Gaming Log = GLog 31Jan11

I just finished Dead Space 1 over the weekend and found it to be extremely well made. That said, it took me a long time to finish because, although I was interested in the story, the horror elements made playing very stressful. Fun, but tense and not at all relaxing.

I don’t play a lot of horror games, but I do watch a fair amount of horror movies and it was interesting to note that my reactions were very different. In horror movies, though I may empathize with the characters, I never really feel afraid myself. The way that Dead Space placed me in the armored suit of Isaac Clarke made everything much more personal, and the impact on my emotional state was substantially greater. Oddly enough, starting a second play-through right away seemed more appealing than finishing the first had, because with foreknowledge of the story and upgraded weapons, I felt much more empowered.

I may get Dead Space 2 eventually, but honestly, what I kind of wanted was to play Dead Space or something like it, but _without_ the monsters. My favorite parts of the game were the ‘fixing the ship’ bits, but all these dead things kept hassling me.

I think I would really enjoy a lighter-in-tone action puzzler that made use of zero-g and atmosphere, and maybe even other physics like temperature and air pressure.