Dead Space: Succeeding Despite Itself
In an editorial for Gamasutra, Tom Cross has some very harsh things to say about Dead Space. The plot? Hackneyed. The characters? Boring. The scares? Predictable. From this, you'd think that he'd be reluctant to recommend the game to anyone. Strangely, just the opposite:
In the end, I'm still not sure why I like Dead Space so much: it makes all of the story mistakes that I don't appreciate, and it displays a disdain for interesting presentation of its characters. Yet, for once, it's enough that the rest of the game comes through, no matter the contortions my brain is forced to go through to believe its justification. Style and flair really can prevail over substance and feeling.
I can't say I completely disagree with him about the plot (although if you abandon pretension it settles into a popcorn-style potboiler groove about halfway through ), but so much of the game is done right, it's still headed onto my list of favorites this year. In fact, a lot of the games that I keep thinking about this year have succeeded despite, or maybe even because of their faults. It's almost like a completely polished game slides in and out of my gaming consciousness by the time it leaves my disk drive, but a game I have to work a little harder to enjoy sticks with me longer, like an acquired taste. Or maybe I've just got a thing for damaged goods.
Are there games that, despite all their problems and faults, you still love?
Opinion: Why Blood and Guts Make Up For A Dead Story, Characters [Gamasutra]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 30 November 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: dead space, ea, ps3, question, story, xbox 360
I think your line about popcorn potboiling is my favorite sentence of the day.
My favorite thing about Dead Space is that it never gets frustrating. Even the challenging parts are easy enough to get through with minimal dying.
I still love Tecmo's Deception 3: Dark Delusion despite all of its polygonal ickyness, frequent character misspellings, and numerous plotholes; somehow, catapulting an enemy into a spiked wall, using an electrified crane to lift them up, and releasing a guillotine to eviscerate them (all in one exquisite combo) never gets old.
all gothic games despite their million bugs, and of course, ANACHRONOX, which was buggy and ugly but still I love it. One of my favourites!
btw, gamespot tries to convince me not to buy the last remnant because it's techincally bad, but still, I want it.
anyone tried it already? is it really that bad?
I always found UNLIMITED Saga interesting for similar reasons.
File Alone in the Dark, older Resident Evil games, all Tomb Raider games, Silent Hill (all of them), and Karaoke Revolution under the "games that, despite all their problems and faults, you still love" heading for me.
The Warp games that I've played -- in particular Enemy Zero and D2 -- are games of which I have incredibly fond memories, even though I was never able to beat the former due to its unforgiving (albeit hair-raising!) mechanics.
Obviously, he's smoking something. Dead Space was an amazing game. That said, looking through my collection, the only 360/PS3 game I have that I feel that way about is Far Cry Instinct Predator. I had a big problem with hit detection and how it let the player know they were damaged, but the online was really fun to play thanks to downloadable maps and a community that stayed around FOREVER.