So. I admit it. This game gives me huge adrenaline rushes unnecessarily. I had to quit after the psych ward recreation room (just after you get the flashlight) because of how hard and fast my heart was pounding.

Seriously. I was on edge from a dark room with tables, and three corpses in wheelchairs.

Hmmm... that's a good sign, I'll have to check this game out sometime.

Yeah am playing this too. If you like Eclipse Phase, you MUST get this game. As with the original, the polish on the game is so far exceptional. Sounds (so often neglected) and visuals are amazing. Gameplay is great. Seriously, so far so good. I was playing at the "survivor" difficulty, the one right after "normal", and must shamefully report I had to downgrade it to keep my sanity. Too much "AW FUCK KILL IT KILL IT" ammo expenditure to make it through.

I can't wait until Isaac's dementia starts playing a part in the game, but like I said I had to break early because I was too tense from nothing.

It's not the monster that gets to you. It's that constant potential of attack.

Running around in a straight jacket with necromorphs about and no way defend myself didn't bother me.

It is definitely the paranoia.

Just picked this game up, and damn, have to agree. I have never honestly felt like I was actually possibly going to crap myself playing a video game before. I had a few moments in Fear 2 that came semi-close to the fear and paranoia I get, and when I was younger and would play Doom 3 and later fear 1 with lights off with friends and get scared crapless, but seriously, nothing compares to this game.

Any horror fan, zombie or not, should buy this game, right now.

Add note* Just after the daina part and had to quit playing. Hands were shaking so bad I couldn't play anymore.

Dead Space (1/2) + Surround Sound + Night Time + No Lights = Not for the weak of heart or those prone to "crapping" themselves.

The difference between F.E.A.R. and Dead Space is that the enemies in F.E.A.R. were predictable. You fought soldiers, all the time. They were fairly normal (aside from the god damn cloaking monkeys). The freaky stuff was the paranormal events. Dead Space... the enemies are not human, they aren't predictable, and they can come from EVERYWHERE. I'm not a fan of the jump out and scare you style of horror films because it's just the wrong medium. It is my opinion that movies like Cloverfield or Blair Witch project noted and tried to correct the issue with that style by presenting the movie from the viewpoint of a nameless, voiceless, and essentially bodiless character that watchers perceive the movie through and thus start to embrace that they are the cameraman.

That's why Dead Space succeeds at this. It's just you/Isaac. You are Isaac and Isaac is you.

It takes me a minute or two to into a room sometimes. The first Dead Space trained me to expect something everywhere. So before I even move into the room I scan all the floors, walls, and ceilings I can looking for points that necromorphs can bust through. Even when I'm moving through a room I keep my back to walls that I've declared clean and continue sweeping walls and ceiling with a minor attention to the floor. I was watching a friend play Dead Space yesterday and I was going nuts at how little he was watching the ceilings and walls and how much attention he paid to where he was going.

Maybe I've just been playing games for too many years now, but the only thing that ever actually scared me in a game was the mission to steal the Eye from the cathedral in Thief: The Dark Project. It was about 2300, the lights were off, the sound was up. I know I killed all the undead via flashbombs and holywater arrows... but the ambient sound made it feel like there were always more around you.

Dead Space? Didn't bother me at all. I liked the story and ambiance, but it was a bit like Doom meets Resident Evil. Conserve ammo, expect to be jumped. I actually found it to be rather predictable in that sense. Perhaps Dead Space 2 will change my mind. I fully intend to pick it up today and make my girlfriend play it. She gets scared playing Fallout 3 and New Vegas when she's in caves and such. So this should be a treat for me.

You despicable bastard. I love it.

She reminds me of StealthSigma in that regards. She'll be the person scanning the room prior to entering it for possibly ingress routes the necromorphs can take. She'll keep her back to "safe" walls, etc. The slowness drives me crazy but it's amazing once all that planning is forced out the window and she has to think on her feet instead.

Then there is the limb shooting aspect of Dead Space... that'll throw her for a loop for a long time methinks.

Dead Space 1 taught me to stomp ALL bodies encountered. This habit has rewarded me at least once so far.

I liked the Shalebridge Cradle level in Thief: Deadly Shadows.

Just sneaking about in the outer lobby was creeping the hell out of me.




-k

That's exactly how I play. However, that scanning is not thrown to the wind all that often since it also includes me noticing objects that are of use (read things I can pull to me with kinesis then later use against necromorphs), what's in the room in general, and all MY exits are located. Dead Space has a horrible, horrible penchant for having things come at you from front and behind. Keeping your back to a wall tends to let you assess the enemies then decide on a course of action.

For instance. I hit an open chamber in Dead Space 2. There were four pillars in this chamber. There's was some burning wreck at the opposite end. There was a stasis recharge unit on the wall near me. There were some containers and objects on the ground, but not much in the way of useful debris. There was no visible objects in the chamber that would require me to use stasis, such as rapidly opening and closing doors. Stasis and O2 recharge units are and always have been placed strategically around levels. This led me to believe that either I would face a horde of necromorphs and I would need stasis to control them to deal with them, or I would be facing a larger enemy that I would need to use stasis on in order to have a chance of surviving.

The latter ended up being right, of course know what I needed to do to fight the uber enemy didn't help with my accuracy of hitting it with stasis. It took three attempts because I kept missing my stasis shots that were going right under it's "armpit".

--



My friend figured out a trick in Dead Space.

Use kinesis on all bodies on the ground. If the body is pulled to you, it's not a necromorph playing dead. Drop it and curb stomp off all the limbs so mynocks cannot later use it. If it doesn't get pulled to you shoot it a couple times. This is also useful for if you're not sure if a necromorph is really dead.

I've been applying this method in Dead Space 2 with success thus far. No necromorphs playing dead... yet.

I was good at Dead Space 1. Like, really good. Like beat it on the hardest difficulty using only the Plasma Cutter, because I'm crazy and played it a lot.

I'm currently playing on Zealot and getting totally WTFPWN'D. So it's not just you - this is a harder game.

I'm playing it on normal and I'm running significantly lower on ammunition than I had on normal for Dead Space. I may be missing some things, but it feels like necromorphs are dropping ammo for weapons I don't have on me, unlike the first one where ammo from necromorphs seemed to mimic the guns you had on hand, or mimicked whatever guns you were using to kill them. I also seem to have disappearing necromorph bodies. I remember being in a room and killing four necromorphs. I proceed to curb stomp the bodies and I only found two.