Dead Space, the nitty gritty

So, last time I talked about my first impressions and my irritation with the controls.  Everything I had said is still true, but I have to revise my overall take of Dead Space as a whole.

I was hooked on the story before, but now I'm addicted.  Superb atmosphere, superb story telling.  It's no longer a matter of "WTF is going on", but "what's going to happen next?"

At first I was unimpressed with the enemies.  Seemed like everything I ran into was just the body of a person with extra appendages... attached... or... grown out of them... or something.  But now I see that introducing new enemies is a pacing tool rather than a cut and dry new area new enemy formula.

**SPOILER ALERT!  Jump to **End spoiler
For example, the first enemy you run into is a pretty nasty looking, but familiar enough modification of a regular old human.  It's a human, two arms two legs, with a monster head and almost bat like appendages sprouting from the shoulders that end in talon like spikes.  The next one I remember running into looked like a human cut in half, with a scorpion tail, that crawls around on the ceilings, walls, and floor.  A bit freakier, but nothing too foreign.  Then the babies showed up.  I can't even described them, but let me tell you, I was not prepared for that shit.  Now I'm running into stuff that can barely be classified as even vaguely humanoid.  The best part is, after starting to get used to seeing freaky stuff like that, the doors to the elevator open to reveal someone that looks a lot like an engineer (So... like you) that turns around, looks at you, then inhumanly runs away.  I about wet myself when that happened, no joke.

The guns you get are pretty versatile, but I find myself using the same two all the time.  First gun you get is a plasma cutter... think of it as your standby pistol, but make it kick ten times as much zombie ass.  The next ones you run into are the Plasma Rifle and Line Cutter, which I talked about last time.  I've run into a few more now... one of which I think I'll have a lot of fun with (once I find some damn ammo...).  One is a cut and dry flame thrower, but eats ammo too fast for my taste.  The next was a Remote Saw.  If you ever played Half Life 2 and use the gravity gun on a buzz saw, you'll get the idea.  Neat idea, but I find it's a bit too... not versatile.  It really only works at one range, and it's a really terrible range to be at, at least in my opinion: just outside of melee.  Another is a shotgun like weapon that is pretty neat, especially as it shoots out a time bomb as it's secondary fire.  Finally, there's a charged beam that has about the same aiming reticle as the plasma cutter.  Charge it up, let go the trigger, watch things die... or re-die.  It's secondary fire is an aoe around you that packs a big punch too.  I love it ^_^.  Still, my favorite is the line cutter, but I still use the plasma cutter more than anything.
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I still fight the controls constantly, but I've adapted.  Regular fighting isn't as stressful as it was when I started, but I still get irritated at the clunkiness of it all.  I'm about five, maybe six hours in, and I'm still running into new enemy types, new puzzles, and a changing ship environment.  Stuff I saw before is still there, but the same area I visited an hour ago is either more broken thanks to debris and failing ship systems, or being taken over by a creeping flesh like growth that reminds me of fungus, or the creep from Starcraft.

Other than that, my only gripe is the level of intensity that even the developers have acknowledged.  I sweat when I play this game.  I strain to hear anything that will tip me off to what's around the corner, if there's something behind me, searching for ammo, money, looking for potential... for lack of a better word I'll call them spawn closets, but it's not that simple.  I literally am on the edge of my seat the entire time I'm playing.  There are not "safe rooms"... not even when you're in the shop, looking through your inventory, or even saving.  Thankfully, if you're attacked while doing any of these things it does a good job of popping you back out.  Still, I always keep my back to a wall or corner whenever I do any of that, and clear the room even if I JUST walked through it two minutes ago.

So if you recall, before I gave it 7/10.  I'm retracting that, and giving it a 9/10.  If my few mechanic problems weren't as noticeable, especially after getting the swing of things, I'd probably give this game a 10/10.  Get this game.  Deal with the frustrating controls.  Take a break every hour or so.  And if you're playing it for PC, use a controller.  I recommend this, but to each their own.

Oh, and I'm gonna try something new.  If you're interested in reading my short fiction that might turn into a long fiction, leave a comment!  The first few... chapters, I guess, are up on my facebook page in the notes section.