Dead Space 3 SHOULD be the nail in EA's Coffin

[dmv]

One game that might do mediocre is going to bring down EA? That would have to be one enormous nail.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Am I the only one that gets the feeling that if a game series keeps to an established pattern (like the CoD-franchise), they are decried as being formulaic, never changing and cheap cash-grabs from the producer. If a game series try to change a few things up and keep on evolving instead of going the formulaic route, they are decried for changing everything and now it sucks!

Often these two sentiments are echoed by people who doesn't even play the games. I suppose you just can't please everybody.

 

[Loonyyy]

I'm not terribly interested in Dead Space, but I am amused by the 5 million sales thing. You don't make a game so expensive that you have to sell more than you expect to sell to stay in business. That's basic business. Broadening appeal by sticking Multiplayer and Co-op in their costs money too. It'll be an interesting indictment of the AAA business model-namely, the creation of games is not about gambling, or about big IPs, or playing at expanding your IP as part of your business model, it's about art. And making the sort of thing you can sell to a customer who'll enjoy it, rather than being forced to try to get everyone to buy it because you refuse to budget and reign in spending.

Also, I thought, being the stand-up guy I am, I'd fact check this post below. Because it's wrong. It shows that they know nothing about Dead Space, but barely paid attention to the demo they played. Heck, I don't like the game much, but these are the worst criticisms I've heard... in the last hour (This is the internet, after all).

Just tried the demo:

You barely walk because of snowstorm, but when you hold down LT you move at normal pace - okay, holding LT all the way inside, bad design.

Fair point. It's a bit boring that you can get through the slowdown of the blizzard with the run. It still emphasises the blizzard, and that it slows you down though, which is kind of the point. And I'd place money on that being a gameplay mechanic later on. See, Isaac can't shoot, or aim properly, while running. So if there's a battle, in the blizzard, with low visibility, where you're almost unable to walk whilst fighting, that's going to be difficult.

After first stomp on a crate I knew I would never stomp on more crates, boring and annoying and bad design.

"Bad Design". I don't think that means what you think that means. You repeat it often. "Bad design", doesn't mean "Not to my personal taste. Breaking crates? Staple of Dead Space. Staple of a whole bunch of games. It's not bad design, it's a design choice. Dead Space intends to ape survival horror, so it has crates which you break, in your search for ammunition. I know in my first playthrough (Got the first two in a steam sale a while ago), of Dead Space, I was constantly looking for crates, because I was running low on ammo, even though I was really careful with it.

Let's list some other "Bad Design".
-Legend of Zelda series.
-Crash Bandicoot Series.
-Mario Series (Bricks in his case, primarily vases in LoZ's case).
-Most Dungeon Crawlers.
-Half Life Series.

Crate smashing is a gaming staple. Resource hoarding is a horror staple. They both serve a purpose, and work fine. "I don't much like this." is not "Bad Design".

Suddenly music changed to cliche "horror is happening" and first enemy poped up. This didn't awaken any emotions in me, let alone made me scared, and like the first encounter should be the scarriest, bad horror design.

Indeed. Dead Space has this obnoxious violin music thing where suddenly shrieking fiddles announce something shambling and wrong this way comes. This is a well documented criticism of the series. Congratulations on noticing it at this late juncture.

Then I went in a side cave and even got attacked from behind while dead dude suddenly jumped on me. Neither did anything to me. I did not had any reaction. And stuff suddenly awakening should atleast startle. From behind is the scarriest poisition. Fail horror.

Congratulations. Your deadpan approach is immune to the shock scares. That doesn't make it "Fail Horror". Dead Space really only has two things going for it, horror wise. Gore and shock scares. Not the most developed horror concept ever. It has a nice atmosphere, but once you get the hang of the environment (Every vent will have a necromorph burst from it. If one vent is not burst from, you're coming back this way. It works on most people. It works especially well on me (Even when I know someone's behind me, if they grab my shoulders I jump like mad).

Shooting was meh. Atleast in Max Payne 3 or Rage you get some feedback, now just random limbs fall off - way less satisfying.

Considering the accuracy of everything else you said, I'm going to eat a kilo of salt before I take this at face value. Dead Space has what they call "Strategic Dismemberment"(Original promotional materials). If you shoot an enemy in their limbs and joints, you blow their limbs off. You choose to slow them down by aiming for the legs, or stop their big attacks by aiming for the arms. These cutting blows do some of the most damage. The weapons and most of the enemies are designed around cutting things off. Dead Space has always had feedback. It's never been random. So either they've changed it (I doubt it), or you're not paying much attention. This has some of the most feedback in a game. The weapons clearly animate their uses. Most of them fire at awkward rates, which further gives them heft. These aren't poorly designed weapons. It's interesting that you cite Rage, because it's weapons were rather boring. The death animations and impact effects were fun, sure, but not nearly as high impact as "Leg goes flying away spraying gore".

And I don't have anything against cutting off parts, I really enjoyed Blade Mode in MGR: Revengeance demo, it's just that Dead Space's combat is an example of bad and boring design.

We've covered why you're wrong when you say bad design, I'm going to poke a hole in "Boring" as well. I'm not a fan of Dead Space. I don't like jump scares. They don't satisfy me, but they do make me jump, because I react before I think. Which makes the game awkward and uncomfortable, and not engaging. But cutting off limbs to fight your enemies is not a boring mechanic. At the time, it was pretty unique, and it combines strategy with the action, and reinforces the idea that Isaac is an engineer, on a mining vessel(In the first game), using mostly jury-rigged equipment as his weaponry. That's clever design, which builds into the narrative, and adds more gore to their game, which is one of their big elements.

Then I climbed some ladder and yet again had to hold LT down to make my character move at normal pace - aand I quit.

Cool. Story. Bro.

Never really understood what made Dead Space fun to play. Boring and generic and boring and boring and boring. Just.. boring.

That's called pacing.

It's not scary. It's action is not very involving or gruesome or.. actionly.

Scary is different things to different people, but I'd say it is startling, to most people. That's where it gets it's horror label. Some people are harder to startle than others, and you seem to fit into this camp. You only played the demo, so claiming it's not very involving is a bit of a stretch. When you're trying to manage health and ammo, you get involved, and you end up having to take risks to conserve those. When I'm forced to get in close and melee enemies I've crippled, because I need ammo for the next boss, I'm thinking pretty hard about it. That for me, was the most scary thing about it. It's an accountant's nightmare.

Gruesome is everywhere. The enemies are the distorted remains of humans. Granted, once they're in that state it's not so bad, but when you see that stuff happen (Which happens numerous times), it's gruesome. Had you died, you would have seen gruesome. When you get jumped on? Gruesome. Now, gruesome isn't all that scary to me, but that doesn't make it not gruesome. And now gruesome doesn't look like a word to me anymore.

Really, what the fuck do you people see in Dead Space? Mediocre surroundings?

I'm going to quote the escapist for this one: "Oh no. Someone like something that I don't like."

To be fair, I'm no fan of Dead Space, and I don't like the games that much. I still can use my brain and see the appeal, and I can acknowledge the good bits. And heck, criticizing it is easy as pie. It's a pretty spectacular failure when only 1 of your criticisms holds up under criticism.

 

[Loonyyy]

Issac has never been light on his feet, and you expect him to be quick in the middle of a blizzard? So holding a trigger to run is bad design? 0_o Is it not done that way in practically every other shooter?thing.

Is there ever a scenario of some consistency in the game that would require or hinge on you not holding down the button in order to move slightly slower through the blizzard? If not then it shouldn't be there. It's an unnecessary function and is bad design.

If there is, then disregard this.

I'm guessing it's a setup to combat or a chase through the blizzard. It seems incredibly likely. And, while kind of pointless, it's a detail which adds to atmosphere, which is one of the few things the game does competently.

 

[SnakeCL]

I think people have a somewhat nostalgic view of "survival horror" as a genre. After the inititial "survival" part of the early Resident Evil games, it was usually baddie-hunting season, which skewed the series into an action-bend with terrible controls.

Then came RE4 which, lets be honest here, is essentially the same style and feel as Dead Space.

Do I consider Dead Space 1 "survival horror"? Absolutely. Did it have action elements in it? Absolutely. Then again, so did RE2.

How about we stop arguing about what genre a game happens to fall into, and just enjoy the games for what they are?

 

[Rastien]

snip/

*snrrrrk*...oh wait..your serious?

HAHAHAHAH

ok you didnt play dead space or dead space 2 right? theres your porblem right there

THEY WERENT SCARY don't get me wrong..they were bloody great but they were "Aliens" not "Alien" and you know what? thats fine, they have other thngs going for them (frantic combat, atmosphere)

on the surface DS3 looks like its being given the "EA triple A" treatment....but from what Ive seen and a fan of the series i'm actually cautionsly optimistic, this co-op may not be the death of it

in other words it pays to know what your talking about before you rant

This i know co-op and horror games arn't ideal as things get infintley less scary when you play with someone, but i never found dead space atmospherically scary just jump scares done very well! so i'm hoping the co-op will be good

Jesues i tried resi 6 recently i... words are not enough MASH X NOT TO DIE NOW MASH O.... 3 seconds later... MASH MORE OH YOU DEAD. /rage

 

[dmv]

I think people have a somewhat nostalgic view of "survival horror" as a genre. After the inititial "survival" part of the early Resident Evil games, it was usually baddie-hunting season, which skewed the series into an action-bend with terrible controls.

Then came RE4 which, lets be honest here, is essentially the same style and feel as Dead Space.

Do I consider Dead Space 1 "survival horror"? Absolutely. Did it have action elements in it? Absolutely. Then again, so did RE2.

How about we stop arguing about what genre a game happens to fall into, and just enjoy the games for what they are?

I can safely say that RE4 was my personal favorite of the resident evil franchise, and I don't think you're right about comparing it to dead space. Many of the horrific moments in dead space were jump scares. Resident evil 4(which really needs to be released on steam) was more atmospheric in its horror. In dead space I remember several vents along a hallway, and rolling my eyes as I slowly walked up to each of them waiting to dismember another jumper.

 

[Darmy647]

It was never survival horror, it was a action zombie game. the scares were phoned in you can easily over power the zombies and simply the weapons were highly over power and some weren't even scrap metal made into a weapon. You wanna know what game IS survival horror? The souls games, you'er quickly over powers and helpless to monster and most can kill in a single hit. Also DayZ You have to seek out and find your weapons, ammo and food.

EA needs to be taken down for far more then killing a already overblown franchise that's really a action game and really they just need a better marketing and CEO.

Ok....He just called the souls franchise survival horror...It just occured to me we have seriously, SERIOUSLY lacked a true true survival horror game in a while if this guys calling souls survival horror. Holy Drunken Ninja jesus. Go play ZombiU man. For the Love of god go find the true meaning of survival horror again. You've lost your ways horribly.

Survival horror is not a action game, it is being terrified of your next encounter of the monsters your facing that could kill you, in Souls ANY monster can kill you and even random players will jump in to kill you! hell a lot of games that just lack music in sections scare me more because of the unstillness of the setting. If you think Oh I have a fun and can EASILY kill monsters because I can slice there arms off in one shot is not horror, Also I don't have a WiiU. not to mention what I should have said "what is a better survival horror.

Im sorry that your souls experience has gone like this. I personally, no narcissism ment, at all, but i personally heroicly kicked ass and fought like a beast. But thats only because i played Demons souls a good amount. I see your idea on it though. for a complete noob of the entire series (which im not calling you, repeat, which im not calling you) could be extremely terrifying. To be honest i played souls like zelda lol.

 

[JagermanXcell]

This about sums up the game...
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr0KUculTZA]
Pretty much no one really cares, the attempts at advertising is crippling EA, and frankly when you watch Game Grumps do you really care about what THE GAME HAS TO OFFER???!!! No, you come for Jon and Arin, who ironically are insulting EA's attempt at advertising.

This won't kill EA but its definitely another good reason to point and laugh at them. Thats always fun.

Anyone want survival horror games? Go try out Lone Survivor, Demons/Dark Souls, Eternal Darkness, Silent Hill 2 ect.
Now that, "the word of mouth" is what gets Survival Horror games, or just games in general sold! The industry, I swear doesn't know jack sometimes...

 

[Vergil]

I don't have anything against EA, almost every survival horror game has action elements, Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space got horror and action well balanced. It's not about weapons, enemies or enemies with weapons, it's about the atmosphere. And I enjoyed the Dead Space 3 demo. EA can't die, they have so much money that they simply can't die, not that I'd want them to, I love Dead Space and Mass Effect.

 

[Nachtmahr]

This article on Penny arcade [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/01/23/piety] got me to try the demo, and I really enjoyed it.

Frankly, EA is hardly the worst out of the lot when it comes to publishers. People get so easily offended these days, so quick to forsake a publisher or game developer forever. EAs advertising campaigns that people find so terrible, I barely took notice of them or found them amusing.

I am unhappy with Blizzard for how they handled Diablo 3, but I will still get Starcraft 2:HotS. I hate the DmC reboot, but still bought it and gave it a chance. And it certainly won't stop me from getting Ninja Theory games in the future, if they interest me.

Companies make mistakes. When people bring up all the terrible faults of EA, I barely remember what they are talking about. Why ruin gaming with so much publisher rage?

I have no doubt that Dead Space 3 will not let me down, and deliver a great experience to me. An experience for which both publisher and developer deserve my money.