Today is January 25th technically. It's just a bit after midnight, but the key point is that today Dead Space 2 is finally out. After waiting a number of years and replaying the first game I'm excited to sink my teeth into the next section of the story of Isaac Clarke.
Ever since I was first terrified by the dogs that jump through the windows in Resident Evil on Playstation, and creeped out by the atmosphere of Silent Hill, and even more so in Fatal Frame, I've had a soft spot in my heart for horror games. It's just something that really couldn't be done in the 16 bit and prior eras of gaming and it's something that I embrace whole heartedly to this day. Whether it be campy, or serious, or too serious it's campy I love these horror games. It's Dead Space however that I have really grown to latch onto over the last few years.
You see, growing up I thrived on horror stories and movies, especially those of Stephen King probably more than anybody else. I loved his simple writing style, his interesting but usually severly flawed characters, and his darkened tint on the society that we live in. I also loved watching scary movies more than anything growing up, and it was in the mid nineties that a certain movie combined horror and sci fi just the way that I had always wanted it to, better than the Alien movies in my opinion. That movie was Event Horizon. It combined a future that was standard it seemed for most sci fi stories, but added in "what if's" in regards to space travel and the unleashing of demons and darkness when things went awry. I loved that movie and ate it up in the theatres and on video, and it's still one of my all time favorites. Dead Space owes alot to Event Horizon and I am sure that the people at Visceral are very much aware of that.
The first game introduced us to engineer Isaac Clarke, who worked on a planet cracker, a giant space ship used to harvest minerals and resources from planets as Earths had all dried up, but what was found on one of the planets that the Ishimura went to was an alien artifact that came to be known as the Marker. It's this marker that helps to unleash all forms of horrific monstrosities on the poor people of the Ishimura as well as the planets surface. As Isaac, well you have to get rid of the marker and basically survive. It's pretty simple but the world and the character, as well as spot on controls and genuine scares are what made me love this game so much. It may not be as in depth as Mass Effect, but the story keeps rolling on and there's alot of great encounters and creepy areas to be uncovered. Now with Dead Space 2, the story continues as another Marker has surfaced, the insane Unitologists are gathering some strength, and poor Isaac is trying to keep a handle on his sanity.
I'm definitely excited that EA has put as much into this world and IP as they have, and that there will be more of these adventures to come. Dead Space has easily replaced Resident Evil as my go to for horror games and I can't wait to pick up my copy tomorrow.
I'll write more after I've played the actual game, but for now i'll leave you with a video. Did I mention you die alot in these games? Well, you do. Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Alpha Protocol
So thanks to some pretty solid bargains I managed to pick up a few games over the Christmas season for cheap. Highlighted deal being getting Splinter Cell: Conviction, Bioshock, and Alpha Protocol for twenty dollars. A pretty good deal I must say. But primarily I was excited for getting my hands on Alpha Protocol. I was intrigued by what I had heard about in regards to the game, but heard that it had a few bugs and so I wanted to wait till I could try it out for a bit less than sixty dollars.
All in all though it's a pretty solid game. The game itself is kind of the bastard child of Mass Effect and Splinter Cell if I had to describe it to anyone. It's a 3rd person shooter-rpg that is pretty heavy on the story and as well has a pretty solid dialogue wheel system much like Mass Effects, and depending on how you respond to people and choices you can make in conversations, you can have quite a drastic effect on the overall game. Definitely a fan of the story and the characters even when sometimes the dialogue comes off a bit flat, but it's great if you choose the more sarcastic responses often as they all say some pretty funny things. The whole espionage and globe trotting story also has some great Bond undertones to it, and Michael Thornton is actually a very interesting character that has already grown on me.
I've been enjoying the game though it has quite a few bugs here and there, especially when you are doing missions and engaging in firefights with enemy agents. Frankly the enemy AI is pretty idiotic, running around and often not even shooting, reminding me of doing the facility mission in Goldeneye and laughing at how awful those guards are. As well in some boss battles there have been some frustrating glitches, and some pretty funny ones. Favorite moment was when a certain boss was on some stairs with some henchmen. I cleared out the henchmen with ease and as I ran up the stairs, I stood just below the villain, and he just shot over my head but couldn't hit me. I proceeded to unload my machine gun into his face until his health was gone. Huge boss battle over in about 15 seconds.
It's definitely been a fun experience I would say even with bugs, and if Obsidian would have put a bit more time into this game (as well as coughfalloutnewvegascough) then this could have become something great and we could have seen more of Agent Thornton. Sadly all we will be left with is some multiple play throughs and wondering what could have been. Still though, it's an enjoyable little game thats worth checking out, especially if you can get it as a bargain.
All in all though it's a pretty solid game. The game itself is kind of the bastard child of Mass Effect and Splinter Cell if I had to describe it to anyone. It's a 3rd person shooter-rpg that is pretty heavy on the story and as well has a pretty solid dialogue wheel system much like Mass Effects, and depending on how you respond to people and choices you can make in conversations, you can have quite a drastic effect on the overall game. Definitely a fan of the story and the characters even when sometimes the dialogue comes off a bit flat, but it's great if you choose the more sarcastic responses often as they all say some pretty funny things. The whole espionage and globe trotting story also has some great Bond undertones to it, and Michael Thornton is actually a very interesting character that has already grown on me.
I've been enjoying the game though it has quite a few bugs here and there, especially when you are doing missions and engaging in firefights with enemy agents. Frankly the enemy AI is pretty idiotic, running around and often not even shooting, reminding me of doing the facility mission in Goldeneye and laughing at how awful those guards are. As well in some boss battles there have been some frustrating glitches, and some pretty funny ones. Favorite moment was when a certain boss was on some stairs with some henchmen. I cleared out the henchmen with ease and as I ran up the stairs, I stood just below the villain, and he just shot over my head but couldn't hit me. I proceeded to unload my machine gun into his face until his health was gone. Huge boss battle over in about 15 seconds.
It's definitely been a fun experience I would say even with bugs, and if Obsidian would have put a bit more time into this game (as well as coughfalloutnewvegascough) then this could have become something great and we could have seen more of Agent Thornton. Sadly all we will be left with is some multiple play throughs and wondering what could have been. Still though, it's an enjoyable little game thats worth checking out, especially if you can get it as a bargain.
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