Dead Space 2: Concluded

It's funny how often a power failure in a vast city on another planet is fixed by dismembering 3 alien creatures isn't it. Dead Space 2 doesn't often toe the line where videogame clichés are concerned, however this is the most glaring case.

In this Dead Space, at least we get to see more of Isaac Clark this time, he talks, he goes insane, he's still stooped over like an arthritic old man. Visceral use the fact that Isaac is going insane to good effect by making sure the player is never sure what's real or what's imagined. When Isaac returns to the Ishamura, the bloody thing is always whispering in his ear but, as the player, you are never sure when there's a creature behind the whispering. As a result of this the player is always kept on their toes, never sure when to relax or when one of those spindly creatures will come running at him.

Visceral clearly take a lot of pride in their presentation, this sequel has a very slick UI and similar to the previous release very sparse in-game HUD, with most of the information the player needs being placed in the world, although where it fails is for health and ammo. There's no way of telling (that I can see) if Isaac has any health packs, and if so which size they are without going into the inventory which can be dangerous if there are enemies nearby. Given the ease of use of stasis recharge packs (a light blinks when the player has a recharge pack in his inventory) it seems a bit of an oversight.

It's a scary game, but for me too much of the Wes-Craven-something-pops-out-and-makes-you-jump type of horror, not enough of the spooky psychological stuff. The game does suffer from repetition in the scare gags - never go in a lift in a space city, something is bound to pop out and make you jump.

It's an example in excellent environmental storytelling, without the need to resort to cutscenes every ten minutes. When the action is halted for a cutscene, they are generally incorporated very well into the level. Dead Space 2 suffers from very linear level design, but it's broken up by a few open spaces and hidden by the excellent presentation and visuals.

Unfortunately the ending lets the game down as a package. The final encounter is designed to take use of a particular weapon, unfortunately I never used this one weapon throughout the game so had to backtrack to find one and improve it before I could complete the level.

In short, if the future of humanity leads us to space colonies then I don't like it, and don't think I'll take part thank you.

Dead Rising 2: Concluded

Have we reached the peak of the zombie meme yet? This recently released game trailer makes me think not, however with the release of Left 4 Dead 2 and now Dead Rising 2 surely there's nothing more to offer.

I get the distinct feeling whilst playing Dead Rising 2 that it's a game of two parts. One part player against zombies, the other player versus humans. If only the part against the humans was better, this game would be excellent.

The player plays the role of moto cross star Chuck Green and is tasked with rescuing the survivors (including his daughter) of a zombie apocalypse in Las Vegas Fortune City, along with trying to get to the bottom of where all these bloody zombies came from in the first place. It uses a third person camera and is set in the malls, shops and casinos of Fortune City.


Fortune City itself is the perfect playground for Chuck to try out his maiming skills, with each and every section the player encounters (bar a few corridors and safe areas) packed to the gills with the undead - indeed Blue Castle are owed plenty of plaudits for their game engine, as rarely does the framerate drop even with (it seems) hundreds of zombies on screen at once. At first the amount of zombies can annoy but once the player begins levelling up, gaining stronger attacks and faster movement skills, the playground comes to life. Combining weapons is another feature, and soon the player is Propeller Hatting and Blambowing his way through the throngs. Using combo weapons not only allows the player to destroy more zombies, but also gives more XP points. The XP/levelling mechanic is one of the main pillars of the game and allows for quite a steep learning curve and the player hardly notices levelling up until they are a one man zombie destroye. This is definitely A Good Thing.

The marketing for the game wasn't great. I'm aware of a DLC title called DR2: Case Zero which was released before this game, and the main game was released without much fanfare. It's presentation is basic and sparse (using that font all japanese game devs use, I must find out its name), and as you'd expect the story and plot loses a bit in translation. The characters are widly over the top, but where the game tries to be funny it succeeds (mainly). The use of a trike and "female massager" stand out.

The game's structure is slightly confusing. The game allows the player time to deviate from the main story without ever explaining which is the more important task until it's too late. I had to restart my game because I didn't have enough time to complete one of the major story tasks - fair enough if I knew this was the case but it was sprung on me. Not good.

On to Chuck vs the humans. Scattered throughout Fortune City are a number of boss, or psychopath challenges. The story is that these survivors have lost it and gone mental, and Chuck has to kill them. The bosses take some time to take down, but it's not explained where this super human stamina from. Some of them are good, enjoyable even, however in the main they annoy as there are so many of them and the encounter often overlaps with another story part, or zombies get in the way.

So yes, despite its faults Dead Rising 2 is good, great even. I fancy playing through it again since you keep your XP levels for another run through. Should be fun.

Reboot

I know it's been a long time time since the blog was updated, but I've been busy with stuff on the internet mastering a game and mastering (hopefully) raising a minor.

I'm still playing games, so I'll be updating a bit more regularly. Oh, and I hope you like the new look. It's a template!