We are really big fans of Visceral Games and the Dead Space franchise, so we don't harbor any anger or resentment for the lack of .... "Dead-Space-ness". Just a vague sense of... boredom. A lack of edge-of-our-seats, pants-wetting terror that was what provided all the entertainment value in the first place. It's just an emptiness, not a disappointment. Like, we watched an episode of River Monsters that was more harrowing.
Anyway, we're cruising through the game at a good clip. I had expected us to be moving faster than last game, because when Xian is alone, he often will just hover in doorways before going through - sometimes refusing to go through at all, saving and quitting the game instead. Did I mention that we had quickly made it to Chapter 5 in our very first day, while in Dead Space 2, it took over a year? This time, we're moving incredibly fast, partly because I'm an active participant; once a room is empty, it's time to move onto the next, so I open the door and trigger the next wave of baddies. Not that he needs time to sit and cry anymore, most locations are well-lit and, according to Xian, he doesn't fear being overwhelmed by baddies if I can save him.
We discuss it idly while riding one of the interminable elevators in the game. Were there this many elevators before? It feels like we've spent a solid percentage of our time riding back and forth in elevators.
"I told you, people have been saying it's not scary," Xian said, pacing back and forth in the tiny elevator.
"And I was telling you, it's not about adding multi-player. Look around us. We're fighting real humans. They've taken away the 'last survivor, backs against the wall' mentality," I disagreed, reloading both weapons in irritation.
"It's still perfectly acceptable gameplay," he said as we exited the elevator, resorting to one of his favorite gameplay aspects, stomping corpses. "It's just maybe a little disappointing that it's not scary."
"I don't know, the human opponent does kind of affect gameplay," I countered, spotting the orange sight-beams of enemy military. "It's an irritating chest-high wall, Gears of War knockoff," the crouch mechanism is dumb, so I strafe out of cover between volleys to pick off enemies. "I'm not a military man, I'm an engineer, dammit!"
"Well, I am," Xian says, taking care of the rest of the gun-wielding enemies.
"Then why do you have a plasma cutter, may I ask?"
"I have no idea. But the plasma cutter used to be the best weapon of all."
"But now with all this customization of guns, looks like that's not true anymore." I spot a necromorph crawling out of a nearby air duct and wait for it to get to its feet before stasis-ing it, alerting Xian to turn around. He puts a thousand bullets into it.
"Overkill much?" I joke, but the 'doubletap' rule is standard for zombie games, so despite criticizing, I stomp every corpse in the room once.
"They all drop a ton of stuff. Look, got all that ammo back." Not that I could see what his drops are, but the baddies did drop ammo for me as well, and the universal ammo clip made it so I was stuffed to the gills with ammo for every gun.
"Hey, why can't I give you this stasis pack?" Xian complains.
"My inventory's full up," I replied, staggering over to him, loaded down with health packs and ammo.
"Heal yourself, already!" He demands, and I remember that he can see my health if he can see my back. Thanks, full immersion. Since I don't feel very threatened by the enemies, nor punished by the death sequences, I haven't been using my health packs. When we die, the screen merely turns red and informs you that 'Your Partner Has Died' or 'You Have Died', with potentially a torso-less Isaac lying on the ground.
