined with that, is the fact that using only the PC means you can be fully upgraded at, or shortly after, the Centrifuge...

Though, if you can't line up the easy shot the early (even the charred ones) necromorphs are, you're so going to rage at one of the later enemies.

[Shinova]

The cramped camera is most likely intentional to add to the claustrophobia effect.


The controls on the PC are atrocious. I had to do crazy things with the mouse sensitivity settings in-game and with windows before I could play dead space with any playability.

If you've got the option, you really should get the game on a console.

[MKSheppard]

Speaking of Steam you can get Dead Space for like $10 on sale for Halloween.

ITT Zod continues to show lack of reading comprehension.

So I got Dead Space on PC for $9.99 through Steam's Halloween Special.

[MKSheppard]

The cramped camera is most likely intentional to add to the claustrophobia effect.

If that was their intention; they failed pretty massively at it.

They also had the camera do some pretty crazy and stupid things.

In some angles, you almost have a useable FOV/POV. But if you swing the camera usually to look to the left or right of the character, the FOV/POV zooms in, and a lot of usable space is taken up by your character's head; defeating the purpose of a look over your shoulder. But hey; we get to see the crazy-funky helmet the character uses.

The controls on the PC are atrocious. I had to do crazy things with the mouse sensitivity settings in-game and with windows before I could play dead space with any playability.

I've heard a lot of bad things about the PC port -- disabling vsynch helped with the camera angle change to make it a bit smoother -- but the game is just crippled by it's excessively close up POV of the main character.

If you've got the option, you really should get the game on a console.

Honestly, I'm sitting this console generation out for price and reliability reasons -- the prices remain largely static; with the only things changing being the hard drive size and slowly increasing reliability.

Plus, there just aren't that many games that interest me as much compared to when I was younger.

[aieeegrunt]

If you have a PC version there may be a way to mod the camera positioning, in fact there is a good possibility it's already been done.

[General Zod]

Speaking of Steam you can get Dead Space for like $10 on sale for Halloween.

ITT Zod continues to show lack of reading comprehension.

So I got Dead Space on PC for $9.99 through Steam's Halloween Special.

I'd be more inclined to pay attention to a review of a two year old game I've already beaten if it didn't look like a wall of text vomit.

[Alyeska]

I'd be more inclined to pay attention to a review of a two year old game I've already beaten if it didn't look like a wall of text vomit.

Do you have anything of substance to add, or is it your intention to continue throwing shit at the walls?

[General Zod]

I'd be more inclined to pay attention to a review of a two year old game I've already beaten if it didn't look like a wall of text vomit.

Do you have anything of substance to add, or is it your intention to continue throwing shit at the walls?

Besides pointing out that most of Shep's complaints are just bellyaching and not really that big of a deal like I already did?

[CaptHawkeye]

Dead Space felt more like a chore to play than any fun. Journalists and fanboys alike praised the game for its "atmosphere" and to be quite honest it really lacks any of that. When you play, it...well...feels like a game. Not like it's scary. I might care a bit more about the atmosphere if Isaac wasn't such a bumbling retard. Half the time he's more dangerous to HIMSELF than the monsters are to him.

Now Metro 2033. THAT'S a pants shitting game.

[Shogoki]

I played Dead Space when it was fairly new. I also found that the POV annoying after a while. I'm also incapable of finding 3rd person shooters scary. Not once, not ever, so all the work done on the level design went to waste. At most i might get startled when a monster comes out of a closet, but that's it. Making a 1st person option available would have done wonders for me in this game.

I eventually quit the game about half the way through when i got tired of wasting time looking for those damn things that give you update points for your weapons an ammo. I just don't have patience for that ass backwards way of lengthening game time.

I'll also like to second the recommendation for Metro 2033, now that's a game with atmosphere, I think i've seen it on special on steam a few times.

[Stark]

I don't think the poor atmosphere had anything to do with the perspective. The plot and execution was just a complete failure (rehashing System Shock 2 with 8-bit bosses) and the limited number of badguys and heavy combat focus drew away from it further. Penumbra does 'fear' better and Metro does 'desperation' better, but frankly even without that Dull Space is a clumsy combination of uninteresting, dead easy combat. There's no fear without threat, and they didn't do enough zero-g or vacuum sections to have either. For fuck's sake the final boss can't hit you if you walk slowly to the left!

Remember when he was supposed to be an engineer and his weapons repurposed tools? Turns out he just pushes crates and all his guns are pew pews, if you're foolish enough to handicap yourself by buying any other weapons.

[Alyeska]

I didn't find Dead Space to be hard at all. But I still found it to be fun. The story itself was entertaining. The game wasn't especially scary after the first 15 minutes. Dicing up dead aliens into smaller pieces was fun. Plasma Cutter was a wonderful weapon. But even a fully upgraded assault rifle was useful.

[Vendetta]

Now Metro 2033. THAT'S a pants shitting game.

It's also got pretty terrible subs though. Although all the critical dialogue is subtitled, the incidental stuff isn't at all.

Which is hilarious when you play it in Russian.

[Stark]

I think some of the non-subbed stuff is indirect hints, actually. Ah well, playing in English hurts the game.