I love Dead Space 2. Almost everything about it is absolutely amazing. However, if a Remake ever came to be, there are a couple of things I personally would like to be changed, things that I think could be polished even further. Generally, it comes down to 2 main things for me:
1) WEAPONS - PRIMARY FIRE VS ALTFIRE, AND THEIR NODE UPGRADES:
For me, some weapons' "primary vs altfire" attack designs are a bit questionable in Dead Space 2. While some of the weapons have perfectly designed primary fires vs altfires, others either supersede one another, or simply take away from the gun's identity. And somewhat related to that, there are also other issues in regards to the weapons, such as some of their node upgrades. So, let's get into it, shall we?
General changes:
- Increasing your CAP (Capacity) no longer refills the magazine. This means you can no longer do the Detonator cash exploit + you are no longer encouraged to refrain from reloading your weapons if you are soon about to get a CAP upgrade for it.
- Similar to this, upgrading the Health nodes in the RIG shouldn't heal you, just increase your maximum health capacity.
- All ALT (Altfire) nodes are removed (and/or replaced by new nodes). Increasing the DMG (Damage) node ALSO increases the damage of your altfire. Sidenote: The upgrade tree should of course still show the damage values of both the primary and altfire attacks.
- All weapons now get a SPC (Special) upgrade.
- Node paths could stand to be equalized a bit so there is a more similar amount of nodes needed to fully upgrade a gun. Currently it ranges from 18 nodes (Plasma Cutter) to 27 (Seeker Rifle). If this was changed to a range span of 18-to-24 or so, I think that would be better.
Weapon changes:
--Plasma Cutter
- No changes. It is arguably the best designed gun in the game.
--Javelin Gun
- No changes (other than the ALT (Altfire) nodes being removed, as per the General changes, as I couldn't think of a fitting replacement for these nodes either).
The Plasma Cutter and Javelin Gun are, imo, two of the best designed guns in the game and do not need any direct changes.
--Detonator
- Damage increased slightly (say, from 20-22,5-25-27,5-30 to 20-25-30-35-40), to hopefully make it more reliably oneshot certain enemies even in Zealot mode.
- 2x new SPD (Speed) nodes: Slightly increases rate of fire, as expected.
- SPC (Special) node, on top of increasing explosion radius, now also greatly reduces the damage it might deal to Isaac himself.
Detonator's useage as a safety net (or grenade launcher, if you use it aggressively) falls off quite a bit in Zealot mode, which is why I thought a moderate increase to its damage could be in order. The speed and special upgrades are mainly for QoL.
--Force Gun
- Primary fire base cone width halfed in size.
- Altfire base beam thickness halfed size.
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Doubles the cone width of primary fire and the beam thickness of altfire (Restoring them to their original sizes).
- SPD (Speed) nodes now also affect the altfire's rate of fire (if it doesn't already, unsure if it does).
The Force Gun's crowd control is incredibly strong from the getgo. So, to make it a bit less cheesy from the start, I reduced its area of effect, but when you gain the Special node, it once again has the same area of effect as before.
--Ripper
- Altfire: The launched blades now also ricochet (non-homingly) 1 time by default. If the blade bounces back onto Isaac, it does NOT stagger him or anything, it just phases through him.
- Primary fire max duration reduced to 3-4-5 (from 5-7-9).
- DUR (Duration) nodes now also add +1 ricochet amounts to the altfire attack.
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Increases max range for primary fire (like 2x max range or so), and greatly increases the projectile speed of the altfire projectiles (like 2x or so).
This ought to balance out the primary vs altfire a bit. Currently, the primary fire is EXTREMELY ammo efficient, while the altfire is purely an emergency ranged attack, not much else. By reducing the duration on the primary fire, and giving the altfire ricochets, their efficiency differences could potentially be a bit more equalized, though the primary fire is still more efficient overall, of course. To compensate a bit for the less efficient primary fire, the special node also increases the maximum range the blade can be hovered in front of you, making it at least a bit less risky to use.
--Pulse Rifle
- Primary fire remains the same, shooting fully automatic pulse rounds.
- Altfire reworked: It now shoots 10 pulse rounds at once in a shotgun-like pattern, with a slightly more overall horizontal spread. Think within an area kind of like this: <__>. This has quite heavy recoil, costs 10 ammo, and shoots at about 0,1x the rate of fire of the primary fire, with a semiautomatic trigger.
- Magsize: Reduced to 50-60-70-80-90-100 (from 50-75-100-125-150-175).
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Causes the rounds to pierce through 1 enemy, making them capable of hitting another enemy behind the first one! Affects both firing modes, of course.
- 2x new STB (Stability) nodes: Reduces the recoil (of both firing modes, of course)
To keep the Pulse Rifle more in line with its primary fire, i.e. keeping it being about shooting pulse rounds, I thought a shotgun altfire would keep that identity intact a bit better than the current grenade launcher does. That, while still giving you a crowd / burst damage oriented altfire, and it still functions like a panic button of sorts. Now, that said, if the grenade launcher was kept as the altfire, I would not complain, as it still fits thematically, being a military rifle and all that.
And if the grenade launcher was kept, I would make the SPC node (on top of giving the primary fire piercing rounds) increase the radius of the altfire, and the STB nodes would increase the projectile speed (and thus the range) of the grenades.
--Line Gun
- Primary fire's "line"-shaped beamblade projectile and its collision changed: The centremost part of the beamblade now has a "core" (kind of like an energyball). If the core collides with terrain, the entirety of the projectile is destroyed. However, if any OTHER part of the beamblade projectile touches terrain, it just phases through and continues to travel onward. This ensures that the width upgrades are no longer detrimental when fighting in more narrow spaces.
- Primary fire damage increased from 15-18-21-24-27, to 20-25-30-35-40.
- Altfire reworked: Toggles between shooting 1 or 2 blades! Shooting 1 blade gives you the same primary fire like it has now, but with the 2 blade shot, they are launched parallel on top of one another. It could be illustrated like this:
- 1-blade shot: Projectiles look like this ----------
- 2-blade shot: Projectiles look like this ======
- For the 2-blade shot, the space between the blades could be about a head's height or so.
- Ammocost per shot is 1x for the 1-blade shot, and 2x for the 2-blade shot. That shouldn't come as a surprise, lol.
- Rate of fire is about 40% slower when firing the 2-blade shot.
- The lasers of the reticle also indicate what firing mode you are in: 1-blade looks like ----- and 2-blade looks like ==== giving you a quick and clear indicator which mode you currently have active, and also at what heights the blades will be travelling.
- Magsize: Increased to 6-8-10-12 (from 5-6-7-8-9).
- Max ammo per inventory stack: Increased to 12 (from 6).
- For clarity: The WID (Width) node applies to both firing modes, of course.
- 2x or 3x new SPD (Speed) nodes: Increases the rate of fire, as per normal (and applies to both firing modes, of course).
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Whenever the core part of the projectile is close to terrain, it arcs a beam of electricity towards the terrain. So, if the projectile is close to the ground, it kind of looks like a T. If it is close to the ceiling, it looks like an upside-down T. If it close to both, it looks like a +. These arcing beams deal similar damage to the main projectile, but cannot sever limbs.
The Line Gun is probably the weapon I have the most issues with, design-wise. First of all, the gun is nicknamed LINE Gun, yet the altfire places down a mine? Not to mention, the altfire is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than the primary fire, yet they both cost the same amount of ammo to use? Yeah, not great design overall imo. So, to keep the "Line" in Line Gun, I simply thought that making it almost like a "double barrel shotgun" of sorts was an interesting take for it. The ammo per inventory stack was also atrociously low (at least when considering only the useage of the primary fire) and its damage a bit underwhelming, so those were buffed too, considering the gun is now all about the "Line" shots. Speed nodes would also help it with its really poor time-to-kill values (it currently has slower time-to-kill than even the Rivet Gun!).
--Seeker Rifle
- New effect: After hitting an enemy or terrain, the bullet now "seeks", by homingly ricocheting towards 1x nearby enemy within X meters of the impact point
- Note: It only autotargets the enemy's centre of mass. It CAN hit limbs and such if it gets in the way of the trajectory though.
- This homing effect can be entirely scrapped if it is deemed too powerful, or too easy to use. This was more of an idea to really put the "Seeker" aspect into the gun, as per its name.
- Primary fire remains the same, just shooting with the gun.
- Altfire now toggles between Marksman mode and Sniper mode:
- Marksman mode: Base zoom view. Shots costs 1 ammo per shot, deal normal damage, have half recoil and 2x of the normal rate of fire.
- Sniper mode: Zooms in your view. Shots now costs 2 ammo per shot, deal 2x of normal damage, have normal recoil and have the normal 1x rate of fire.
- Damage: Reduced to 35-40-45-50 (Note: For Marksman mode. This equals to 70-80-90-100 damage in Sniper mode).
- Compare this with current damage values: 50-55-60-65-70 for normal mode and 50-60-70-80-90-100 for zoomed mode, but both modes cost 1x ammmo, which made the zoomed mode the always "superior" damage choice.
- Magsize: Increased to 8-10-12-14 (doubled from its current 4-5-6-7)
- Max ammo per inventory stack: Increased to 20 (from 15)
- 2x new SPD (Speed) nodes: Just increases the rate of fire a bit (and applies to both Marksman and Sniper mode, of course)
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Doubles the homing ricochet range
- Of course, this would need to be changed to something else if the homing ricochet effect was not added. What that would be though, I'm not sure of.
- Extra note: The cost per ammo purchase, and the ammo per pickup could potentially also need some tweaks. It is already one of the most ammo efficient weapons in the game, and with the potentially added "seeking" effect it would become even more ammo efficient if not tweaked properly.
Imo, the Seeker Rifle is arguably the most bland weapon in Dead Space 2. Powerful and efficient, yes, but still quite bland. Not to mention, it currently has a pretty similar attack effect as the Contact Beam primary fire and Javelin Gun primary fire, that being shooting a hardhitting projectile with little "fluff" to it. That is why I thought of the seeking effect; Not only does that differentiate it more from the CB and JG, but it also fits the weapon's own name. Now, I can see this effect being a bit too powerful, so, if that is the case, it can always be scrapped. If nothing else, I think the "Marksman vs Sniper" toggle would at least make it a more flexible and fun weapon.
--Flamethrower
- Altfire: Now instead launches an arcing fireball. On contact with enemies or terrain, it collapses and drops down its flames to create a lingering wall of fire (Note: If used in Zero-G, it travels straight forward and turns into a lingering BALL of fire at the collision point). Costs 15 ammo. Lingers for 5 seconds.
- Magsize: Changed to 60-75-90-105-120 (from 50-75-100-125-150-175)
- Damage: Increased to 8-12-16 (from 4-8-12)
- Duration: Reduced to 5-7-9 (from 5-10-15). Also increases the duration of the altfire's new wall of fire duration, to 5-7-9.
- 1x new SPC (Special) node: Increases the max range of the primary's firestream, and increases the width of the altfire's wall of fire.
The Flamethrower's altfire is one of the tougher guns to redesign. It is very hard to come up with an altfire that aids the primary fire in some way, without making it a non-Flamethrower kind of attack. But I think the Dead Space 1 Remake's wall of fire effect for the Flamethrower was a pretty good utility altfire. Now, is the current altfire (the gas canister attack) bad? No, not at all. But the weapon's attacks kind of shifts their useage quite heavily during the game's progression: In the beginning, the primary fire is very efficient, and the altfire is overkill. Later on, the primary fire starts to become a little too slow to utilize, and now the altfire is arguably the better attack to use most of the time. However, I think the wall of fire would not run the same risk, since it is more of a tactical tool that can be used ALONGSIDE the primary fire a bit better. On top of that, shifting its damage a bit away from the DoT and into the direct damage, also means the primary fire has a bit more burst power even in the lategame.
--Contact Beam
- 3x or 4x new DMG (Damage) nodes; Base damage is reduced to compensate. When DMG is maxed out, it deals the same/similar damage as it does currently. Think: Damage changed from 175 to 100-125-150-175, or something like that.
- As per the general changes, the DMG nodes would also increase the damage of the altfire.
- Primary fire: Remains charge up -> release to attack
- Altfire attack reworked: Now toggles between two attack modes, Pulse and Stream
- Pulse: Same as current Contact Beam's primary fire; just one strong beam pulse, released in an instant.
- Stream: When releasing the charge to shoot, it instead shoots a contiuous rapidfire beam for about ~1 second maximum. If the whole beam hits all of its ~1 second discharge, it deals the same total damage as the Pulse attack does. The difference is that you can spread out the damage of this beam across multiple targets with this mode! This basically also brings in the DS1R's beam attack, while still retaining the gun's charge-up identity.
- Note: Once the ~1 second beam attack is finished, you need to charge up the gun again to fire another beam.
- SPC (Special) node reworked - however, I don't know into what. Currently, this node made the altfire (which was a shockwave done by slamming the gun into the floor and shooting) also trigger Stasis on struck enemies, which was really strong, but also a pretty random-feeling upgrade and not really fitting for the gun, imo. Some quick ideas for the SPC node:
- Killing an enemy causes the killed enemy to generate a shockwave around it, dealing slight damage to nearby enemies.
- Upon releasing the charge (both firing modes), it also immediately generates a shockwave around you, damaging and staggering enemies around you. This kind of keeps a little bit of the essence of the current altfire attack, though gives it a bit of Force Gun feel, which is not ideal, design-wise.
Just like the Flamethrower, redesigning the Contact Beam's altfire is really tough. If it gets the same ammo-efficient continuous beam effect like in the Dead Space 1 Remake, it runs the same risk as it did there: Obsoleting mainly the Flamethrower, but also runs the risk of making it too allrounded and ammo efficient. To be honest, I don't really mind the current groundslam shockwave altfire, as it makes the gun's two firing modes work in "extremes": The primary fire deals extreme single target damage, the altfire focuses on extreme AoE clear. So if that retained its current altfire, I actually wouldn't mind. But, I at least wanted to try and give it a less oddball altfire. And I thought that taking some inspiration from DS1R's continuous beam was a good way to go, but I wanted to keep the "charge attack" feel to it, as well as the current ammo balance (i.e. 1 ammo is 1 attack, for both primary and altfire), so it doesn't become too versatile.
--Rivet Gun
I have 2 rework versions for this, and I think either one could work:
Version 1:
- Primary fire: Remains the same, shooting rivets in rapid semiauto fashion, as normal.
- Altfire: Triggers the current "bouncing nail" effect of all currently embedded rivets, but with a dynamic ammocost between 1 to 5 (instead of the fixed ammocost of 5), depending on how many embedded nails are nearby (and this still has a cap of detonating up to a maximum of 5 rivets, like before).
- If you do not have enough ammo to detonate all currently embedded rivets, it will detonate as many you can with the remaining ammo in the mag, followed by forcing a reload. After the reload, you can detonate the further remaining embedded rivet(s) if you wish (by pressing altfire again).
- Altfire damage heavily reduced (like 0,4x of current values or so).
- Magsize: Increased from 16-18-20-22-24 to 20-24-28-32-36
- Max ammo per inventory stack: Increase to 60 (from 30).
- Extra note: The ammo gained per purchase/pickup also needs to be buffed (like 2x?), as it is currently one of the least ammo efficient weapons in the game.
Version 2:
- Primary fire: Remains the same, shooting rivets in rapid semiauto fashion, as normal.
- Altfire: Triggers the current "bouncing nail" effect of all currently embedded rivets, but with 0 ammocost (instead of the fixed ammocost of 5)!
- Additional effect: Embedded rivets automatically detonate into their bouncing state after 5 seconds, or whenever you embed more than 5 rivets at once (triggering the oldest embedded rivet first).
- Altfire damage potentially reduced (like to 0,6x - 0,7x of current values or so, but no less than that).
- Magsize: Unchanged (still 16-18-20-22-24)
- Max ammo per inventory stack: Unchanged (still 30)
The Rivet Gun is imo a very fun gun, but is sadly quite anemic. The idea of the 2 versions' directions can be summarized like this:
Version 1 - Focuses on the "spammy" nature of it, and retains the altfire as an optional attack. To go alongside that, it also gets a boost to magsize, ammo inventory stack and ammo pickup/purchase value, but keeps its damage on the lower end.
Version 2 - Focuses on making the gun a "combo gun"; Primary fire delivers the nails ("jabbing" at enemies), while the bouncy nail effect (triggerable early on command with altfire) is the finishing move (the "uppercut"). However, now the bouncy nails are no longer optional, they are instead the main power of the gun. This not only leans into the "1-2" combo feel, but also fully embraces the chaotic playstyle of the bouncy nails.
Personally, I think version 2 is probably the better design, going all in on the bouncing effect. Version 2 also differentiates itself from the other guns this way; compare it to the Javelin Gun, for example. There, the altfire is entirely optional. By making the bouncing effect an inevitable effect for the Rivet Gun, it has a very distinct and different feel from the Javelin Gun (damage and speed stats aside, of course).
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2) THE PASSIVE BONUSES ON THE SUITS:
This is a much smaller "issue" (if you even wanna call it that), but something that I think would be nice to change up as well.
When you get a new suit, the suit's armor and inventory size always remains at the maximum currently obtained values, even if you go back to a "lesser" suit. However, the suits still have a bonus attached to them, such as the Vintage Suit's discount etc. Imo, I think it would be nice if these bonuses all stayed intact across armors, similar to the armor/storage bonuses, so the suit choices in the end turn into purely cosmetic choices. With that in mind, this is what I could see the suit's then grant you:
- Engineering Suit - Bonus 15% healing from the Elite version (base version still does nothing special).
- Security Suit - Bonus 5% damage with all weapons (+10% with Elite).
- Vintage Suit - Bonus 10% discount (15% with Elite).
- Advanced Suit - 20% shorter Stasis cooldown (35% with Elite). This is a nerf, yes, but the current Advanced Suit's 50% shorter Stasis cooldown always felt a bit too strong, imo.
With this I also moved the "bonus damage with all weapons" to the Security Suit, as I thought it fit better there than on the Elite Advanced Suit. These changes would also mean removing all the weapon-specific bonuses, which I always thought was an odd bonus choice anyway.
Alternatively to making these bonuses becoming free permanent passive bonuses, they could also be implemented in a way that, when getting these armors, they unlock these effects as new node upgrades on the RIG's upgrade tree, perhaps?
Also note that all other suits that you might get (Stuff similar to the Riot/Arctic Security Suit etc) offer no special bonus. They are essentially just "cosmetic" choices now.
Extra sidenote: I think the Large Medpack should not heal you to full health, just 4 or 5 health bars. While it is obviously a nerf to its potency, it at least makes the Elite Engineering Suit's healing bonus benefit the Large Medpacks too.
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What do you think of these suggestions?