Dead Space not as scary as it claimed?
- Thread starter Giraffle
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Let me be honest, it's really impossible to do a "good" horror game in the current enviroment because fear is by it's nature a negative emotion. To inspire it you basically need to shock and disturb the audience, and anything that genuinely shocks and disturbs the audience today is being targeted by censors, and simply put the video game industry is not doing it's part to fight back.
Part of the problem with things like horror games is that they are also directed at horror fans, who by their very nature tend to be jaded, and it takes more and more to get the same reactions out of them.
Detailed depictions of things like rape are taboo though they are quite horrific. Part of the problem is that in a lot of horror they gloss over such things if they were even going on so the impact is lessened. You don't see anything so "meh". If you did see something you'd have censors all over it and frankly the industry isn't willing to defend itself. Replace "rape" with pretty much anything that isn't purely atmospheric, or pretty much a jump out scare and the same arguement applies. As a result you see little in the way of actual horror games, and increasingly less in the way of horror movies. Really "Saw" is the only "real" Horror franchise out there right now for movies (which aren't quite as far gone as games when it comes to content as Hollywood fights somewhat) IMO, and that is getting beaten to death. Come Halloween we're up to like what? Saw VI. It's losing it's impact.
Dead Space was actually pretty good within the allowable grounds, and they put a LOT of work into the setting and general atmosphere as demonstrated by things like the "No Known Survivors" site. Of course some of the writing was truely awful despite this. I'm thinking of what happened with a certain military ship, the "magic" cash for uber-weapons/suit upgrades terminals (which were never used by the crew), and other things. Still it had a few creepy ideas, and the twist at the end with Issac's girlfriend was interesting.
It was an okay hybrid of Event Horizon, Supernova, and Aliens.
In the end, what did you expect though?
To put things into perspective 99% of the horror books out there that are actually scary feature things that would give the so called "Moral Majority" and it's ESRB lapdogs conniptions if they were to be shown. Heck even going back to Lovecraft, you've got all of these monsters from "beyond space" raping women and such (Lovecraft allegedly had some serious issues with women) it's one thing to make it clear what is going on in a book by writing around the details, but in a movie to do it 'right' you'd have to show it... and frankly Lovecraft is tame. There are some writers out there like Edward Lee (arguably the father of what people call "Splatterpunk") whose writings could make some good movies but would have people screaming bloody murder and clamouring for X and AO ratings.
To paraphrase Yahtzee, there are no Horror Games, just action games with pretensions. Consider also that the genere is moving backwards as well. For example one of the big deals with some gamers is how all of a sudden nowadays you can't kill children. Yet in Fallout 2 you could do this (and that wasn't even a horror game). The evil dead children from Silent Hill also seem to be missing in the latest iterations and that was one of the more unnerving things that they had. I won't even get into games like "Sweet Home" (which was translated into English from Japanese, sadly I can't find the fan ROM anymore for some reason) let's just say it features a scene of Infanticide.
So really, as disappointed as a lot of people were, Dead Space is as good as it's likely to get for a while. Notice that franchises like Silent Hill and Resident Evil are losing it as well and also becoming more action games. I suspect this isn't just the writers, but also societal pressures. For all the arguements I've entered into defending Resident Evil 5 on racial grounds, it has also struck me as ironic that the game has gotten so far away from it's horror roots that it's more contreversial for that, than the actual horror content which is the part that's supposed to shock people. The original Resident Evil was like "OMG, look at that zombie eating the guy... it's getting back up.. arggghhh!" and it got attention because that was new and shocking. It was a horror game for that reason. But after a while it decided to move away from shocking people, and really I suspect the new monsters starting with RE IV are to get away from the eating scenes and such as much as anything. You just don't see the same levels of nasty despite the atmosphere.
Enough rambling, I'm moving well away from the point. The point of this (which could be it's own thread) is that yeah... Dead Space is not as scary as the hype. But in the end all "horror" games are going to be touted as amazingly scary and shocking, but in the end they won't deliver because the industry doesn't have the guts to deliver that kind of content. Rather than creating new and increasingly scarier horror games to satisfy an increasingly jaded fanbase, they are actually backpedaling and are afraid to even do the things that were done in the past.
Part of the problem with things like horror games is that they are also directed at horror fans, who by their very nature tend to be jaded, and it takes more and more to get the same reactions out of them.
Detailed depictions of things like rape are taboo though they are quite horrific. Part of the problem is that in a lot of horror they gloss over such things if they were even going on so the impact is lessened. You don't see anything so "meh". If you did see something you'd have censors all over it and frankly the industry isn't willing to defend itself. Replace "rape" with pretty much anything that isn't purely atmospheric, or pretty much a jump out scare and the same arguement applies. As a result you see little in the way of actual horror games, and increasingly less in the way of horror movies. Really "Saw" is the only "real" Horror franchise out there right now for movies (which aren't quite as far gone as games when it comes to content as Hollywood fights somewhat) IMO, and that is getting beaten to death. Come Halloween we're up to like what? Saw VI. It's losing it's impact.
Dead Space was actually pretty good within the allowable grounds, and they put a LOT of work into the setting and general atmosphere as demonstrated by things like the "No Known Survivors" site. Of course some of the writing was truely awful despite this. I'm thinking of what happened with a certain military ship, the "magic" cash for uber-weapons/suit upgrades terminals (which were never used by the crew), and other things. Still it had a few creepy ideas, and the twist at the end with Issac's girlfriend was interesting.
It was an okay hybrid of Event Horizon, Supernova, and Aliens.
In the end, what did you expect though?
To put things into perspective 99% of the horror books out there that are actually scary feature things that would give the so called "Moral Majority" and it's ESRB lapdogs conniptions if they were to be shown. Heck even going back to Lovecraft, you've got all of these monsters from "beyond space" raping women and such (Lovecraft allegedly had some serious issues with women) it's one thing to make it clear what is going on in a book by writing around the details, but in a movie to do it 'right' you'd have to show it... and frankly Lovecraft is tame. There are some writers out there like Edward Lee (arguably the father of what people call "Splatterpunk") whose writings could make some good movies but would have people screaming bloody murder and clamouring for X and AO ratings.
To paraphrase Yahtzee, there are no Horror Games, just action games with pretensions. Consider also that the genere is moving backwards as well. For example one of the big deals with some gamers is how all of a sudden nowadays you can't kill children. Yet in Fallout 2 you could do this (and that wasn't even a horror game). The evil dead children from Silent Hill also seem to be missing in the latest iterations and that was one of the more unnerving things that they had. I won't even get into games like "Sweet Home" (which was translated into English from Japanese, sadly I can't find the fan ROM anymore for some reason) let's just say it features a scene of Infanticide.
So really, as disappointed as a lot of people were, Dead Space is as good as it's likely to get for a while. Notice that franchises like Silent Hill and Resident Evil are losing it as well and also becoming more action games. I suspect this isn't just the writers, but also societal pressures. For all the arguements I've entered into defending Resident Evil 5 on racial grounds, it has also struck me as ironic that the game has gotten so far away from it's horror roots that it's more contreversial for that, than the actual horror content which is the part that's supposed to shock people. The original Resident Evil was like "OMG, look at that zombie eating the guy... it's getting back up.. arggghhh!" and it got attention because that was new and shocking. It was a horror game for that reason. But after a while it decided to move away from shocking people, and really I suspect the new monsters starting with RE IV are to get away from the eating scenes and such as much as anything. You just don't see the same levels of nasty despite the atmosphere.
Enough rambling, I'm moving well away from the point. The point of this (which could be it's own thread) is that yeah... Dead Space is not as scary as the hype. But in the end all "horror" games are going to be touted as amazingly scary and shocking, but in the end they won't deliver because the industry doesn't have the guts to deliver that kind of content. Rather than creating new and increasingly scarier horror games to satisfy an increasingly jaded fanbase, they are actually backpedaling and are afraid to even do the things that were done in the past.
If it was in 1st person there clever heads-up display would never have been used. It would have beem easier to aim at the Necromorphs as you would have had a clearer view of the reticule. Some of the best parts such as the surprise grabs would have been less frightning.
Basically that's it. If you were to trade off the Third person view for a first it would have definitly been a lot more creepy. However the 3rd person view makes the game a bit more immersive.
Basically that's it. If you were to trade off the Third person view for a first it would have definitly been a lot more creepy. However the 3rd person view makes the game a bit more immersive.
I disagree with Therumancer's bit (post too long to quote) about impacts being lessened by not seeing stuff. Sometimes the experience is magnified if the audience is left to imagine a horrible scene. Dead space was a little scary, but I agree with OP that after a while it was all the same stuff (aside from a few bits).
I agree with Therumancer's bit about the censors, games are far to easy for a child to aquire and putting in truely horriffic and scarring content could have negative effects. I use the "alien" theory here, Back in the good ol days the aliens were never featured on front covers or movie posters to add mystery and thrill to the movie, you wouldnt see it for 45 minutes then be scared when you saw it because it was like nohting you imagined. Modern cinema i.e. AVP posters have tons of alien packed content and it is a demonstration of how nothing is really truely scary anymore.
I agree with Therumancer's bit about the censors, games are far to easy for a child to aquire and putting in truely horriffic and scarring content could have negative effects. I use the "alien" theory here, Back in the good ol days the aliens were never featured on front covers or movie posters to add mystery and thrill to the movie, you wouldnt see it for 45 minutes then be scared when you saw it because it was like nohting you imagined. Modern cinema i.e. AVP posters have tons of alien packed content and it is a demonstration of how nothing is really truely scary anymore.
It seems that "horror" games and movies now are just action movies where you show the monster as much as possible and as much action as possible because apparently that's all the younger generation requires these days. Action, blood, lots of focus on monster and half naked girls. AvP, Resident Evil, Transformers are good examples, although Transformers isn't a horror movie.Jirlond said:
Dead Space had potential, it really did. But they failed horribly on two extremely important points. Pacing and level design. There wasn't really any good sense of pacing in the game imo, and the level design was very....meh. Sure it was interesting but...really to much backtracking and seeing the same old same old over and over again. It was interesting the first two levels, then after that it just seemed to become a mindless third person shooter. They also left out a key part of horror games, ammo rationing. When I play Dead Space I literally trip over health packs and ammunition every two steps. It felt like the developers wanted to cater to both audiences, the hoard of action-hungry teenagers/young adults that just want mindless action and gore and the fans of horror/sci-fi games. Sadly they failed at pleasing (imo) the horror/sci-fi fans.
Although they did plenty of things right, I liked the idea of having to dismember your enemies, I like the detail put into the enemies, I liked the details they put into the environments. I liked the detail in the key-mashing moments (Kicking babies IS fun to watch). The use of sound and music was great BUT a for a game to be really horrifying, there should be no need for music. Doom 3 comes to mind there.
Sadly the cons outweigh the pro's with Dead Space. It had lots of potential, but sadly it didn't make it for me.
I wanted to like Dead Space, I really did. I tried hard to get into it and like it but....it just didn't capture me.
Or we just have strong hearts that can actually handle this type of game that mainly relied on jump scare moments.Anoctris said:
I didn't crank up the brightness or anything but the game honestly wasn't that dark and in the start when one of those monsters was in the room with others. It wasn't as scary as you made it out to be.
I also did explore everything in the game and when a body lied on the floor I was. "Hey this body is gonna jump at me, *shot it* the body moves *gasp*"
Bioshock for me had a better creepy touch to it with the mad doctors going nuts with a patient. Just gives me the creeps hearing that in the game. >.>
From what I got to see of it at a friend's house it was more "Look a monster! A booga booga raaargh!" from a dark corner than it was actual terror. Kind of like walking home at night on Halloween and having a kid in a mask jump at you screaming.
I didn't find it scary really, just made me jump a lot on the first level. Actually after 10 minutes I wasn't scared at things jumping out at me; I was just annoyed. Instead of being scared when something jumped out at me I just went "Oh for F*CK sake" and killed it. After a few more minutes of these jumo-out scares I turned the game off, not because I was too scared to play; but because it was annoying as hell.
It isn't scary, just goes "boo" a lot.
It isn't scary, just goes "boo" a lot.
I found it atmospheric and a very good game, but not particularly scary.
The beginning where I had to run from the necromorph because I didn't have weapons made me out of breath and a bit shaken up. More horror games should leave the character defenseless at times.
The beginning where I had to run from the necromorph because I didn't have weapons made me out of breath and a bit shaken up. More horror games should leave the character defenseless at times.
It wasn't the enemies that were scary for me, but the tense, oppressive atmosphere of the ship itself.
Broken, fuel spitting engines, creepy swinging spaceship skeletons, ominous holes torn in walls, flickering lights, the endless black distance in the metro stations...
I thought it was really well done.
Broken, fuel spitting engines, creepy swinging spaceship skeletons, ominous holes torn in walls, flickering lights, the endless black distance in the metro stations...
I thought it was really well done.
Honsetly, the scarriest games I've ever played where third-person.Giraffle said:
Wouldn't know about Dead Space since I never played it.
It's jumpy rather than Scary.
The sound design cues in the Necromorphs too obviously, a sudden stab of violins means it's time to draw guns and look sharp. Not to mention it ruthlessly apes Alien/s and various Resident Evil tropes. It wasn't bad, it's just that a lot of people playing that game will have seen it before.
I think a lot of game developers confuse jumps with fear. Fear needs to have prior knowledge to work, just look at System Shock 2 or Aliens. The fear comes because you know something is going to happen and that it is going to be very bad, but you are completely out of control and unable to avoid it.
Fear is the gap between knowing something will happen and it actually happening. Jump out scares only work if they're rare.
The sound design cues in the Necromorphs too obviously, a sudden stab of violins means it's time to draw guns and look sharp. Not to mention it ruthlessly apes Alien/s and various Resident Evil tropes. It wasn't bad, it's just that a lot of people playing that game will have seen it before.
I think a lot of game developers confuse jumps with fear. Fear needs to have prior knowledge to work, just look at System Shock 2 or Aliens. The fear comes because you know something is going to happen and that it is going to be very bad, but you are completely out of control and unable to avoid it.
Fear is the gap between knowing something will happen and it actually happening. Jump out scares only work if they're rare.
My friend scares me more while I lay this game, but it's probably because I expect to be scared by the game, and he takes that and uses it against me.
The Ripper makes the so-called scariness of this game go away for me.
The Ripper makes the so-called scariness of this game go away for me.
It wasn't frightening because you are slow, monsters are rather slow and the whole game is rather slow most of the time.Anoctris said:
So adrenaline isn't going to happen in this game. Left 4 Dead gave me adrenaline rushes when I was chased by the tank and heard him coming while I was trying to navigate through the objects around the map. Or when I'm on rather low health and trying to get to the end and I know two hunters are after me.
THAT'S adrenaline, Dead space did not have any of this. It's like "Take your time because you really have a lot of it."
It's a nice game and I really liked it but it really didn't have much of a scary feel to it.