Do We Need Dead Space 2?

The world was stricken dumb today by EA’s news that their mostly-successful survival horror space opera Dead Space is receiving the sequel nod sometime in the future. Not really, I think we saw that one coming.

Personally, I liked how Dead Space ended. It was a suiting finish to a polished and engaging game. I would rather the developers (Visceral Games, also creators of the upcoming Dante’s Inferno game) try something else out, taking what they’d learned from the experience and developing a new concept altogether. I’m scared that a sequel will only seek to improve/lengthen what we already saw with the first game, while a new franchise would be refreshing to see.

Considering that our whole entertainment industry relies so heavily on sequels, I can’t put it past Visceral Games for staying with an already-successful name. I’m just not sure how much more fun they can squeeze out of Dead Space.

Dante’s Inferno: Hell Sure Looks Heavenly

Translation: Under the direction of the great Stalin, communism will prevail!

I’ll admit it, I was skeptical about EA’s upcoming Dante’s Inferno game. There are several reasons:

1. It’s from the makers of Dead Space. That was a damn fine game, and lightning doesn’t always strike in the same place twice, right? It also didn’t sell as well as EA would have liked, so maybe they would have their fingers in this one a bit more. You know, to Maddenize it.
2. Timing. It’s been less than a year since Dead Space, which means that there hasn’t been that much development time on Dante’s Inferno.
3. A game set in Hell? Anyone can tell you that Hell is supposed to only be a level, not a full game!! (see: God of War)

Watch this video (select “HD” in the bottom-right corner, you’ll be better for it):

Pretty impressive, no? Very God-of-War-esque, and I’m not complaining. As much as Dead Space borrowed from Resident Evil 4 but was still good, I can see the same happening here. There’s definitely some room to grow, especially stylistically, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled for more news on this one.

Now With More Waggle!

Kotaku is happy to report that EA is working on a Wii version of our favorite the only space-based survival sci fi/horror game of 2008, Dead Space. Are they going to try and recreate the game, or just work on a new one from scratch? Do you think it’ll look horrible, and lose many of its redeeming qualities, like the Wii version of Dead Rising that’s coming out soon? Or will they actually pull it off? I must admit, I’m looking forward to using my Wii remote as a plasma cutter.

Threevue Review: Dead Space

Mark:
Dead Space took a genre that is borderline tapped-out, and made it better. It stood on the shoulders of those survival horror games that had come before it and proudly proclaimed, “I am here! I am pushing the limits of our imaginations! I took what you did and made it better! Better looking, better sounding, and much, much scarier. The bar has been raised and I am the new standard!” It then proceeded to tear the limbs from the geriatric bodies of its predecessors and stomp their heads into the steely cold and blood-red deck of the Ishimura.

I loved Resident Evil 4, the game the I compare closest to, and I still do, but RE4 is to a cheeseburger what Dead Space is to a 22oz dry-aged, bone-in ribeye. Both good on their own, but side by side, there is no comparison. Dead Space is beautiful, engaging, and terrifying, and a must-play for anyone who considers themselves something more than a casual gamer. If a film like Event Horizon can be seen as something at least relatively close to “art,” then Dead Space should be hanging on a wall in the Louvre. Internal elements like stasis, kinesis, and especially the zero-G scenes are miniature little works of art in themselves, like Mona Lisa’s smile, or Adam’s testicles. Dead Space has succeeded in not only pushing the survival-horror genre forward, but video games in general.

Now, my obvious boner for the game may have you thinking that I’m going to give it a near-if-not-perfect score, but I’m not, and here’s why. If you did a little prior research in the game like I did, you know that there is a very large and involving backstory to this universe by means of the animated comic and the movie. The game itself, however, almost completely fails to push the story along. For all the incredible action in the game, the story seemed like not much more than just, “You are stuck on a spaceship with monsters. Try to make it off alive,” and that’s it. What they do, also, is wait until the very last level, and with a single NPC’s monologue, feed you the beginning, middle, and end of everything. Then you fight a final boss and you may or may not make it off alive, I don’t want to spoil anything. Therefore, I felt I had to knock some points off the top.

90/100

Russ:
Dead Space is simply the right game at the right time. It’s been about two years since I played a scary game (Resident Evil 4), and I just got my Xbox 360 back after not having it for about three months. What better way to break it back in than with a game that’s not overly innovative or demanding, but really satisfying? Dead Space takes a lot of queues from previous games – Bioshock’s “find out what happened in a decimated city” story, Half-Life 2′s gravity gun, Mass Effect’s stasis biotic, and Resident Evil 4′s overall control and feel. Take note, that’s quite a caliber of games to be compared against. Dead Space mashes these influences freely and beautifully, and it simply doesn’t expect you to take it for more than what it is; an extremely polished, solid game with a few pleasant surprises thrown into the mix.

There are a couple gripes, as with any game. I didn’t like the last chapter, it felt cheap and a bit like treading water in a moment that should be a little more “accelerating”. By the 7th chapter or so, I had the game’s system down pat, and was starting to get a little bored. I wish they had done a better job of hiding the game’s length – I mean, you can just jump onto the cheevers section and see that there are 12 chapters in the game – which takes away from the tension considerably. Imagine starting chapter 10 knowing full well that there are two more to go; the tension had just fizzled by then. One of the best things about Resident Evil 4 for me was the fact that I had no idea when/where it was going to end; I was probably only 1/3 of the way through it and I thought I was nearly done with the game.

All in all, this is a game that I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone that can handle it. It’s a beautiful and solid experience. I can’t wait to pop the game back in a year from now and do it all over again.

89/100

Tyler:
Dead Space is a good game. I’m probably going to give it a few more points than I should, just because it’s at the front of the long line of Christmas releases and I’m ecstatic about it. More points for the non-HUD, responsive handling, zero-g segments of play, the overall style and for putting it in a Sci-fi horror setting. That opening scene where your ship comes about and shows the Ishimura with the planet behind it was breathtaking on a 50″ TV, and I looked forward to more of the same. But in the end, Dead Space falls a little short of greatness, or even really goodness in my opinion, due to the fact that I can not play it without seeing other, better games in its makeup.

The game that is took from most liberally was Bioshock. Arriving in a remote, abandoned community? Everyone dead and signs of turmoil? Traipsing through the Medical Bay and the Green House? It just ran along too many of the same lines for me to look at it as a really cool, original game. Another title it reminded me of was Doom 3. I understand that it’s extremely hard to make a spooky spaceship game that doesn’t look like every other spaceship game in existence, but the similarities go beyond that. Primarily with the monster closets. In Doom it was blocked off rooms in the map that would quickly open with demons jumping out, in Dead Space it’s air vents. The story of tampering with the unknown is another shared idea that is in both games, in Doom it was teleportation and in Dead Space it’s mining. Also, did anyone else think that the kinesis ability was a little too close to the gravity gun? And the regenerating enemies seemed a little close to the ones from RE4?

It just seemed like an easy game to make. Not technically, of course. I can’t write code or anything. It feels like they got a good story idea, gave the game awesome graphics and then just sort of sampled the rest. I get it that games sometimes rely on previously established gameplay gimmicks, and I love the fact that EA is putting out a diverse catalog of games right now. But at the end of the day, the thrill was gone at the halfway point and I just wanted to finish Dead Space so I could get it out of the way. Will I play a sequel if they put one out? You bet.

78/100

Survivor!

Update!: I just went back and got the “Z-Baller” achievement, and in doing so, also got “Armstrong,” where you have to shoot 50 objects using Kinesis. I’m surprised I didn’t get that on the first playthrough.

I did it! I told you I would do it tonight, and I did. I finally completed Dead Space. I’m watching the credits right now. There are a lot of Chinese people that worked on it.

The ending was great, and not the least bit disappointing. I hate that I even have to say that, but I’ve been burned by so many weak endings that it’s a nice surprise when one actually makes you feel like the whole game was worth playing like this one did.

I still have some cheevers I want to get out of it (Z-ball), but I definitely don’t think I’ll be playing through the whole thing again. This playthrough took me 13 hours and 37 minutes. It’s time to move on.

One At A Time Fellas, Please

Some big-time games come out this week, and frankly, I’m not looking forward to it. It’s too much all at once. Dead Space has taken far too long for me to finish (that’s my fault, not the game’s), and I haven’t even broken the seal on Fallout 3 yet. I have both Mirror’s Edge, and COD:WaW reserved, both of which I can’t wait to play. Also, Guinness World Records: The Videogame has been at the top of my must-play list ever since I first heard about it (five minutes ago).

Tonight will be dedicated to finishing Dead Space and gathering up some trade-ins, because I don’t feel like leaving $120 poorer.

Don’t Worry, I Called The Cops

I just noticed that Mark’s Xbox 360 gamertag says that he’s been “idle/away” playing Dead Space for 15 hours. I’m a little worried. You see, the other day he was playing and I sent him a message via Xbox Live that said “LOOK OUT MARK!! BEHIND YOU!!” while he was knee-deep into Chapter 5 of the game, and freaked him out. What if something similar happened, like a box of Honey Nut Cheerios fell from on top of his refrigerator, and he had a heart attack?

Or maybe he just passed out while playing it and is currently dreaming of lollipops and Tyler.

My Gripes: Dead Space’s Flamethrower

As much as I love the Ripper, I freaking hate the flamethrower. I was excited when I was finally able to buy it, but it really let me down.

On top if it being extremely weak, it takes almost an entire canister of fuel just to kill one of the basic enemies, and when a canister runs out, it takes forever to reload. Also, unlike other weapons, it doesn’t really stop any enemies from coming at you. Even whilst engulfing a baddie in flames, he/she will still be running towards you, screaming and flailing their murderous limbs in the air, ready to chop your uninfected head off.

There’s a cheever for killing 30 enemies with this glorified sparkler, but I don’t think I’ll be getting it. Anyone else care to opine?

“Come On, Mark. You Know You Want To.”

There it is, staring me in the face every time I sit on my plush green couch. Still wrapped in plastic, I haven’t even opened up my copy of Fallout 3 yet.

I promised myself I would finish Dead Space before I started it, but it gets harder every day. It’s not that I don’t still love severing the limbs of the ex-crew of the Ishimura, but everytime I turn on my 360 and see Russ playing Fallout 3, it takes every ounce of strength I have not to fire it up.

“Dead” Space

One cool thing about Dead Space is that there are several moments in the game where you can get killed instantly, with a very grotesque death animation. Step too close to certain enemies, or machinery, and you’re toast. Someone compiled the video below, and it’s 11 minutes of mayhem. Only watch it if you’ve already played through the game, or don’t ever plan on playing it.

** Caution, major plot/environment spoilers! **

Mark The Ripper

I know, I know, you’re sick of the Dead Space posts, right? Well, I’m not, and that’s what really matters, right?

Moving on, I discovered my new favorite video game weapon of all time tonight: the “ripper.” It’s basically a saw blade that’s held a few feet in front of you with a laser or something while it chews up everything it comes in contact with. It’s vaguely reminiscent of Half-Life 2′s Gravity Gun/saw blade duo, except way more awesome.

Don’t believe me? Come over to my apartment and I’ll show you. I’m making a mock-up out of cereal boxes and masking tape.

Cheevers: Dead Space Tips

I just finished Dead Space yesterday, and I thought I would impart some knowledge to anyone who is currently playing through it. Here are some quick and easy achievement points (spoiler-free):

1. Pack Rat (10 pts)
To get this achievement, all you have to do is store 25 items in your inventory. You don’t have to keep them there or anything; once you have 25 items in your pack (including your weapons), just store them and move them back to your pack.

2. Full Arsenal (30 pts)
For this, you have to own every weapon in the game. They all become available by chapter 6 or so; when you have a good amount of money saved up (probably around 50k), save your game, move your current weapons to your storage, and buy all the weapons you don’t own yet. If you don’t want to keep them, just load your saved game.

3. There’s Always Peng! (15 pts)
In Chapter 11, you return to where your loading ship was initially docked. On the opposite side of the walkway, you can grab it with your kinesis gun. A video (from the PS3, but I forgive it):

Sold Out Fallout

Speaking of Fallout 3, I was all ready to pick it up on the way home from school today after I traded The Force Unleashed back in, via the Gamestop shuffle. Unfortunately, the guy there said they had just sold the last one, including all of the collector’s editions. He told me that as soon as all the good reviews came out, people started snapping up copies left and right. He was kind enough to ask to call the other nearby Gamestop to see if they had it, but by that time, my post-apocalyptic boner had gone soft.

Plus, I still have to finish Dead Space. It is unacceptable that Russ “The Slowest Gamer On Earth” Crandall finished it before me.

First Playthrough = Complete

I got an itch today, and the only way to scratch it was by shooting undead alien things in Dead Space. Yessir, I played the last half of the game in two sessions this afternoon, it was pretty epic. I will save the rest for our official Threevue Review once Tyler and Mark finish up, too.

I will say that one playthrough is definitely not enough, considering some of the cheevers come from fully upgrading/using all the weapons in the game, which I don’t think is possible in one go. And there’s a specific cheever for beating the game only using the plasma cutter, which is your initial/default weapon, which would warrant another playthrough. I don’t know about that last one though; those days of ridiculous achievement points (read: The Orange Box‘s gnome achievement) may be behind me.

Show Me The Way

After playing all the GTA‘s, Battlefields, and even The Force Unleashed and online shooters of the past six months or so, it’s really nice to play a game as linear as Dead Space. Most everything I’ve played in recent history has had at least some sense of openness to it; “you can go here, there, or there. You have to do this, but you can do all these if you want, too.”

Don’t ge me wrong, I love having branching story lines and side missions ans things like that, but sometimes, I just want the game to tell me exactly where to go and what to do, and I go do it. In Dead Space, Isaac even has a little light he can shine on the ground that gives you a direct route on where you need to go, ensuring you’ll never be lost. I love that.