History Headscratchers / DeadSpace

* Alright, I know I'm gonna be polarizing on this one, but ''How the bloody hell is this game scary?'' I have played this game, multiple times. But, I have never gotten scared except for the chase right at the beginning on my first playthrough. The necromorphs ARE a bit unsettling I admit this. But, you are too well armed to deal with them. With most horror games, it's the knowledge that you are not capable of dealing with these monsters that get's you. Or in the case of SilentHill you are getting a MindRape. But ''this'' you have all the tools you need AND you can stomp them to death when you knock them down. Isaac is FAR too skilled in dealing with them, to make it a horror game in my opinion. Plus, a big scare for most people seems to be, that sometimes things you thought were dead get up and attack you. Anyone GenreSavvy should see the answer to that. Shoot any body you come across. Simple. I love the game, but it just didn't seem like a horror game to me. It's the same thing for Resident Evil 4 and 5. Is it just me, or is anyone else like this? And specifically my bug is that it seems like people are INCREDIBLY scared of this, but I had no emotions at all except for aforementioned chase and a few jump scares.
** Thank you for saying this, I thought I was the only sane man on the subject of this game. Everyone talks about the spooky atmosphere, but every single scare was a jump scare. By the middle of the game it was, as Yahtzee is so fond of putting it, just an action game where monsters jump out of cupboards.
** Varying opinions on the quality of the game, perhaps. Amazing, I know...
** For me, it's not that scary beyond the shock of having stuff leaping out of walls or dead corpses waking up, etc. But then you look more closely... *shudder*
** For us scared of the game, it has to do with atmosphere; the fact that everything is dark and enemies could be hiding behind every corner, that every once and a while we'll hear something and wildly look around only to see nothing. It doesn't matter that we can deal with them, we know that. We just tend to overlook that fact when we're swarmed by four at a time and are shooting wildly at the screaming enemies. We like to get into the game and not dwell on the fact that everything is just a game. There's no fun in that, at least for us.
*** That's just it though, this game has NO atmosphere in my opinion. Silent Hill has atmosphere, I honestly cannot play that by myself. But this? I'm running through there with that starter pistol, ripping Necromorphs to pieces. I always try to immerse myself as well. In alot of games, it works too well. I can't play several horror games by myself actually, not just Silent Hill. This? It's absolutely nothing. Nothing is genuinely creepy except for the looks of the enemies, which I admit, they went above and beyond my expectations. They are pretty disturbing. The game itself? Nothing. An occasional jump scare, and the initial chase. That's the limits of horror.
**** Congratulations, you have learned that scares and horror, like ''any other genre,'' are subjective and no one thing will have the same effect on everyone. I can flip this right around and discuss how SilentHill has never scared me while ResidentEvil always scared me even more than DeadSpace even though "everyone" always talks about how much SCARIER AND ATMOSPHERIC Silent Hill is and EVERYONE KNOWS it's scarier because Resident Evil is just a dressed-up B-movie; the atmosphere it builds just doesn't work on me at all. It works plenty fine on others. Just because it doesn't work on me doesn't mean it's not well-made horror, it just means it doesn't hit my triggers, personally. There is absolutely no reason to take an OnlySaneMan stance; the two of you are not the only clear-headed players among brainwashed masses heaping "obviously" false praise on the game. The fact that it doesn't scare you means it doesn't scare you, nothing more.
**** No atmosphere? Really? All those suicided corpses of insane cult members lying around surrounded by candles, blood drawn runes and statues of the marker, with holes drilled in their heads ''to aid in the process of being turned into a necromorph'' did nothing for you? Or when the shutters closed off all the exits and the sirens went off in medical? Or the cultist who just looks at you, laughs insanely, and blows her own head off with a pistol? Or the crazy nurse that carves up some poor sap right in front of you, then grins and slits her own throat and dies with a smile on her face? Or walking through the destroyed military ship, hearing the pained and dying cries of soldiers in the distance, and finding some of their doomed bodies pinned to the ceiling, still alive and incoherent with pain and fear? Really, none of that scared you even a little? I agree that the gameplay isn't all that scary and the bosses are jokes, but if you really weren't at least a little unnerved by the atmosphere then you are a much more hardened person than I.
**** If you say that the atmosphere of the videogame didn't scare you, then you're just expressing an opinion, and it's a perfectly legitimate one (even if I don't agree with it). If you say that the videogame didn't have an atmosphere, then you're lying. Maybe you meant like, planetary atmosphere? Cuz if you did, I guess you're right. They are in space, after all.
**** One question, have you tried this game on impossible yet? Sure, on easy, normal, and hard it's like "Oh look, a necromorph -shoot shoot- dead." One pops up behind you "Eat Plasma Cutter!" But on impossible, the Plasma Cutter is almost impossible to kill with on Impossible, a necromorph horde comes "Oh crap! -shoot shoot- They're not dying!!" next thing you know they've decapitated you.

** Franco is working for the government group that has been rebuilding the Markers, and they want Isaac for their own purposes. Franco can't tell an outsider all of this and if he had survived more than about 10 seconds into ''Dead Space 2'' the truth would have come out eventually.

** There is a lot of other material on the game universe that helps fill in plot holes. The original marker found on Earth also had necromorphic life around it, albeit fish life. Once discovered, a loopy scientist driven mad by the original marker, injects it into himself. He starts turning into a necromorph and leads to a small outbreak on the research station on Earth to analyze the black marker. So the red marker is a man made copy of the black marker which is alien of some origin. This is all in a book that discusses the origins of Unitoligy and such. This troper has only read a condensing of the plot so there may be more.

*** I need to look up the bonus logs and other materials to get more information on what's. The "thing I read" was something on TV Tropes.

*** Original poster here. Just started playing Dead Space 2 and Issac says that he stopped the original outbreak by destroying the Marker. Is he mistaken or is this actually true? If it is true, then it seems a much easier option for stopping the outbreak would be to destroy the Marker rather than moving it somewhere specific. So why wouldn't the Marker have people hallucinate destroying it to stop the outbreak instead? Unless it's sentient and doesn't want to "die" or something...

** Apparently (haven't seen/read what suggests this myself) the fact that it creates them is a side effect of the Marker being a man-made duplicate instead of the original article -- they ended up creating the necromorph virus in the process. However, given its effect on necromorphs, there may be more to it that we don't know yet.

** There is a lot of other material on the game universe that helps fill in plot holes. The original marker found on Earth also had necromorphic life around it, albeit fish life. Once discovered, a loopy scientist driven mad by the original marker, injects it into himself. He starts turning into a necromorph and leads to a small outbreak on the research station on Earth to analyze the black marker. So the red marker is a man made copy of the black marker which is alien of some origin. This is all in a book that discusses the origins of Unitoligy and such. This troper has only read a condensing of the plot so there may be more.

** As far as the bonus logs and what we see in the game indicate, all it does is inhibit the Necromorph virus within a very small immediate radius of itself -- preventing the creation of new Necromorphs -- and inhibit the hive mind if placed in the proper location. They can knock it over and perform a song and dance routine on top of it if they want to, and it won't do a damn thing.

* According to something I've read, the necromorphs are an effect of the marker being man-made, instead of the apparently-alien original. So... why do the marker's powers seem to affect necromorphs specifically? The powers are weird enough and enough beyond normal science that they're probably carried over from the real thing... but if so, why would they affect something that should never have existed?

* Okay, in Ignition, Franco kills Sara in two paths, rather than tell her that he plans to thaw Isaac. ''Why''? Y'know, if he just said "Hey, I'm going to thaw the one guy who's ever outright ''defeated'' the threat we're facing. Wanna come?" I think she'd be on board. Unless he doesn't actually ''know'' that Isaac has previously destroyed a Necromorph hive mind, in which case you have to wonder why he even cares about reviving him.

** As far as the bonus logs and what we see in the game indicate, all it does is inhibit the Necromorph virus within a very small immediate radius of itself -- preventing the creation of new Necromorphs -- and inhibit the hive mind if placed in the proper location. They can knock it over and perform a song and dance routine on top of it if they want to, and it won't do a damn thing. Not to mention that it has some ''other'' connection with Necromorphs, as they have generally showed up where either the original marker or its duplicate is.

** It appears to attract or create them... but also have a suppressing effect on them -- they can't reproduce within a small radius of it, and placing it in the proper location seems to suppress the hive mind -- and seems to actively attempt to get itself placed as a suppressor. As for ''why'' it does both... that seems to be intentionally unrevealed, at least for now.

** This seems to be intentionally unclear for the moment.

* What exactly is the relationship between the Marker and the Necromorphs? I always found this confusing. I thought The Marker spawns Necromorphs, but it also tries to stop the Necromorphs by having people nearby hallucinate to reunite it with the pedestal or whatever.

** Let's go through the order of events, and put everything in context. First, Valor picks up a damaged escape pod (potentially with no life support), and the medical staff, expecting nothing dangerous aboard (most likely, the government was unaware that space zombies [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace can survive in space]] since their last Necromorphic experiment was on a planet, not a ship), and are promptly slaughtered by the necromorph aboard, who then hits the vents and, guided by the hive mind, hits the bridge hard and fast. The unarmed bridge crew also gets hit hard, but doesn't necessarily get overwhelmed, just kept busy long enough for the Ishimura's broken guidance tether to do to the Valor what it did to the shuttle Isaac came in on. Maybe it's even possible that during the last moments, someone overpowered the necromorph, and tried to abort, which causes it to crash into the side of the ship, instead of the docking bay. Now, with their ship damaged severely, and the crew (who had not been prepped for this mission: the orders were for the commander's eyes only, and the other soldiers aboard would only be briefed ONCE NECROMORPH PRESENCE WAS CONFIRMED) tries to escape out the few airlocks that are not sealed due to radiation. Unfortunately, necromorphs, drawn to the noise of the crash, are now swarming in through the now open airlocks and the openings in the hull caused by the crash. Armed only with unmodded pulse rifles, and their aim severely affected by the panic that space zombie attacks would cause, the crew of the Valor are lambs to the slaughter. A few soldiers manage to break through, and are converted into necromorphs aboard the Ishimura. Does that sound about right?

** Lastly, concept art has shown that the Valor is only one-fifth the size of the Ishimura, so that means it naturally has a smaller crew. Officially, at the time She crashed into the Ishimura, She carried a crew of only 69. It would be fair to assume that it would take an exponentially shorter amount of time for the Valor to overwhelmed.

The Necromorph manages to kill the "welcoming comity", and make it's way to the Bridge. And even though the ship's AI could lockdown every room and hallway on the ship, a Necromorph could simply bypass that by the ventilation ducts and subcielings. Remember the Decontamination Chamber in Chapter IV?
As to why an Infector was not present, one can assume that there was more than just a Slasher shoved into the escape pod. The bridge was picked clean of corpses, so it is possible Hammond disabled more than just that one Necromorph.
If there was only the one Slasher, however, one could argue that the Slasher itself was the infector. It kills someone, and as it's ripping out the poor guy's throat, it's bacteria-infested saliva is going into the wound. Guy dies, necromorphosis occurs, bam! New Slasher.
Yes, the Marine's pulse rifles should have made short work of the Necromorph(s). However, one has to assume that the Pulse rifles used by the Marines are fully upgraded, with maxed-out damage, reload speed and capacity, which would be unlikely, given the high cost. 7,000 credits compared to about 120,000? Take a guess which on the government will pick.
Lastly, concept art has shown that the Valor is only one-fifth the size of the Ishimura, so that means it naturally has a smaller crew. Officially, at the time She crashed into the Ishimura, She carried a crew of only 69. It would be fair to assume that it would take an exponentially shorter amount of time for the Valor to overwhelmed.

Read that fifth sentence again. Commander Cadigan's knew that "infection by a lethal organism is a credible threat." Why he picked up that escape pod is unknown (my theory is that he was in league with Kendra and assumed the escape pod contained the Marker and/or herself, but that's beside the point), but the fact that he didn't have it opened in a sealed, sterile room with 20 guards standing by with rifles and stasis modules aimed at it and every technician involved wearing biological hazard suits goes beyond a mere wallbanger and straight into plothole territory.

** That is the best theory that this troper has heard, but (sorry for nitpicking) there are still a few problems. After the necromorph killed the crew who opened the pod, who ''were'' probably only unarmed medics and engineers, wouldn't the ship's AI have detected a foriegn life-form and shut off the docking bay? That happens several times to you during the game when Isaac is in a room full of necromorphs.

** This troper has heard a theory that makes sense. The necromorph killed the people who openned the pod, who weren't expecting anything other than a normal miner. The necropmorph then got into the vent system and made it's way straight to the bridge, by-passing all those soldiers easily. Once at the bridge it makes short work of the bridge crew, who wouldn't be heavily armed if they even are armed at all, and that causes the valor to crash into the Ishimurra. The remaining crew are shaken and thrown around by the sudden impact, and are reorientating themselves when the rest of the necromorphs start coming out of the woodwork.

* The fate of the Valor borders on a wall-banger for me. One lone necromorph, not even a special necromorph or infector, but just a garden-variety one, somehow managed to get through a ship full of Space Marines and kill the bridge crew, causing it to crash. How is it that an engineer can kill hundreds of these things, but several dozen well-trained soldiers with advanced equipment can't even handle one?