Game: Dead Space

Last Updated on July 27, 2021

Published by:
Electronic Arts.
Developed by:
EA Redwood Shores
Available only on:

Xbox 360,
PlayStation 3, PC.

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THIS GAME HERE

INTRO: Assume the role of Isaac
Clarke, a mechanic on the USG Ishimura. Through a series of most unfortunate
events, Isaac and his crew have responded to a distress call from another
ship that ends up infested by the most evil creatures imaginable. Using his
engineering tools and makeshift weapons (that happen to be pretty badass)
It’s now up to Isaac to become a  one man wrecking crew and clear out the
hordes of Necromorphs in hopes of rescuing any survivors left alive.

GAMEPLAY:

Well, the wait is finally over and at last I’ve gotten the opportunity to
sit down and play this mofo. In case you don’t remember, I had the
opportunity to visit EA Redwood Studios in California over the summer to
play an early build of the game and meet the development team. I was
initially at least a little worried that the game wouldn’t be worth the trip
but from what I played I was very happily mistaken. My initial impressions
of Dead Space were very positive- would the game hold up as a ‘total
package’? Let’s find out!

One of my initial gripes with the gameplay was that I thought you had too
many abilities to juggle around. I would like to take a moment to take that
statement back, for the most part. You can shoot, slow down time with
stasis, use kinesis to pick objects up and throw them, and you can also
stomp on enemies with melee attacks. Initially I felt that stasis and
kinesis were little more than neat little gimmicks but as I played through
the game. In fact, those two items become vastly important in later stages
of the game. Stasis is more than slowing a door down to walk through it- if
you’ve been cornered by 4 different Necromorphs (and you will be), you need
to use stasis to slow your enemies down and blast them. It’s a very, very
useful tool for several different things.  Kinesis, on the other hand isn’t
quite as useful but is wonderful for messing around with corpses, throwing
them to and fro and you will also use it to grab faraway items  in zero
gravity.  Also, it’s very cool to blow a claw off an enemy and then use
kinesis to ram it through a baddie.

Onto the rest of the game! Much of this game (actually, just about all of
it) is spent hunting down some sort of item or switch or something or other
to help out your crew. Along the way you will encounter many, many nasty
Necromorphs who are among the grossest creatures you’ve ever seen in video
game. Of course the big selling point of this game is dismemberment, which
you will learn about very early on in the game. You must strategically blast
bad guys and stop them in their tracks. My strategy was to almost always
blow out their legs, and then to run over to them and stomp their heads off
to conserve ammo (and what a strong stomp it is), which will almost always
allow you to feel a satisfying squish.  There are also different parts of
the game where you’ll need to go into an airless vacuum and have to make it
through space without your oxygen running out.

Another big feature in this game is the presence of Zero-G rooms. Think
Mario Galaxy except with more aliens and spikes to land on if you mistime
your jumps. They’re very neat additions and can be very disorienting. On top
of this, all the floating bodies and other such debris make for a very nice
touch. My only complaint here is that some jumps that are easily made are
impossible more often than not because the game wants you to jump from
further away. Still though, good stuff all around. 

There are boss battles and they are often huge but not that difficult. In
fact although I died several times in the later levels, I was pretty good at
this game and didn’t find it impossible. Some rooms simply require you to
strategize and take out the bad guys. With that being said, it just takes a
little practice and you’ll get the hang of it in no time- if you’re not too
scared.  And if you get lost, you can use your own personal guide beam that
points you literally in the right direction. Your inventory and in game
videos are all in real time, which means you can get killed pretty quickly
if you’re not careful. This is a great addition to the game- the developers
made it almost always a ‘real time’ game. There’s no HUD, everything you
need to know can be learned by simply looking at Isaac. It’s true that if
you’re backed in a corner things can be hard to read, but that’s all a part
of the terror that is Dead Space.

Ultimately the gameplay in Dead Space is a true blast. The weapons are
pretty varied (my personal favorite was a portable Chainsaw gun that shoots
saw blades) and you can upgrade them at a fairly regular pace at the
beginning of each level at a store where you’ll spend the credits that bad
guys leave (why would they have credits on them?). The upgrade system is
pretty good too as you use a ‘bench’ separate from the store and use nodes
to upgrade the capacity, damage, reload times, etc. I didn’t really use the
bench a lot personally; I spent my nodes on ‘power lock’ rooms where you can
pick up items instead. Still though, a good upgrade system.

At the end of the day, this is an awesomely scary game to play. It’s not
perfect though- the story was sold to us gamers as being ‘awesome’ but I
wasn’t really impressed and rarely felt for many of the characters. Also,
each mission just seems to be ‘get to point A’ and grab ‘item of interest’.
You’ll find yourself backtracking a lot- some gamers hate that. That didn’t
detract from things for me though.

Gameplay: 8.5/10

GRAPHICS:

The graphics in Dead Space are incredible. Several of my friends popped
in at one point or another during a gameplay session and immediately
commented on how amazing the game looked, and for good reason. The textures
are sharp, rich and detailed. Backgrounds are deeply textured and the
enemies are just vile and disgusting in high resolution. Little touches are
everywhere here- you can actually see dust floating through beams of light.
In different vacuums you’ll notice subtle color changes- not to mention the
amazing lighting this game sports. Shadows aren’t perfect but it’s dark,
spooky, atmospheric and beautiful all at once.

Graphics: 9/10

AUDIO:

Sound is also great in this one- voice acting was done by actors who were
modeling their characters, which adds a sense of realism to it all. The
monsters are just horrific, and you’ll often hear them approaching before
you ever see them, and that’s half the terror.  Weapons sound good too. If
you’ve got surround sound, you’re in for a treat.

Audio: 9/10

FINAL VERDICT:

Although there may not be a lot to keep you coming back for a second
time, Dead Space is a truly wonderful experience while it lasts. Sure, you
can play it in broad daylight and not get too scared, but I challenge you to
get some badass headphones and play this bad boy alone at 2 in the morning.
It’s a scary game that takes everything you love about past survival horror
games and creates the definitive game. Dead Space is fun, scary and gory,
has good weapons and will keep you busy for a good few days. I highly
recommend it.

Final Score:
8.5/10

BUY
THIS GAME HERE