I'm a reluctant fan of the sci-fi/horror genre, not because I look down on it, but because I'm a big chicken.  These scary games scare me, and sometimes I'd just rather roll a katamari and listen to J-Pop thank you very much. I played Doom 3 the day it came out and loved it, but I found myself saving the game every three seconds and twice before every doorway because I was so tense. I did the same thing with Bioshock, getting into the habit of saving at least once per room because it soothed me. Bioshock has essentially no death penalty, so saving constantly is that much more absurd.

The act of taking myself out of these immersive situations in many ways ruins the mood that the designers are trying to establish. As I mentioned, I'm a big fat chicken so that's A-OK in my book. It's the video game equivalent of watching the movie through your fingers. I'm actively filtering out the scary.

Now that I'm playing Dead Space and my favorite saving crutch has been removed I find I'm actually enjoying it more. The moodiness and environments are crafted to perfection. There are cheap jump scares, but even those are fun. In fact, I'm having so much fun playing the game that I'm starting to think that Bioshock was actually a scarier game. I think I've figured out why.

The main foes of Dead Space are horrible monsters while Bioshock had actual humans. Sure, the few remaining humans in the underwater city of Rapture were spliced up and crazy, but because they were fundamentally people it got to me more. There's a moment in Bioshock, walking down a frozen hallway deep under the Atlantic Ocean, that can still make my hair stand on end.

I think Bioshock is scarier, but I'm still early on with Dead Space, maybe it will start getting to me more. I should note that although my ability to save the game at will in Dead Space is gone, I did download the Elite (Level 5) Suit when it was free and am making ample use of the refill-stasis cheat code. Some things haven't changed. Bawk bawk ba-caaaaawk!

I'm a reluctant fan of the sci-fi/horror genre, not because I look down on it, but because I'm a big chicken.  These scary games scare me, and sometimes I'd just rather roll a katamari and listen to J-Pop thank you very much. I played Doom 3 the day it came out and loved it, but I found myself saving the game every three seconds and twice before every doorway because I was so tense. I did the same thing with Bioshock, getting into the habit of saving at least once per room because it soothed me. Bioshock has essentially no death penalty, so saving constantly is that much more absurd.

The act of taking myself out of these immersive situations in many ways ruins the mood that the designers are trying to establish. As I mentioned, I'm a big fat chicken so that's A-OK in my book. It's the video game equivalent of watching the movie through your fingers. I'm actively filtering out the scary.

Now that I'm playing Dead Space and my favorite saving crutch has been removed I find I'm actually enjoying it more. The moodiness and environments are crafted to perfection. There are cheap jump scares, but even those are fun. In fact, I'm having so much fun playing the game that I'm starting to think that Bioshock was actually a scarier game. I think I've figured out why.

The main foes of Dead Space are horrible monsters while Bioshock had actual humans. Sure, the few remaining humans in the underwater city of Rapture were spliced up and crazy, but because they were fundamentally people it got to me more. There's a moment in Bioshock, walking down a frozen hallway deep under the Atlantic Ocean, that can still make my hair stand on end.

I think Bioshock is scarier, but I'm still early on with Dead Space, maybe it will start getting to me more. I should note that although my ability to save the game at will in Dead Space is gone, I did download the Elite (Level 5) Suit when it was free and am making ample use of the refill-stasis cheat code. Some things haven't changed. Bawk bawk ba-caaaaawk!

What scared  me about bioshock is the human mind falling apart

To make a survival/ horror game work there needs to be a survival aspect or the horror will never come

I'm okay without the horror. I really like the art design, story, some of the surprises, and slicing off limbs, but too much tension makes me want to not play... I'm glad they included some simple cheats for tourists like me.