Dead Space (PS3) > Reviews (6)

When Dead Space arrived in 2008. it was nice to see something new in the survival horror genre that didn't involve a T-virus and a shotgun, and, with a second installment and animated film the Dead Space franchise looks set to last long into the future... The dark bloody future.

Set in 2508 you are Isaac Clarke (i'm refusing to mention the Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke reference.) an engineer who, as part of a maintenance team sent to repair the USG Ishimura, essentially a grey red dwarf (it looks scarily like red dwarf believe me), the Ishimura is a planet cracker, a ship that's part of a huge fleet of spacecraft sent to grab asteroids from the vast reaches of space and strip them of valuable resources to be taken back to earth. It transpires that Isaac has a number of pals on board the Ishimura and is plagued by visions of a mysterious woman we know little about... just yet anyway.
Once the crew arrive on the ship they find it's a complete wreck, there have been strange goings on in the Ishimura since they brought on board a strange alien artifact and now they find the ship infested with ghastly, lanky zombie like creatures known as Necromorphs. Your craft gets destroyed (what do computer games have against aircraft?) and it's up to you to find a way off the Ishimura. Easier said than done naturally...

Isaac has no weapons per say, just a handful of engineers equipment, luckily for him, the plasma cutter functions much like a pistol and conveniently the best way to kill a Necromorph is to slice it's limbs off, and Isaac has a buzzsaw for that purpose exactly! Don't get me wrong it's a really neat idea to be using re purposed engineers equipment for hacking up enemies! That's the main part of the games combat, there calling it "strategic dismemberment", enemies don't go down with head shots or body shots, you'll have to use the available weapons to blast off limbs to do maximum damage, once there on the ground Isaac can also deliver a stomp to crush the heads of anything still living that happens to be crawling along the floor. Believe me when i say the whole affair is immensely satisfying, especially using the saw, watching your unfortunate foes explode in a shower of blood and limbs!
A little note on Necromorphs, there's a wide variety of disturbing creatures on offer, you've got the standard type, a tall long limbed beastie with limbs just begging to be blown off, a huge juggernaut type that takes ages to take down, grotesque nasties hanging from the wall spitting at you, ones that fly through the air in deep space, ones that explode and the list goes on and on, you'll never find yourself bored for a Necromorph in Dead Space!

Isaac can pick up power nodes along the way to add upgrades to your weapons at one of the many workbenches scattered around the ship. You can make weapons more powerful add ammo or reduce loading times, you need to use the nodes wisely though as they are in limited supply, so you should pick your favorite child among'st the weaponry and upgrade the hell out of it!

Isaac can also upgrade his suit, to toughen him up against the Necromorphs bladey arms (or whatever there meant to be), or to upgrade the air supply on the suit (more on that later).
Isaac's suit also comes equipped with a "stasis module" granting him the ability to use telekinetic powers such as moving objects from a distance, pulling levers and even pick up items to launch at enemies which is difficult to master but tons of fun! He can also use stasis to slow down objects that... errm... Need slowing down (you'll see).

Now about that air supply, there are some great moments in the game that are set outside on the ships hull, and while your out in deep space you'll need to watch your air supply unless you want to see Isaac's brain come out of his nose. There's no gravity in space (obviously) so there are parts where you have to plan jumps and float through the void of space to land on platforms, there's a particularly fantastic boss fight set in a vast room and no gravity, meaning you have to concentrate on about 6 things at once to survive! Space is also silent, it offer a nice quiet part to the game, there are no alarms blaring or screeching Necromorphs, which can be nice but when you can't hear a Necromorph sneaking up on you the results can be deadly (in space no one can hear you scream, or fire a gun... or your own farts... tee hee).

Like most survival horror games Isaac moves quite slowly and offers that so called realism survival horrors love so much, but he does suffer from the unfortunate disability that causes him to not turn around without five minutes of free time so keep your eyes open there.
There's a nice little in game hud that flashes up in front of Isaac's face as a hologram, you do everything here, from selecting weapons, mapping and using first aid items. Isaac also receives transmissions from the other characters via the suit hud, and it all happens in real time effectively meaning there's no pause menu to apply first aid in the middle of a fight, it really adds to the tense isolated atmosphere of the game.

Speaking of atmosphere, Dead space practically sweats atmosphere out of every available pore. The Ishimura is a mess of bloodied corpses and flickering lights, with messages scrawled on the walls in blood and in places there are whole areas swamped in alien "goo". Necromorphs dive at you through vents and possess corpses, it all adds to the horrifying atmosphere that your never really safe and for a survival horror game that's just about what you want. I really felt Dead Space went out there to be a new refreshing survival horror title and succeeded thoroughly.

There are those traditional survival horror game bug bears, such as spending half the game back tracking because you need a different keycard or because the security system failed "yet again" blocking you off from the one area of the game you need to get to. Also a lot of the scares just kind of felt like basic shock tactics with enemies jumping out at you so frequently that by the games end your almost completely used to it, and the fear is just lost on you.

Those really are just minor gripes though, and there pretty common in the survival horror genre, You'll be so taken in by the visuals, which are excellent, and the general atmosphere of the game that you probably won't be too bothered.

Something i always seem to mention in my reviews is the voice acting in games, for Dead Space it gets my top seal of approval, both the voice acting and the voices they've picked for the characters are excellent. Even the screams of dying crew members and Necromorph Shrieks work amazingly well to add to the feel of the game. The sound of the buzzsaw and the blasting of the plasma cutter also make the action immensely satisfying.

Overall, turn out the lights and let Dead spaces stunning visuals, skin crawling atmosphere and tense action take you over. A nice new title to add to the survival horror genre, and one that's well worth a look in.

©peckinpigeon