When the original Dead Space launched, it redefined the sub-genre we know as "survival/horror." Some say it fit better into the standard action or third-person shooter category but in truth, it was an evolutionary take on an aging category of gaming.
You will see our review of the sequel within the next couple of days but in the meantime, we can tell you that once again, we're forced to think about horror in games in a whole new way. The core gameplay mechanic remains the same, but developer Visceral has taken the next step, and we just dare you to play Dead Space 2 at about 2 a.m. with all the lights turned off. In the past, Resident Evil and Silent Hill have given us memorable and terrifying experiences, but Dead Space switches up the pacing and simply won't let you rest. In the older survival/horror games, there were always instances of anxiety and fear but when you start to play DS2, you'll start to notice that you're never relaxed.
Even when you're coming down from the latest high, the next is likely right around the corner. Pacing is important in any entertainment product that wishes to instill fear in the participant, and it's also essential to understand basic human nature. In-your-face gore soon becomes little more than tiresome and disgusting; it's why Silent Hill always succeeded at creeping up our spines. It didn't rely entirely on gore; it was more about a scraping and a shuffling off in the fog and darkness…we didn't know what it was, and that was the worst part. And while it's true DS2 has a lot more gore, Visceral still keeps such elements alive. And this is why games designed to scare people will never be the same again.
"I think it'll make a person become insane." "This game is an atrocity." Those are two quotes from the horrified mothers who were shown snippets of Dead Space 2 and while it's easy for the desensitized gamers to scoff, we can almost guarantee that DS2 will show you a little something you've never seen before…
Related Game(s): Dead Space 2
I'm holding off on this until I get moved into my house and have my ceiling and wall speakers installed. I can't wait though.
Those speakers are a must for games like this… Your patience will pay off bud!
Sounds like a good idea man.
Less than 3 hrs for me, w00h00!
Gotta play this in the dark with a 5.1 or 7.1 Surround sound system.
I just gotta make sure to buy all my neighbor's large super-industrial-absorbant sized box of "Depends" before they start hearing the screaming coming out of their walls at 3 AM.
Exactly biker. The sound is almost as important as graphics and gameplay to really get sucked into the world of Dead Space. It's some of the best audio of the generation in terms of atmosphere.
I really hope this game will be true 7.1 surround sound. I just upgraded to a 7.1 system with a 120'' projector screen. I'm going to lose a lot of sleep!
Because of how gaming are today, the only thing that can be "Horror" is the game atmosphere.
Demon's Souls has some creepy environment, I'm a scaredy cat so some places creeps me out.
That is where RE5 failed, you can't have survival horror in a sunny day.
I bet a talented developer could find a way, but Capcom, hmmm…
Capcom NOT talented? There's a ton of games that prove otherwise…
You're right Porky, and all those games are from a decade ago.
i missed your posts LV, and that was a spot on zinger!
After loving RE4 when it first came out, then hearing about RE5 being in sunlight, i had a bit of faith in capcom back then. But the more i played and seen from them this gen, the more my faith dwindled. By the time RE5 was released, my expectations were very low for it, unfortunately the game turned out worse than i thought it would
Last edited by aaronisbla on 1/25/2011 1:19:04 AM
Boomshakalaka 🙂
Love playing a good horror game late at night. I think if you just sit back and watch clips you can probably try to call it a TPS but it really is all about the freaky factor.
Hang on, I think I heard something shuffling this way…
Just me with the popcorn and washcloth.
I don't even want to know what the washcloth is for.
to me clean me up… sorry guys.
I'm really glad Dead Space is a successful franchise. I love the survival horror genre, but it seems like twich gaming is too easy a road to go down for developers due to its popularity, i.e. RE5. Visceral did find a good balance with Dead Space to keep the action going but still immerse us in a creepy atmosphere. I'm also looking forward to the next Silent Hill game. I hope that franchise gets back on track.
I never cared to much for the survival horror genre, but I love Dead Space!. And I can't wait for Dead Space 2!.
I'm gonna play it at night with the lights off, wish me luck!.
I enjoyed the demo a lot. My roommate won't split the cost of the game because he said the first one sucked… he is really closed minded though and won't spend time on the demo. I'll just have to wait then!
Tell him he can't play it after you buy it.
Dead space is one of those games to play in total darkness to really experience the thrill. I also plug in my headphones cause I don't want to wake up the neighbors, hahaha.
DS2 come and get me if you dare.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 1/24/2011 11:25:11 PM
Deadspace was my first actual horror-survival. And Deadspace 2 is the real reason why I got a decent gaming head set (i played the first one with ear-buds).
Enjoy the Ride.
Can't wait! gotta wait a few days maybe next week before I get it, gotta pay for school and my roommate and I are picking up two worlds two. But I will be getting this game!
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 1/24/2011 11:36:15 PM
Will stick to watching a survival horror game rather than playing one. Saves me from messing my pants you see.
I really want to get this game right now, but i must save some money to get my HDTV replaced. I feel like I've been missing out on the beauty of my games since the HD Toshiba crapped out. Anyway, I can't wait to play DS2!
That sucks dude, just do the 2year no interest thing at Sears or BestBuy. It's a lifesaver.
I know your pain , since I had once to try using standard TV to play my PS3 for a while till i get my HDTV replaced . that was a pretty awful experience .
I know how you feel, man. But… at least your HDTV died. I killed mine with a freak accident with a controller. 🙁
HAHAHAHA
'freak' accident….
Something like those Wii-TV videos on youtube… but more hardcore? XD
Thats why the move controllers have the rubber ball on top… padding for the HDTV's they'll be thrown at.
Yeah, something like that. In a fit of nerdrage, I threw the controller on the ground — something I hadn't done since NES days, so I don't know what was going on in my brain meats — and the bastard thing just HAD to bounce and smack the TV's screen. Killed it instantly.
Poor TV.
Im sure EA will do a great job at this sequel , the first game was so great ,I bought it even at day 1 , but since Sony has a very busy schedule this year I dont think I will buy this game any soon , but still it would be experience no one should ever miss , hopefully I will be able to buy it later .
I generally don't Day1 purchase console games but the Survival genre is bare as hell and the original Dead Space deserved more sales than it received so DS2 is a Day1 for me.
The only thing that makes me a tad leery is the fast pace and seeming focus on showing us what should be thought. Imagination is the most powerful tool that humanity has, but it is so rare that it is forced to be used. Can't wait to do a double Dead Space run through. DS, then DS2 in a two week period. The room will stink of fear.
Peace.
why do people keep calling DS survival horror?
IT IS NOT SURVIVAL HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when you can kill your enemy in one freaking shot, and have heaps of ammo, and kit that is not freaking survival horror!
survival horror is the original RE games where you had one bullet, one gun, no medikits, no tools, and had to kill a boss who took 1000 bullets to kill!
THAT is survival horror, not the action crap DS serves up!
Hmm….lets see it has a horror setting, full of dark areas, scary monsters, and an ominous feeling of dread.
…and you're thrust into the setting and forced to SURVIVE using anything at your disposal.
ya…DeadSpace isn't survival horror.
The minimalism found in the original survival horror games won't really work today, as people want more options, more sights, etc, etc. It's an evolution, not an extinction.
Well, since "survival horror" is pretty much a made up genre of video games — one invented by Capcom for its Resident Evil and DinoCrisis series of games — I'm going to agree with you.
Dead Space isn't survival horror at all.
It's just horror. And that's more than enough for me.
I can get into specifics, but it'd be a really long post if I did so. I kinda consider myself to be an authority on horror, but that's just my over inflated ego talking. I am always up to throw around my knowledge of horror, though. 😀
However, I would like to know what game YOU were playing. I don't recall being able to kill things with one shot and having plenty of ammo throughout Dead Space UNLESS you had the DLC weapons and were playing on the feather weak difficulty setting. Even with the Heavy Damage weapns, the DLC suits, and the cheats in place, the guns weren't fully upgraded enough on the medium difficulty setting until about halfway through to kill anything in one shot. Well, unless you were using that charge weapon.
You're very inconsistent in your rants and raves about Dead Space, I've noticed. One week you're praising it and hoping they keep all the horror from the first one in it, then you turn around and say that DS2, from the demo, was changed so drastically to include differences in gameplay and a more "action orientated" gameplay style, then to it not being horror at all and not even being that scary, to … this one.
It's kinda weird, dude.
I have played every RE in existance.
I have played DS
DS shares alot with the original RE games. Try playing it on a harder difficulty, I guarantee you will start to feel that survival thing.
But, with ANY survival/horror game, the difficulty setting depends on how easy that survival is. On the easiest setting, enemies will take one shot to kill, and theres plenty of ammo, on hard though, you get maybe 6 bullets for a whole section, and simply too many enemies to kill.
I think thats why they made you play DS on the hardest setting if you wanted the platinum, to truely experience the game.
RE was like shoot the zombie until its head explodes. DS is about strategic dismemberment, yeah sure, you can blast away at the zombie, but it wont die until your clip is empty, OR you can take off an arm and a leg and be done with it.
If you actually DID play DS, maybe you played it on an easy setting?
@MadPowerBomber
He's from western sydney, you can't trust his opinion! hahahaha I kid i kid
Last edited by Akuma_ on 1/25/2011 5:30:10 AM
If it's the "survival" element that one is worried about, I do remember that due to the limits and kinds of ammo available, one had to pick your shots (and fights) carefully and correctly. Seeing as how a lot of the same weapons are making a return, I think we should be all set.
if it's not a survival horror, what the f*** is it then?!?! because people dont sh*t them selves in fear while playing grand turismo 5!! if dead space isn't horror, then next time you play it, try last 5 minutes without being scared.
dead space is not survival horror, the enemies are far too weak and you have far too many weapons.
where are the chainsaw guys or the anvil guys from RE?
RE was a proper survival horror game because you were a small fish in a big pond, you were a ant versus jesus freaking christ!
in DS its kinda the other way around, your the supped up junkie not your enemies.
im not saying DS is not hard, it certainly can be but it does not have the 100000 shot boss battles that RE has.
hell, even RE5 the first chainsaw guy you fight takes forever to take down!
dead space has NOTHING like that!
i would not even call DS horror, maybe its because im use to horror games but it did not scare me at all.
F.E.A.R had me cowering like a little girl, but dead space was faaaaaaaar too predictable to be scary!
I'm guessing you didn't play Dead Space on Impossible difficulty….because if you killed any necromorph in 1 shot on impossible you're just a plain liar.
And if you found "heeps of ammo" laying around on Impossible, then I want your copy of the game….cause it wasn't freakin' that easy.
You've taken beef with DS2 ever since the devs came out and said there would be more action, so why don't you play the game and then decide…..
Wow.
Never knew survival/horror was defined by how many guns are available and how strong the enemies are.
That's…interesting.
None of the bosses took 1000 bullets to kill in the RE games, unless you're referring to Nemesis, but he was virtually immortal. And hell, even dead space had the unkillable monster following you around.
I think the problem here is that you're remembering RE to be harder than it actually was. I might have had ammo problems a couple times in each game, but I almost never ran out. The biggest problem in RE 1-3 was the inventory thing. Especially RE1. I always used Jill because she had eight inventory spaces.
Herbs in RE = medkits. I don't even think you ever played any games mr. blank.
_____________,
<<you were a ant versus Jesus freaking Christ!>>
I can see it all now, you keep on using the Lord's name in vain & you'll experience some real survivor horror when that lightening bolt from Heaven strikes you right in your gonads.
And then St. Peter refuses you a entrance through his Pearly Gates.
Then ho ya gonna call? Certainly not GhostBusteres…Maybe "Satan"????
I hear he just loves ripping the flesh off of "Crispy Critters(they probably taste like chicken).
AHEM. Lemme climb atop my podium for a second, mingle around my papers, and put my professor hat on.
HORROR isn't scary. You're thinking of Scary movies, and while Scary movies are all horror, all horror isn't scary. It's disturbing, it's discomforting, it's unpleasant. Horror is more of an emotion than it ever was a genre of literature, cinema, or even video games. Or, for the sake of accuracy, it's a complex combination of emotions, of which fear is but one of them.
Dead Space is all of those things.
I've found that when people don't think something is "scary" it's because they didn't allow themselves the feel the vulnerability that is necessary for any and all works of horror to be effective. If you're watching a horror flick or playing a horror game in broad daylight, or with all the lights on, or in a crowded theater sometimes, you're removing yourself from the emotional aspects of the horror that works it's nasty little fingers into your brainmeat.
As for the comparisons to Resident Evil, are you serious? There's the monster that doesn't die always chasing you, always in the same room as you, etc., etc. There are the Brute monsters that you can't effectively damage from the front. There are the snot/sh*t frog things that come at you in massive groups that can whittle you down to nothing in no time. There's the darkened versions of every monster that just punish the crap out of you, so on and so forth. Not to mention that you can't effectively do anything to the monsters by just shooting them as you would in a normal game. On the harder difficulties, even dismembering them takes two or three shots for one limb. This one shot one death thing only happens on feather soft difficulty and on normal if you're using maxed out weapons or the DL weapons EA likes to put out there. I think your memory of Resident Evil is stronger than the actuality of Resident Evil. I tried playing the second one recently on my PSP, and it's little to do with the difficulty or durable enemies and everything to do with lack of proper aiming and the stop and shoot control mechanics (which ARE not bad in my opinion, 'cause it makes you feel helpless adding more horror to the titles).
And to completely render your argument and complaints moot: there's a hardcore mode on Dead Space 2 that's unlockable after you beat the game that takes away a metric sh*tton of ammo and health items, only allows you to save THREE times in the game, and every time you die you go back to your last save point.
Which is pretty close to my idealized version of "survival" horror.