Dead Space Dead Space Zombie Monsters Eat Your Face

Author's Rating:

Pros:   Great horror mood, gameplay, graphics

Cons:   Not well formatted for non-HD TV’s

The Bottom Line: 
This is a fun, scary game though it offers little to add to replay value after finishing the story.  Definitely worth a rental and probably worth a purchase.

Author's Review
 
Dead Space has been called “Resident Evil in space,” and I can’t think of a more spot on comparison. Being that Resident Evil has long been my favorite game series it’s no wonder that I like Dead Space so much. It has virtually everything that has made Resident Evil fun and actually manages to do a better job with delivering an atmosphere of horror than the older series has been doing lately.


Take my criticisms of Resident Evil with a grain of salt; both 4 and 5 get a full 5* rating out of me (no review for 4 yet - I should write one, but here's what I had to say about 5). They are insanely fun games, they just don’t carry the same feel of disturbing terror that they used to. Dead Space on the other hand does. I found myself creeping around the hallways never knowing when some kind of monster would try to eat my head or giant arm would try to pull me through a hole in the wall.


Like the title suggests (and I mentioned earlier) this takes place in space, aboard a large space ship to be exact. Something from the planet below is killing the crew and then using their bodies to create monstrous forms presumably for the ultimate goal of creating even more corpses to thus become more creatures.


Isaac, the guy you’ll be playing, is part of a repair crew sent to check out the distress signal from the ship. An accident leaves them stranded and the game is essentially a series of missions dealing with one crisis after another that threatens the team’s ability to survive and escape.


During their struggle they learn about something called a Marker. Some believe it is a holy relic that must be taken to the Unitarian church for worship; others believe it is a thing of evil that needs to be destroyed. Each is ready to kill for their beliefs, and since pretty much everyone is a little crazy in one way or another deciding what is really going on is not easy.


The story, by the way, plays into the tale told in the movie Downfall (check out my review). You can play the game without having seen the movie, but not the other way around. You really need the game to get the conclusion to the movie. I think some stronger ties would have been fun; there really isn’t as much as I expected. We get some backstory on the Marker, the captain’s fate, and Dr. Kyne who plays a part in the game, but there's little else that evokes a reaction of “hey I remember that from the other!” Even the areas of the ship visited in both the movie and the game bear only passing resemblance and don't much feel like an exploration of the same places.


The game gets much deeper into the story than the movie does. We find out the secret of the Marker and the planet it came from. There are some remarks in the movie which will make more sense when you know more about what is really going on. Well, “really” as far as we know. Who’s to say what we think we know is what’s really going on? I guess we’ll have to see if they are going to continue the story to find out more. A couple of the plot turns are fairly obvious, but rather than feeling like I was ahead of the writers when they didn’t intend for me to be I felt like they planted the clues and then later let me know if I was right in my conclusions or not. It’s like seeing if you can figure out the story behind the game and then giving you the correct answer at the conclusion for comparison.


The ending is also up for debate on a couple of different points that I can't really go into without spoiling it. **MINOR SPOILER** My theory is that there are actually 2 different sentient influences at work here: the Necromorph Hive Mind and the telepathic Marker which has an agenda I won't spoil. Most people consider the Hive Mind the only intelligence at work, but that makes elements of the plot harder to reconcile. **END SPOILER**


LOOK AND FEEL:
There’s the background and some basic plot info. How does that all come together? There’s a strong feeling of being there. Not counting the prequel movie, you don’t know anything more than the game character knows (besides what you figure out yourself along the way). Throughout the game you only see what he sees. There are no cutscenes that show what’s going on with anyone else outside of what Isaac learns such as coming across logs and witnessing the actions of certain survivors. So you do get a sense of what went on. Members of your team also research the events and fill you in so you get a lot of information, but none of it is gathered through the third person.


This helps get the player into the mindset of the character. From there the environment plays a major part. The ship design is logical, functional, and highly detailed. From coffee cups by the coffee pots to crud-encrusted toilets this really has a strong feel of reality. The lighting, movements, and interaction with the environment add to the experience (you can pick up the cups and smash the bottles, things like that). Warning and information signs through the ship add a nice touch. Safety first!


Once you’re pulled in and feel like you’re there on the ship things start jumping out to take your head off. Run! This all serves to create a heightened sense of tension that should make the modern horror movie maker envious.


My only real complaint about the look is that it is clearly designed for larger HDTV’s. While this itself is not at all bad, I had a hard time reading a lot of the text on my regular old screen (a 27 incher). It became such a pain that I quit trying. I’ll have to play again when I get a better TV to see what I may have missed. I also think this probably makes the asteroid shooting more difficult. Either that or I really just suck at it.


GAMEPLAY:
What really pushes this game to the next level is the great handling. The controls may take some practice to master but probably won’t take you long to figure out at least if you’re adept at action games. There’s the standard ready, aim, shoot, and reload (a lot like Resident Evil). There’s a limited inventory, and the ability to upgrade as you see fit as long as you have enough resources. Choose between a variety of weapons and swap between any 4 at a time as long as you have access to them.


The cameras perform as well as you do. You manually control your view throughout the game and that control is separate from the character direction. The only time this may be an issue is when trying to pick up items. Whenever you approach an item a small hologram appears to let you know what that is. It appears in the 3D environment though, so sometimes you may hear the sound indicating you’ve come across something but not actually see anything on screen requiring you to look around for the item. The inventory is the same way, so when you open that up you may have to adjust the camera to actually see it.


All the standard movements and actions are laid out well, but that’s not the end of it. There are 4 other unique gameplay features. One is the vacuum play. You’ll venture into areas without oxygen, and you need to watch your air meter so you don’t suffocate. Remember how sound doesn’t travel in a vacuum? This is taken into account. The only sounds audible are your own and vibrations that travel through your suit.
Stasis is the ability to slow down any actions within a bubble. There are times when this is a necessary tool to access parts of the ship but can be useful when dealing with enemies as well. You’ll need to keep your module charged in order to use it, though.
Kinesis is the ability to grab objects from a distance. It’s a bit like a Force grip although you can’t use it on the living (unfortunately). You’ll need to manipulate heavy objects with this at times. You can use it to pull items over to you rather than walking over to pick them up. If you’re really twisted (which I guess I am) you can use it to pick up and fire heads and limbs across the room.
My favorite is Zero Gravity. Nearly every level has an area without gravity. You stay anchored thanks to some special boots but can utilize the lack of gravity to jump enormous distances and move around in all dimensions. It can be disorienting at times but is tremendous fun.


DIFFICULTY:
This is overall not all that hard a game. It will partially depend on your chosen difficulty level, your ability to figure out the best way to deal with different creatures, and how you utilize your tools. Reaction time and weapons skills will certainly be important particularly on the harder difficulties. The frequent save points and checkpoints will help a lot, though. Died without saving? Chances are you hit a checkpoint that will keep you from having to repeat very much. Having trouble with a section? Thanks to being able to save right before it will allow you the opportunity to keep trying until you get it without having to worry about playing through the whole level again.


One fun aspect of the game is the different makeup of the monsters. Different ones require different strategies and some are easier to beat with one weapon over another. I find that the starting weapon is overall the best but sometimes it’s nice to have the staying power of the saw or the sweeping abilities of the torch.


Getting around is exceptionally easy. For starters you have a 3D map. Call it up to see the lay of the land, important areas like save points, and the path to your next objective. Along with that are mission notes for review if you’re not sure what to do next. If that weren’t enough hitting the R3 button will highlight the path to your next objective and will even turn you to point in the proper direction if need be. These will take you right up to whatever it is you need to pick up or manipulate so there’s little danger of getting stuck trying to figure something out. Now you can concentrate on surviving!


CONTENT:
This is a very violent game. Not only is the dismemberment of enemies allowed it’s encouraged. Bodies can be moved, manipulated, and stomped into a bloody mess. I’ve even gotten tangled up in arms before and had to move around to shake them loose. There’s plenty of profanity throughout as well.


REPLAY AND EXTRAS:
This has been a fun game to replay. Items and upgrades are retained from one game to the next as long as you remain on the same difficulty. Since the hardest difficulty has to be unlocked via an initial playthrough it’s unfortunate that you can’t take your items from the first run into that harder level. The best you can do is get familiar with what strategies and weapons work best on what creatures and take that knowledge with you into the “impossible” level.


The only part that gives me fits on subsequent playthrough is the asteroid shooting. Like I said before either this isn't formatted well for my type of TV or I just suck severely. There are no upgrades or anything to help so the only thing you can do is practice.


There are plenty of trophies to gain, most of which are related to beating the levels and bosses, and using and upgrading each of the weapons. I had fun getting these, and the majority of them have been pretty easy.


Extras are few. An art gallery and some backstory bios (which I haven’t checked out yet because of the poor formatting for non-HDTV’s) are pretty much all there is. I guess being so similar in other ways to Resident Evil I thought there might be something along the lines of Mercenaries or Separate Ways (RE mini-games if you aren't familiar with the series).


One drawback to playing through multiple times is the lack of ability to skip anything. Got a long bit of dialogue that you’ve already seen? Settle in because you’ve got to listen to it in its entirety again. You don't have to pick up all the logs again, though; not unless you just want to.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
The only thing I can think of that might have improved the game to any substantial degree would be multiple possible storylines. While the game is fun to play through more than once it’s not like trying to find out what happens as the result of different actions like with Resident Evil. Some extra features or a battle game like Mercenaries might have boosted the game’s staying power. If you’re not the type to want to play through a story again you might be better off with a rental. If you want to try again, though, with different or upgraded weapons then I’m sure you’ll enjoy more of the mayhem. This is one I’ll be keeping on my shelf for future fun. I think it deserves 5*.