So many games, so little time to play them. One game that has been on my radar for a while to play after I beat all the other games in my arsenal, is Dead Space. I am a fan of the horror genre, maybe not a hardcore fan, but enough to either rent or buy a decent looking horror game. Like Condemned, probably my favorite and of course the best of them all, Resident Evil. That being said, Dead Space has a lot to live up to. So let’s get the positive out of the way real quick. Wow is this game gorgeous! Ok, I’m done with the positive comments. This Dead Space demo failed miserably! I can’t understand what the hell EA was thinking!? A demo, in my opinion, is supposed to give me enough of a tease that it makes me want to play this game in its entirety. In fact, what happened was after playing this demo, I became even more bitter about EA games and I no longer have the urge to play this game in the near future. First it was Army of 2 and now this. When will EA learn about quality?
First off, if a developer is introducing a downloadable demo for the masses, especially when they are introducing a new IP, first thing you should do is introduce the game, what it’s about and do a quick tutorial to show how the weapons and controls work. None of this was done! They basically start you off with no tips, no instruction on how to use your weapons and other features. Which, normally that would be pretty sweet. It’s a challenge, so figure it out on your own, right? Drop me off with a gun, some zombie like alien creatures and I am in horror heaven. Well.. for me this was extremely annoying and frustrating as I died for the ninth time not knowing what the hell I was doing. Over and over and over. My mouth dropped as I found myself (a self-proclaimed expert in playing game demos) not enjoying this game at all. Ok, no biggie.. yea it sucks right now but keep playing, once you get the hang of it you’ll see how great this game is. Other developers take notes, this is not how a demo should be presented. You do not make up for a crappy 5 minute demo by adding tons of over the top blood and gore. If you think Gears of War is gory, that’s a kids game compared to this!
If you want to play a decent demo that actually makes you want to play the full version, look at the Crackdown demo, look at the Tony Hawk demos, look at the Burnout Revenge demo, the Condemned demo and any other demo that gave you just enough of a tease to leave you wanting more. Unfortunately for EA, as soon as I got familiar with the controls.. the demo ended. This was probably the shortest demo I have ever played, but I was glad it was over. If a developer is going to make a short demo like this, they better have me at the edge of my seat.. and I wasn’t. I was laying down almost ready to fall asleep. I have many complaints about this demo I can’t get into one post without sounding like a whiny little bitch so I am hoping to save my comments until I play the full game. When that will be is anybody’s guess. This demo had so many negatives to it that this game has now gone on the back burner on my wanted list. I had planned on at least renting this in the near future, but after this demo.. I really don’t care anymore. Maybe sometime in 2009 but there are way too many decent games to be played right now to waste my time with Dead Space. Until then, this is where I stand on this game. I’m disappointed, a little bitter and looking forward to forgetting this horrible introduction to a potentially awesome game. What a fracken‘ waste of hard drive space.
The Gamer Report 