Dead in the Water... and about two years too late

I've never been one for survival horror, or horror in general.  I feel that most 'horror' is actually just shock factor.  I shouldn't be able to sit through a whole movie going... "OH CRAP SOMETHING IS BEHIND THE DOOR DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!... Yup.  He was behind the door."  Makes you jump, startles you, but isn't really horrific or anything.  Now, there are horror films like that and there are horror films that don't rely on shock value to get their point across.  Silence of the Lambs was kinda like that, so is Shyamalan's stuff.  So what I look for in a horror movie isn't the startle factor, but something more like constant dread... constant insurmountable odds, overcome by skill and not a little bit of luck.  Oh, and to you Saw fans out there, the whole horror through disgust?  Yeah, not my cup of tea either.

Same goes for my games.  I've never been a Resident Evil fan.  Neither the games nor the movies.  The movies were okay (just my opinion, don't hate) and I watched all three of them (I think there were three anyway), but they were on my low end tolerable list.  My biggest gripes about the game were its controls...  slow didn't even begin to describe how I felt.  I didn't feel the horror at all, unless you count the horror I felt when it took me way too long to turn around and attack the stupid zombie that came out of the room I just cleared.  Or having one clip of ammo for a massive horde of hundreds of zombies.  Seriously, who only takes ONE EXTRA CLIP into a war zone!  /end rant

Anyway, time to get to what I'm really doing here.  So, when Dead Space came out two years ago, I let it go by because A) I don't like horror and B) I was broke.  But mostly A.  Recently though, it went through several price drops and I picked it up on sale.  I've played for about two hours now.  Here's my take on it.

Story wise?  Wow.  I was drawn in within the first five minutes of game time.  WTF is going on, where the hell is everyone, and why do the quarantine protocols seem to work only when it's convenient to trap me in the room with these monster... people... demon... things.  I'll probably finish the game just to see what the hell happens, and get the sequel to experience the amazing story telling.

That being said... I come to the meat of the game, the game play.  I started out playing with my good old standby mouse and keyboard.  Shooters have always been better with mouse and keyboard inputs, at least in my experience.  Well, not this time.  My aiming, and even my mouse cursor in the menus was wonky... drifting around long after I'd stopped moving the mouse.  Wasted tons of ammo spraying just because I couldn't stick the target.  Now, I'm not the best shooter in the world or anything, but I know my way around an aiming reticle... and this was ridiculous.  Yes, naysayers, I tweaked the sensitivity and all that jazz.

Anyway, on a whim I went ahead and hooked up my xbox controller, and what do you know, it was like night and day.  Took me a few moments to figure out the controls, but thanks to some in game pop ups, was easy enough.  Still, seems kinda odd that for a shooter, especially for me, that the controller was better.

Wonky controls aside, let's get to the nitty gritty.  You have a sprint option, but it's one direction no strafing, which is fine.  Walking feels like trudging through waist deep water, except the water is jello, and your legs are broken, and you're dragging a couple cinder blocks behind you.  It makes a kind of sense because you're an engineer, not an athlete, and your suit is like an all over heavy duty welding mask.  Just because it's justified though doesn't mean it feels right, especially with mutated people running around killing you.  Even turning feels sluggish, but that may be less slow controls and more freakishly fast thingummys trying to eat me.

It is very hard for me to get into the swing of aiming for not the head or chest.  That's right, damage is backwards.  Chest and head do less damage than legs and arms and tentacle... things... and tails... and any other appendages.  Not a bad thing, just so against everything I've learned in shooters that I have a hard time adjusting, and in a survival horror setting, that's not a good thing.

Then, a couple minutes into the story, I get force powers.  What?  Slow time, force grip and throw... I was a happy camper for about 30 seconds.  They can be used in combat, but gripping something pulls it into your already not great view.  Still, it's a neat mechanic that I don't think I've used to its full potential.

The guns are actually pretty neat.  You start out with a basic pistol type thing.  If you think of it as a blade thrower, you're on the right track.  You can buy different guns through automated shops, which was neat and fit the story pretty well.  My favorite of the four I've seen is definitely the line cutter, which is basically bigger, horizontal version of the plasma cutter.  All guns have a secondary fire, the plasma cutter just changes from vertical to horizontal, which is handy, the line cutter shoots a "mine" that explodes after a few seconds and is amazing.  The plasma rifle had a neat but inefficient secondary fire, you plant it in the ground and spray the entire room.  Potential for being surrounded is cool, but the accuracy and lack of ammo is bad.  I didn't use the flame thrower, because I didn't unlock it till near the end of my session.

The leveling system reminded me of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X, simplified.  Each weapon has its own path, as does your suit.

So, giving everything the benefit of the doubt, I still can't recommend this game wholeheartedly.  I like what's there, I do, but the controls scheme, the constant frustration with the clunky controls... I just feel like I'd be having such an easier time with some more streamlined controls.

I'm gonna hold off on my overall rating till I get father into it, but so far, I'm giving it a 7 out of 10, and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.  I heard they addressed a lot of what is frustrating me, and if the story is anything like this one, I'm sold.  Once I get some money of course.

As always, take care, and happy reading.