Dead Space

"In space, no one can hear you having this much fun dismembering aliens."

Introduction:

Right off the bat the premise for Dead Space sounds interesting, a survival horror game set in space. Seeing as the survival horror genre pretty much died out at the end of the last generation it's about time it had a revival. Now, Dead Space has been promoted to be exactly that, many companies have demonstrated they have it what it takes to make a decent game of this genre. Going way back to the PS1 with Capcom's Resident Evil series, arguably the pioneer of the genre, to more recent titles such as Silent Hill. Both have a very different and distinct look and feel which is partly the reason they are such great games. Dead Space takes note from this and to their credit, EA have not only well and truly revitalised a (no pun intended) dead genre but have also created a very good starting point to develop this into a full franchise.


Story:

Back in the day of the good old Resident Evil games, the story was a very important aspect of the survival horror genre. Nowadays with the advancement of technology, this is not the case anymore; consoles have more than enough power to “WOW” us with plenty of other stuff. Dead Space falls somewhere in the middle, there is a good, coherent plot which is easily followed and ends very well (and screams sequel). However, it is a little divided. At the start of the game you're just sent to a space ship to repair their communications and leave, then the S*** hits the fan and there are monsters everywhere. The monster aspect of the story is well explained and pulled off very well, albeit rather predictably. Whereas the motivation of the main character (you) is to find his wife onboard, this aspect of the plot fails completely as your character never talks, therefore you have no connection with him and as a result do not care about him at all, or his wife for that matter.


Gameplay:

Back when Dead Space was being promoted, the USP was the “dismemberment combat system”; EA decided the tried and tested method of shooting a dude until he stops moving was a tad old hat. In Dead Space the most effective way to kill something is to blow its limbs, now at first this seems rather gimmicky and being “for the sake of it”. However, it is extremely well executed and a lot of fun. Every weapon you get can dismember your enemies in one way or another, this doesn't encourage much variety though, as every weapon has the same effect and some weapons are far better for achieving this, you'll end up sticking to only 2 of 3 of them. This isn't to say that the aforementioned method of shooting a monster a bunch of times won't get the job done, it will, it's just not as satisfying as blowing both legs off something and watching him squirm towards you and then to follow up by stomping his head into mush. However on the higher difficulties the dismemberment combat really comes into play, if you're smart (and a little sick in the head) you'll find ways to literally carve your way through rooms of enemies with very little effort, which does make the supposed higher difficulties easier than expected, but it's nice to see a game with an actual difficulty structure and the game engine to back it up.

Enemy design varies greatly throughout the game, although because the combat is pretty much the same for all of them in that all you need to do is blow off their arms of legs, fighting new enemies will feel very familiar. Although the sheer quality of difference and design between counters that extremely well. The boss battles are definitely the highlight of this show, each one has clearly had a lot of time and thought put into them and this is reflected in the sheer amount of fun it is to fight them.

Throughout the game you'll get various upgrades to your armour. You get the expected ones that upgrade your health and oxygen (for when you're in space) and make you look rather cool. Very early on in the game you'll get a kinesis and stasis upgrades. Basically kinesis is what it sounds like, you can pick up objects and move them around and throw at stuff and stasis allows you to slow down objects. These are only really needed for the puzzles in the game and can both be upgraded via the game shopping system, this also can be used to upgrade your weapons too, but this system isn't very done because of how long it takes to upgrade even one thing. The kinesis and stasis can be used in combat however, and give the already original gameplay a new twist and can be used to develop strategies for the games tougher enemies. The main thing that holds the gameplay back is how repetitive it is, every chapters recycles old objectives over and over again and this does get old if you're playing for a good session.

Sound/Graphics

There is almost nothing to complain about here, Dead Space's graphics are extremely visceral and atmospheric and as such, immerse you completely in the game. The sound goes hand in hand with the visuals too, the sound effects are brilliant, all the weapons somehow manage to sound exactly how you'd expect them too and the enemy sound effects are truly awesome. The only real complaint as far as graphics go are your “team”, in comparison to you at least, they definitely haven't got the same amount of detail nor attention been given to them, but seeing as you rarely see them it's easily forgotten. As I said, the technical aspect of this game leaves very little to want, the only thing that does hold it back a bit is there's not much variety in the environments, but it helps that even though repetitive, they're still awesome every time you see them.

Overall:

All in all, Dead Space is an extremely entertaining and immersive game that delivers on pretty much everything it promised. This is truly the only game of its kind out at the moment, and if you consider yourself a fan of survival horror, this is a brilliant game to bring you back and even if you're not a fan of survival horror; Dead Space is a great place to start. However, the sheer amount of repetition in the games structure and design does hold it back a bit (otherwise I'd be giving it a 10) but depending on what your cup of tea is, you'll either notice it and get frustrated and stop playing, or notice it and take out your frustration on the next enemy by blowing off both his arms and laugh as he tries to head-butt you.

Overall Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/20/09

Game Release: Dead Space (EU, 10/24/08)