Quote:
Originally Posted by MdaG
Mirror's Edge While the game is really pretty to look at and have some of the most intuitive controls I've experienced in a First Person game, it is to say the least... repetitive.
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Doesn't come as much of a surprise. It was done by EA afterall.
Speaking of EA...
Dead Space
Finished this the other week after i finally beat Impossible Mode. I just wanted that mode out the way just to get the final achievement i needed. Certainly a challenging mode at times, but it seemed doable. Especially near towards the end. This was down to spending credits wisely, saving nodes and upgrading the right equipment. Running away at times can sometimes be the wisest course of action too. Oh, and saving a LOT lol.
As for the game itself, it's very good. I enjoyed it quite a bit during my first playthrough. I'm ashamed to admit it, but i haven't really played many survival horror games. So this felt a bit different than some of the other games i've played. My enjoyment seemed to kick in when i came across my very first store. I loved the idea of buying/selling the right kind of items in order to survive. And storing items in the safe for later in case i really needed them. Survival on easy mode isn't particularly difficult though.
Another reason why i played Impossible Mode - just to experience the survival aspect of the game.
Good Points:
+ Graphics are very good
+ Animations are good
+ Necromorphs look great and at times disturbing
+ Combat is good and good fun dismembering enemy's limbs
+ Lip-synching for the characters is very well done
+ The scares are a plenty
+ Plenty of gore
+ The enviornments are dark, eerie and creepy - they're a bit more enclosed than the environments in Doom 3, but that helps make some of the rooms feel more claustrophobic.
+ The sound effects are spot on - especially when you're all alone in a maintenance area and you can hear the sounds of Necromorphs growling/howling, or the sound of objects, like tools, being knocked over and hitting the floor.
+ Gameplay is generally good
+ The holographic images of your inventory as well as video and text logs are very good - it's a good idea that the game doesn't take you out of the game world when you enter your inventory. This way it doesn't affect your immersion and keeps you on the edge of your seat in case anything attacks you nearby.
+ The boss battles are entertaining and huge (especially the final one) - they're very easy to do on an easier difficulty setting obviously, but more longer, challenging and satisfying to beat on a harder setting.
+ Great upgrading weapons and equipment
+ Cool trying to find items to help you, buying/selling/storing items at the store - more challenging on the harder settings.
+ The Zero-G sections are cool
+ The music/ambience is very good - appropriately creepy and eerie and at times reminded me of Doom 3 again.
+ The voice acting is generally good
+ The story is interesting to follow and unravel
Bad Points:
- Gameplay is a bit on the repetitive side
- Combat is a bit on the repetitive side
- Missions are on the repetitive side - Isaac's always running errands for the other 2 survivors, Hammond and Kendra. The missions seem to consist of the player getting from Point A to Point B to repair faulty machinery or fetch certain items etc.
- Puzzles are on the repetitive side - whether it's freezing an object with Stasis, moving an object using Kinesis, both, or fetching keys to unlock doors.
- The scares are on the repetitive side (god, typing repetitive is repetitive) - just like other horror games (and movies), once you've experienced what happens, when and where, it doesn't seem to have the same effect again. Having said that, it still has the power to make me jump at times. Just like in Doom 3, however, you'll have monsters bursting out of closets (or in the Necromorphs case: ventilation shafts) or playing dead. For me, one minute they work, the next they don't.
Horror games should use that A.I. Director from Left 4 Dead.
At least the experience would be different each time and would always keep you on the edge of your seat.
- The story is a bit of a mixed bag - as i've mentioned before, whilst to me it was interesting to follow and unravel during my first playthrough, the story isn't really anything special. Some people may not find it interesting either. Even though i didn't guess one or two of the plot twists at the end, which i should've done, the story contains a lot of sci-fi cliches.
- The characters don't have much background story - Isaac probably does than the other characters, but not much. Especially when he never speaks. Like Yahtzee said in his review, it's a bit difficult to care about the main characters, Isaac and his girlfriend Nicole for example, when they either never speak or you don't know much about them.
- The Zero-G sections can be a bit disorientating at times
- Even though i said above that the voice acting is generally good, there are times, however, where it can be on the weak side imo.
- Sometimes there isn't much variation, in regards to the enemies you have to deal with.
- One small thing that annoyed me, more than once, with Isaac, was that there were times when i tried to use Stasis on an enemy but nothing happened. Isaac did his animation of casting Stasis but it was almost like he had second thoughts and then didn't bother. Either that, or it misses completely dispite the fact that i was aiming right at them. Very annoying when an enemy is right up in your face on a harder difficulty and you've hardly got any health left.
- Ending leaves you in the dark
Overall: A very good horror game. But not the scariest i've played.
4/5
