Motion Sickness Is A Helluva Drug

I’d like to think I have a strong stomach. I do in a way. I can handle impaling, suicide, maiming, killing, blood, gore, and things that would make a 6-year old have bad dreams. I can also handle fast things like rollercoasters, thrill rides, scary spookhouses, and halloween themed rides. But one thing that combines both of those things I apparently can’t handle is Dead Space: Extraction. It’s too shaky and too spooky.

People on the site here know I’m a huge Dead Space fan, always have been. But what I’m seeing and feeling after my first two chapters of Dead Space: Extraction leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I just can’t handle extended gaming sessions with it. And that sucks, because I want more.

After completing a few games in my backlog, I set out to try Extraction and play an easy game for a change. Just something I can pop in and play that isn’t over the 30 hour gaming mark. Having beaten games like Mass Effect 1 and 2, starting Final Fantasy XIII and GTA IV, I needed something short and sweet. Extraction fit the bill.

So on Sunday after being frustrated with a boss battle in Final Fantasy and getting killed by the cops in Liberty City one too many times, I plopped in Extraction to see what it was all about. Now I before I go further, I do have the Playstation Move, so this would be my first foray into motion controlled gaming on the PS3. Extraction is an on-rails shooter, so to play all I would need to do is point the Move controller to fire and use the navigation controller to reload and use my stasis pull.

I booted in and started the first chapter in awe. The game was great. The darkness and clever additions of the glow sticks made for a harrowing experience. Just being back in the Dead Space universe gave me chills. As I continued, things of course started to go to hell, and with that going on, the camera started to shake to instill tension.

Each chapter in Dead Space: Extraction is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour in length. I completed the first chapter with 5 stars and wanted more, so went on into the second chapter of the story. About halfway through the second chapter I began to feel queasy. Nauseous almost. I couldn’t look away from the screen as I didn’t know where the next attack was coming from, but I also didn’t think a game could be doing something like this to me.

I remember reading a bunch of reviews for Extraction when it came out on the Wii, but I don’t recall the reviews ever mentioning the motion sickness they felt after playing it. Then I got to thinking, maybe it might be my setup? Can you have a TV that is too big? Is the refresh rates on the TV to fast? Do I need to adjust the brightness setting so I can focus on something as the camera is flailing about? I didn’t know what to do.

Finally after completing the second chapter, I had had enough. I was too dizzy to go on. It’s almost like someone came over and said, “Hey, you want to have some fun? Put your forehead on this bat and spin around 6 times then try and sit on your couch and shoot something.”

There is however a setting in the options menu for you to change the camera shakiness, so I might fiddle with that, but on the other hand, I don’t want to mess with what Visceral Games and the Dead Space series are all about: a fun scary ride. This is how the game makers intended the game to be played. I don’t want to fuck with that! I love this stuff, but my weak stomach of a grown ass man can’t handle a video game. I guess I just might need to take Extraction two chapters at a time, making sure my little baby stomach didn’t eat anything before playing. Waah wah! Afterall, that could be one big necromorph mess in my living room for mommy to clean up, then have to change my diapee. Not good.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is still a great ride. I don’t want to put people off by any means, I just can’t think of another title that has ever got me this queasy before? Maybe being drunk in GTA: IV for an extended period of time? I can’t think of anything else though, and even then, GTA: IV is still fresh on my mind.

It will definitely be a different experience for me to take things slow in a game. Where everyone under the sun always puts some shit in their game to tell the player “Hurry hurry hurry”, I’ll be taking a retirement home’s grandma’s pace through Dead Space: Extraction. That sucks, but I gotta do what I gotta do to make my baby stomach happy.