gamesecosse

Bad design, or is it just me?

Been playing through Dead Space in the evenings. I managed to enjoy the first 4 chapters before the fifth sadly forced me to restart from the very beginning. This isn't the first time this has happened with survival horror or action game games, and I suspected I might run into problem from the outset of Dead Space. First things first, I think my general gaming skill level is pretty low, with respect to joypad skills at least; puzzle solving is a different story. I tend to find even the normal difficulty setting a challenge, which I suppose is kind of embarrassing. But that aside, I see a recurring problem with this survival horror genre.
These titles use a 'limited space' inventory system, so in other words you can only carry a certain limited amount of health, ammo and other beneficial equipment (possibly specific to the game). Any extras you find have to be ignored, or you can drop items to make space. This is done, I imagine, to add that extra dimension of strategy to the game, and on paper it sounds very viable. However, personally, it doesn't float with me. I've only recently come to realise how frustrating I find it!
Obviously, gamers around the world enjoy this design approach. I ask why? The WHOLE POINT is that you don't know what is around the next corner, so how the hell can you prepare for it with the required items!? Maybe you need to have psychic abilities that mere mortals like myself simply can't comprehend...
I replayed a section with minimum ammo about 30 times and finally passed it, only to be thrown into another enemy swamped area with next to no ammo, making it impossible, hence the restart, this time on easy mode... Why not put unlimited storage capabilities or change the mechanic in some way to stop this from happening. Are there people out there who really enjoy repeating the same thing 1000 times?

posted by qmchaz64 @ 1:58 pm