Is Dead Space Hard?
Dead Space is a franchise of survival horror video games. Dead Space video games are known for their science fiction environments such as spaceships and space stations, and have been praised for their atmosphere, gameplay and storyline. The original Dead Space video game, Dead Space (2008), was developed by EA Redwood Shores (later Visceral Games) and published by Electronic Arts. Dead Space video games are survival horror video games that also contain action video game elements, especially considering the third-person shooter gameplay and the variety of weapons available. Due to the presence of both survival horror elements and action elements, there is a variety of gameplay systems that may present a challenge to players, especially players who are unexperienced with either survival horror video games or action video games. In this sense, the players who have not yet played the Dead Space video games, as well as horror video game fans, may wonder whether these video games are hard and difficult, and how they compare to other survival horror video games in terms of difficulty.
Dead Space is not hard, presenting a standard difficulty, similar to other survival horror video games, if played on Easy or Medium. If played on Hard or Nightmare, it can be very challenging even to an experienced player.
The Difficulty of Dead Space Video Games
The original Dead Space video game, Dead Space (2008), was released at a time when many survival horror video games were increasingly integrating more action elements into the survival horror gameplay. This is evidenced, for example, in the case of the Resident Evil video games. Analysing some of the survival horror video games released during the middle to late 2000s, such as Resident Evil 4 (2005), Alone in the Dark (2008), Dead Space (2008), Silent Hill: Homecoming (2008), among others, there is evidence of a pattern of increasingly higher elements of the action video game genre in the video games of the survival horror video game sub-genre, relatively to some of the video games released during this time period. Dead Space (2008) is also a case in which action elements were integrated into a survival horror video game, and this is also true for the subsequent Dead Space 2 (2011) and Dead Space 3 (2013). Thus, these Dead Space video games are survival horror video games that also present prominent action video game elements. Some examples of these elements in the Dead Space video games are the third-person shooter gameplay, the variety of weapons, and the quantity of enemies that must be defeated in several parts of these video games.
While the Dead Space video games feature action elements, they are prominently survival horror video games. As such, despite several action elements in these games, the main priority of the gameplay and of the storyline in these video games is to survive the horror situation. While there are occasions in which the player character must defeat certain enemies, in many cases it is possible to progress in the video game by moving forward, either fleeing or slowing enemies down. In higher difficulties of Dead Space video games, in which healing items and ammunition are much more limited, in some cases it is much more strategic to not engage all enemies presented in the video games, and rather, to decide in which cases it is worthwhile to engage enemies and which are not. This is in line with other survival horror video games, such as Metro and Resident Evil. The primary goal of the main character in these video games is to survive horror situations, either escaping and leaving the location or by contacting someone for help. In survival horror video games, generally the primary goal is to survive, and not necessarily to defeat all of the enemies presented.
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Considering that Dead Space video games are survival horror video games with action elements, in Dead Space video games the gameplay involves elements of both the action video game genre and the survival horror video game sub-genre. In this sense, players in these video games must not only often engage, fight and defeat enemies, such as seen in traditional action video games, but must also manage their inventories, solve puzzles and escape horror situations, such as seen in traditional survival horror video games. In this regard, the difficulty of Dead Space video games lies in how well players are able to fight enemies and at the same time decide when it is worthwhile to escape and focus on the objectives rather than fighing enemies. In Dead Space video games, especially in Dead Space (2008), Dead Space 2 (2011) and Dead Space 3 (2013), while it is possible to fight and defeat all enemies, in higher difficulties this is much more difficult and in some cases uneffective. In higher difficulties of Dead Space video games, health items and ammunition are much more limited, and thus the player is required to be much more mindful on how they are using the available items and resources. In the higher difficulties, if Dead Space video games are played as action video games instead of as survival horror video games, progressing through the video games will be much more difficult.
Playing the Dead Space (2008), Dead Space 2 (2011) and Dead Space 3 (2013) either in the Easy or in the Medium difficulty levels will present the player with a standard survival horror video game difficulty, in which the player will be able to focus more on the storyline and by learning the game, rather than with the challenges of the gameplay itself. Playing these video games in either Hard or Impossible difficulty levels will require of the player a much better inventory management, being constantly mindful of how much ammunition is available for each weapon, how many healing items are available, the distance to the next save point, as well as other factors. Playing in these higher difficulties will generally require a much better understanding of the gameplay of the Dead Space video games, requiring from the player a more precise aiming in order to not waste ammunition, and it will also require of the player a strategic thinking in order to decide in which cases it is worthwhile to engage the enemies.
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