syltefar.com: Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360)

2011-01-28

Is it in the mail today? Let's check.
It is! Yay.
Installing ... two disks? What is this - Shadow of the Beast for the Amiga? Who really needs more than 880 KB to make a great game?

2011-01-30

I'm back from Nordic Game Jam, having finished our awesome Kinect game Indie Smash, and now I'm ready to be scared by the horrors of Dead Space 2. I guess the game has 15 chapters, so it's probably going to take a while.
That's one extreme tutorial: you must learn to move, so you have no arms. Learn to aim, you get a flashlight. Learn to shoot, get a gun. Chapter 1 was great, very atmospheric and detailed, but I fear that normal difficulty may be a bit on the easy side. If I switched difficulty while playing it, there were achievements I couldn't get. I decided to start a new game on Survivalist difficulty, but since it is not a New Game + situation, I lose my upgrades and stuff. No matter, I'll do it anyway.

2011-01-31

Restarted from the beginning on Survivalist difficulty to show Nabaz the start of the game. I ended up getting further than I did in my original save, so that became my new game. Completed chapter 3/15.

2011-02-12

2011-02-19

2011-03-26

Completed chapter 9. My first Dead Space 2 session in Cairo. I'm at the MegaMedia offices, playing on the office Xbox 360, it's dark outside, and eerily quiet.
Long dark hallways with Necromorphs running at you... This game is not nice at all...

2011-03-31

2011-04-02

Completed chapter 12/15 - the start of chapter 13 looks beautiful, in that cold, foggy Ridley Scott Alien style...
Cross my heart and hope to die ... stick a needle in my AAAAARGGHHH!!
Completed chapter 13/15.
Completed the game on Survivalist difficulty. The last boss battle is cinematically great, but there is a design problem: if you have the wrong stuff at the end, likw I had, it may be close to impossible. I was stuck at the last save with 3 javelin shots, a few pulse rifle shots, and 4 line gun shots - and no extra health. As chapter 15 is kind of stressful, this is not an unlikely situatuion. I must have retried the boss fight dozens of times, until I went back to an earlier save, bought loads of ammo for my fully upgraded plasma cutter, and lots of health, and then ran through chapter 15 almost without shooting. After that, the boss fight was ridiculously easy. Oh well, the ending was still cool.
The all-important tip for avoiding trouble with the last boss battle: Make an extra save by the store / upgrade bench in chapter 14. You may be happy, you did.

2011-04-08

Started New Game+ on Zealot (Hardest) difficulty. With all my upgraded stuff, it is currently mad easy. Completed chapters 1-2.

2011-04-15

Tried the multiplayer for the first time. It seems a bit generic and it didn't really capture my interest.

2011-05-22

2013-07-10

Played chapters 7-10 on Zealot with Martin @ Playdead.
Completed chapters 10/15 on Zealot. Playing it my way, with the music off. Awesome atmosphere.

2013-08-03

Got the Fully Loaded achievement. - I reached the final savepoint before the final boss and used the save / checkpoint restart exploit (which could be intentional to avoid people getting stuck with the wrong ammo) to get loads of money and nodes and upgrade my Pulse Rifle and Line Gun to max.
Completed the game on Zealot (4/5) difficulty. That last boss fight was super easy with a fully upgraded Pulse Rifle.
Started a New Game Plus on the easiest difficulty to try to clean up some achievements. Bought a bunch of new weapons to try out.
Got the My Boom Stick achievement. - Shot a bunch of the little kid-zombies at once with the Line Gun alt-fire, a slow smart bomb-type of weapon. Weird I never used it before.
Got the Necro Flambe achievement. - Killed 50 enemies with the Flamethrower.
Got the The Sampler Platter achievement. - Killed an enemy with every weapon.
Got the Vacuum Cleaner achievement. - Gotten 20 enemies sucked out into the empty void of space.
Got the Skewered in Space achievement. - Impaled an enemy into space, Alien-style. I also got sucked into space, but still got the achievement. :)
Got the Peek a Boo! achievement. - Seeker Rifle shot to face of Stalker.
Got the It's a trap! achievement. - Mines.

Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360)