Poll: Was Dead Space scary?

[IanBrazen]

I was on the john reading the GI article about Dead Space 2, and I just learned that a lot of people were truly frightened by the first game.
Some could only go half an hour before turning it off, I knew people were scared, but not that scared?
Im not trying to sound like im a bad mofo who never gets scared, because that is very far from the truth, but I was not scared, not once throughout the entire game.
I came close at the beginning when the monster was chasing me, but once I got my gun, i was pretty much unstoppable.
It was like putting rambo in a room full of zombies (this was on normal too.)
Now Im not trying to say the game was bad, quite the contrary, Im really looking forward to the sequel, im just saying I wasn't scared.

How about you folks, were you scared?
If not, share with me a few ideas on what you think they could do to really make it scary.

Here is a short one I had.
Your outside, in space, running along the ship.
You lost your weapons and your low on health.
you look back briefly to see the horde of necromorphs getting closer and closer, but all you hear is your ragged, panicked breath using up the last of your oxygen.

Any ideas?

EDIT: and yes I have seen Yahtzee's review, you dont have to keep quoting him.

 

[TimeLord]

I jumped at a couple of bits where the aliens poped out of nowhere and shit myself when undead Nicola jumps you at the end but apart from that it wasn't scary as such

 

[plastic_window]

I felt genuinely thrilled or scared by it a handful of times - most of these were jump scares, but there were a few fights that scared me quite a bit, like the second regenerating-necromorph fight and the space-marine-necromorphs (or whatever they were, I can't quite remember that part).

But on the whole I felt a bit cheated by all the developer diaries and the like which kinda ruined a lot of the early to midgame scary moments.

That's my fault, I guess, but at least I've learned to steer clear of developer diaries since then. Sometimes it's hard work not to get games spoiled by the press that surrounds them. It's proving to be very hard work with Mass Effect 2. That game is everywhere.

 

[Omikron009]

It's funny, because I just got it, and no, it's not scary at all. There are a few moments that are extremely stressful, like fighting the leviathan sans ammo, but not scary. I guess extreme stress can be mistaken for scares.

That's not to say I don't like it.

 

[TheZapper]

I found the first chapter quite scary, but beyond that it just felt like any other shooter.

 

[-Drifter-]

More tense than scary, I'd say. It's too predictable, action-oriented, and easy to create any sense of genuine fear.

 

[Blazing Steel]

Not at all. Jumpy at times, but not scared.

a lot of people were truly frightened by the first game.
Some could only go half an hour before turning it off

Only playing for a little bit and having to turn it off? I did that once with condemned 2 because I was playing at 11pm, but on Dead Space?

As to make it more scary: Loosing your weapon/ammo and then turning the lights off, spooky music and then having a new horrible high health enemy that you can only see by it's eyes, but it acts like a ghost. You must then get through some maze of corridors with it appearing and other things/images popping up (non enemy, but scary) in between light flickering.

 

[The Infinite]

At the start yeah it was pretty freaky but once you upgraded your weapons and got the assault rifle it was more like.. when is the next damn necromorph appear. So tense i guess.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

It had it's moments, but it was far from the type of scary that these people are talking about. I jumped every now and then from the introduction of necromorphs and the occasional ones playing dead. After a while though you got use to the fighting and the AIs tricks.

 

[T-Bone24]

Much scarier the second time around. It's the anticipation. Come back to it after about a week. Trust me, you'll be defecating all over your residence.

 

[thenightgaunt]

It really wasn't all that scary. It was actually very predictable. Now I'll admit to being a big fan of most good horror games (silent hill, fatal frame, system shock) and I may be a bit jaded in that regard. But I actually felt that Doom 3 was scarier than Dead Space.

1. Predictable. You'd see corpses in the hallway and then when you came back down that hall later on they were completely different. First time around they were human corpses but upon returning they're now just monsters playing dead and very very obviously so. So no real surprise there.

2. Really predictable. Was there a single air vent in that game that was not, at some point, home to a monster? An hour into the game I started shooting the things open and dropping grenades down them just to save time.

3. Retarded weapons. Now the whole dismemberment thing sounds cool. But the weapons were rather unwieldy and with the monsters jumping about, it made it that much more annoying to enter a fight. They moved fast enough that, coupled with the slow manner in which you alternated the gun position, it meant that instead of aiming and trying hard to dismember the baddies you just ended up firing randomly at them until they fell down. If aiming is a critical aspect to the gameplay then make it work.

4. Just not a scary story. It's zombies on a spaceship. System Shock did it better and sadly this one just ends up stuck in it's predecessor's shadow. The plot twists were rather predictable and there were no really intense "Dun Dun Duuuuuuuun!" moments.

 

[Avatar Roku]

It's very tense, but I don't think that it's scary at all. However, there's one exception: the Hunter chases. That did it right; it made you feel absolutely powerless, trapped in a small room with an indestructible monster. Those moments were fucking terrifying to me. The rest, however, was not very scary at all.

Also, I read that same article and had the same response. I haven't talked to anyone who found the original that scary. It sounds, however, like the sequel may remedy that situation, it sounds good, with the possible exception of giving Isaac a voice (I'd prefer consistency to a character at this point, a personality done wrong is worse than no personality at all). We'll just have to see how it pans out.

 

[Ziltoid]

Scary? Not really. However the game was really intense. Playing on impossible was almost scary. It relied to heavily on jump scares and didn't provide that oppressive sense of dread that I feel makes a horror game scary. Still loved the game though, and will definitely be getting the Dead Space 2, although that looks like it will be even less of a horror game.

 

[Sentient6]

Well, the game had a great way for making you feel like you're totaly and completely fucked. Which contributed greatly to the atmosphere. Call it "tense" or whatever, but Dead Space was one of the few scary games that I found scary. Condemned was another, btw, but not much more.

 

[IanBrazen]

More tense than scary, I'd say. It's too predictable, action-oriented, and easy to create any sense of genuine fear.

That the problem with todays horror games, they are more focused on guns and gore than the actual scares.
Dead Space uses way too many jump scares, you could make a drinking game out of it.
Jump scares are cheap and should be used very sparingly.
Also anyone who calls Dead Space a "survival horror" is going to get slapped with a wet noodle.
Its "action horror", when every other monster drops ammo, money or medkits fights turn from survival to looting.
The only time I ran from anything was to line up a better shot.

 

[G17]

Only in the beginning.

After that you learn to shoot all bodies on the floor so they won't jump on your face and that's pretty much about it.

 

[Ryuk2]

No, it was no scary (for me), but it was for other people. But some people are scared of balloons, others are scared by rats and people jumping while saying '''Boo''.
Dead Space is bad gave as a HORROR game, but if it's called just a shooter, then it's a good game. See, if the game tries to be scary, but is not, then it's not a good game.
When i went in the game, i didn't even think that it is a horror game (played at friends house) and i wasn't scared, i thought it was better than average shooter (that's a good thing).

 

[Julianking93]

I thought it was absolutely terrifying.

But I'm a bit of a pussy when it comes to that stuff.