[BLOG] Step 1: Dead Space
This is part one of a three step plan. Step 1: Dead Space Step 2: Far Cry 2 Step 3: Fall Out. This would be a four step plan but Red Alert is not a step just part of my life. Enough with that---->
Dead Space the new F.E.A.R., I think not. This is a point I would like to make before I get into the game. Dead Space was meant to be a game with the concept of "In space no one can hear you scream" added to a fairly standard horror adventure/puzzle FPS formula. There are a lot of parts in the game that will make you jump, be startled, and make you scream WTF GTF AWAY. The environments are always busy with sounds that are meant to keep you recoiled in fear and afraid to turn the next corner faster than your desire to get out of bed on a Monday morning. This game came fairly close to being THE scariest but fell short. There is to much sound always going on it doesn't give you a chance to lulled into a sense of security and all of a sudden have a mass of enemies literally run into you as you turn a corner. I just feel there isn't going to be many games that will top F.E.A.R. with its invisible ninjas jumping out of the ceiling, nightmarish dream scenes, and the dead enemies from 3 minutes ago rattling around then shooting through a wall to just leave a blood smear to show that they were there. Dead Space is still not for children and those easily scared still....I see scary things in the dark now....sssshhh I can hear them in the vents.
Alright so most everyone and their mom know that Dead Space takes place on a junked space ship that is designed to crack planets to mine their resources, except this one had more in it than what they thought. You play an engineer that is sent to fix their problems after contact was lost, except you really don't fix anything kind of like how Gordon never did any math he just whacked stuff with a crowbar. The game is you running around the ship fixing one problem, engines don't work, you are locked out of areas, fix the trams, but of course this always alerts you to another problem or issue you have to take care of ASAP or EVERYONE DIES.
This is not a very fast paced game, chapters are taking me 45 minutes to an hour because I am looking for all the items and checking every corner for something to shoot. The real reason for a need to explorer every deck and room is because you find things you need, be it ammo, money?, circuit boards?, and power nodes. These items allow for a nice section of the game, you can upgrade all of your weapons and gear, here is where you engineering comes into play. As you walk around, shoot things, and stop on boxes(I think this guy has an anger management issue he stomps on everything in site) you find power nodes that are used on certain locked doors to find schematics that allow you buy new items, weapons, and RIG(your suit) upgrades. All of these things are purchased in ship wide stores that take the credits you find in these dead things after you stomp on them and they pop like a pinatta spilling their goodies all over the place. The other fairly neat thing that the ship store allows you to do is put items in a safe so you can access them later without having to discard them, because your suit allows only a certain number of slots and ammo, med packs, and misc. items eat them up fast with RIG level 1 and 2. But the really cool thing to do is use your power nodes you find and buy to upgrade your gear; increase health, air capacity(remember you are in space), weapon damage, reload, capacity, distance of kinesis, etc. It is all based on a path system, like the standard point system for a skill tree. I really like this because it allows you to build your character and weapons in regards to your style of play.
The other interesting thing about this game is the way they build a new HUD with an over the shoulder view. There is nothing on your screen, if a menu is needed it is holographically projected from your character; i.e. 3-map, inventory, ammo counter. Also the health and energy bar are located on your characters back so you always know how many more bone spears to the chest you can take before the next enemy spears you through and then eats your head. This over the shoulder view allows for you to see more of your surroundings and look around without ever moving your character because you have a free roam view until you move. "wow check out that blood on my chest from stomping on that guys head until it popped". This does all get rather annoying because the response in the camera gets a little sluggish and has caused me to take some extra damage but not kill me, I do find myself running into a lot of walls and door ways because your view is centered in the screen but your character is not and it feels like you have to run at an angel to the right to go straight. Never the less it works really well, I feel like I am some sort of nerdy engie that is just trying to save his own butt and stomping on all the dead bodies to see if the blood ever stops gushing out.....if you haven't caught on this game is extremely bloody and graphic. To help kill enemies faster you are told to shoot limbs off because it kills them faster than body shots. "Oops there went your head...still moving there goes an arm....what I need to shoot off a leg....I think your dead but let me stomp on you 5 times to make sure"
While playing this game it feels like I am playing something that 4 games got together one night, had to much to drink, things got weird, and 9 months later Dead Space popped out. When looking at my character after a few RIG upgrades he looks like a smaller slim version of a Bioshock Big daddy and a ghetto version of Crysis suit. There are the standard simple puzzles of slow time down on this door, move this big thing, plug that in the whole. Oh ya you can slow down time...on anything, bad guy moving to fast slow him down then slap him around and stomp on him to show him you learned more than how to solder a circuit. It has the creepy feeling of F.E.A.R., some crazy stuff going on that you pick up video/audio/text logs to find out more as well as there are crazy people running around trying to kill you. Also it seems that you are stuck with the same crappy flashlight that is in every DOOM game. Do not miss read this and think it is a copy, this is what influences I see but they all have a slight spin that make them their own. This game is really inventive in the way it does things; from the holo HUD, zero gravity jumps, and customizable everything(no you can't run around naked).
This is a game that is worth the 40+ dollars to buy right now because of the new spin on a fairly standard FPS field and the length, 12 chapters = 11 hoursish. I left out the kinds of weapons and some of the extra utility devices you get because its a great feeling to find a schematic for a new weapon or device and trying to figure out where the closest store is so you can load it and buy it. Also just so I don't cause people to head in one direction or the other in upgrading their gear because its just as fun to say "WOW" after you cut a hulking enemy in half with a saw blade or a plasma blast. This is a game to make the play your own then go back and do it the opposite. Now I feel the need to go stomp on some dead bodies to try and answer the question "How many stomps does it take to make bodies stop squirting blood?"
Dead Space the new F.E.A.R., I think not. This is a point I would like to make before I get into the game. Dead Space was meant to be a game with the concept of "In space no one can hear you scream" added to a fairly standard horror adventure/puzzle FPS formula. There are a lot of parts in the game that will make you jump, be startled, and make you scream WTF GTF AWAY. The environments are always busy with sounds that are meant to keep you recoiled in fear and afraid to turn the next corner faster than your desire to get out of bed on a Monday morning. This game came fairly close to being THE scariest but fell short. There is to much sound always going on it doesn't give you a chance to lulled into a sense of security and all of a sudden have a mass of enemies literally run into you as you turn a corner. I just feel there isn't going to be many games that will top F.E.A.R. with its invisible ninjas jumping out of the ceiling, nightmarish dream scenes, and the dead enemies from 3 minutes ago rattling around then shooting through a wall to just leave a blood smear to show that they were there. Dead Space is still not for children and those easily scared still....I see scary things in the dark now....sssshhh I can hear them in the vents.
Alright so most everyone and their mom know that Dead Space takes place on a junked space ship that is designed to crack planets to mine their resources, except this one had more in it than what they thought. You play an engineer that is sent to fix their problems after contact was lost, except you really don't fix anything kind of like how Gordon never did any math he just whacked stuff with a crowbar. The game is you running around the ship fixing one problem, engines don't work, you are locked out of areas, fix the trams, but of course this always alerts you to another problem or issue you have to take care of ASAP or EVERYONE DIES.
This is not a very fast paced game, chapters are taking me 45 minutes to an hour because I am looking for all the items and checking every corner for something to shoot. The real reason for a need to explorer every deck and room is because you find things you need, be it ammo, money?, circuit boards?, and power nodes. These items allow for a nice section of the game, you can upgrade all of your weapons and gear, here is where you engineering comes into play. As you walk around, shoot things, and stop on boxes(I think this guy has an anger management issue he stomps on everything in site) you find power nodes that are used on certain locked doors to find schematics that allow you buy new items, weapons, and RIG(your suit) upgrades. All of these things are purchased in ship wide stores that take the credits you find in these dead things after you stomp on them and they pop like a pinatta spilling their goodies all over the place. The other fairly neat thing that the ship store allows you to do is put items in a safe so you can access them later without having to discard them, because your suit allows only a certain number of slots and ammo, med packs, and misc. items eat them up fast with RIG level 1 and 2. But the really cool thing to do is use your power nodes you find and buy to upgrade your gear; increase health, air capacity(remember you are in space), weapon damage, reload, capacity, distance of kinesis, etc. It is all based on a path system, like the standard point system for a skill tree. I really like this because it allows you to build your character and weapons in regards to your style of play.
The other interesting thing about this game is the way they build a new HUD with an over the shoulder view. There is nothing on your screen, if a menu is needed it is holographically projected from your character; i.e. 3-map, inventory, ammo counter. Also the health and energy bar are located on your characters back so you always know how many more bone spears to the chest you can take before the next enemy spears you through and then eats your head. This over the shoulder view allows for you to see more of your surroundings and look around without ever moving your character because you have a free roam view until you move. "wow check out that blood on my chest from stomping on that guys head until it popped". This does all get rather annoying because the response in the camera gets a little sluggish and has caused me to take some extra damage but not kill me, I do find myself running into a lot of walls and door ways because your view is centered in the screen but your character is not and it feels like you have to run at an angel to the right to go straight. Never the less it works really well, I feel like I am some sort of nerdy engie that is just trying to save his own butt and stomping on all the dead bodies to see if the blood ever stops gushing out.....if you haven't caught on this game is extremely bloody and graphic. To help kill enemies faster you are told to shoot limbs off because it kills them faster than body shots. "Oops there went your head...still moving there goes an arm....what I need to shoot off a leg....I think your dead but let me stomp on you 5 times to make sure"
While playing this game it feels like I am playing something that 4 games got together one night, had to much to drink, things got weird, and 9 months later Dead Space popped out. When looking at my character after a few RIG upgrades he looks like a smaller slim version of a Bioshock Big daddy and a ghetto version of Crysis suit. There are the standard simple puzzles of slow time down on this door, move this big thing, plug that in the whole. Oh ya you can slow down time...on anything, bad guy moving to fast slow him down then slap him around and stomp on him to show him you learned more than how to solder a circuit. It has the creepy feeling of F.E.A.R., some crazy stuff going on that you pick up video/audio/text logs to find out more as well as there are crazy people running around trying to kill you. Also it seems that you are stuck with the same crappy flashlight that is in every DOOM game. Do not miss read this and think it is a copy, this is what influences I see but they all have a slight spin that make them their own. This game is really inventive in the way it does things; from the holo HUD, zero gravity jumps, and customizable everything(no you can't run around naked).
This is a game that is worth the 40+ dollars to buy right now because of the new spin on a fairly standard FPS field and the length, 12 chapters = 11 hoursish. I left out the kinds of weapons and some of the extra utility devices you get because its a great feeling to find a schematic for a new weapon or device and trying to figure out where the closest store is so you can load it and buy it. Also just so I don't cause people to head in one direction or the other in upgrading their gear because its just as fun to say "WOW" after you cut a hulking enemy in half with a saw blade or a plasma blast. This is a game to make the play your own then go back and do it the opposite. Now I feel the need to go stomp on some dead bodies to try and answer the question "How many stomps does it take to make bodies stop squirting blood?"
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