Released: 2008
Difficulty: Just Right
Time Spent: 10 to 20 Hours
Headline: Dead Space is beyond its hype
With this generation being quite stagnant on releasing horror games, gamers looking to get some good chills, kills, and thrills have been left out in the cold with a bit lackluster supplements. Dead Space tries to remedy this and what we get is the most groundbreaking horror shooter since Resident Evil 4.
Isaac Clarke, an engineer and crew are en route to the USG Ishimura, a large space ship that mines planets for resources. Apparently, contact has been lost with the metal hunk and concern has risen, especially given their special cargo. The ship contains the findings of an ancient alien artifact that many of the USG staff have become deeply involved with and its’ reason. Isaac is coming along because his girlfriend Nicole was onboard and he's personally concerned. Turns out that the artifact is a thing of a deadly, infectious plague; it caused nearly everyone to behave like their belonging to an occult, run off the fourth wall, and get their bodies rearranged. The story draws from inspirations of Alien, The Thing, and Event Horizon and draws on themes of religion, morals, and scientific study. It's familiar but still enjoyable by being well written; in fact, Isaac never ever speaks and I still felt more compassion for him than the dime-a-dozen personalities of most games.
At first I thought he punched his arm through the ship
Dead Space is a corridor shooter and places you in the hand of running around and doing all the required work to survive as ordered by your acquaintances. Isaac will deal with a number of enemies that have various strategies to slice him up; some charge, shoot volatile projectiles, swarm, sneak, or play dead to get you. There's even a kamikaze kind; but they can all sever Isaac in many ways and they can be smart too. They love to use air ducts to get to another part of a building; you thought you'd be safe hiding in one place but in reality they can get anywhere, like on the roofs, or cold space. Isaac too is well equipped; he gets a stasis module which allows him to temporally slow down objects to a crawl. There's a kinesis module which allows him to move / hurl object like blades, tool boxes, book shelves, or compressed gas containers. There's also 7 mining 'tools' that behave just like weapons and fill in the roles of machine gun, shotgun, flamethrower, etc. In addition to your rig (armor), tools as well as the kinesis and stasis modules can all be upgraded with valuable nodes to increase damage, capacity, reload speed, and other aspects. These tools and modules help Isaac takedown the enemies but not by conventional gaming means. An interesting idea called 'strategic dismemberment' is largely the game's combat tactic; meaning enemies don't respond well to brute force shots. You have to sever them to kill; and it might be from a plasma shot, a violent explosion, a burning flame, or something large or sharp. In fact conventional means commonly does nothing and there are some enemies that release more enemies depending on where they’re hit.
Dead Space Animated Comic
The biggest downfall to Dead Space is its variety; corridor combat with the enemy is probably 90% of the game, and while it's innovative and draws from other inspirations a little bit, it will begin to weigh you down a bit. More enemies are the best recommendation, many force you to rethink tactics and more of these enemy concepts would keep the game more varied. Another idea would be giving Isaac a speaking role and have him make some decisions himself as the game goes along. There's also some rare, arcade like shooting sections that man you with a turret and have you eliminate a big target. Some zero gravity situations also come along where you have to leap from platform to platform while watching out for regular dangers and it's the only part where you can get confused as with how you're supposed to get around something. There are also some sections that give you a limited oxygen supply and you can hear almost nothing making you extremely susceptible to dangers. As you play, everything that has an effect on the game occurs in real game time (including item and menu management) and it gives Dead Space that unique fit of having a protagonist that does have to fiddle a bit to function. Control wise, the menus can be a bit difficult to navigate; they all are holographic presentations as if Isaac is reading them too. So they appear within the 3D space of the spaceship and makes reading stuff a little difficult, especially with the 3D map. Isaac also has 2 melee moves but they're difficult to really utilize. All these mechanics are well integrated; but is it well paced, can it frighten, or can it be difficult to put down? Dead Space moves at such a fantastic pace that you're either on the edge of your seat or about to get scared to death; it's a rollercoaster all the way to the end.
There are more than a few parts that justify the M rating
Graphically, there's so little to criticize; models have lots of detail, textures look convincingly creepy (when needed), and there's great uses of shadows and lighting. The blood and gore that can come from an explosion is fantastic (Isaac too can be taken down in many different ways) and there's really nothing to criticize. The sound is magnificent; enemies screech freakishly, you can hear sparse and dense mechanical noise, and objects clang against each other realistically. The acting and music are also great; however, the soundtrack may hint away at some enemy spooks and ruin a moment.
Dead Space will last you at least 12 hours, maybe as much as 18 if you really look around and explore. There is only the main game to work through but it should be revisited.
Even though the game is repetitively designed, has no choice system, and features a silent protagonist; Dead Space remains a top tier game. What really makes this game is its combat and it's got that down so well that it is largely the reason why you just want more and more. Even as you become bored of the game for a night, in a few days you're going to so badly want to head back for more that you'll realize this marvelous liking a for a horrific game.
9.0/ 10 SUPERB (PS3)
+Really solid combat mechanics
+Excellent enemy design forces re-strategizing
+Great pacing makes for some really good tension and jump scares
+Exceptionally violent looking and can sound chaotic or unnerving
-Too much of the same, but strong formula
TWiSTEDmerc
Difficulty: Just Right
Time Spent: 10 to 20 Hours
Headline: Dead Space is beyond its hype
With this generation being quite stagnant on releasing horror games, gamers looking to get some good chills, kills, and thrills have been left out in the cold with a bit lackluster supplements. Dead Space tries to remedy this and what we get is the most groundbreaking horror shooter since Resident Evil 4.
Isaac Clarke, an engineer and crew are en route to the USG Ishimura, a large space ship that mines planets for resources. Apparently, contact has been lost with the metal hunk and concern has risen, especially given their special cargo. The ship contains the findings of an ancient alien artifact that many of the USG staff have become deeply involved with and its’ reason. Isaac is coming along because his girlfriend Nicole was onboard and he's personally concerned. Turns out that the artifact is a thing of a deadly, infectious plague; it caused nearly everyone to behave like their belonging to an occult, run off the fourth wall, and get their bodies rearranged. The story draws from inspirations of Alien, The Thing, and Event Horizon and draws on themes of religion, morals, and scientific study. It's familiar but still enjoyable by being well written; in fact, Isaac never ever speaks and I still felt more compassion for him than the dime-a-dozen personalities of most games.
At first I thought he punched his arm through the ship
Dead Space is a corridor shooter and places you in the hand of running around and doing all the required work to survive as ordered by your acquaintances. Isaac will deal with a number of enemies that have various strategies to slice him up; some charge, shoot volatile projectiles, swarm, sneak, or play dead to get you. There's even a kamikaze kind; but they can all sever Isaac in many ways and they can be smart too. They love to use air ducts to get to another part of a building; you thought you'd be safe hiding in one place but in reality they can get anywhere, like on the roofs, or cold space. Isaac too is well equipped; he gets a stasis module which allows him to temporally slow down objects to a crawl. There's a kinesis module which allows him to move / hurl object like blades, tool boxes, book shelves, or compressed gas containers. There's also 7 mining 'tools' that behave just like weapons and fill in the roles of machine gun, shotgun, flamethrower, etc. In addition to your rig (armor), tools as well as the kinesis and stasis modules can all be upgraded with valuable nodes to increase damage, capacity, reload speed, and other aspects. These tools and modules help Isaac takedown the enemies but not by conventional gaming means. An interesting idea called 'strategic dismemberment' is largely the game's combat tactic; meaning enemies don't respond well to brute force shots. You have to sever them to kill; and it might be from a plasma shot, a violent explosion, a burning flame, or something large or sharp. In fact conventional means commonly does nothing and there are some enemies that release more enemies depending on where they’re hit.
Dead Space Animated Comic
The biggest downfall to Dead Space is its variety; corridor combat with the enemy is probably 90% of the game, and while it's innovative and draws from other inspirations a little bit, it will begin to weigh you down a bit. More enemies are the best recommendation, many force you to rethink tactics and more of these enemy concepts would keep the game more varied. Another idea would be giving Isaac a speaking role and have him make some decisions himself as the game goes along. There's also some rare, arcade like shooting sections that man you with a turret and have you eliminate a big target. Some zero gravity situations also come along where you have to leap from platform to platform while watching out for regular dangers and it's the only part where you can get confused as with how you're supposed to get around something. There are also some sections that give you a limited oxygen supply and you can hear almost nothing making you extremely susceptible to dangers. As you play, everything that has an effect on the game occurs in real game time (including item and menu management) and it gives Dead Space that unique fit of having a protagonist that does have to fiddle a bit to function. Control wise, the menus can be a bit difficult to navigate; they all are holographic presentations as if Isaac is reading them too. So they appear within the 3D space of the spaceship and makes reading stuff a little difficult, especially with the 3D map. Isaac also has 2 melee moves but they're difficult to really utilize. All these mechanics are well integrated; but is it well paced, can it frighten, or can it be difficult to put down? Dead Space moves at such a fantastic pace that you're either on the edge of your seat or about to get scared to death; it's a rollercoaster all the way to the end.
There are more than a few parts that justify the M rating
Graphically, there's so little to criticize; models have lots of detail, textures look convincingly creepy (when needed), and there's great uses of shadows and lighting. The blood and gore that can come from an explosion is fantastic (Isaac too can be taken down in many different ways) and there's really nothing to criticize. The sound is magnificent; enemies screech freakishly, you can hear sparse and dense mechanical noise, and objects clang against each other realistically. The acting and music are also great; however, the soundtrack may hint away at some enemy spooks and ruin a moment.
Dead Space will last you at least 12 hours, maybe as much as 18 if you really look around and explore. There is only the main game to work through but it should be revisited.
Even though the game is repetitively designed, has no choice system, and features a silent protagonist; Dead Space remains a top tier game. What really makes this game is its combat and it's got that down so well that it is largely the reason why you just want more and more. Even as you become bored of the game for a night, in a few days you're going to so badly want to head back for more that you'll realize this marvelous liking a for a horrific game.
9.0/ 10 SUPERB (PS3)
+Really solid combat mechanics
+Excellent enemy design forces re-strategizing
+Great pacing makes for some really good tension and jump scares
+Exceptionally violent looking and can sound chaotic or unnerving
-Too much of the same, but strong formula
TWiSTEDmerc
