Dead Space

"Dead Space is a must-have for Survival/Horror fans."

Dead Space is a refreshing game that knows what it is, and what it wants to do. In the recent generation development, gamers have seen a fair deal of new release titles that seem to try to be everything. RPG, third person/first person shooters, sandboxes, these "Rennassaince" games have undoubtedly been nice (I've enjoyed a good deal of them), but perhaps the biggest and most sincere compliment I can give to Dead Space is that it is a different approach entirely.

Dead Space is a Survival Horror game, nothing more, nothing less. Dead Space is a GREAT Survival Horror Game. Dead Space is not particularly long, it has no multi-player, it is a tad clunky in movements and combat, and it is linear. All of those elements, while not sounding like endorsements, are characteristic of this genre (though the lattermost may, perhaps, be debatable,) and should be forgiven without much pretense by fans of the genre. Dead Space is also visceral, intense, challenging and, at many times, quite frightening and anxious. If what you are looking for is a fearful experience of heart-pounding and QUITE gory experience, Dead Space is for you. But let's go down to the specifics.

STORY: 7/10
[For solid presentation of a perhaps played-out plot.]

Nothing new here. This is half every sci-fi movie you've ever seen, and half Doom, in my opinion. Whether this is good or bad, however should be up to each player. I will say this however, that if you insist on overlooking the story of Dead Space simply because it may not be revolutionary, you may miss out on a solid and pleasantly follow-able story of gruesome humanity and insanity.

You are an engineer sent on a repair expedition to a deep space mining rig, which has broadcast a distress signal. When you arrive, after watching again a personal message a girl dear to your heart, begging for your help on the ship in question, you and your crew find radio silence. You ship nearly crashes in the landing and will need repairs, but before you can arrange this, alien human mutants attack your group and separate you, trapping you in the ship with the survivors. What horrors await you?

INGENUITY: 9/10
[For excellent execution of manageable new concepts]

Dead Space is an almost shameless rehash of many ideas and concepts that have come before it, both in storytelling and in gameplay, but it is not without its own original features. What I can say for Dead Space in this respect, is that what new elements it does introduce to its players, it executes very well. The HUD is completely, and I mean completely integrated into the player's real time gameplay window in the form of holograms. When sorting inventory items, checking objectives, or viewing the map, among other things, the player is presented with a real time holographic image juxtaposed over the gameplay happening around him/her. It's true that sometimes this may cause the player to suffer attacks that may feel cheap when the player is dividing attention among multiple tasks, it can be speculated that this is a "working as intended" feature, that is used, successfully, to generate tension and anxiety in the player, as well as the need to prepare. The only real complaint I can mark against this feature is the size of the text and menus when presented in this format. Most of my interaction with the in-game menus have been guestimations, as I play on a SDTV, and can barely make out the menu text at normal playing distance, and when the game asks you to navigate the menus in rushed situations, it can be pretty frustrating.

Aside from the HUD itself, Dead Space also utilizes a minimalist, compact, but very nice navigation system. Instead of constantly having to check a map, or say, navigate a trail of breadcrumbs, the player can tap the right joystick at any given moment to have a small bright line highlight the path to the next mission objective. This is unobtrusive, fast, and very handy, and one of my favorite features of Dead Space, which I hope will carry on to games to come.

Zero-Gravity, while not truly a native ingenuity to Dead Space, is also executed VERY well in this game when it appears, and is rare enough in gaming today to be considered fresh to many gamers.

Gameplay: 9/10
[For fulfilling the genre's expectations perfectly, even if that includes the genre's faults]

Dead Space is very true to the Survival Horror genre, and this fact is what will make or break the game for some players. If you are looking for anything more than a Survival Horror game, Dead Space will not deliver. What it does deliver, however, is very polished, and very nice.

The combat of Dead Space is not on par with the shooters of today, but definitely seems to fit the game very nicely. It is very similar to the system used in Resident Evil 4. Featuring an over the shoulder system, aiming is precise, although, in rushed sequences, clunky, as is characteristic of the genre. Your main character cannot to any real acrobatic dodges or jujitsu, though a curb-stomp is surprisingly effective against most any foe. However, the modest combat system that is implemented, shares the same small excellence of the majority of the game, and is both tight and responsive, making it a delight to use. The game's combat focuses on training you to use your arsenal of space guns to specifically dismember your innumerable opponents, often in quite gory fashions. In many intense combat situations, the player's most reliable assistance will be the nerve and steady hand to aim accurately at a leg or a tentacle under the pressure of 4 unmistakably lethal monsters moving toward the smell of your blood.

Going into combat unprepared, of course, is just as sure to get you killed as your own fear. The game supplies the player, in due course, with a modest but satisfying arsenal of weaponry and armored suits, as well as a couple of jedi-esque powers to freeze and propel your enemies. All of these listed are fully and intricately upgradable through the use of valuable resources called Power Nodes. While ammo itself is frighteningly scarce (what would you expect from a game in the vein of Resident Evil?), it is with great relief the player will find several stores located throughout the game, each allowing for inventory management and storage, as well as selling and buying a variety of items from the player as the game progresses. Still, money is hard to come buy, especially if you are trying to buy enough nodes to upgrade all of your equipment promptly, and players on the higher skill levels will have a challenge in counting carefully rationed ammunition throughout the game.

Graphics: 10/10
[Reasonably perfect execution of graphic animation and design]

You'd be surprised how easily you get desensitized to half-skinless gored bodies flooding your television screen. Dead Space doesn't go out of it's way to flaunt its graphical power, but spends every ounce of it an almost oppressive ambience and grim creature design and animation. All of the game activity moves seamlessly and without any notable flaws, and never draws the player out of the experience of the game. This is quite a technical achievement, and a signpost to just how polished Dead Space is. It is because of this graphical horsepower and application that the open-ended HUD system shines as strongly as it does, allowing the game to become a single legato experience near in its entirety, limited only by the player's need to pause the game.

Sound: 10/10
[Excellent sound techniques and presentation]

The music is light in this game, but when you hear it, it will be just what you would expect, slasher/horror motifs and figures racing in dangerous crescendos, all timed perfectly with the appearance of some horrible new monster chasing you down an ever-darker hallway. Much more present, and impressive, however, is the sound ambience present in Dead Space. Often as you wander dim hallways of the spaceship you will hear a small voice echo and stop; "is that distant computer speaking over the intercoms, or the whispers of the dead collected at your feet?" The monsters all have their own dreadful and unique shrieks and roars, and you will soon sweat with each sounding of their various calls and howls. As your character gets injured, you will hear him start to pant under pressure and strain. The game takes note of when you are in panic by how injured you are, how fast you run, how desperate you shots are, and uses it to calculate your "heart rate," which will begin to beat incessantly over the bloody gameplay, ever louder until the combat ends, and it slowly begins to stabilize.

Replayability/Length: 2/10
[For a short experience with little incentive to relive]

Why so low? Well, the game is pretty short, and no real good comes from playing it multiple times. It is an experience that you can experience fully in one go, and be done with. Is this a game-breaker? Of course not. Not every game is meant to last you 500 hours, including this one. This entire game is like a very long, very inter-actable horror movie, and I think that fits it just fine. Still, it can not get a 10/10 in all categories simply because it calls itself a "survival/horror" now can it? If you're looking for an epic game to spend the next year on, this isn't it, and that's why it doesn't earn those points. The game is about 12 hours long depending on your play speed, about an hour for each chapter.


Overall Score: 8/10
[This game is great. It is nothing revolutionary or generation-defining, but it doesn't try to be. It tries to be a solid survival horror game, and it executes this almost flawlessly, and I heartily recommend it.]


Buy or rent?

If you're a collector and you like to own great games, buy this for sure. If you just love playing games, definitely rent this; it will not last the average player more than a week by design, and you will save quite a bit of money.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/08

Game Release: Dead Space (US, 10/13/08)