I followed this game ever since it fronted a Game Informer my mother had gifted me. I watched the developer diaries and prologue comic on Xbox Live; I even messed with my sleeping schedule to buy it at launch. I woke at noon, washed up, and drove to my local Wal-Mart. Of course, they did not have it; there was confusion with release and shipping dates. Relentlessly, I ended up driving to Best Buy, luckily, just missing rush hour traffic. I wanted this game to be good, and it was a game. It was fun. It was good. With that said, I just recently finished the game, ten months later. Why? Was it the storm of games that were released at the time and my general lack of interest toward horror? Sure, why not, but it is up to the game to keep me engaged regardless of this.
The game starts with the protagonist, Isaac Clarke, watching a hologram video of his distressed girlfriend. The view then shifts to a stellar showcase of light scattering through chunks of a "cracked" planet. There are few breathtaking scenes of true beauty like this. Most scenes would have one holding their breath to avoid becoming ill. The art design is expected; nothing seems out of place, as though we would know what futuristic ships will look like. The game is very good at giving visual feedback, whether there is a threatening necromorph's shadow on the wall or the low ammo counter flashes. There is no HUD; all information projects on holograms from Isaac's suit and tools. Change in holographic color is actually very effective when surgically chopping the monstrosities to bits. And many bits at that, the number of possible mutilation is staggering. What's more entertaining, is that Isaac himself has a damage model that is displayed in varied death scenes, from a simple decapitation in which Isaac feebly fumbles for his head to more elaborate life struggles that have him screaming while he is maimed repeatedly. Blood squirts, splatters, and sometimes drips down on windows, all beautiful. More often than not, I was awed by these details rather horrified.
Being the douche that I am, I played on the "HARD" difficulty hoping to garner some extra achievements, but after a few levels in, I found out that there is no such reward. Good thing the game was not terribly difficult. It is not from lacking enemies but from the deadliness of weapons. There are many weapons to choose from, but most acted as a different flavor of the first-attained Plasma Cutter; some are not even worth their trouble. The Ripper seems more like a wink-wink, hint-hint weapon to play homage to the horror genre. It is a weaker, time consuming, short range Plasma Cutter, in other words, bad. My favorite gun of the bunch was the Force Gun, or the "Get-the-fuck-away" Gun, as I aptly nicknamed it. There is also a worthless flamethrower, a rifled cutter, a horizontal cutter, and a slower less effective Force Gun called the Contact Beam. All these weapons have useless alternate fire modes including a cool-looking, rotating-firing mode for the rifle; However, it is wasteful, and chances are, that if a circle jerk formed around you, you are fucked anyway. There is a slow-mo thingy to prevent such fiasco, but it seemed to fail me when I needed it most, at close range. I didn't use often, so it infuriated me when it wouldn't work and ended up dead because of it. While there are sufficient enemy types, there seems to be a method to every encounter. After a few tries, one could memorize given paths and replay the encounter unscathed and save on costly health packs. I exploited this and turned into a real George Costanza. This is resulting from the simplicity of the necromorphs, which makes sense and cannot be argued. Other shooters have flanking A.I. and are dynamic; in comparison, most enemies in Dead Space rush at you, so all you need is a steady aim and the "Get-the-fuck-away" Gun. Yes, the game is monotonous, but with a burst of blood and unnamable stuff.
All of this is complemented by cued-on soundtracks. The sound quality is unquestionable; fine mixes of organic and industrial sounds along with orchestral scores keep the tension during encounters. Ultimately though, the soundtrack made the game more predictable, and at times, annoyed me. They tried to raise suspense with the dubious, crescendo-and-cut sound effect; for some reason, they also used this in effect to startle players with incoming messages, "Oh, you just shit your pants? Sorry about that, well, I have some news..." The game was at its creepiest when random sounds would echo but nothing happened. Eventually, it became obvious that creepy sounds meant nothing, while silence meant "...get your gun." The game just tried too hard to scare with sound.
Intrusive sound assured that I was on edge. Yet, they did not do this for other emotions; the only emotions Isaac expresses are two palms to the face and pained grunts. Here is where the game absolutely fails. While there are many faceless protagonists that look cool, none are as void of character as Isaac. - C'mon, your girl is alone in some place with killer zombies! - He says nothing, and the plot suffers from it. I recall the developers wanting to make the experience as immersive as possible; something many developers talk about nowadays. One of my favorite games is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. I once played this in front of my friend, and he asked, "Why does he say everything he does?" My guess is that the developers thought the same, "Why state the obvious?" I think it deviates from that in storytelling. The developer is confusing being immersed as another character to actually being the character. The problem is that I am not Isaac. I was aware that Event Horizon influenced Dead Space, but I think it shares more in common with Solaris (2002). Incidentally, the novel (1961) that based Solaris influenced Event Horizon. There is nothing wrong with that; as many gamers, I am sure, have not been exposed to decent sci-fi. Interesting as it may be, the drama is not expressed. If Isaac does not care, why should the player? That is why I kept veering off to play other games.
Dead Space does just about everything well, with gorgeous visuals, creepy sounds, responsive control, and (on paper) an interesting plot, but you're not missing out. There are many other well-made games out there. If you are feeling the urge to dismember something but lack the cash, dust off an old copy of Soldier of Fortune. For full effect, turn off the lights.
The game starts with the protagonist, Isaac Clarke, watching a hologram video of his distressed girlfriend. The view then shifts to a stellar showcase of light scattering through chunks of a "cracked" planet. There are few breathtaking scenes of true beauty like this. Most scenes would have one holding their breath to avoid becoming ill. The art design is expected; nothing seems out of place, as though we would know what futuristic ships will look like. The game is very good at giving visual feedback, whether there is a threatening necromorph's shadow on the wall or the low ammo counter flashes. There is no HUD; all information projects on holograms from Isaac's suit and tools. Change in holographic color is actually very effective when surgically chopping the monstrosities to bits. And many bits at that, the number of possible mutilation is staggering. What's more entertaining, is that Isaac himself has a damage model that is displayed in varied death scenes, from a simple decapitation in which Isaac feebly fumbles for his head to more elaborate life struggles that have him screaming while he is maimed repeatedly. Blood squirts, splatters, and sometimes drips down on windows, all beautiful. More often than not, I was awed by these details rather horrified.
So you agree? You think you're really pretty!?
Being the douche that I am, I played on the "HARD" difficulty hoping to garner some extra achievements, but after a few levels in, I found out that there is no such reward. Good thing the game was not terribly difficult. It is not from lacking enemies but from the deadliness of weapons. There are many weapons to choose from, but most acted as a different flavor of the first-attained Plasma Cutter; some are not even worth their trouble. The Ripper seems more like a wink-wink, hint-hint weapon to play homage to the horror genre. It is a weaker, time consuming, short range Plasma Cutter, in other words, bad. My favorite gun of the bunch was the Force Gun, or the "Get-the-fuck-away" Gun, as I aptly nicknamed it. There is also a worthless flamethrower, a rifled cutter, a horizontal cutter, and a slower less effective Force Gun called the Contact Beam. All these weapons have useless alternate fire modes including a cool-looking, rotating-firing mode for the rifle; However, it is wasteful, and chances are, that if a circle jerk formed around you, you are fucked anyway. There is a slow-mo thingy to prevent such fiasco, but it seemed to fail me when I needed it most, at close range. I didn't use often, so it infuriated me when it wouldn't work and ended up dead because of it. While there are sufficient enemy types, there seems to be a method to every encounter. After a few tries, one could memorize given paths and replay the encounter unscathed and save on costly health packs. I exploited this and turned into a real George Costanza. This is resulting from the simplicity of the necromorphs, which makes sense and cannot be argued. Other shooters have flanking A.I. and are dynamic; in comparison, most enemies in Dead Space rush at you, so all you need is a steady aim and the "Get-the-fuck-away" Gun. Yes, the game is monotonous, but with a burst of blood and unnamable stuff.
You kill bugs good, man
All of this is complemented by cued-on soundtracks. The sound quality is unquestionable; fine mixes of organic and industrial sounds along with orchestral scores keep the tension during encounters. Ultimately though, the soundtrack made the game more predictable, and at times, annoyed me. They tried to raise suspense with the dubious, crescendo-and-cut sound effect; for some reason, they also used this in effect to startle players with incoming messages, "Oh, you just shit your pants? Sorry about that, well, I have some news..." The game was at its creepiest when random sounds would echo but nothing happened. Eventually, it became obvious that creepy sounds meant nothing, while silence meant "...get your gun." The game just tried too hard to scare with sound.
Intrusive sound assured that I was on edge. Yet, they did not do this for other emotions; the only emotions Isaac expresses are two palms to the face and pained grunts. Here is where the game absolutely fails. While there are many faceless protagonists that look cool, none are as void of character as Isaac. - C'mon, your girl is alone in some place with killer zombies! - He says nothing, and the plot suffers from it. I recall the developers wanting to make the experience as immersive as possible; something many developers talk about nowadays. One of my favorite games is Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. I once played this in front of my friend, and he asked, "Why does he say everything he does?" My guess is that the developers thought the same, "Why state the obvious?" I think it deviates from that in storytelling. The developer is confusing being immersed as another character to actually being the character. The problem is that I am not Isaac. I was aware that Event Horizon influenced Dead Space, but I think it shares more in common with Solaris (2002). Incidentally, the novel (1961) that based Solaris influenced Event Horizon. There is nothing wrong with that; as many gamers, I am sure, have not been exposed to decent sci-fi. Interesting as it may be, the drama is not expressed. If Isaac does not care, why should the player? That is why I kept veering off to play other games.
Dead Space does just about everything well, with gorgeous visuals, creepy sounds, responsive control, and (on paper) an interesting plot, but you're not missing out. There are many other well-made games out there. If you are feeling the urge to dismember something but lack the cash, dust off an old copy of Soldier of Fortune. For full effect, turn off the lights.
