Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible on certain genres. I will not rate anything on gameplay like graphics or mechanics. I am just rating sound. If I miss anything that you would like me to review on, comment or tweet me and I will update the review accordingly.
Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!
Ok, let's review the sound for the game Dead Space 2 by Visceral Games.
Music: The point of this game was to scare the hell out of you so the use of creepy and scary music in portions of the game was key. Think of it during a movie when something scary happens and you also hear the loud screech of violins to evoke the fear you just experienced. Dead Space 2 frankly scared the hell out of me. Between the critical sounds and the music inserted at the right moments is what made this game’s impact so terrifying. The cinematic music choices for the game were great.
Music gets an 8.5
Ambient: - Reviewed Sections:
Player (Ammo noise, attire, weapon carrying, breathing, injury response) – The main character has different attire throughout the game but you don’t hear much from it which is probably a good thing based on how the developers wanted you immersed into the environment and enemy noise to scare you. When the character stomps on things like bad guys, it is done with a strong thud and you feel the power behind it. Cool detail note, when the character is not in a suit, his voice is normal, when in a suit it is digitized along with the grunts and screams. – Rating: 9
People – Throughout the levels, you hear a number of people CLEARLY scared and terrified so the constant sound keep the tension and stress as you play. The non-interacting characters while they were speaking (or screaming) when doors are closed vs. when they are opened was done very well. A great attention to detail I like to see, ehm ehm, I MEAN HEAR. The developers took the time to get this right. Was that someone locked in a clothes washer/dryer? – Rating: 9
Mechanical - TV’s popping on and loudly and steam from the shower certainly made me jump and like my friend, drop my controller. Scary stuff. Small things that really didn’t bother me, because it would take away from the game, was the little mechanical sounds like flickering fluorescent lights but it was all the time. Not a big deal but I feel it adds to the ambient and tension of something is wrong in the environment. But other mechanicals did have their appropriate sounds like horizontal walking paths, elevators and doors. Rating: 8
Environment – Glass breakage, wind and other sub-ambient sound was done well. Not overpowering but did add to the overall sound placement in the game. Rating: 8
Misc Sounds: Sounds when you save the game, open crates, open devices, navigation and other miscellaneous sounds were done very well. All sounded unique and you knew what you were handling. Rating: 9
Overall Ambient - Obviously ambient played a crucial role in getting this game to deliver what its main intent was and that is to keep you scared. All in all, Visceral developers did an awesome job in getting the ambient right. I feel it is a major contributor to the game. Dead Space 2 is extremely atmospheric and engaging in a very scary way. I am not a fan of the survival horror genre but this game was fun to play and listen to. I could go on and on but you can see which area of this game got my attention.
Dialog: Most dialog is done with cut scenes and was done in a very cinematic way. Visceral got it right and obviously have been watching their fair share of movies. Overall, the dialog was done very well. Like I said above, when non-playable characters are talking behind doors vs when they are in direct contact with you was evident and you knew where they were. Surround sound helped with this one!! Radio chatter was done well but not much dialog going on since you were pretty much alone and fighting evil during gameplay With any horror film/game the expected stong language was heard and expected. I found that the dialog flowed well with the plot of the story. Cut scenes were lengthy but did deliver properly.
Dialog gets a 9 rating.
Weapons: Since the weapons in this game were futuristic, I can only review what I thought on the choice of sounds for the weapons. Smaller weapons vs. the larger ones have a distinctive sound associated with them which means the developers were smart about the impact of each weapon. What was cool was the little sounds that occur when you changed the position of the weapon or reloaded it. It was full of different sounds in such a short period of time. The shot blasts were at a decent level and not taking away from the experience from the game. The guns in this game are not the star for sure but did their job.
Weapons gets an 8.5 rating.
Overall Sound: I know I don’t talk about gameplay but the funniest thing I had to deal with in this game is when I got scared, I didn’t know what to freekin do with the controller!!! This is where sound playing a very important part to adding stress and tension to the gameplay. Immersion was a MAJOR part of this game. If you weren’t scared playing this game, you need your head checked. The sheer number of sounds in the game and the placement of them all along with the music integration was awesome. Forget watching a horror flick. PLAY THIS GAME!!!! My favorite sound in this game was the character when he kicks something.
Dead Space 2 overall review: 9
That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.
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