Dead Space PC Controls Suck
Confirming the PC gamer’s worst fears, WhatIfGaming has a post about the controls of the PC version of Dead Space, after playing around with a prerelease version of the sci-fi horror game.
The site notes that the controls are not as smooth as the console versions – which are already out – and that “from what we can tell it doesn’t seem like a patch can fix most of the issues.” They further note that “inventory stack access becomes frustrating when fighting with monsters and aiming for on-the-fly changes.”
Reviews for the PC version are yet to appear, so it is not yet known just how badly gamers will respond to the controls.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
[...] Dead Space PC Controls Suck [...]
October 21st, 2008 at 9:51 pm
OMG I can not believe the moron authors of this game force you to play in 3rd person view. Like making the controls cumbersome will somehow add to the scariness of the game???? Do you know the feeling when you’re in a crowded store and the guy in front of you just won’t move out of your way? That’s how I felt the entire ten minutes I spent playing this game.
I am returning this game tomorrow. WTG publisher; alientate half your potential base by forcing them to play in an awkward 3rd-person view.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Agreed, this game sucks. I wasted 50 bucks on the pc version.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Worst port ever, game is unplayable,played about 10mins and gave up.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:54 am
The game itself seems to be great. The controls are an insult to PC gaming. It’s like telling you shooters are meant to be played on a gamepad. That aside, the game ran actually much smoother than I thought, (no lag, 1280×960, 8xAA 16xAF, vsync, in-game settings maxed, DX10)on my quite mainstream system (8800GT 512, C2D 2.4, 2GB 1066 DDR2). It feels the game was meant to have a much darker display than the minimum gamma setting, so you have to set that on you VGA drivers. Also, enabling vsync makes your mouse feel like it weights a ton. Not like it lags, it just feels like it has a lot of inertia. Turning vsync off corrected that for me, but then you’ll have awful lots of flickering lights that tear the image all the time.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:00 am
cannot belive 3rd person!!! stupid.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:39 am
worst controls ever in my life…this game is totally unplayable. EA should be ashamed for giving its name to this piece of crap.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:40 am
worst controls ever in my life…this game is totally unplayable. EA should be ashamed for giving its name to this piece of crap.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Been playing on PC for a while and using Keyboard/mouse as controls is BAD!. It feels like everything i do is delayed by 2seconds.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I am an old guy and not only is the 3rd person stuff awkward but how many keys should one have to push to battle a monster?? stasis /stomp / fire /reload/ and then push “E” to pick up each item while still battling? Can’t someone reinvent Quake with a new engine? all i wanna do is blast monsters, not push dozens of keys on the keyboard…
Oh, I got it the day it came out, i played for about an hour and havent played again
J-Rat- (the old guy)
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 pm
OMG i cant beleive they did this to us.
Unable to change controls … and worst … third person view. It takes ma like 2 or 3 sec delay action to remember whats the darn button for this, or that …
November 4th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I dont mind 3rd person view, thats a choice made by the game develops and thats the way they want you to interact with the world. Its not so bad and worked very well for silent hill and the resident evil series.
But i do agree with the other posters about the terrible controls. im unable to remap movement to the arrow keys which is annoying and the mouse tracking is terrible.
I have almost finished the game now, by playing witha control pad. It seems a waste of the PC’s greatest input device (mouse) to not correctly support it.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
OMFG! Does this game suck! Shooting the asteroids has got to be the lamest excuse for a level I have ever seen. It is impossible to get passed especially with controls that don’t work.
Think a 360 controller will help? Think again it makes the game play so much worse.
I want my money back!
November 11th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
The controls in this game are, bar none, the WORST I have EVER experienced in my entire history of PC gaming, which spans from this year back to Paperboy on my Apple IIGs.
It’s like they took the most accurate, precise form of controls (mouse and keyboard) and smothered it in very old molasses mixed with rock salt. Everything feels like it’s resisting me, and when it finally does start to move, it does so too rapidly, and this is coming from someone who always puts the sensitivity really high.
How about letting us remap the controls, guys? Wouldn’t that be nice?
November 12th, 2008 at 5:49 am
l still cant belive dead space was even made for pc.what a insalt to pc games intelligens. what were the developers thinks?just port the game and it will be right pc gamers want know .well we do know the contols a lame and the cams sickening.l agree with Arclan it feels like somebody in front of you.played for 10 min then uninstalled it my son thinks the same.lent it to some friends.thay think its a big joke.hehe lol.the developers look after the console player.but stuff the pc gamers.there must be more money in console games the pc games.go figga
November 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
The only thing is the stupid control. Not changeable.
But I disagree with all of you saying the game sucks and a bad view.
That called inovation n00bs. The game is very good, the atmosphere very tense and nicely build up, grafix are really nice and running smooth on my high end computer.
And with such a nice game EA should be ashamed by not fixing the controls for us keyboard players. I nevah can/will play fps (or in third view) games as I cant get use to it.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:56 am
i dont see any problems with the controls
and if u switch the v.sync off, aiming will be easier but something will happen (that aint noticable unless ur looking for it) with the graphics.
the game’s GREAT but that’s my opnion
November 14th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Jeus, i should have saved some time and looked this up first.
You cant remap the ****** stupid controls. so the game is 100% unplayable at least for me…
on the upside.. i didnt pay for this shit game. i downloaded it. and now i’m deleting it. see… piracy does cost lost sales! i would have bought this crap game, just to find out its totally unplayable. only then i’d be pissed and screaming too.
way to **** up a good game… no key remap. what the fuck guys. its 2008. not 1980…
November 14th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I prefer widely first view too in games, but, well, I manage to understand the kind of impressive visuals you are able to add with a third view ( such as characters animations when he kicks, etc… )
Third view becomes a real problem when you add a flickering camera just behind the character chest : Well, I finished “Cold Fear” in the past, even if it was perhaps worst about this, just because “Cold Fear” had an intense background. So has “Dead Space”: Good enough visuals, impressive animations, audacious gore, etc…
Then, I would have forgotten the bad sides to play it longer, except this problem N°2 : Why the hell developpers propose us to change controls if we just can’t, once in the menu ???
There’s NOTHING more simple than attrib a key to an action in programmation ( YES, I AM actually developper TOO ) : N.O.T.H.I.N.G.
Everything else is hard work ( programming good A.I., physics & even basic collisions, lights & volumetrics, 3D meshes & anims, etc…. )
Evrything ELSE : Attrib a key to an action is what a student in first year of programmation yet know how to do, because it is NOTHING to do.
A not even Half-an-hour program to implement.
I am always sad when the button 4 and 5 of my (great) mouse aren’t recognized by a game ( I usually want it to Sprint/Aim so that’s important for me ) , but well, I can go on whatever without this pleasure.
Thing I just can’t do is going on without even the ARROWS KEYS or the ENTER key !!!
Because ZQSD to move and E for activate in an action game is for me like making a puzzle while in a kickboxing match : Just silly way of playing on modern keyboards.
So, go ahead with your nice but unplayable game, EA !!!
November 15th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I really wish I had done my homework and seen these comments first. This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen a PC game in the past 15 years. Not only is it in 3rd person, which is almost unheard of in today’s action genre, but it made the arrow and enter keys unmappable. If you are like me you don’t want to take your left hand off the right side of the keyboard during combat. This is a clear case of EA not having a clue of the customer’s requirements.
This is the very LAST time I buy a game on a single review. It’s going back first thing tomorrow.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Jesus you people are whiners. Most of your complaints are unfounded and just plain nitpicky, while quite a few aren’t even true!
I was instantly astounded by the beauty of this game, and how easily my computer ran it at max settings when I barely expected it to run at half. I had a lot of trouble originally with the control lag until I found the fix (disable ingame vsync and force it on your graphics card; which I already do; and no tearing so far).
Third person is a problem? WTH! I didn’t like the char being in the way at first, or the close-up camera, but it really adds to the feel of the game and it was useful to see a little around my char because enemies show up everywhere. It took me maybe 10 minutes to get used to it, and after 6 hours I still keep getting distracted by how good the player looks. This is an action game, not an FPS. Most action games I can think of are 3rd person. It helps me, mostly, especially when you do a lot more than just shooting stuff. I never heard anyone bitch that The Legend of Zelda games aren’t 1st person.
Too many buttons to press?? Pick up your items after you fight, it’s not like they despawn. “I have to reload in battle”? WHAT? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I haven’t had to yet, even against up to 4 enemies, or maybe I just didn’t notice because that happens in just about any game. Stomping, I don’t even do anymore because flailing claws always end up damaging me. Statising or TKing in battle is just like using grav gun in HL2, or slow-time in 20 other games (FEAR, anyone?) Quit playing games if you can’t handle the necessity of pressing 3 buttons in a fight.
Those of you who can’t remap keys should just sell your gaming platforms now, or trash them. I remapped everything the instant I started the game, and it all worked fine. Didn’t use the arrow keys (my only complaint is the lame forced-arrow-key menu navigation), but that’s no reason to give up on a game. Using arrow keys is uncomfortable and doesn’t provide enough keys for most games. I use a different keyboard layout than most people, and ESDF to control games, so ANYTHING I ever play gets remapped. It’s never been something to cry over, even if i am forced to use some other layout because my preferred doesn’t work. 10 minutes and you’re used to it and enjoying the game.
2 problems: It didn’t support mousewheel or extra mouse buttons. This is because stupid devs aren’t bothering to port to PC correctly anymore, and a major pet peeve of mine, but I totally forgot about those buttons due to the simplicity of controlling this game (it was easier than resident evils, and much more maneuverable). Complaint 2 is the lack of menu navigation with mouse, once again due to bad porting (with a controller you could actually move and navigate simultaneously), but I NEVER had to go into the menu during a fight. There’s a quick health pack and a reload, I’m happy.
TL;DR version: These lamers are bleeding weaksauce all over a good game. There are a couple of hitches in the PC controls, most of which can be compromised or are negligible. But EVERYTHING else is absolutely awesome about it: Graphics (low requirements, extremely nice), atmosphere, sound, difficulty, intuitive controls (once the aliens appeared I forgot I was using a PC except for the stupid Z-board I first played it on). And the “boring” missions….I’m over halfway thru the game and hadn’t even noticed anything like that. It wasn’t resident evil style where you have to find a key for the crapper and stuff; I never for a moment have thought “hey this is pointless”, and I’m guessing that’s mostly because I was trying to survive and having a ton of fun while doing it ^_^
December 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Looks like a great game, but the controls are horrible! Only one view, cannot change the move forward, backward, left or right to the arrow keys. I don’t like their third person view; no options to change it. Lesson learned, $50 wasted. Sucks!
December 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am
No respect for the tradition keyboard PC player anymore. Why the F can’t I reconfigure the keyboard. How difficult is that. And I agree with the 3rd person view, holy shit it does feel like you got some guy in front of you all the time and the worst part he’s always off to the side. So I plug in my Microsoft 360 PC controller and do some run throughs, I’m pushing every F’ng button trying to get this guy to run. I’m sorry but what a waste after spending hundreds if not millions on this game and they just shit all over the PC players. And for you PC guys trying to rationalize this shit saying how great it is then enjoy using your W,A,S buttons.
December 20th, 2008 at 8:59 am
I bought a Logitech Controller and have no problems playing the game. I don’t understand what all the gripe is about really. The controllers are only 20 bucks guys.
December 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I bought the game for PC and the graphics and situations are pretty scaring and for the commands I use my own for that play…
Sincerely… If you guys think like that so you arent shooters
A shooter is supposed to play every game… 3th Person or not…
You just have to find YOUR correct keys for that game, I have my keys so search for yours… It only took 2 min for me
…
So stop whinning and start searching
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
This will make the controls to suck less:
Play with arrow-keys:
http://www.kennynet.co.uk/2008/12/22/dead-space-with-arrow-keys/
Try to fix your mouselag by disabling “vsync”.
To increase the sensitivity beyond the maximum, go to “C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Electronic Arts\Dead Space” (WinVista) and open “settings.txt”.
Edit the line with mouse sensitivity from 1.00000000 to something like 1.5 or 2.0 like shown below:
Control.MouseSensitivity = 1.70000000
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Every one of you is a whiny fucktard.
This game is absolutely fantastic and the PC controls didn’t bother me in the least.
Apparently none of you have played a 3rd person shooter before?
Morons.
January 4th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Are you guys kidding me? Dead Space’s PC controls were great. I had a much easier time of it than on the Xbox 360.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
stop complaining about the 3rd person view… i like it. pc games need more diversity. only having FPS’s is gay as hell. thats why console games will always be superior in terms of gameplay.
that being said i agree that the devs really dropped the ball when it comes to the controls. i turned my mouse sensitivity up to full and that did really help but it also made me realize the real problem with the controls.
its clunky… when u turn just the camera it works fine. u can turn 180 without having to pick the mouse up and move it. its when you try to move and turn at the same time is when it gets screwed up.
this forces every turn to be two seperate motions. thats gay as hell. what is this 1989 or something?
also its obvious they modeled this game after resident evil 4 which is the pinnacle of the genre. one of the greatest games i ever played. so why no 180 degree turn?? (it would have nixed this whole problem) after all that was one of the greatest evolutions of the series…. not incorporating such a simple and innovating movement makes it feel like taking a step backwards instead of forwards…
overall this game seems pretty awesome though. the graphics and gameplay seem pretty solid so far.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
i take back some of what i said.
im really liking this game alot. once you get used to it the controls arent bad.
whoever said its like resident evil 4 in space was way off. more like resident evil 2 in space or maybe one.
thats the thing with the controls… its setup just like old school resident evil. you turn ur character in the direction you want him to go then press up to make him move. once you understand it you can rock it pretty good… u can turn good too.
it is still a step back without the 180 turn but its not bad. once u figure it out… u can perform the 180 manually… its just very old school.
this game is great… a welcome change from the same old crap… dont listen to the bad reviews just give it a shot…
January 16th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Fucking worthless controls. Played 10 mins. Hopefully I can be refunded by steam >.> damn Im an idiot to think a ported game would not suck.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Fully agree with P3pp3rmint so far: there are some niggles (arrow keys to navigate the menu’s and lack of mouse side-button support are my main gripes) but apart from those, DS is shaping up to be a great game. I won’t deny the problems are there – and as an avid PC gamer it is disappointing to see yet another port missing essential features – but I see no reason for the ridiculously negative reactions from a lot of people here.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Thanks killer yoshi for that link. Was not one of the people working on this game left handed??
February 20th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
DEAD SPACE PC CONTROLS SUCK BIG TIME. It is so bad I uninstalled it. This is terrible! Come on designers, I know that xbox and PS and Wii are popular, but those of us who love our PCs are sick of your lazy I don’t give a f***’ attitude towards the rest of us gamers! Its the last time I buy a game from these clowns.
February 21st, 2009 at 4:13 pm
? can you use a gamepad with this?
If so, then everyone baying like a fucking diseased donkey just needs to buy a Logitech RumblePad and quit being such a fucking cripple insisting on playing everything with a keyboard and mouse; devices that were never meant for gaming.
Seriously. Dinosaurs like you are killing the PC gaming industry. Fucking cripples.
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
why should we buy a gamepad?? We have a mouse and keyboard that can work far better!
March 31st, 2009 at 3:57 am
I are the is that if to was and I the it. Too what can as in of then with have. Also and again happen shoe tits rubber band.
DOLPHINS MUSK HAIR SALON!!!!!
Inconceivable.
Homina homina homina homina homina homina…
April 6th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Seriously guys….
Thoose of you complainng about ths games controlls and so forth…
Can you not appreciate variety?
NO ALL GAMES SHOULD BE FPS, CUZ I’M TO FU**ING STOOOPID
TO DEAL WITH ANY OTHER TYPE OF ENVIROMENT.
Shit, can you guys even drive?
NO! CARS SUX, THEY SHOULD FLY AND MY EYES SHOULD BE ON
THE BUMPER, ALSO, NO BRAKES; THEY’RE JUST IN THE WAY. IT GETS
CONFUSING WITH TWO OR (in case of stickshift) THREE PEDDALS.
Your poor skills (and then blaming anything else than YOURSELF)
reflect poorly on all REAL gamers, some games are meant to be hard
(4 U) and/or give a more claustrofobic feel, as intended here.
How about GoW, that suck to mabye?
Grov the hell up children, your complaints are invalid, just invalid.
Stick to your one-peddal cars fukken apple freaks.
April 16th, 2009 at 1:21 am
I never understood why people turn into such asses in these chats. People are frustrated with the game. The keyboard & mouse issue are pretty bad. Why are you guys who love the game EVEN in this chat? Do you love the game so much that you have to search every chat about it and spew crap all over anyone who might have a diffrent opinion? EA needs to learn to use industry standards for navigation or they are going to loose PC players. It’s that simple. I buy a game because it looks fun to play. I just want to load and go, and not have to spend an hour memorizing a new set of keyboard controls. This game moves fast, and having slow to respond devices takes the fun out of it since you have to do so much precession shooting.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
after playing video games for the last 25 years i finally found a game that is the ultimate rip-off piece of sh!t! ea has sunk to a new low in taking credit for this pile of horse droppings! we hardcore pc gamers find it laughable that the creators of this travesty foisted upon the masses a new “formula” for pc game control – we’re not cons-holes! from a true pc gamer standpoint the controls make this clunky joke-of-a-game unplayable!
i wish i could get my money back for this waste-software – unfortunately the sellers realize it’s a piece of (rap and won’t let me return!
ea sucks! i’ll think long and hard before paying money for ANY title with the ea logo!
May 4th, 2009 at 3:18 am
The worst controls of the century in any 3rd person game. This evolves to a gamer needing to actually render him or herself to a steep learning curve. Mind you, the ’steep learning curve’ relates to learning to push the buttons that aren’t user-friendly at all.
If EAs proposal was to bring challenge towards the gamers then they have definitely failed, PC version at least. It becomes frustrating having to move so weirdly. Challenge the gamers with aliens that strafe endlessly or an in-game puzzle to complete a mission, do watever!, but at least, in the arkin’ least, give us complete control of the characters mobility. I love and enjoy 3rd person shooter games but unlike any other titles like “Gears of War” or “Splinter Cell” or even old skewl “Max Payne’ for gdness sake! juz went a notch because i actually enjoyed moving my character.
Its a pity, Dead Space by EA had superb graphics and alot of people here dont have too much trouble setting everything to max. The audio is spine-chilling, the game play and interactions were perfect. This comes to show that actual-serious work has been put into it, but yet they lagged on one area and it ain’t becoming a challenge, its becoming ignorance.
To those who actually enjoyed or ‘gotten used’ to the controls of Dead Space, yea well. Kudos to you! Glad u managed to control urself outta this one and for the love of who-ever, stop bragging that it takes a true-blue-gamer to be playing this game oh-so-well. If majority of the people here find the controls uber-sucky, then i would suggest that theres just something wrong with the you who finds it uber-ok, either that, or ur all juz plain boring.
May 11th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
It would be a nice game if I could remap the keys to my liking. It takes away the advantage of having a gaming mouse with more than 3 buttons.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Epic FAIL on these controls – one alien = fine. Mo aliens = worst experince evah!
Makes me go :/ as the game’s story and graphics are fine
May 31st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I just bought this game today for the PC and the first chance I got to save I closed it to come online and see what the hell was wrong with the controls. I’m tempted to throw the damn thing out the window. The third person view is horrible, aiming impossible, and I’m so busy trying to get the bloody idiot to walk I don’t have time to look at anything. Looks like a decent game totally ruined by a stupid control system.
June 21st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:55 am
this is the most ridiculuos thing I’ve ever seen in a game (MADE IN 2008!). Not being able to change you movement controls. I’ve you’re used to your arrow kays for 10 years already it’s horrible to play like this. the lamest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m going to install this game and NEVER play it again because of the lacking developpers! *** you very much!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
i think all here maybe have a bad configuration because i passed this game and all the controls are correctly like call of duty and all that kind of games W,A,S,D that are the correctly keys and if you cant play it with that keys you suck because all the games are configurate with that keys.
September 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Tried the game. Put a good 2 hours into it, trying to get accustomed to the awful controls. Just can’t do it. I ran out of ammo because I can’t hit anything in this game. If you move the mouse just slightly (in order to aim precisely on an enemy’s limb, for example), then the cursor just stays where it is! It has zero sensitivity and won’t budge! The only way to get it to move is to swing it almost wildly and then it starts accelerating across the screen, well beyond the target you’re intending it focus on. Besides the sensitivity issue, there is a terrible lag, as well! It feels as though my mouse has devolved into a shitty joystick! Even the most primitive shooting games from decades past haven’t had such horrendous controls. I tell you, though, it makes the game really scary not being able to aim!! Also makes the game pure shit. Uninstalling!