Double Fireball+Punch

My Mum couldn’t give a flying one about Dead Space 2. February 21, 2011

In my last post, I wrote* about the Dead Island trailer and how its made an impact outside of gaming circles. And it’s got me wondering why something as mundane as a trailer being released has exploded so far so quickly. A brand new IP is something that’s increasingly hard to establish in sexy-videogameland, just ask Enslaved, so for Dead Island to have seemingly come from nowhere is as they say in the industry, a big thing.

But really, if you take a slightly longer than usual look then you start to realise how a cgi trailer can stand out in this current glut of light and noise masquerading as entertainment. For a start, it’s something that has some genuine emotional weight. The reveal of the family’s identity being the gutpunch.

The positive reaction to Dead Island is less of a surprise when you consider the recent campagn ‘Your mom hates Dead Space 2’. For those that are unaware of the latest wheeze from those who turned Dante’s Inferno into a God of War clone, the following video should explain all. The punchline is it’s rated  ‘M for Mature’.

LOL the moms hate it so it must be COOL right? Right? It’s no wonder that gaming is still seen as the hobby of manchildren when one of the biggest releases of 2011 is so happy to cater to manchildren. Because, really, who is that campaign even aimed at? If you’re of age to buy the game legally then it’s about time you stopped trying to piss your mother off. And while you’re at it, throw out those Slipknot CDs too.

The voiceover sounds like phone sex with a psychopath. Getting you off by describing the content in the style of Babestation, ‘It’s revolting. It’s violent. It’s everything you love in a game’. Which as a tagline is snappier than ‘It’s juvenile. It’s shallow. It’s about time you grew out of this shit’.

The irony is that Dead Space 2 does actually tread on some mature ground. Isaac Clarke, the clunkiest protagonist name ever, is wracked with guilt over his beloved’s death. Along the way, he’s taunted psychologically by the demons his mind made physical, with a religious cult in the background driving things along and WAIT A MINUTE! We’ve been here before haven’t we? Is this not the basic premise of Silent Hill 2, a benchmark for storytelling in games and a horror masterpiece in itself? Why, I do think it is!

Where Dead Space 2 and Silent Hill 2 differ though is the way they handle the same concepts. Silent Hill takes influence from the more experimental directors such as Dario Argento, David Cronenberg and David Lynch, all the D’s in fact. Dead Space on the other hand is Michael Bay aiming for credibility but unable to stop himself from resorting to BIG BANGS! I’m actually quietly fascinated by the ways in which Dead Space is broken but that’s for another post.  Suffice to say that Dead Space’s many failings are typical in videogames. Had it been a movie, it would have come and gone with barely a whisper. Dead Space 2 has doubled sales of its predecessor and been called a victory for creativity. You have to laugh…

To tie this post up, I leave the final word to Robert Florence who complained about all of this back in 2006. That’s 5 years ago. Judge for yourself if things have improved.

*I will never, ever, use the term ‘blogged’ straightfaced.