Dead Space

"Survival Horror is Back Baby"

We all remember the days of old when Jill and Cris jumped off that helicopter and were chased into a large mansion by rapid zombie dogs. Or when Harry Maison lost his daughter in Silent Hill for that first time. We remember the dread we felt as we walked through a hallway and a dog burst through a window or when the paint would star peeling from the wall and we heard a scuffing or heavy breathing. We knew that something was behind us and all we had were 10 bullets in a handgun and a lead pipe. This was soon followed by amazing squeals that would make Mr. T turn on the lights. But it was not to last. Soon every developer and their mothers were making the so-called survival horror games. Even beloved originals turned crappy or turned more into a action game, such as Capcom's Resident Evil series which milked the cash cow so much they had to switch cows to action with RE4. Silent Hill soon followed leaving the genre to games like Atari's most recent abomination Alone in The Dark...BUT WE MADE THE FIRE LOOK AAAAMMMAAAZING.......

With all the changes in all the original games moving over to action, you had to start thinking that the genre was dead and would be making a way for Action Horror. But at the end of that dark closing tunnel lied a light, a glimmer of hope, that sat with EA. A game that no one would hear of. That game ripped a new hole and let light shine back into a dying franchise. That game was Dead Space. A game that starts you out again with nothing as you traverse a giant space station and only do you later get weapons that make you fill safe, kinda of.

The game starts you off on you own ship, with your own crew. Soon there's an explosion then you plummet to the station. Let's get this out of the way now. You're a repair specialist and a distress call was sent to your ship. You were sent to fix their ship and your girlfriend is on their ship. You're looking for her and trying to fix their ship. Okay, that's done.

The game gives an atmosphere of dread. Again you hear things running in the vents, you see shadows run away as you enter a room, ad you see dead people all over the place and of course, you never have enough ammo. Another thing that makes things more difficult is the fact that you can't just light up an enemy, you have to dismember them by taking off their legs, arms and head. There is no HUD. Everything is like a movie and even then what would normally be a movie is still going while you move around.

It is an over the shoulder shooter but it sticks to the survival horror. There is no quick turn, so you don't know if something is behind you and if there is you have to take the time to turn around so you can shoot it. Part of this is interesting but can get rather annoying when you are in the zero G outside and your are timed with how much air you have. Although throughout the game you get things called nodes, and when you find a work bench, you can upgrade things like your suit and your weapons.

As for controls they seem almost flawless and the shooting and aiming is easy to get the hang of. The secondary fire is fast switching if not automatic. The sound is amazing. You hear things running in the vents and the moans of the station's metal hull being pressured by the vacuum. When you enter Vacuum things go quite dead quite, giving new meaning to the term no one can hear you scream in space. Because its true, when you are there, you can't hear your enemies sneaking up behind you and when you shoot, its a dull thud noise, like if you shot a gun underwater. They even added in some interesting abilities to get past certain obstacles or solve some puzzles or even help you with some heavy fights with multiple enemies.

If it wasn't for the running and the zero G segments of this game it would be a gold mine. The graphics are out of this world....no pun intended. It looks as if it pushes the 360 to its very limit. All I have left to say is it is an easy savior to what the franchise needed and I hope to see the story continued in some way for another maybe 2 or 3 games. The game is rated M for mature and for a major reason. The fact that it makes Doom look not gory and it will have you looking at bodies that are carved up or you can just plain out stomp the limbs off of a corpse, all for family fun....

9.2/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/08

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