LogFAQs > #949669460

Final Analysis: Dead Space 2
What I Thought of Dead Space 2: Can't really say I liked it.
Would I play it again? I don't think so.
Did it deserve to lose round 1? This is fine.

Games can serve to emulate an experience you wouldn't want to go through in real life. I talked about how Call of Duty: Black Ops cuts away the horrific elements of war in order to extract an exciting, adventurous action game, but even that's quite different from a horror game like Dead Space 2, of which almost every aspect was consciously included specifically because people don't like it. That's essentially the theory behind horror, but it's especially clear in the sound design: Dead Space 2 constantly bombards you with unpleasant noises, whether its the agonized shrieks of its almost-human monsters or the irritating buzz of aging machinery. Somehow, though, all those off-putting elements add up to an experience that people like having and will consciously seek out, which is why horror movies have always been popular. I couldn't tell you exactly why people do that, but maybe it's not so different from what Call of Duty does after all: when you're not really in danger, there's a certain thrill to being hunted.

Video games are a good medium for horror. Ripley will survive the events of Alien no matter what the audience does, so they don't need to be on their guard or even paying close attention. Video games put demands on their players, and that makes them scarier when they're trying. Dead Space 2 is at its most effective when you can hear the sound of a monster's approach but you don't know quite where it is, and you're looking around in a panic to try and find it before it kills you. Something like that couldn't really be achieved in a non-interactive medium. On the other hand, though, the parts with the scary girlfriend made me completely relax because I knew I was in no danger while she was talking.

On the other hand, I think the disadvantage of video games is pacing, when it comes to horror. Aliens doesn't actually show a Xenomorph onscreen until almost an hour into the film. Everything before that is used to introduce the various characters, give us time to understand the world and the situation, and slowly build up tension. Even once the aliens do show up, there are a lot of calm dialog-centric scenes, and that really helps, because all the action sequences and spooky setpieces feel more meaningful with Ripley's relationship to Newt as their emotional anchor. I'm not going to say you can't make a game where there's no combat in the first hour (Hideo Kojima would like to know your location,) but it's definitely frowned upon. Combat mechanics tend to be a very central part of most games, so it wouldn't make much sense to go that long without even introducing them. And when your only enemy types are horrifying monsters, that means they have to take center stage a lot faster than the might in a film. Dead Space 2 has no chill whatsoever. It throws you into a horde of screaming monstrosities within 5 minutes and does very little else from then on, so that besides being a simulation of something that would not be much fun in real life, it's also comparable to Call of Duty in that it gave me a constant feeling of sensory overload.

But you know, a lot of parts of this game are pretty good. The combat's fun and satisfying, the looting and inventory management serve their purpose without getting tiresome, the zero-gravity parts are cool and relatively unique, and it's effective enough as horror, or at least I would get spooked playing it. The story is kind of lame, but there are some nice little moments toward the end and I did want the character of Ellie to survive, so I had a non-zero amount of investment in the cast. Speaking objectively, it's not a game I would knock too much, but if I search my feelings I just don't like it. I think it has one of the worst ratios of time to pass in real life compared to time I put into the game: it took me two weeks to play 8 hours of this. It was one of those games I had trouble starting up because most other things I could do with my team seemed more interesting, and when I actually was playing it I usually wanted to stop and do something else. This is one of the few games for which that isn't entirely an insult, because part of that was it being effective as horror, but even still I wouldn't call it a good sign.

I think that, in addition to being scary and stressful, I don't really like playing Dead Space because it feels a little generic (Isaac has a boring personality and nondescript design, for example, and most of the ideas behind its story are ganked from some Sci-fi movie or another,) and because it lacks its own je ne sais quoi. The shooting reminds me of Resident Evil 4, but I just don't think it's ever as impressive or memorable as RE4, which was a game loaded with ideas. It's hard to forget that intro where you're surrounded on all sides by zombies, things are starting to look hopeless, and then the church bell rings and the streets suddenly empty, and it's not long after that you're chucking harpoons at a giant water monster as it pulls around your boat at high speeds. Those are stand-out moments, but I'd be hard pressed to think of anything as exciting from Dead Space. It's a competent game, and I'd give it a shot if you're into horror, but I don't think it's very special and I doubt I'll really remember it.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 15/129
Currently Playing: Dead Space 2