Dead Space 2 currently appears to be set for an early 2011 release (to my dismay) and after hearing that it’s going to have a multiplayer side to it, we’ve been wondering how that could work in a single-player game that made such a huge impact in our survival horror part of our gaming lives. Apparently, one of the main multiplayer features (if not the only) of the game is a 4v4, objective-based struggle between humans and necromorphs and requires that the humans fight to complete a set of tasks, all the while defending against the mutant menace on the other team, who’s sole purpose is to stop them (see video below).
Sadly, I have one worry with what this game could end up like. You know how the first Dead Space was pretty much pant-shittingly scary? And how Resident Evil 5 just wasn’t scary whatsoever? Well, the thing that worries me about Dead Space 2 having multiplayer modes included is that as soon as you take the element of isolation and being alone out of a game that focuses on the character being all by himself 99% of the time, and instead you could be running around with a bunch of friends shooting things here, there and everywhere, you run the risk of taking away the whole thing that made the game so scary – and as a result, great – in the first place.
Resident Evil 5 wasn’t scary at all, and not because the monsters weren’t good (they were), or because the scenarios were badly designed (they weren’t), but because you were never alone. When you have a friend backing you up and talking to you the entire time, you generally don’t feel as much pressure or fear as you would had you been on your own, with nobody else to rely on. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather they included more stuff in DS2 than less, I just hope it won’t take away any of the fear from the core of the game; being able to play as the necromorphs themselves with your friends might make them seem less like a horrific monster lurking in the shadows to be utterly terrified and panicked by, but more like just another controllable computer game character. Let’s hope they completely disprove my concerns, because I can’t wait for this game, and if the multiplayer ends up being awesome then I’ll never doubt them again.
Check out the video below to see some gameplay from the recent Dead Space 2 multiplayer closed beta:
Roll on, January!
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
Last summer, I collaborated with my mate Mark Vale to create our very first mobile game app. It’s all about pushing buttons as fast as you can. So, a great little time-waster when you’re on the loo, or waiting for your bread to toast. Mark came up with the concept, did all the programming in Unity, and I provided the art and music. There’s only one rule – hit the green light as fast and as many times as you can.
Last night I finished Firewatch. It’s a first-person mystery game, being rudely dubbed a ‘walking simulator’ by some of the reviews I’ve seen elsewhere. While it’s true, the game has you fulfilling various tasks in a forest in which you navigate solely by hiking, that description completely ignores the beautifully told story and the reason you are there at all. Having completed it, I want to recommend it to everyone because it’s fantastic. I also would say that the less you know the better, so don’t read the rest of this review, just go and get it.
WoW consumed my life for almost the entirety of 2004/05, when I was studying for my A-levels, and was probably a key contributor to my D-grades. I’m probably not the only person who would admit to daydreaming of roaming through Elwynn Forest, even many years after I stopped playing. I just spent so much time there, and other places of that world, sometimes roleplaying, always questing, but best of all simply exploring an unknown land. Even though I LOVE what Blizzard did in Cataclysm, my favourite memories all come from what they call Vanilla WoW, the original version of the game.
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