No progress in Dead Space today…  I watched Downfall, which I downloaded a day or two ago.  I wasn’t as impressed with it as I was with the comics.  The comics gave you a good feeling for the evolution of the crisis.  You saw people go from normal miners to homicidal lunatics over the course of a few days.  You saw the affect that the marker had on them.  There was a feeling of progress…  Well, maybe that’s the wrong word.  Degeneration maybe.

Downfall, by contrast, was very brief.  The movie itself was long enough…  90 minutes or so…  But the events portrayed just weren’t very substatial.  About all you see is the infection breaking loose aboard the Ishimura.  Several scenes of chaos and bloodshed, some swearing, some running and screaming…  But there wasn’t really much to the story.  You didn’t really get to see what things were like before it all went to hell.

I did play Dead Space for a little while this afternoon…  I’m on chapter 5, Lethal Devotion.  I’m back in medical trying to put together some kind of poison to kill off whatever nasty thing is in hydroponics ruining the air.  Kendra ordered up some kind of chemical coctail that I had to pick up, and then combine with a sample of necromorph DNA.

I followed the directions to locate the chemicals, and wound up in a room that absolutely screamed “it’s a trap!“  The console I had to use was on one wall…  And the other wall featured a couple stasis chambers – both occupied by nasty creatures.  I knew what was coming, but not really how bad it would be…

So, I hit the console and picked up the chemicals.  Then a window opened and some medical-looking guy (Dr. Mercer, I presume) shows up to explain how the human race is done for and we’re going to be replaced by necromorphs.  But not just any necromorphs…  It seems the good Dr. has been playing mad scientist and built himself some kind of super-necromorph.  Oh joy!

So he pops one of the nasty looking things out of stasis…  I knew it was coming so I had my line gun ready.  I quickly lopped off its legs, then its arms.  Gave myself a satisfied little pat on the back – that wasn’t so hard, was it?  Then the critter started twitching and spasming…  Grew new arms and legs…  And attacked me again.

I chopped off its arms and legs again, they grew back again.  After about the third time Kendra decided to let me know that there was no way I was going to kill it and I needed to run away.  Thanks for the tip.

I ran away, made it back to the central area, and was directed to go gather a sample of necromorph DNA.  I don’t know why I had to go looking for a sample…  From what I can tell their DNA is splattered over the entire ship.  Walls, floor, ceiling…it’s covered with necromorphic goo.  But she wanted me to go find a sample, which meant I had to wander off down another hallway.

As I wandered down the hallway I started to wonder what happened to the regenerating super-necro.  I was certainly happy to leave it behind, but I had a feeling I’d be seeing it again, and I wasn’t so happy about that.  There’s no way they’d introduce something that nasty and then let me just run away and call it a draw.

I ran into a locked door before too long, and the wonderful Dr. Mercer delivered another lecture from the other side of another window.  And then the regenerating super-necro showed up again.  This time around I couldn’t find anywhere to run to.  My suit kept telling me I had to go through a specific door, but it was locked.  And there were tons of necromorphs in the room trying to kill me.  And the regenerating super-necro kept trying to eat my face.  I eventually ran out of ammo for the line gun, then I ran out of stasis energy, and then I got eaten.

That was enough for me, really.  I just don’t feel capable of dealing with an interesting situation like that.  I’m sure there’s some trick to the encounter…  I’ll have to blast the thing out of an airlock, or freeze it, or burn it, or chop it up with a medical laser, or something…  But I just don’t have the energy to play through that encounter again and again until I figure out the trick.  So, I’m calling it a night.  I’m going to go do something that doesn’t make me scream in terror for a little while.

Posted on October 25 at 9:27 PM