Dead Space - Is it really "scary"?

I have honestly never owned the game and got to play through it on my own. I played some at a friends when it first released and wrote it off as not being scary. But after seeing how people praise this game so much as being one of the scariest ever made, I decided to pick it up.

I am now playing through the game, on my own, with the house dark and no background sounds to take me away from the experience. So far, I see nothing scary about it. I am a big big horror fan, and have played nearly every other horror title out there, and seen nearly all of the highest rated horror films (from each country.) Dead Space is honestly towards the bottom of my list in terms of horror.

I'll admit I actually do like the game quite a lot, but I'm just not getting this feeling of terror that so many others have gotten. So my question is, have other horror titles spoiled me, or are people simply mistaking terror with suspense?

I played the demo and played some at a friends house and I didn't think much of it so never bought it. The only game I've played so far that I would consider "scary"; no lets say a game that keeps you on the "edge of your seat" was Silent Hill 1-4. Now those were good games to play in that setting. You've played them like this haven't you?

Indeed I have. Dead Space has nothing on any of them in my opinion. But hey, if you're like me and want a game that will really qualify as scary (since you said those were more "on the edge of your seat" games) try out the Fatal Frame trilogy.

I've played the third one (i think it was the third one atleast) and it wasn't that scary at all tbh, i was expecting alot more after hearing people hyping the series all over the place.

I guess that's in the same boat as Dead Space is in for me then. :P Though, I never honestly played the third one so I can't say if it's as scary as the other two or not, though I heard it was.

I think it's the latter with Dead Space.

It just doesn't feel like a horror game.

I mean, the game is supposed to be cast in space, where no one can hear you scream, on a derelict space vessal that's falling apart and full of dead but still hungry and with sharp limbs things.

It's got that. It's also got an item shop.

That, right there, shoot the horror element for critical damage. You can't have survival horror if you have a place to go back to to buy a health kit, or some ammo, or another weapon upgrade.

As well, it lacks the element of "alone" that the genre practically needs. You are never out of touch with a living human for long. The holo screen pops up every five minutes to remind you of something.

Then, there's the character himself. The guy is supposed to be an engineer. Not a space marine. Not another fucking Master Chief, shove a grenade down your alien throat and laugh at the bloodworks, kind of guy. Yet, in a scenario that is unprecedented and completely FUBAR, the guy non-nonchalantly runs around the ship, being his CO's bitch, fixing random bits of the ship.

Which again, I feel, ruins the horror bit. Oh no, asteroids? Quickly, go fix the automated defenses!

Oh no, giant nasty slug thing? Go mix up some anti giant nasty slug thing poison that's a good boy.

Hell, the way Issac acts turned into a running joke for my friends and me. Every time an enemy would appear, I'd make a military crack. Every time something screamed, I'd flick my gun and go "hmph." And I stomped every corpse, just because it was so out of place. It had everyone present in tears.

I did play the game alone, on hardest settings, at night, with good headphones. All I got was a faint gag reflex when I saw the shit growing on the walls. That's all.

Not scary at all, Dead Space.

Still fun, tho'.

I completed the game in 1 night at my friend's house while he was sleeping lolz.

I was more scared not to wake him up than because of the game.
MC looks more like a Hockey Gatekeeper with each new armor upgrade which made me laugh to tears. But the overall is good. I didn't liked the camera at first but, got used to it pretty fast.

As for Fatal Frame. I got all 3 games but completed only 1 and 3. The third one was wicked sick,i almost pissed my pants at some points of the game.If played in a proper room *lights off etc.etc.* this game can be pretty scary i can assure you.

Glad I'm not the only one who didn't find the game scary. xD Also, Arizth, you made some pretty valid points. Those were also the main factors that killed Resident Evil 4 in the horror aspect for me.

To pozertron - I'll have to try out Fatal Frame 3 then, I'm a huge fan of the first two games.

Theres a Movie/cartoon out about it called Dead Space: Down Fall
http://www.crackdubz.com/2009/04/dead-space-downfall.html

Here is what i would constitute as a horror game. Why, well because my step dad played almost every single horror game that was for the PS and PS2.

1: First things first, the main character must act realisitc.. at least at the begining. Get horribly freaked out at the begining by the monsters or evil demons ro whatnot. Actually have him sit in a corner and throw up after killing his first enemy. Anything that a regular everyday person would do when confronted with the situation at hand.

2: perhaps a game time limit?. In every horror game ive seen it does not matter if you spend a week playing the game, you still get out alive at the end and win. I quite frankly have never enjoyed that. Its supposed to be horror, not happily ever after.

3: Better mood setting.. hehehehe. In some of the games you can see everything, unless your being just plain stupid you can see whats coming at you at most times. Instead, they should have most areas in nearly bitch black night, with maybe one or two lights flickering on at times. Some rooms should have full electricity and give you a welcome repreve from darkness. (btw, you only have a flashlight plus say one gun) But, heres even better. Make it so the rooms mood setting changes as more time passes. That dining hall you went through that nearly blinded you? Well, the power went out in there, and the creature of the night are there to say "Hello".

4: Living people, if there are any, should not be warm and smiling, or anything close to that. The ideal is that theyve been in there longer then you have. Some should be raving mad, which means they think your another monster and try and kill you. Others you have to spend ten minutes of your preciosu time to coax them out, and then all you get is an extra gun and a bleeding hand..

5: The enemies.. make them all smart. The easy enemies that dont take much, I quite frankly hate.. partially cause they waste ammo. So make them harder to kill, make them actually hide in the shadows and wait just for you ^_^

6: Items are often to easily accessible in some of the places they set the games in. Resident evil, for instance. Would a bioweapon research lab carry all the weapons and ammo that it did? well... maybe. That one can be argued with. But sometimes the items are as easy to find, or get, as if they simply set a shop up.

7:Meaning no offense, but get rid of some of the puzzles. Some of the puzzles in the game make no real sense for the type of situation your in.

Hmm.. thats about all i want in a horror game ^_^

And yes, dead space is not scary. The scariest part was the ending, when you finally realized that nothing was going to truly jump out at you and make you fall out of your seat and cry in a fetal position.

From my experence, the silentHill games were the scariest.

I think part of the reason I didn't think it was scary is because of all the hype. This was supposed to be a REALLY scary game. All I got was a few startling momemnts when something would jump at me from the ceiling. But it was a good game.

I play two of the Fatal Frames games back when I used to rent games and didn't reall feel much. I still gotta go with Silent Hill.

I think Dead Space is more of a gorey game then it is a horror game.

Yeah I have that DVD in my possession... fell asleep

Another thing I thought about Dead Space last night when I decided to give Impossible mode a shot to see if the lack of ammo or whatever made a difference. The limb dismembering thing they added, which was meant to make the game harder by forcing you to kill this way (which would make it a bit scarier, the whole panicking in a fight thing, if they did it well) but I think the ability to do so made the game much easier instead of making it harder.

The enemies that run like four times faster than you for example. I would just use stasis on them, and get rid of their legs. Problem solved.

Do you have this for PS3? I'm asking because I know of a little setting on the Ps3 that can make the game darker, thus making it scarier. It's a bit better than lowering your brightness to the point where you can't see shit.

Dead Space is more startling and suspenseful than scary. Which isn't a bad thing. It's trying to focus on game play rather than scary...ness. The game itself has an RE4 feel to it that I found enjoyable enough.

Scary is very relative, especially since a lot of people have varying degrees of desensitization to horror due to little, average or an overabundance of exposure to horror films and the like.

Dead Space wasnt very scary for a horror game. It had it's "OH CRAP" moments, but I dont think it can beat Fatal Frame in terms of scare factor.

Though I doesn't own the game myself I've played parts of it over at my friends and, well for me it's scary, scary enough for me not being able to play it alone in a dark room atleast. Though it's till faar away from being even similar to how scared / terrified I was when I played AvP 1-2