This is spoilertown! All gloves are off, and other cliches, as this is your place to discuss the entirety of Dead Space 2 for our Game Club series on the game. Keep the discussion here, and out of the main podcast thread.
This is spoilertown! All gloves are off, and other cliches, as this is your place to discuss the entirety of Dead Space 2 for our Game Club series on the game. Keep the discussion here, and out of the main podcast thread.
Have to agree with Matt that Unitology is represented as manipulative religious group, not sure if you guys came across the audio log that describes a headstrong unitoligy member. As a quick summary; the log describes the recruited member as too intelligent to succumb to the group’s brainwashing methods and manipulations etc etc etc….manipulation seems to be a central theme at least to me.
Millions of people died in this game, but fuck if I feel really bad for one eyeball…
cross my heart, hope to die, stick a sharp needle in my eye . . .
W
If Ryan’s crazy for being on his second run through the game, then I must be absolutely bonkers. Your last episode (along with a few other podcasts) accompanied me through my fourth run. It also happened to be a Hardcore game, which isn’t actually too bad if you’re willing to set aside the time or risk leaving your machine on overnight. I didn’t use a single save until the second disc: first when I got to the Ishimura, the second a couple chapters later, and the third right before the Eye Poke Machine. I probably could have done without the second save, but I was being a bit cautious. I did lose a few hours due to an unlucky hit from one of the exploding-arm guys, but other than that I was never really hurting for ammo or health.
Reposting from the main podcast thread, sorry!
I play in classic aiming mode. It may not be quite as efficient as centered aiming, but it fits more in with the world and is a bit more immersive.
Oh, and did any of the crew pickup on the bit of horrific environmental storytelling in the elementary school gymnasium? Right after you finish clearing it and the section of the wall opens up with the door out, just to the left of the door was one of the few scenes in the game that gave me real chills of horror. There’s just blood everywhere, but not just random blood. No, it’s all placed at the height of children, with small handprints. So you can kind of get the idea that when everything started going wrong, they probably tried to do their usual evacuation routine of rounding up all the children into the gymnasium into the corner, but the necromorphs got them. I have a little sister and just the thought of this happening to her gave me chills.
Also, anyone else wish there was a mode/difficulty setting that would actually require you to dismember all the limbs off a necromorph to put it down permanently, or at least quickly? Right now, all the difficulty does it make it so it might take 1-2 shots more to put something down, but all that really means is till just removing 2 out of 4 limbs for most necromorphs.
I would love to see the things just keep coming at you despire losing 3 limbs, as it pulls itself along the floor, or swings at you via other handholds, with only 1 limb left. Of course, I understand memory constraints means you don’t want to have a bunch of ineffective necromorphs wandering around a scene and not being a threat. But it would make the stomp more useful (and so we can hear Isaac cursing up a storm more often).
To me, that’s the kind of horrific, mindless killing machine that really creeps me out and would really highlight how different necromorphs are from other zombie like creatures. Right now, the necromorphs are starting to feel like normal zombies, where one headshot and their down in most video games. Well with necromorphs it’s just 2 limbs off and they’re dead.
DEAD SPACE 2 TRIVIA sourced from DS2 Art Director Ian Milham http://twitter.com/monkey_pants and DS2 Level Designer Matthias Worch.
Metacritic 90 reference:
# # For the record, it’s on the back of the chair that Isaac escapes from the Solar Array in. Check it here: http://tinyurl.com/4kq8e6a
# #You can find a sign saying WORCH that refers to Matthias Worch who was a level designer on DS2 http://twitpic.com/3uck38
# #deadspace2 trivia: the tram cars in chapter 2 never move, even during the tram ride.
# #deadspace2 trivia: the crying baby in Titan Heights (ch2) is my son. Fake crying babies sound bad. (He was fine, just protesting bed time.)
Damn, that was a good game. As someone who is constantly hunting for that highly atmospheric game Dead Space 2 has got to be a top contender, if not the current king.
PS: Trying to save a bit of cash I started off with a 360 GameFly rental. But after episode 1 and all Ryan’s PC love, which as a graphics whore I am very susceptible to, I was driven to buy it and play on my PC. (*nerd voice* Which might I add is a HTPC containing a 470GTX connected to the same 1080p 67″ DLP HDTV screen and 7.1 audio as all the other consoles. A super charged console if you will. */nerd voice*) Jokes aside, thanks for convincing me to play it on PC Ryan, it was well worth it.
PPS: As a new father of a 5 month old baby boy, this game also fucked with me. Aside from the obvious horrid stuff you see (everything in the day care) the sound alone repeatedly messed with me. On a few occasions the baby enemy crying noise would kick in causing me to hit pause thinking mine was crying. Then the reverse would happen. My baby would start crying and I’d freak out thinking an exploding baby was about to drop in the elevator with me.
PPPS: More game clubs please! You all do such a great job discussing and debating a game’s specifics it’s a shame you can’t do them more often. Not sure what others think but please, anytime you want to shorten up a RebelFM show and shove in a GameClub by all means, do it!
ACTUAL QUESTION: If you have time at the end how about a few Dead Space 3 wishes or predictions?
Loved the podcast! It’s great having a one off game club like this, made me realize how much I miss it.
Chapter 10 was amazing- first seeing the Ishimura off in the distance, and then actually going back in her and revisiting places from the first game, but twisted by the cleaning process being done. I spent a lot of time expecting to be ambushed in the same spots as the first game, and then mostly it never happened (the frequency increases the further into the level you go). Waiting for and expecting an attack that never happens is almost worse than one that does! I almost think the flash backs were unnecessary, it sort of belabored the point of remembered fear and anxiety.
Question:
What was everyone’s favorite necropmorph type to fight, and which one did you dread to see coming?
I actually enjoy facing off against Lurkers, they move quickly and you have to be paying attention to prevent getting hit by ranged attacks. I hate the pregnants- if you hit them accidentally while firing at another necromorph, or miss your stun shot they eviscerate themselves and you have a whole herd of the little crawlers to deal with- it’s especially bad if you have the top half of the pregnant coming after you while the little things are crawling on you. I’ve died more times that way than I actually want to admit to
Going back to the Ishimura was a nice surprise, but I could’ve done without the complete fucking repeat of being stuck in decontamination while getting surrounded by necromorphs in the exact same place as the first game. Putting an Ishimura level in is already a nice nod to the first game without completely repeating scenarios from it.
The enemies aren’t the worst part about the Ishimura.
Nicole keeps whispering about how they never found her body and that she might be stalking the halls with blood on her face.
And then there’s the audiolog guy that got lost in the dark in the Ishimura and how he came in on the last shift and nobody was there. That freaked me out way more than any monster.
Could have done without the return of the non-killable enemy, especially since it looked like a geth in high heels.
This is how you can kill the Ubermorph http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B85WlIaTyTc
It’s basically a glitch.
I had no problems clearing the gym/cafeteria with the pulse rifle, even on my second play through, which is on zealot (first was on normal). I haven’t been upgrading my pulse rifle much and it only has one damage upgrade.
As with any full auto rifle in a video game, small controlled bursts get the job done, though you will go through more than one clip so it’s wise to use stasis for that, or you could get overwhelmed. That room is pretty much a shooting gallery for well trained combat engineers.
There’s an extra special easter egg in New Game+, but only on the PC version. Thanks to a bug the schematics for the Elite suits don’t appear in the game!
There’s a hacked save file floating around that not only has all the elite suits unlocked, but all of the extra items ‘exclusive’ to the console versions as well. I haven’t used it, because I’m optimistic enough to wait for the patch that will let me find them in-game, but trust the hackers to get there first! Now, if someone could hack in some Steam Achievements, then I would be interested.
What’s the easter egg? Perhaps you can link to a description? I didn’t notice anything and I’ve played through 2.5 times now.
I was making a joke! The PC-only ‘easter egg’ is you don’t get the Elite suits. It’s kind of an anti-easter egg in that you don’t want it, you don’t have to look for it and because of it the game is (potentially) more difficult.
Weird, I got the Riot Security suit, but that was just at the store.
However, I do know I never found the Elite Engineer suit schematic, which is supposed to be right there near the first shop (but wasn’t).
One thing you guys haven’t brought up yet is the awesome kill animations. Instead of just your health running out and a quick “your dead” or a repetitive animation almost each death is somewhat unique and sometimes lengthy. I basically started to let myself die in weird situations to see them all. For the last episode you have to talk about what happens if you die fighting the final boss. Its awesome.
Uploaded Episode 2 of the Game Club video companion. http://bit.ly/eDvQl8
That video must take a lot of work. But damn playing on the PC looks way way easier.
It was impressive how he (who was playing?) handled the stalkers.
I didn’t think the interface would make that much of a difference.
On the whole oxygen thing; it’s the future and they have FTL drives, and they can’t provide a decent oxygen-tank? The gameplay reason is allmost not there. Urge? Why can’t i float in space and have a look at The Sprawl.
Also The Sprawl exploded because the Fusion Reactor exploded?!! Fusion reactors don’t explode. If any material touches the plasma the fusion reaction just stops.
But then again, there’s a weapon that fires giant nails and then electrocutes ‘em, why am i complaining about realism.
Just a couple of things the developers should’ve looked into.
Because Oxygen can only be compressed so much?
There’s plenty of ways to rationalize out these concepts. Pick one that suits you and don’t let it affect your enjoyment.
Myself, I’m kind of assuming the fusion reaction itself didn’t explode, but all its water based fuel may have instantly converted into hydrogen and oxygen, then exploded. Or, the reactor itself was only partially based on a deuterium fission reaction, but used some other tech or fuel source that they have (and clearly they have things like shields, stasis, etc) to make it more efficient, but also more dangerous.
Also, people were deliberately sabotaging the station, whether it was Vandal’s initial efforts, more unitologist saboteurs, or the necromorph’s instinctual drive to break technology.
Howdy, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just wondering if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is very much appreciated.