I think you're conflating the thematic elements and game play elements. Dead Space, at its core, is a shooter. The survival horror aspects are simply tied to setting, ambiance, scavenging for resources, and style of enemies. Contextual things.
Alien: Isolation, at its core, is a survival game. Your goal is never to kill anything unless absolutely necessary, and even then, you can only kill other and androids. The xenomorph isn't really a threat as much as they are an obstacle. Not something to be overtaken, but circumvented. And that knowledge sortve lends the player some relief, because they do t have to fight the alien. Just keep it at bay. Where as in dead space you get no choices about who to kill and when. Those choices are made for you, and you just have to brace for them.
From a player perspective, those differences completely change the way the game feels. And just like any game, it's only really scary the first time around. You may still get stressed, or feel on edge. Maybe a jumpsacre you forgot about will get you once or twice. But both games have recognizable patterns that the player can exploit and use to progress. And that's intentional.
What I'm getting at is just that Alien wasn't the game for you, and that's fine. There just isn't a need to compare one as scarier than the other, as that's completely subjective, and changes person to person.
cheif702 t1_j6pjbvq wrote
Reply to Why is Dead Space so much scarier than Alien Isolation? Is it the Necromorphs? by LordRevanofDarkness
I think you're conflating the thematic elements and game play elements. Dead Space, at its core, is a shooter. The survival horror aspects are simply tied to setting, ambiance, scavenging for resources, and style of enemies. Contextual things.
Alien: Isolation, at its core, is a survival game. Your goal is never to kill anything unless absolutely necessary, and even then, you can only kill other and androids. The xenomorph isn't really a threat as much as they are an obstacle. Not something to be overtaken, but circumvented. And that knowledge sortve lends the player some relief, because they do t have to fight the alien. Just keep it at bay. Where as in dead space you get no choices about who to kill and when. Those choices are made for you, and you just have to brace for them.
From a player perspective, those differences completely change the way the game feels. And just like any game, it's only really scary the first time around. You may still get stressed, or feel on edge. Maybe a jumpsacre you forgot about will get you once or twice. But both games have recognizable patterns that the player can exploit and use to progress. And that's intentional.
What I'm getting at is just that Alien wasn't the game for you, and that's fine. There just isn't a need to compare one as scarier than the other, as that's completely subjective, and changes person to person.