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Dead Space 3: Why the 'dumbed-down' action game additions you're scared of actually make it a better survival-horror

Dead Space as a dumbed-down co-op shooter? You couldn't be more wrong

Words: on July 30, 2012
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30 comments

  • DaManStan - July 30, 2012 6:15 a.m.

    I think horror games with guns could actually be incredibly scary if done right. Just make the guns work realistically. Imagine a terrifying monster coming at you and your gun jams, or misfires? I'd say STALKER got it the best with realistic ballistics, just add jamming and misfires to that and you could create a lot of tension.

  • Bloodstorm - July 30, 2012 6:27 a.m.

    Perhaps if there was a system in which you had to upkeep your gun, but weapons usually only tend to jam because they have become grimy and uncared for, and jamming/misfires are usually just used as a cheap trick to cause tension.

  • DaManStan - July 30, 2012 7:47 a.m.

    Well that's what I'm saying. You could have to maintain your gun in order for it to keep functioning properly, but any gun that hasn't had proper maintenance or, say, a gun you just found on the ground that's probably been there for a while, would be more prone to jamming based on its condition.

  • Bloodstorm - July 30, 2012 8:43 a.m.

    Sounds good to me than. Stalker did do it well.

  • JetBlackAssassin - July 30, 2012 5:47 a.m.

    I'm looking forward to it. Getting really sick of games like Amnesia or Slenderman using powerless-ness and pussification of the player to incite scares. Not that they aren't great horror games, but it's just really annoying for those games to use that to scare you, it seems quite unrealistic not to use a gun or not even be able to punch someone/something. Making the player powerful at a conventional level and still pulling off genuine scares is much more laudable.

  • SDHoneymonster - July 30, 2012 6:02 a.m.

    I've never fired a gun in my life, I don't ever plan on doing so and I'm fairly sure that there's plenty of people like me out there, so if anything using a gun is the thing that makes a horror game feel unrealistic to me. I agree that once weapons are involved it gets harder to scare though, so if DS3 can pull it off it'll be well worth playing. I found the first one scary, but the second one not so much. Not to say it wasn't a great game - I loved it - but I'd love to feel genuinely like crapping myself again!

  • Bloodstorm - July 30, 2012 6:25 a.m.

    Then you are among the first to die when the zombies come ;)

  • JetBlackAssassin - July 30, 2012 7:12 a.m.

    That's true. Though I think it's unrealistic because they go way overboard in the gun department. I don't think guns are needed specifically but any kind of weapon, make-shift or melee or even just punching, kicking etc. Closed environments are naturally scary but if you can make a large, bright environment with a realistically armed player scary then my hats off to you :D

  • SDHoneymonster - July 30, 2012 11:47 a.m.

    Nah, I've got a cricket bat and a lifetime of pop-culture apocalypse watching references in my head, I'll be all right :P

  • ohms - July 31, 2012 4:57 a.m.

    I think you just stated something contradiction here. People feel scare when they are powerless. How can you be scared by something you can fight equally? Do you scare of a puppy? How about lion? For me I never felt scary even once when I played DOOM3 because I have that BIG F GUN with me. Intense gun play is the very wrong ingredient in the survival horror genre, in my opinion.

  • ParagonT - July 31, 2012 6:14 a.m.

    I guess I can see your point there. I would agree that being "under-powered" is a good ingredient to make yourself more conscious and scared of the events that unfold around you.

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