Godless Gamers

Completed Dead Space

You didn’t read that wrong, the FIRST Dead Space. I know, I’m somewhat ashamed it took me this long to play it. After completing the game, I thought it was actually pretty good. The story really picked up and kept me interested in it. I would go on and on in detail about the game, but I’m a majority of the people that wanted to play the game by now have, so I’ll just give you what I liked and didn’t like.

I thought the story, once it picked up, was pretty good. You begin to have sympathy for Issac, the protagonist, is his tireless quest to find his girlfriend. You start to start having a drive to make it out of there just so he can be with his loved one again. The weapons in the game were great, though many of them weren’t necessary and were mainly for fun, like the flamethrower and the chainsaw gun(!!!). I got through the bulk of the game with the standard plasma cutter (pistol) and the assault rifle equivalent, but every now and then would play around with the fun guns. I thought the upgrading system was smart and thought out, giving the game a faux RPG feel to it and adding to the urge to want to upgrade everything, but since you only have a limited number of nodes, you have to pick and choose what you can upgrade. Even though I don’t plan on doing a second playthrough, the game allows you to do a playthrough plus, which is a feature that I absolutely love in games. In case you don’t know, playthrough plus allows you to play through the game again using the stuff you earned in the previous playthrough. On top of that, the game gives you new armor, a huge chunk of cash, and some power nodes, what you use to upgrade, to play with. That’s a huge incentive to want to play through again and increase your bang for you buck, something that single player games desperately need in my opinion.

My biggest complaint about the game was it’s difficulty, which was next to none. I played through on the normal setting and the game was basically a cake walk. I died a few times getting used to the whole “shoot the limbs to kill them” mechanic of the game, but once I got that down it was smooth sailing. Being an old school Resident Evil fan, I would have liked to have seen less ammo around to increase that sense of desperation, but the ammo is abundant and you can even buy it at the stores. Speaking of ammo, the game has a tendency to give you a lot of ammo for guns you don’t need. I would pick up ripper blades twice as many times as I would plasma or pulse rounds, which is some what of an annoyance. I also didn’t care much for the characters as they were pretty flat and lacked personality. I mean Issac was a mute with a whopping zero lines, but I suppose they were going for the strong silent protagonist type. My last complaint is that the final boss, while pretty badass looking, was waaaaaay too easy. I did not get hit a single time during the fight, which is kind of saddening.

Overall, I think that the game is pretty great. I had a fun time once I got into the game, and I think most people would enjoy the game. The game had a pretty satisfying ending that left me wanting more which, fortunately for me, I just got my copy of Dead Space 2 today, so I’ll update you guys with that. I would recommend the game to any fan of shooters, zombies, or survival horror games in general.

On a scale of 1-10, I would probably give the game an 8, it was very solid.

Dead Space is available (and pretty cheap too!) for the 360, PS3, and PC.

The daily grind.

Being a fan of RPGs, I’m well accustomed to the act of level-grinding.  In action-RPGs, this isn’t so bad; just hack and slash through the hoards of enemies and heal every so often.  It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but you don’t have to think too much about it and can attempt to do other things at the same time.

But what about good ol’ turn-based games?  If anything, they usually require a bit more grinding that other types of RPGs and, sadly, you often do have to consider what you are doing.  I believe this might be one of the greatest turn-offs for a less than enthusiastic gamer, but I also don’t think a good TBRPG could completely go without it.

Today, I decided I would load up SMT: Persona 4 to try to reach my current goal of a level 94 Helel ( I’m only one level short).  This will probably come up often, but I absolutely love the Persona series (but I’ll get into that later).  One thing I think the games excel at is the combat system.  It stays interesting by being fast-paced and strategic; it makes me think of Pokemon, in a way.  Thanks to this, I managed to log a solid hour of grinding before I wanted to move on to something else.

It’s not for everyone, but grinding can be a fairly rewarding process.  If nothing else, it’s a good way to keep your hands busy if you have nothing to better to do.  Let’s be honest, though: who hasn’t wanted to get their favorite Pokemon to level 100?

-Matt

Introductions and one poorly aged RPG.

Hey all; My name is Matt.  I’m going to forgo a typical introduction and get straight to the core of my writing: video games.  Like many young adults, gaming has been a part of my life since childhood.  We loved them as kids, we love them now, and we will likely love them forever.  To be honest, I’ve never been that amazing at the “popular” games of this generation; when it comes to competitive gaming, I’m terrible.  Not to say I don’t like competing, I’m just not that great.  RPGs are my handle; I like to able to sit back and relax.  I do try to play all genres, though.

What better way to start off than talking about my first RPG: Quest 64.  If you’ve ever played this game, you might have remembered a pleasant, nostalgic memory…but it’s more likely that you cringed. Quest 64 is the story of a young apprentice magician, Brian, from a monastery in a small, rural town.  Brian’s goal is to find his father, who disappeared trying to retrieve an ancient book.  Along the way, he has to take back elemental treasures from thieves to open up blocked paths.  That’s about the whole story. 

I won’t lie, it’s not a very good game: it has barely a skeleton of a story, the difficulty is all over the place (though it tends to be too easy if you know what you’re doing), and it doesn’t even look finished!  Yet, I still find myself halfway through the game and showing no signs of slowing.

Despite all this, the game still has some merits.  For its time, it is very pretty.  The landscapes are fairly interesting, the colors are vibrant, and the music is lighthearted.  The best aspect of the game, in my opinion, is the element leveling system.  This is the only reason anyone would consider a second playthrough in such a linear, uninteresting game. 

For those unfamiliar with the game, combat is based mostly on magic and is an odd mix of turn-based and action.  Spells are split into four categories: Fire, Earth, Wind, and Water.  You can choose which elements to improve by investing spirits, which are earned through battle and found scattered throughout the world, into them.  This opens up several possibilities for character development.

The first time I played through as a kid, I unknowingly picked one of the hardest builds: Water/Fire.  Without going into too much detail about the specifics of each element, this made the game very tedious and unnecessarily hard.  Didn’t stop me from beating it, of course.  This time, I decided on a much more manageable Earth/Water build.  The combat plays fairly differently based on the elements you choose.

Outside of the combat, there isn’t much to the game.  I can’t really recommend it to anyone.  It has its niche, but even most RPG fans would have a hard time sitting through it.  I’m sure I’m not the only one that has some fond memories of this amazingly mediocre game, though.