Dead Space 2 and Game Difficulty

I completed Dead Space 2 last night. I liked it quite a bit but near the end I was pretty much ready for it to be over. I completed 14 of the 15 chapters on the "Zealot" difficulty setting (the most difficult) and there was this one part right before the endgame where I kept getting killed over and over again. It was annoying the hell out of me so even though I was very near the end I said screw it and changed the difficulty level to "Casual" so I could go ahead and get through and see how the story wrapped up. I won't throw out any spoilers but turns out chapter 15 is VERY short. So after I completed the game on Casual and saw how little I actually had left I went back to a previous save before I switched difficulty levels and went ahead and completed the game on Zealot. It actually wasn't that difficult after I was armed with the foreknowledge that there wasn't much left and I could really cut loose with my ammo and stasis.

But it made me think about my selection of difficulty levels on games. I used to always play my games on the normal or default difficulty level even when a more difficult choice was available. Then somewhere along the way I switched over to always selecting the most difficult level available. And although some games on the most difficult level did prove challenging - like God of War III if I recall - most were more or less doable without TOO much trouble. But there were a few parts in Dead Space 2 where I got killed quite a few times before I got through them and it started to interrupt the flow of the game. The emotions of frustration, anger, and impatience that I felt at those times were not really compatible with the fear, panic, and dread the game's story was supposed to be immersing me in.

A while back I finally got around to playing Kung-Fu Panda which came with my XBox 360. It's not a game I would have purchased and I didn't really take it too seriously so I played it on Easy mode to just blow through it. And what do you know I quite enjoyed that little game. The absence of any significant challenge did not impede my enjoyment of the game. Now I'm thinking I might switch back to Normal difficulty on my games for a while and see how that goes.

So I'm curious - when presented with the option of choosing a difficulty level, which do you typically select?

Dead Space 2 and the Church of Unitology

I love science fiction and I love horror movies - so it is only natural that I love the survival-horror 3rd person shooter Dead Space. I played the first game on PS3 and I played MOST of the rail shooter Dead Space Extraction on the Wii (still have to go back and finish that one). I even rented the movie Dead Space Downfall and downloaded and watched all the animated comics from PSN. So it's no surprise that I am quite enjoying playing the new sequel creatively named Dead Space 2 (damn not even a colon with a subtitle?).  I've put maybe 5 hours into the game so far and it has already scared me into and back out of arrhythmia on several occassions.

The perspective and gameplay are reminscient of Resident Evil IV, so if you've played that classic you might consider this Resident Evil IV in space.  You play as engineer Isaac Clarke who, 3 years after the events of Dead Space 1, wakes up on the Sprawl, a formerly densely-populated space station built on Saturn's moon Titan. I say FORMERLY densely populated because it is now overrun with necromorphs who are quickly and efficiently killing the remaining good people of the Sprawl and converting their corpses into more necromorphs who must be dismembered to be killed (the trusty ol' headshot just pisses them off). So wake up and try not to get killed before you can figure out exactly what the hell is going on and how to escape!

Just like the first one, the atmosphere of the game is dark and quite scary, with a big part of the spookiness coming from Visceral Games' masterful handling of the sound effects and music - it really accents the environment perfectly, especially when piped through a surround sound system with all the lights off (my favorite way to play scary games). But none of that is why I posted about a game you can read about in a million places right now - I just felt compelled to chat a bit about what I found to be the creepiest part of this game - the Church of Unitology.

In the first Dead Space you get brief inferential glimpses into the Church of Unitology through the text, video, and audio logs of its members that you stumble upon aboard the mining ship Ishimura. And that was creepy enough. But in Dead Space 2 you actually wander through their church on Titan exploring their indoctrination center, seeing their recruitment posters, listening to their audio logs, viewing their museum exhibits, gaping up at giant statues of their revered founder Michael Altman, and generally just witnessing numerous first-hand examples of the creepiness of this religion which is like an ultra-dark/hellish version of Scientology (apologies to any Unitologist readers).

One of the many recruitment posters you'll see

The Unitologists worhip the Marker, a double-helical obelisk with unusual powers to infect people's minds and DNA that serves as the source of this whole nightmare. You can see the Marker inside the egg being held up in the Unitology poster above. Symbolic of the Marker allowing these people to be reborn as one - or something to that effect.


The Marker

I have always found religious zealots to be rather creepy to begin with, but the Unitologists really take it to the next level by embracing the idea of being horribly killed by necromorphs to experience the bliss of the unique brand of afterlife they offer - becoming animated pieces of a mauled and mutated corpse whose sole purpose is to convert other corpses to the same. But of course that credo isn't going to attract too many new members so the controlling arm of the church spins it and talks about the ideals of unity and "convergeance" when in actuality their ultimate religious goal is to convert all humanity into the undead necromorphs whom they consider to be the next holy evolutionary step for humanity.

One thing I will give the church credit for - beautiful architecture. They've proudly incorporated the Marker into their columns and towers, but also more subtly into other stylistic touches as well. Subconsiously I began looking for the holy Marker everywhere as I wandered around.  And now I'm seeing the Marker all around me!  Sunday morning my wife made me breakfast and when I looked at the plate this is what I saw.

The Bacon Marker

She doesn't know anything about the game at all but that piece of bacon fried up like that and for some reason she decided to stand it upright on the eggs. Eggs... THE MARKER IS IN THE EGG. I can feel the old me slipping away as I am bathed in the warm unifying glow of the Marker. But why the look of concern oh non-believer?  Just open yourself up to the Marker and you too will see.

If you would like to learn more about our wonderful religion and the eye-opening teachings of our founder Michael Altman, please find a comprehensive collection of information about Unitology HERE. Come and join us.  We're waiting for you.

Altman be praised!

Your Mom is Going to Medium Disapprove of Dead Space 2

Well Dead Space 2 is set to drop on January 25 and I will definitely be getting it as I thoroughly enjoyed the first one. You may have heard about EA's Dead Space 2 commercial that was televised during Saturday's playoff game between the Packers and Falcons. In it EA served up some self-created controversy by inviting a panel of mothers in to provide their feedback on a "new video game" while they privately recorded the whole thing on hidden cameras for the commercial. Then they showed the moms the goriest parts of Dead Space 2. My favorite quote from one of the mothers was "It's not a game. It's a dangerous mind-numbing, mind-altering, demonic weapon!"



Apparently it did cause somewhat of a controversey as the usual spectrum of knuckleheads chimed in on the internet with their diametrically opposed and unwavering opinions. I don't care about that nonsense, I just wanted to point out one particular mom who, although she ultimately didn't approve of the game, had fun with it and was very nice and actually rather comical in her response, as opposed to some of the more rigid mothers who were simply sickened and outraged by this filth.

I present to you participant #0124:

Dead Space 2 Interview

I just saw this on the PS3 blog - an interview with the creative director for Dead Space 2, Wright Bagwell, to talk about the game which is slated for release on January 25.

Like I've mentioned before I loved the first one so I'm definitely going to get #2. I also read that Dead Space: Extraction will be packaged along with Dead Space 2 in the limited edition of the game and it will be compatible with the Playstation Move and have full trophy support. That's cool but I'm playing Extraction right now on the Wii so this almost makes me want to put it on the shelf and wait for the PS3 version. Wii!!!!!!!!!!!!! (screamed into the sky Khan-style).

Dead Space 2 Trailer Released

EA’s Visceral Games studio in Redwood Shores, California released their first announcement trailer for Dead Space 2 today. The first Dead Space scared the hell out of me and is one of my all-time favorite games. Dead Space 2 is supposed to be out in December 2010 so you can get into the holiday spirit with some more jolly dismembering - "Merry Christmas you Necromorph bastards!" This will most likely be one of the very rare occasions where I buy a game on day 1.