• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dead Space |OT|

Kinosen

Neo Member
Dead Space was definitely a fun rental, but it was flawed in a few substantial ways. On the face of things, it's 12 hour length seems short compared to other third-person-shooters like RE4, but that 12 hour length comes from stretching the setting (the Ishimura) as thin as possible.

I found it so unsatisfying that every single time I completed a mission, something else went immediately wrong. The story was interesting, but was also cliched, especially the ending. One huge gaffe was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.

In the end though, this game gets the basics of fun third-person shooting right, and it was definitely an immersive horror experience, with a great combination of quick boo scares and a constant tension helped by excellent sound design and visuals. I found myself looking all around whenever I thought I heard something moving. The weapons are varied and all feel great for the most part. Also, the animations as you're directly struggling with enemies are fantastic.
 

dk_

Member
Kinosen said:
Dead Space was definitely a fun rental, but it was flawed in a few substantial ways. On the face of things, it's 12 hour length seems short compared to other third-person-shooters like RE4, but that 12 hour length comes from stretching the setting (the Ishimura) as thin as possible.
You should have played it on hard.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
What's the alt fire on the pulse rifle do? It seems like some spread shot, but it doesn't seem useful at all.
 

PARANO1A

Member
Kinosen said:
One huge gaff was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.
Really? That's a shame... I was looking forward to my first hard playthrough being enjoyable since I was already reasonably powerful. Now I probably won't bother.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Kinosen said:
Dead Space was definitely a fun rental, but it was flawed in a few substantial ways. On the face of things, it's 12 hour length seems short compared to other third-person-shooters like RE4, but that 12 hour length comes from stretching the setting (the Ishimura) as thin as possible.

I found it so unsatisfying that every single time I completed a mission, something else went immediately wrong. The story was interesting, but was also cliched, especially the ending. One huge gaff was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.

In the end though, this game gets the basics of fun third-person shooting right, and it was definitely an immersive horror experience, with a great combination of quick boo scares and a constant tension helped by excellent sound design and visuals. I found myself looking all around whenever I thought I heard something moving. The weapons are varied and all feel great for the most part. Also, the animations as you're directly struggling with enemies are fantastic.

How many 3rd person shooters are as long as RE4? Not many.
 

somnific

Member
Kinosen said:
One huge gaff was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.

I personally prefer it this way. I mean, why bother going through a new difficulty with all your credits and suped-up armor and weapons? Wouldn't that essentially take away the feeling of dread of going through the hardest difficulty of the game? Besides, if you really wanted to go a second time through the same difficulty, you could always choose NG instead of NG+.

For me, even though I had gone through the game twice on hard, (and the second time was understandably a cakewalk since I was carrying over all my stats and was essentially trying to max out all my weapons) once I started treading into
impossibly difficulty
territory, I actually found myself dreading what I had to do when I came to certain points in the plot and had to strategize ahead of time how to make the best use of my power nodes, ammo, what weapon to use, etc. If I were able to carry my stats, weapons and credits (although you do get to take your armor/suit) from a previous difficulty, this feeling of dread certainly would not have existed for me.

And to clear up some confusion:

There are 5 suit upgrades.
level 6 gets unlocked once you finish the game, and is only available in NG+
The console specific suits (Obsidian/Elite) only have a 10% armor rating. You are essentially gimped in terms of armor rating, but opening up all the inventory slots right away might be more beneficial to you in the long run.
The Level 5 suit upgrade has a 25% armor rating.
The Scorpion has a 25% armor rating.
The Military Suit (level 6) has a 30% armor rating.
Once you finish a game, the suit you are wearing will carry into
impossible difficulty (without the power node upgrades).
There is no need to immediately play
impossible
and reach a save point, as long as you save your NG+. Just load the NG+, then quit to the menu and you should be able to select
a new game with the impossible difficulty.
Once you equip the Obsidian/Elite or Scorpion suits, you cannot revert back to the normal suit (levels 1-50 through the store. However, you can swap out between the Obsidian/Elite, Scorpion and
Military (level 6)
suits.

Some of this stuff has already been addressed, some of it hasn't, but w/e. Just thought I'd throw it out there.
 

See

Member
so, I have an option to buy Dead Space for $70.00 ($40.00 us) is it worth it? I know its a good game, but I'm really short on cash, and a lot of good games are coming out.
 

somnific

Member
See said:
so, I have an option to buy Dead Space for $70.00 ($40.00 us) is it worth it? I know its a good game, but I'm really short on cash, and a lot of good games are coming out.

it's a phenomenal game, but i guess it depends on what kind of gaming experience you want to spend your $70 on. besides, DS for $40 us is a pretty good deal.

Papercuts said:
What's the alt fire on the pulse rifle do? It seems like some spread shot, but it doesn't seem useful at all.

it's essentially crowd control. surrounded by enemies? use the pulse rifle alt fire.

by the way, i love all the weapons, but found my favorite combo to be the plasma cutter/line gun, followed by the plasma cutter/force gun. upgraded pulse rifle is also very awesome. flamethrower sucks total balls, even fully upgraded.
 

See

Member
somnific said:
it's a phenomenal game, but i guess it depends on what kind of gaming experience you want to spend your $70 on. besides, DS for $40 us is a pretty good deal.

Sold! :p

well, I still have to wait 10 minuets to see if I'm first in line or not... fingers crossed!

EDIT: If I get it, I may have to bail out on Fallout 3 for a couple of months, and just live off Gears and this till next year.
 

Wark

Member
See said:
so, I have an option to buy Dead Space for $70.00 ($40.00 us) is it worth it? I know its a good game, but I'm really short on cash, and a lot of good games are coming out.

I'd definitely buy it for $40.
 

somnific

Member
See said:
Sold! :p

well, I still have to wait 10 minuets to see if I'm first in line or not... fingers crossed!

EDIT: If I get it, I may have to bail out on Fallout 3 for a couple of months, and just live off Gears and this till next year.

i personally would be totally fine with that type of purchase, since i loved DS (and horror action in general0, but remember that Fallout 3 is a MUCH longer gaming experience. having gone through DS twice on hard and twice on impossible i've probably racked up 32+ plus hours. I'll probably rack up twice that many hours on one playthrough of F3.
 

See

Member
somnific said:
i personally would be totally fine with that type of purchase, since i loved DS (and horror action in general0, but remember that Fallout 3 is a MUCH longer gaming experience. having gone through DS twice on hard and twice on impossible i've probably racked up 32+ plus hours. I'll probably rack up twice that many hours on one playthrough of F3.

Well, I was first in line and I accepted the offer. I'm not too worried about Fallout 3, I played Oblivion an year after release, and still enjoyed it... I can wait.

However... I am having second thoughts (even though its too late). So please tell me I got a good deal and to feel good about my self! :S

EDIT:wait.. you already told me its a good deal, and reading couple pages in this thread, makes me feel good again... Thanks :)
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Papercuts said:
What's the alt fire on the pulse rifle do? It seems like some spread shot, but it doesn't seem useful at all.
Hold down the button.

Took me until the second playthrough to work this out.
 
Good stuff so far, having just finished chapter 4. The sound design is superb, every element is tailored perfectly toward making you feel tense and uncomfortable.

Nice design for the ship, it fuses design elements from films like Alien, Event Horizon, Abyss, into a nicely unified whole.

The monsters are pure John Carpenter's The Thing. I half expect a sled dog to pop up in front of me, or at least a Kurt Russell cameo. Those Norwegians blew it up...

Isaac's suits are excellent. They still have the space armor hero look, without being another variation on the armored space marine suit.

I have to think that whoever designed Isaac's suits, the helmets in particular, was inspired by Jack Kirby's Celestial characters from Marvel comic books. Color scheme aside, the general structure is basically the same.

I'm playing on PC, and I haven't found the controls to be as unbearable as some. I do most of my gaming on PC though, so perhaps even bad mouse and keyboard controls are still easier for me to use than console controller sticks.
 

Arcipello

Member
!!!!MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!

but here is a cool little secret

Put the first letter of each chapter together....

Mission 1: New Arrivals
Mission 2: Intensive Care
Mission 3: Course Correction
Mission 4: Obliteration Imminent
Mission 5: Lethal Devotion
Mission 6: Environmental Hazard
Mission 7: Into the Void
Mission 8: Search and Rescue
Mission 9: Dead on Arrival
Mission 10: End of Days
Mission 11: Alternate Solutions
Mission 12: Dead Space
 

dk_

Member
Arcipello said:
!!!!MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!

but here is a cool little secret

Put the first letter of each chapter together....

Mission 1: New Arrivals
Mission 2: Intensive Care
Mission 3: Course Correction
Mission 4: Obliteration Imminent
Mission 5: Lethal Devotion
Mission 6: Environmental Hazard
Mission 7: Into the Void
Mission 8: Search and Rescue
Mission 9: Dead on Arrival
Mission 10: End of Days
Mission 11: Alternate Solutions
Mission 12: Dead Space
Old and learn to spoiler, please.

65536 said:
I finished hard in 12:22:22, and I took my time about it, exploring the environments and playing the minigames.
Here's a cookie.

I need at least 1 1/2 h for a chapter. I guess I die too often. :lol
 

VicViper

Member
The VSync option in the PC version is apparently broken. Not only does it cap your framerate at 30fps if your machine is otherwise capable of a perfect 60fps, it also slows down the game significantly. To the point where mouse movements (even in the main menu) become laggy.

So, if you're playing the PC version, DO NOT ENABLE VSync - it will ruin the experience for you.
 
VicViper said:
The VSync option in the PC version is apparently broken. Not only does it cap your framerate at 30fps if your machine is otherwise capable of a perfect 60fps, it also slows down the game significantly. To the point where mouse movements (even in the main menu) become laggy.

So, if you're playing the PC version, DO NOT ENABLE VSync - it will ruin the experience for you.

I'm playing the PC version, all settings on high, with VSync enabled, and I didn't notice any slow down. The cursor in the pause menu is a little weird, but other than that, nothing.


Any way to monitor FPS ingame, without using FRAPS, Xfire, etc?
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
Damn I love my Pulse Rifle. I'm close to freaking surgical with this bitch, even at range.

Thanks for the spoiler. I appreciate it. Sincerely.
Ajemsuhgao said:
I'm playing the PC version, all settings on high, with VSync enabled, and I didn't notice any slow down. The cursor in the pause menu is a little weird, but other than that, nothing.


Any way to monitor FPS ingame, without using FRAPS, Xfire, etc?
Are you using the in-game VSync? If so, please turn it off and force Vsync with your gpu control panel.

FRAPS won't slow you down unless you're recording.
 
K.Jack said:
Damn I love my Pulse Rifle. I'm close to freaking surgical with this bitch, even at range.

Thanks for the spoiler. I appreciate it. Sincerely.

Are you using the in-game VSync? If so, please turn it off and force Vsync with your gpu control panel.

FRAPS won't slow you down unless you're recording.

I wasn't worried about it slowing me down or anything. I was just wondering if I can monitor the FPS, without actually using some outside program.
 

big_z

Member
Ajemsuhgao said:
Wow. Fuck you. If something's a spoiler, SPOILER TAG IT.

God damn it.


it's not much of a spoiler imo. you can figure it out pretty easily in the first third of the game.



anyway i finished the game a few hours ago. was really looking forward to this but in the end i came away somewhat disappointed. two biggest issues are:

-the mission structure is horrible and gets old fast. play one level, rinse and repeat for 11 more. as soon as you finish one task something else is magically fucked. you are constantly being shit on and dont feel rewarded at all. would have been nice to have stretches where it feels likes your going to make it for a while and help develope the story before the next problem appears and needs to be fixed.

-the game isnt scary at all. there is no tension build up to feel scared as you are constantly killing something and the monster closets dont help as it feels like your running around an empty environment until you hit a trigger point.... a lot of them being obvious. the game isnt dark enough either... sure it's dimly lit for the most part but you can always see enough to feel safe. the guy has a flashlight too, why they didnt take advantage of that and have some pitch black areas is beyond me.

overall it's a solid B grade horror game.
 
big_z said:
it's not much of a spoiler imo. you can figure it out pretty easily in the first third of the game.

Oh, really? Great. Because having a hunch about something early on, and actually KNOWING, yeah, that's totally the same and shouldn't matter.

Come on. I figured that was probably the case, but I still would've liked to be able to think I may be wrong. :\
 

K.Jack

Knowledge is power, guard it well
big_z said:
the guy has a flashlight too, why they didnt take advantage of that and have some pitch black areas is beyond me.
Hmm. Either I have brightness set two low, or yours is too high. I just had an oh shit pitch black moment
in the Decontamination Chamber on the way into the Centrifuge.
The light from my rifle was all I had, other than the dim little lights on the walls.
 
big_z said:
-the mission structure is horrible and gets old fast. play one level, rinse and repeat for 11 more. as soon as you finish one task something else is magically fucked. you are constantly being shit on and dont feel rewarded at all. would have been nice to have stretches where it feels likes your going to make it for a while and help develope the story before the next problem appears and needs to be fixed.

-the game isnt scary at all. there is no tension build up to feel scared as you are constantly killing something and the monster closets dont help as it feels like your running around an empty environment until you hit a trigger point.... a lot of them being obvious. the game isnt dark enough either... sure it's dimly lit for the most part but you can always see enough to feel safe. the guy has a flashlight too, why they didnt take advantage of that and have some pitch black areas is beyond me.

I can not for the life of me understand how people can have your first issue with the game. It would be a pretty short and easy game if you could fix everything the first chapter and then nothing else went wrong. Name a single narrative based game (ie, not a points game, but a progression game) that DOESN'T use this tactic. Just one.

The second point is equally baffling. The game would suck if the monsters were just randomly roaming around. It's the music and the specific trigger points that are crafted to screw with your psyche. They did a brilliant job too, so if you were unaffected, chalk one up to desensitization (or the internet's inherent "against-the-grainsism" school of contrarian chic). They had to have the "obvious" scares in order to increase the impact of the ones that weren't obvious, like the monster on the ground NOT getting up, or the monster jumping out behind you while your chasing another's shadow). I hate to break it to you bud, but if this game "isn't scary at all" to you, then no game will EVER be scary for you, 'ya big manly he-man you! Best leave the genre to us wimps.
 

jax (old)

Banned
Deadspace made me so ill with motionsickness that I threw up. No joke. This is really weird, I wonder if its the framerate because its not a FPS.
 

buffi

Banned
Jax said:
Deadspace made me so ill with motionsickness that I threw up. No joke. This is really weird, I wonder if its the framerate because its not a FPS.
I've heard this from other people as well, so it's not just you.

I myself don't have that issue but I got more than a little annoyed over the constant shaking at some places.
 
buffi said:
I've heard this from other people as well, so it's not just you.

I myself don't have that issue but I got more than a little annoyed over the constant shaking at some places.

nYuXfPdOj.gif


you were just asking for that :)
 

JRW

Member
VicViper said:
The VSync option in the PC version is apparently broken. Not only does it cap your framerate at 30fps if your machine is otherwise capable of a perfect 60fps, it also slows down the game significantly. To the point where mouse movements (even in the main menu) become laggy.

So, if you're playing the PC version, DO NOT ENABLE VSync - it will ruin the experience for you.

My PC runs dead space @ 60fps no problem (with high graphic settings) but I couldnt figure out the mouse lag even with vsync disabled, so ive been playing through 360's version.
 

Wark

Member
jaask said:
Sorry if old but I just realised that taking the first letter of all 12 chapters of the game spells out NICOLEISDEAD

I just finished the game and I decided to go back a few pages to finally see what your post said. :lol That is so clever.
 
PC GAMERS

disable vsync in the game, enable vsync in your graphics card drivers. you will get a locked 60fps minimum (more if your monitor can do higher refresh rates). if you are bothered by mouse lag, but have a 360 (and therefore a 360 pad) spent $20 on a wireless 360 pad receiver for your PC and use your 360 pad on the PC. enjoy the game with better graphics, better framerate and the same controls you'd expect on the console version.
 

Egg Shen

Member
vas_a_morir said:
Guys, what the hell is a "marker" as it pertains to the game? I didn't understand the plot. Blame my little SD tv, that I couldn't read the text logs.
From what I understood from the game, the Marker was an alien artifact that the military had actually uncovered...on Earth. Altman was right all along, the government was hiding something. They reverse engineered the thing into the marker that is in the Aegis system now, performed an experiment using it, and then bottled up the results in the core of the planet with the Marker acting as the cork until it was moved to the Ishimura. There might be more in the back logs that are unlocked after you finish your first run, but I haven't checked yet.
 

big_z

Member
K.Jack said:
Hmm. Either I have brightness set two low, or yours is too high. I just had an oh shit pitch black moment
in the Decontamination Chamber on the way into the Centrifuge.
The light from my rifle was all I had, other than the dim little lights on the walls.

i turned the brightness down until i could not see the logo which is darker than the game recommends. i think the part you mentioned is one of the few tiny parts where it gets nearly black. there's a small black out in medical too but that's about it.

Mango Positive said:
I can not for the life of me understand how people can have your first issue with the game. It would be a pretty short and easy game if you could fix everything the first chapter and then nothing else went wrong. Name a single narrative based game (ie, not a points game, but a progression game) that DOESN'T use this tactic. Just one..

i didnt say they should have had you fix everything in the first chapter. i just dont want to be doing the exact same type of mission as soon as i just finished one. space them out... example: say the mission is to restore power to the tram so you can get to the bridge, you do it and meet up with your crew. you feel good and like you achieved something. during the tram ride an asteroid busts through and snaps the track which causes emergency stop. you regroup from the shock and hear some monsters off in the distance. since it's not safe on the tram you have to get off and find a temporary safe house.... along the way a swarm of monsters attack and you have to fend them off. once you get safe then the next mission, which would likely be to fix the debri shields would be given to you.... and so on and so on. something like this would give you some breathing room/variety inbetween missions and a chance to develope characters/story a bit more.

the way the game was put together you collect some stuff & flip a switch to complete a mission. The very second you flip that switch a video pops up telling you something else is wrong and you need to do the exact same thing in the next area... it's very unsatisfying. doing this is fine for a few levels but it wears on you fast after that.

The second point is equally baffling. The game would suck if the monsters were just randomly roaming around. It's the music and the specific trigger points that are crafted to screw with your psyche. They did a brilliant job too, so if you were unaffected, chalk one up to desensitization (or the internet's inherent "against-the-grainsism" school of contrarian chic). They had to have the "obvious" scares in order to increase the impact of the ones that weren't obvious, like the monster on the ground NOT getting up, or the monster jumping out behind you while your chasing another's shadow). I hate to break it to you bud, but if this game "isn't scary at all" to you, then no game will EVER be scary for you, 'ya big manly he-man you! Best leave the genre to us wimps

the audio is fine but saying the trigger points are well crafted i cant agree with. you can predict most of them. having monsters roam around is far better than monster closets. system shock 2 did the roaming thing really well. you could hear the monsters off in the distance moving around. you never felt safe because you never knew if you were going to run into one when you turn a corner or if one would find you when you're taking a breather.

in dead space you enter a room, hit the invisible trigger and shoot the shit. once the monsters are dead you are 100% safe in that room and every room you've been through. if they had some monsters roaming around along with the monster closets used, the game would have been better imo. Plus having stuff roaming around makes it feel like there's something there in the enviroment with you. The closet method feels empty until you hit a trigger.

I do get scared with some games, this one just isnt scary. It's like RE4, an action game wrapped in a horror theme.

K.Jack said:
I honestly don't care what you think about it. Please go back and spoiler tag that post.

i didnt post the spoiler. i havent posted any spoilers.
 

crispyben

Member
Thanks for the spoilers Arcipello! I haven't even begun playing this game, and now I already know of one early plot device... Is it so hard to
spoiler that shit
?
 

Chorazin

Member
Egg Shen said:
From what I understood from the game, the Marker was an alien artifact that the military had actually uncovered...on Earth. Altman was right all along, the government was hiding something. They reverse engineered the thing into the marker that is in the Aegis system now, performed an experiment using it, and then bottled up the results in the core of the planet with the Marker acting as the cork until it was moved to the Ishimura. There might be more in the back logs that are unlocked after you finish your first run, but I haven't checked yet.

According to the comic book series:

The marker is found on the colony, and a group of religious zealots think it's the item that will prove they are correct in their beliefs. Sadly, hardcore beleivers in this religion are the ones running the show, so when people start acting messed up, no action is taken and people start turning into Necromorphs when they die. This leads to the colony being wiped out, and then the game starts...
 
Mango Positive said:
I can not for the life of me understand how people can have your first issue with the game...

Agree completely. I think the game does a tremendous job of keeping things interesting throughout without getting stale. There's always some new enemy or twist to deal with.

I'm midway through Chapter 9 - still in love.
 

J2d

Member
Ajemsuhgao said:
Come on. I figured that was probably the case, but I still would've liked to be able to think I may be wrong. :\
I thought it was handled so badly, one of the few things I can fault the game with.
 

RoH

Member
Chorazin said:
According to the comic book series:

The marker is found on the colony, and a group of religious zealots think it's the item that will prove they are correct in their beliefs. Sadly, hardcore beleivers in this religion are the ones running the show, so when people start acting messed up, no action is taken and people start turning into Necromorphs when they die. This leads to the colony being wiped out, and then the game starts...

Both of you pretty much summed up the back story. I still want the damn DVD though.
 
Costanza said:
:D My Blu-ray copy of Downfall just showed up
lol prepare to be disappointed (especially if you're that excited)

It's an okay movie, at best.
Some of the scenes are just fucking retarded. For example, when 2 engineers return to the Ishimura after the infection (and the growth on the walls is already there). ONE of them reacts like any normal human would ("Wtf?"), but the other one just walks away and says in the most nonchalant way: "I'm gonna go see my wife. See you later."

It may sound like I'm nitpicking but there's a LOT of scenes like this in the movie where you just sit there and ask yourself "what the fuck are they doing?" "why aren't they shooting the damn thing?" etc. etc.

There's also a lot of gratuitous f-bombs, and a pointless cameo from someone in the game.

Lastly, the ending of the movie is supposed to pick up w/ the game, but there's quite a few lines of extra dialogue that weren't in the game.
Nitpicking, I know... but still.

In the end, like I said, it's an okay movie, at best.


I did like the animation and gore a lot, though. :D

EDIT: Oh, another point of contention. Endgame + movie spoilers:
At the end of the movie, the main character finds solace by the Marker because, apparently, the necromorphs can't go near it. This would've been fine if IT WORKED LIKE THAT IN THE DAMN GAME. It would've made the entire last chapter of the game muchhhh easier if it actually worked like that, but no dice. Meh.
 
Top Bottom