If Dead Space receives one constant criticism (certainly having plenty of examples here) it's that the horror is "just" monsters jumping out at you, as if the Jump Scare is a lower form of horror. But, cat scares are used so often in the genre because they work on a lot of people.
Its greatest strength is its presentation. If you have an eye for game design, you'll notice there is very little going on in the game's mechanical workings. The designers, however, knew what they were doing and did more with what they had to work with than many games do. You don't need to be told the Ishimura has seen a lot of planet cracks in her time, you can tell by looking at the wear and tear on the bulkheads. You are never left wondering if something bad really happened in the place you now walk. Just when you think you're used to this, details start pointing to worse atrocities you're trailing behind by progressively smaller gaps of time.
The scares are no different. Very few of them are executed with anything less than perfect choreography. Lighting, layout and sound design are all used in combination, going as far as mis-timing scare chords just often enough that you can't train yourself to expect them. For those of you who can't be conditioned to face jump scares, nothing will scare you more than this series.
For those who are more affected by the atmospheric approach of Silent Hill, this is still a solid experience that irons out the gameplay quirks of Resident Evil 4 (you can aimand walk!) with a narrative that loves questionable morality and hates defining any of the forces at work as clear-cut villains. Beyond the gorn, the underlying nature of the Necromorphs is a dark, horifyingly ambiguous presence powerful enough to shape society for generations without an actual outbreak. If the slow realization that you're facing such a thing on a physical level isn't horror, I don't know what is. While direct psychological scares are few, the ones that exist are used to great effect. They rely on the player being Genre Savvy and able to spot when something isn't right, only to make you somehow reliant on that very thing for variable amounts of time. The player will always be correct when suspicious of something, but the payoff itself is usually subversive.
Putting the "jump" back in Jump Scare.
If Dead Space receives one constant criticism (certainly having plenty of examples here) it's that the horror is "just" monsters jumping out at you, as if the Jump Scare is a lower form of horror. But, cat scares are used so often in the genre because they work on a lot of people.
Its greatest strength is its presentation. If you have an eye for game design, you'll notice there is very little going on in the game's mechanical workings. The designers, however, knew what they were doing and did more with what they had to work with than many games do. You don't need to be told the Ishimura has seen a lot of planet cracks in her time, you can tell by looking at the wear and tear on the bulkheads. You are never left wondering if something bad really happened in the place you now walk. Just when you think you're used to this, details start pointing to worse atrocities you're trailing behind by progressively smaller gaps of time.
The scares are no different. Very few of them are executed with anything less than perfect choreography. Lighting, layout and sound design are all used in combination, going as far as mis-timing scare chords just often enough that you can't train yourself to expect them. For those of you who can't be conditioned to face jump scares, nothing will scare you more than this series.
For those who are more affected by the atmospheric approach of Silent Hill, this is still a solid experience that irons out the gameplay quirks of Resident Evil 4 (you can aimand walk!) with a narrative that loves questionable morality and hates defining any of the forces at work as clear-cut villains. Beyond the gorn, the underlying nature of the Necromorphs is a dark, horifyingly ambiguous presence powerful enough to shape society for generations without an actual outbreak. If the slow realization that you're facing such a thing on a physical level isn't horror, I don't know what is. While direct psychological scares are few, the ones that exist are used to great effect. They rely on the player being Genre Savvy and able to spot when something isn't right, only to make you somehow reliant on that very thing for variable amounts of time. The player will always be correct when suspicious of something, but the payoff itself is usually subversive.
Respect the Jump Scare; it's not obsolete yet.