[PS3/360/PC] Dead Space

[Eight Rooks]

I'd say Stasis was also pointless, at least inasmuch as I barely used it in combat and never upgraded it. It doesn't target things that well and takes too long to use when something's right on top of you. Kinesis, too. They're both fun, but what you get going in is more than enough for Hard. Air I never boosted, and I only ever needed to use a pack twice, once just before the turret section, once on the Mining Deck. I've only done One Gun, too, and I never really felt like I needed anything else. Upgrade your primary weapon first, damage -> speed -> reload -> capacity, and then maybe health on your suit. And always buy ammo over everything else - Stasis packs are pointless, and on Hard, if enemies close with you you're very likely screwed. Button responses are so slow you may well not have time to get a medipack activated regardless of how many you're carrying.

It's still not the most difficult game on Hard, as I said before. Other than the mid-point boss, which was pretty much a war of attrition, and two big firefights, nothing had me screaming at the screen.

[TheBlackLodge]

Cool, cheers gents. Am only playing it on medium at the moment, twas plain sailing until they introduced the regenerating Nemesis esque thing. Suddenly I found myself low on ammo and running about frantic. Quality game though.

[Dazzyman]

Disagree - Stasis is a must on hard you can use it loads after you have upgraded it and its a needed tool in certain areas. I had to back track for 2hours on first playthru on hard near end so I could rebuy stasis packs to get past an area as I made the mistake of buying more ammo.. If you use stasis and ripper you can decimate 3 mobs really quickly and it saves tons on ammo. Also one of the best tools is to use the pulse mine from the line gun after you stasis a group and it will take em out in one hit. You can paralyse a mob for ages when its maxxed out and pick off the others then come back to it. You only ever need 2 in the inventory when its maxxed as well as they last ages. Stasis might not be valuable on medium but its a must on hard and insane especially on the fast mobs.

Kenesis is a waste of time.

[Eight Rooks]

Opinions obviously, but I did play on Hard . One Gun run with the Plasma Cutter, I never upgraded Stasis and sold nearly every tank I picked up. I certainly wouldn't call it essential - the game gives you more than enough ammo to fill enemies with bullets even without precision aiming. It is definitely very useful in places, I agree, I just think whatever time the basic function gives you is more than enough to cope. I'm sure you had an easier time than me, but I wasn't finding things that tough.

[Number45]

How hard is hard, exactly? Seeing as I'm starting over tonight and going back to the standard suits, seems like it might be a decent time to find out.

Enemies take more hits, or do you take less? Or both?

[Eight Rooks]

Both. It takes about, oh, three or four hits at least to sever a limb with the Plasma Cutter, and enemies do significantly more damage. A Dark Brute will quite often kill you in two swipes, even if you've upgraded your health bar. It's not massively hard apart from maybe near the beginning (until you've levelled your equipment some/built a little stash of ammunition it can be frustratingly tricky) and a few places later on. But it is markedly different from Normal, and feels a hell of a lot more tense as a result. I saw all the death animations pretty quickly, put it that way.

[Number45]

Yeah... I wish I'd waited to read that reply before I started it last night!

Played through the first couple of chapters and you're right, it's considerably harder. I've upgraded the Plasma Cutter a little (A couple of damage and capacity nodes) and it seems like they still take a considerable amount to fully take down. Two to three shots to one of the legs to put them down, then a few more to finish them off (Seem to have the best results if you can take down both arms at the joints) means you basically use a single Plasma ammo pickup per enemy. The little critters with the three tentacles seem to take a huge amount of punishment as well!

I'm still going to try and play through it just with the Plasma Cutter though. Glutton for punishment, clearly.

[Soundwave]

Even at chapter 7 I'm finding the Plasma cutter the best weapon...I rarely change at all unless I'm low on Plasma energy.

I've only ever HAD to use a different weapon on one occasion to make it through, normally the Plasma cutter is fine for everything I've come across.

Still really enjoying this...although the urge to start playing Gears 2 is becoming overwhelming but I'm being good & will finish this first

Neil

[Dazzyman]

Opinions obviously, but I did play on Hard

Same I found normal way too easy so restarted on hard lol

Plasma cutter is the best starting weapon and best overall weapon but you will have to switch to others later in the game on hard as otherwise you will run out of ammo or die alot as they will come at you too quick. The ripper you get tons of ammo drops for it and if you upgrade it slightly it will last longer and do more damage so it becomes the weapon of choice for mid range later on as it also keeps them at bay with the way it works (it makes them recoil). You can literally drop a full 8 clip into a standard enemy sometimes on hard with a plasma cutter even when its stasis on legs then arm and it will still come at you. Thats the good thing about the ripper blade you can stasis a group of mobs and cut all 3 legs at once then do the same with the arms and your lucky if you have used 2 ammo. Dont use its alternative fire mode (one blade just firing into distance)as that is very weak, its a mid range weapon. For another tip never use the standard line gun bullet instead get a horde coming at you then stasis em all together and drop two mines at most it will nuke the lot instead of spending loads of dosh on normal shooting em. The normal should be for bosses really.

The flamer and assault rifle are worthless so dont buy em!

Hardest thing on hard is getting started you need as much ammo as you can get so do searches early on and smash the green boxes for drops in the toilets etc... otherwise you will get stuck very quickly even on first level!

[capcom_suicide]

Onto Chapter 7 now.

I really enjoyed the

->Open Spoiler<-

worm boss

encounter. I had serious flashbacks of playing a capcom game!

I'm also onto the last third of Gears, and we can see that the visuals of this game aren't up to the standards of GOW2, but I still love the artistic design.

I think the game remains fun, but chapter 6 has left me a little less impressed than earlier missions, but the end was good.

I'll try and get the game finished by Monday. Still scares me on occasion though!

[mr_rich]

loved this game. the only thing iv played all the way through without taking the disc out for something else.

early on, you get a audio clip of the guy who was brought up from the colony, you know the guy who's lost it? what happens to him, as i think i missed it...

what does everyone think the ending?

SPOILER ALERT....

->Open Spoiler<-

Its prob old news, but if you take the letter of each chapter and put them together, you get a message. ill leave that you...

[Eight Rooks]

I'm also onto the last third of Gears, and we can see that the visuals of this game aren't up to the standards of GOW2, but I still love the artistic design.

Entirely apocryphal, but I was told Redwood Shores started on UE3, then switched to proprietary tech when they realised UE3 couldn't do everything they wanted. Personally I prefer Dead Space's look - some of the shader work is tremendous, and the lighting, especially outside... but then Unreal Engine or not I only have Gears 1 as a basis of comparison, not #2. Still one of the most visually stunning games I've seen this year though.

[TheForce]

I've finished both DeadSpace and GOW2 , DeadSpace is visually very stunning but GOW2 is even more stunning to look at....
hard to compare these games as they are completely different in style ofcourse...

DeadSpace is for me for sure still one of the highlights of the last 2 years

[capcom_suicide]

Entirely apocryphal, but I was told Redwood Shores started on UE3, then switched to proprietary tech when they realised UE3 couldn't do everything they wanted. Personally I prefer Dead Space's look - some of the shader work is tremendous, and the lighting, especially outside... but then Unreal Engine or not I only have Gears 1 as a basis of comparison, not #2. Still one of the most visually stunning games I've seen this year though.

Which was exactly how I felt, and still do on an artistic level. Just wait for GOW2 though. The visuals are just incredible. I still prefer the look of Dead Space though. I just love the design and lighting. Gears is very good and bright white lights in the dark. I think Dead Space uses light more creatively and it is a very strong point of the game. The fact is though, objects are better rendered in Gears. It's just that a gothic metal tube in gears doesn't interest me nearly as much as the insides of a space station!

Both great games though, so it's all good!

[Dazzyman]

Dead Space has some beautifull particle effects as well and its definetly better looking than GOW1 and GOW2 up to end of act 2 but then GOW2 eats it up (gamewise it looks like they start using the newer engine from Act 3).

Id say their pretty much near each other for GOTY. I still have to give it to GOW2 for the co-op stuff but if you asked me would I sit with GOW2 wrapped while I finished another game I would have said you where mental up until I got DS as that kept me away from it as I refused to play any other game till I was done and I will be going back to it over and over on my save for ages.