GO FOR THE LEGS, BOO!!! GO FOR THE LEGS!!!
I’ll be picking this back up again soon – I’m 42 hours into Fallout 3, just hit level 14, and I’m about to apply a slow-leveling mod so I can top out right around the time I see everything. Then I can get back to Dead Space, which will pass like lightning by comparison.
Just finished this game on Friday, thought it was pretty fantastic overall. I enjoyed it more then Far Cry 2, but not as much as Saints Row 2 or Fallout 3, so I think this would take a solid third place for my 360 GOTY.
Finished the game thirty minutes ago. Absolutely loved it even if the story elements needed to be put together more thoroughly. Best interface in a game.
I really hope there is another Dead Space. Loved the interface. Just needed a better story and a few different environments.
I actually liked the story of Dead Space, but I also watched the DVD and the digital comic episodes, which could be a reason I got a little more out of it than some others. What I hated about Dead Space was the silent protagonist approach. It’s time for that to die. I don’t care how many developers insist that having my character never react or talk somehow makes me identify with him more. That is just false. I want my character to be a character, not a puppet that I move through the environment.
I agree with that. It was cute with Gordan Freeman, when the NPCs actually joke about how he never speaks, but I’d like some character in my character.
I really have to commend Volition for going the extra mile in this regard with Saints Row 2. Not only does your main character have a lot of dialog, but they recorded it in a few different voices in order to allow the player to choose how he/she wants to sound. I’ll never buy the excuse that a silent protagonist is more immersive for the player or that it’s just too expensive/difficult to record those lines of dialog.
I wouldn’t know about the expensive/difficult side of it, but a silent character actually breaks the immersion for me. And the idea that a generic/voiceless character may appeal to a broader audience seems quaint.
Consider Garrett from the Thief series. A very defined character, with a self-assured voice and a matching attitude. While he (logically) spends most of his time silent, his few interactions and spontaneous observations are sharp and engaging. Heck, he has a following. And still the Thief games managed to be some of the most immersive -and scary- gaming experiences ever to grace the PC.
I can understand the argument for a silent character in an FPS, but for a TPS there’s really no excuse.
But other than that, I’m loving Dead Space so far.
Yeah I’m not a fan of that. It’s far worse in games like Zelda though.
Gordon Freeman the Mute was cute and all in the first Half Life. But when Valve insisted in that in the more plot centric Half Life 2 and expansions, it made a really jarring experience.
It’s a really bizarre disconnect between the character and the world when he never responds in any meaningful way to anything or anyone. The only viable excuse I can see for not including dialog for the protagonist would be associated with technical limitations, like cartridge size. And even then, including text responses would suffice. But I think those technical limitations are long gone and we’re still somehow stuck with outdated gaming convention. Its time has definitely come and gone.
It’s something that ultimately holds Dead Space back too. Had the character been given a personality I think the game could have broken through more.
Here’s a weird aside, Crackdown main character is also mute, but in that case it’s the right decision IMO.
System Shock 2’s main character is also mute. But I never really thought about it before. I never felt restricted in that one because of the way the story unfolded.
I guess it makes a certain amount of sense for the protagonist to remain mute in Crackdown because there’s really not much of a story going on there. I certainly never thought to myself that I wished my character would speak. I can also see how not having dialog in a game like System Shock 2 or even Bioshock makes some sense. The lonely setting and lack of people to interact with make the lack of dialog less of a detriment. So I guess making a blanket statement that the silent protagonist is always a bad thing is a bit dumb. I think that in Dead Space’s case though, it really was a flaw in the game and, as forge said, held the game back.
…probably my favorite game of 2008, and criminally underrated compared to some of the games that got all the attention last year. It’s shamelessly derivative in a lot of ways, but I think it actually outshines some other survival/FPS sacred cows in terms of coherence and overall production quality. It’s just a well put together game.
I don’t really get all the complaints about a silent protagonist, 90% of all character development and dialogue in video games is complete shit anyway. I think it’s a good thing that games like Dead Space or the Shocks keep character interaction to an absolute minimum. The point is experiencing a terrifying, cold, hostile environment from the eyes of a vessel, not dissecting the vessel’s motives and backstory and relationships. Do I really need Isaac shouting poorly written generic lines back at the characters he interacts with in order to “humanize” him? Dialogue in games just inevitably makes me think, “Man, video game writing is horrendous.”
Honest question: why is not appropriate for Dead Space? This issue was mentioned on Zero Punctuation, and since then I’ve heard it echoing through the internet.
No one made this complaint about Bioshock when it was done for the same reasons and was equally effective. It’s really baffling me.
If you look back through this thread (or maybe the spoiler thread) I brought up hating the silent protagonist aspect of Dead Space before. Moreover, I haven’t seen the Dead Space episode of Zero Punctuation, so I’m not parroting anything that guy might’ve said.
To answer your question, the reason Isaac’s silence in Dead Space is so bothersome and annoying is because there are times where his complete lack of response is jarring. I mean, when he sees his girlfriend and she tells him that she loves him, he doesn’t have anything to say about that? Or when he’s betrayed by a particular character, it somehow wasn’t worthy of comment? The way the narrative is built and the way the other characters interact with Isaac, begs for him to respond and yet he never does.
Bioshock, on the other hand, isn’t really built this way. The game ends up being all about the player’s lack of actual control over his own actions and goals. Having the player be mute subtly reinforces this. The protagonist in Bioshock is nameless and mysterious. He’s a shell for the player, which is one of the main themes of the game. Dead Space, on the other hand, names Isaac. It also sets up some important relationships for him and people relate to him on a one-to-one basis. His lack of response makes no sense in that context.
I can’t really say that the silent protagonist approach bugs me in this game, in fact the only game that I could say it ever weirds me out is Half Life – but that’s just because it seems apparent that each person is waiting with this expectant look on their faces after speaking/asking you something, and I just ache to respond. Dead Space didn’t have an Alyx character constantly looking at you in obvious adoration waiting for some kind of human response out of you, so I can get past it in this case.
I generally don’t buy that the silent protagonist allows for more identification with the game character, I don’t find it harder to pilot Lara Croft or Mario just because they occasionally vocalize. If they just didn’t want to spring for writing and acting an extra character, well I guess I could respect that answer.
I think this is exactly it - I could imagine a Dead Space in which Issac’s lack of response would be understandable, but the way the game is actually written, you expect him to respond in some way. When he doesn’t, it comes across as odd.
I was actually expecting there to be an in-game explanation for his lack of speech, which could have been awesome, but that was already covered in the spoiler thread, so I won’t go into details here.