Leveling Down

Dead Space 2 brings more horror and multiplayer to the mix. But is it as good as the first?

I was a big fan of the first Dead Space game. It was a fresh horror space shooter that I enjoyed from beginning to end. Now that Dead Space 2 has made its way around, I finally got to check it out. Surprisingly, as I went through my first playthrough I did not enjoy the first half of the game. Yet now having replayed it a couple times, I can enjoy the game for what it is. Is Dead Space 2 a worthy sequel?

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Kasumi’s Stolen Memory and Overlord are 2 of the 4 planned expansions for Mass Effect 2.

Over the holidays, Microsoft put all three major Mass Effect 2 DLC packs on sale so I picked them up. I’m not one to really pick up DLC for games, especially not through downloading, but the price point for them was quite reasonable for one of the strongest games of 2010. So far, I’ve gotten a chance to play through the Kasumi’s Stolen Memory DLC and the Overlord DLC. Playstation 3 owners that pick up Mass Effect 2 this month can look forward to all of the DLC released so far (which will include Kasumi’s Stolen Memory & Overlord) on the disc when they pay full price for it. For 360 and PC owners however, you have no choice but to buy it online as there is no physical disc that contains these expansions. Hit the jump to read my review on each one.

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Microsoft’s vision for the future of gaming: wild and crazy dancing.

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve leveled down or what, but I actually felt that the E3 this year was not that great. For many years now I’ve always looked forward to what Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo say at their keynotes, and like many other gamers, I like to determine which of the three of them “won” E3 that year. I guess in most instances, winning E3 is more about making announcements that actually excite gamers, so let’s review what the big three console companies had to share and my evaluations for each of them.

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Some of the already announced E3 2010 titles I’m looking forward to – can you guess what they are before the jump?

E3 2010 takes place this week starting tomorrow from June 15 through Thursday June 17, so there should be a lot of notable gaming news and announcements that we’ll be very excited to talk about. While most of the good stuff is probably under lockdown until E3 when they are announced, some publishers have already revealed their (partial) E3 2010 lineups. I’ve gone through and pulled out a few titles that I am definitely looking forward to hearing more info about in addition to any other crazy potential surprises!
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Dante’s Inferno sounded good on paper, but ultimately ended up a waste of time.

Dead Space is one of my favorite new IPs in the last couple of years, courtesy of EA’s own internal studio, Visceral Games (formally named EA Redwood Shores). The combination of action, adventure, and horror made the original Dead Space game seem closer to being a sequel to the Resident Evil games than Resident Evil 5 did. Dead Space Extraction on the Wii was also an entertaining (albeit short) horror shooter game, and it worked. I am totally a fan of Dead Space and a supporter of the studio. When I first heard that the studio behind Dead Space would be making an action/adventure game based on Dante’s Inferno, I was instantly interested. Action/adventure + horror in a hellish theme setting from the developer behind Dead Space? Sign me up! Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near what I hoped it would be. Luckily for all of you, I played through this game so you don’t have to. Read on for my review and why this game disappointed me so.
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I sat down and tried playing through the first level of Dead Space Extraction just to see how it was, and the best thing I can say about it is that I didn’t want to stop playing it. In fact, I ended up playing through all ten levels in two days, which goes to show you that it is an enjoyable game – especially for Dead Space fans. In contrast, I’ve played through a few levels of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and even though I’m a Resident Evil fan, I just found RE: UC to be too boring and never could force myself to get through it.

Dead Space: Extraction has many positive things going for it: an interesting prequel storyline that can be appreciated by those new to Dead Space, but even more appreciated by fans of the original game. Even though stuff can be hard to make out that’s far away at times, the graphics seem to be as good as what the Wii can handle. The sound, dialogue, and music are top notch. There is tons of spoken dialogue, and there are even audio files that you find that get played out of the Wii-mote itself, which is a nice touch. Part of me feels like the amount of effort put into the audio was to makeup for the “weaker” video presentation that the Wii is hampered by.

Finally, the best thing going for it is that the game works as an on-rails shooter. Visceral Games, the developer of both Dead Space and Dead Space: Extraction, manage to preserve the enjoyment of the interesting weapons and dismemberment of enemy limbs from the 360 game to the Wii game. I felt like practically very little of the gameplay was lost: I still grew worried as enemy aliens lurked closer, I still had to aim for limbs to slow enemies down, and I still had to effectively manage my reloading in the middle of being swarmed. The sense of fear present in the original was captured marvelously in the Wii game, and what I can say is that fans of Dead Space will enjoy Dead Space: Extraction. And who would have thought, but the Flamethrower is actually awesome in this Wii game!

However, there are some glaring negatives that make me cringe. Each of the ten levels is about 30 minutes long, and while that sounds decent for an “on-rails” shooter, Dead Space: Extraction is the first on-rails shooter I’ve played where practically half of each level is really just unskippable cutscenes and dialogue. Thus, it’s more of a “story-based” on-rails shooter, which doesn’t lend itself well to replay value at all. The first time through is amazing, but you’ll never want to go through again. There is a challenge mode that gets unlocked later that pits you against waves of enemies with no storyline whatsoever, but without any sort of online leaderboard, there’s no real incentive to go through it. And I don’t know how else to put it but say that the game is buggy. I’ve had to reset a couple of times when playing the game just because an enemy gets trapped behind an object or wall, and since you can’t kill it, you can’t progress through the game.

I enjoyed the game a lot as a Dead Space fan, but it’s not a game that should be in your collection as it’s short and lacks any sort of replay value. Dead Space fans should rent it, while others can probably pass. It was a delightful 5 hour ride, but it’s over so quickly that I can’t recommend paying $50 for it.

A few months ago, the 2009 fall/holiday lineup looked something like this: Splinter Cell: Conviction, BioShock 2, Guitar Hero 5, Halo 3: ODST, Forza 3, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Ghost Recon 4, Heavy Rain, Brutal Legend, Red Steel 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Bayonetta, Dark Void, etc. etc. etc. On top of all that, optimistic gamers were hopeful that Starcraft 2′s first installment would hit before Christmas as well. Alas, it was not meant to be. In what can only be described as an epidemic, title after title has been delayed until 2010 and beyond.

Whether it’s the economy, publishers wanting to avoid the glut of games at the holidays, or both, for some reason everyone has been pushing back their release dates. Frankly, that’s just fine with me. Last year’s holiday was a complete overload and overkill, there were so many amazing games out that I had to push some games like Mirror’s Edge back four months. Other games, like Dead Space, I never ended up getting around to finish. I was worried that I’d have to pick and choose a lot again this fall, but luckily a lot of those decisions have been made for me. Now I can concentrate on 2 or 3 games (or just Modern Warfare 2) without feeling like I’m missing out.

So, for the record:

Games I’m definitely getting: Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Beatles Rock Band (no more plastic tho), Tales of Monkey Island (when the complete season is done), Uncharted 2 (woops, I don’t have a PS3 but I’d get it if I did)

Games I want but aren’t must have: Left 4 Dead 2, Guitar Hero 5, Brutal Legend

Games I’m interested in: Borderlands, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario and Luigi DS

Games I’m sad to see get pushed back: Starcraft 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Heavy Rain (again, PS3 only), Bioshock 2

Hopefully, all the games that got pushed back will be better off for it. Ultimately, I think these delays are probably good for games, more spread out releases means less gems getting lost in the shuffle. I’ll just have to learn some patience in the mean time.

P.S. – If you’re interested, 1up has compiled a list of the notable delays. Also if I’ve forgotten anything please point it out!

Kotaku ran an interesting article recently that has EA wondering how even though only 1.5 copies of Dead Space were sold, over 3 million 360 and PS3 unique users have played the game. Considering the very small dent that piracy plays on the 360 and PS3, this number is pretty staggering.

But at the same time, it’s perhaps not so surprising that it’s not a game that people would hold onto for a long time due to what I’m surmising as the following:

1. 10 hour length
2. Horror game
3. No multiplayer

I remember about a month after BioShock was out, my local Gamestop was flooded with used copies of the game, and while BioShock is more of a 20-25 hour game, it also lacked any sort of multiplayer to keep gamers from holding onto the game.

What surprises me about this article is not Dead Space’s numbers specifically (I’m guessing other single player games like BioShock see similar numbers), but the apparently huge outlets that allows for the same number of people to play the game without buying it as those that actually do buy it.

The fact that I have connections to game developers makes it tough since I hope their games sell so they can continue making more games, but at the same time, I’m partaking in used game purchases myself because I can’t help saving money. Why can’t the digital medium for gaming come sooner? Then this will all go away and I’ll no longer have a conflict of interest…

What else will E3 bring besides building sized ads for Final Fantasy XIII?

Punch Out!
This game is awesome! I’ve been spending the bulk of the week working through the normal game mode. After I finished that I started right on Title Defense mode, which features more difficult versions of all the original fighters. For fans of the classic, this game is a definite must buy. For those who aren’t diehard Punch Out fans, I’ll have a quick review up later this week. The game reminds me of a hefty old school challenge, in a good way.

Broken Sword
I finished this game and was a little disappointed by the ending. I guess in a puzzle point and click adventure it’s all about the journey, but the story got super convoluted and hard to follow at the end so that detracted from the experience a bit. This is definitely a good game, but it’s not gonna crack my pantheon of point and click favorites (Monkey Island, Full Throttle). It just doesn’t have the same charm and humor of those LucasArts titles.

Dead Space
I definitely think Bioshock is the superior experience. Dead Space is starting to feel like a poor man’s Bioshock to me, and I miss Bioshock’s “choose your own method of killing” gameplay. Like Bioshock, the game is pretty linear, which is what it is. I do enjoy the different weapons at your disposal and how they aren’t “conventional” weapons, it definitely keeps things interesting. I can definitely envision this being a game that I never finish though…

E3
Lookin forward to seeing what comes out of E3 this week. There are rumors there will be a new Mario or Zelda title (or both!), I’m dying to hear what Kojima is announcing (and tired of following his countdown to a countdown), and hoping Sony announces a PS3 price cut (I’m incredibly skeptical). Sometimes I feel silly buying into convention hype, but with this being such a boring time for console gaming, I’ll take what I can get!

Remember this guy? Hint: He’s German.

Punch Out!
Punch Out Wii was in my mailbox when I got back from my trip this weekend. I proceeded to take down the first 8 fighters, but it was definitely more difficult than the original. Most of the characters are retreads, but due to nostalgia I think that’s a good thing. I like how little changes were made to their patterns, making them different (I lost to Great Tiger 3 times). The game also changes things up by forcing you to dodge in certain directions for certain punches. This isn’t 1986 anymore. I’m really looking forward to the “Title Defense” mode, which is basically an advanced mode after you finish the main game. I picked it up for $40 at Amazon on preorder, so I’m super happy with my purchase.

Broken Sword
I spent all my travel time this weekend playing Broken Sword exclusively. I brought Chinatown Wars but never felt compelled to put it in. I think I enjoy the challenge of solving puzzles more than the more simplistic gameplay in GTA. Even though the action is completely linear, the story is compelling enough that you want to keep playing.

Dead Space
Working my way through the campaign slowly but surely. Now that I’m used to the game’s scare tactics I’m making my way through pretty quickly. There are some scripted sequences that break up the gameplay and I love jumping around in outer space. It’s not as addicting as Bioshock was for me, but I’m definitely glad I gave this game a try.

Halo Wars
Still playin…