Review: Dead Space
Developer - EA Redwood Shores
Publisher - Electronic Arts
Available On – XBOX 360, Playstation 3, PC
Reviewed On - XBOX 360
Space; it certainly isn’t living. While it’s not dead either it’s about to get a lot more of the latter with Electronic Art’s latest space-based action horror title Dead Space. Mashing elements of third person survival horror against fast paced action, Dead Space combines the best traits of some well known series to tell a horrific tale of discovery and survival set within the bowels of a recovered mining space ship, the Ishimura.
While “Resident Evil in space” is often an unfortunately accurate summary for the most part of Dead Space, one must look at the continual enhancements and refinements of the third person survival horror genre presented within. The audio package is top notch and well realised, utilised to the full potential that clear and appropriate sound effects can have in establishing an atmosphere in horror. If the distant cries or grating scratches of unknown entities fail to incite fear within a player, the luscious graphics, continual gore and detailed ship environment again add to a tremendous feeling of foreboding immersion when playing Dead Space.
The brief introduction while a visual treat tells little of the back story for Isaac and crew, a gaping plot hole that’s made more apparent as the game progresses and continually relays thick plot devices with convincing dialogue and voice acting primarily through voice and text logs found by Isaac around the ship. It’s not hard to assume the general happenings of the lead up to Dead Space as within ten minutes from the start Isaac is found alone and unawares fighting the unknown cause for the Ishimura’s blackout, the parasitic bacteria discovered to be the Corruption and the mutated anthropomorphic Necromorphs that result from the adaptation of the Corruption bacteria in dead human host bodies.
The enemy Necromorphs seem to be some form of Alien Zombie, while a cool concept it does little to masquerade the continual use of clichés and standard genre staples of the third person horror shooter. The aliens are introduced very well, with all the appropriate climaxes, shock jump scenes and ambiguous shadow effects you’d expect when discovering a nasty alien species in a video game. After killing the same creepy alien a few times over and over the shock effect of the grotesque appearance of the aliens begins to waiver as their contorted limbs become more apparent as an obviously necessary target to effectively wipe out the threats and conserve what little supplies are available on the ship.
Dead Space applies a little welcome twist to the shooting action where extra damage is applied when specifically dismembering the limbs of enemy Necromorphs. It’s introduced early as a continual concept and applies to every enemy in the game who all seem to have appropriately elongated tentacles or limbs ready for the dropping. The weapons are a big implication of this with the first available weapon the Plasma Cutter fitting in with theme of the mining ship and Isaac’s profession as an engineer as well as being a handy alien slicer with laser dot points marking out a line of fire projected by the weapon. All the weapons have a clear marker as to where it will fire as accuracy is crucial to dismembering enemy limbs and often an easy task due to an intuitive control scheme and interface.
The third person over-the-shoulder camera view of Dead Space always captures the action with smooth controls both for the camera and Isaac helping players navigate the horrors of the Ishimura. An intuitive interface designed to abolish any form of heads-up display instead displays information such as Isaac’s health or ammunition supplies on his suit or weapon. Any videos played in-game will be projected out of Isaac’s suit allowing players to pan around the holographic image adding scores to the ever palpable immersion and atmosphere of Dead Space.
When the action gets too tough the ability to slow enemies with Isaac’s stasis abilities can come in handy but with a real lack of explanation as to how our main protagonist can manipulate time and move giant objects from across the room another big plot hole is developed. Stasis abilities require a reserve of the limited supplies of stasis power so they’re mainly used when necessary in the environmental puzzles presented every few chapters. The puzzles are most often quite simple considering the limited possibilities of Isaac’s two stasis powers but the zero gravity rooms often filled with Necromorphs leaping from wall to wall are a blast as well as outer space sections where Isaac’s air supplies must be considered and objectives met in a timely manner.
Lots of creepy set pieces and grotesque post-trauma scenes can raise hairs with blood splattered warnings covering the walls of the ship and rotting corpses littering most hallways. It’s when the illogical events or annoying game elements pop-up that a serious sense of authenticity is lost and players are left questioning the odd save system or linear chapter structuring hidden within Dead Space. While the Ishimura is certainly convincing with an extensive map layout and detailed interior, the door-by-door structure of the missions is frustratingly narrow yet relieving in its simplicity, with a clear beacon shining to the next objective upon any click of the right analogue stick.
Along the limb covered path to any space that isn’t dead lie many Power Nodes and Credits used for purchasing ammo, weapons, inventory slots, suit upgrades and abilities that make Isaac look much more noticeable both in his wardrobe fashion and in his alien limb-stomping abilities. With a wide variety of options to spend nodes and credits on the general lack of either of these supplies must always be accounted for when purchasing anything, with no way to downgrade weapons and regain those precious nodes or reconsider your last health pack spending spree when suit upgrades are essential and only possible with enough credits.
The level progression system in Dead Space is no different to many other titles which can also be said for a lot of Dead Space. Most of what Dead Space provides can be likened across many other titles such as Resident Evil 4, Doom 3, or Bioshock so if you’re after something revolutionary in horror and action adventures then this isn’t the right place to look. You’d be missing out on something though, as what Dead Space borrows from other popular titles it continually refines and exemplifies at the highest quality, presenting a truly exceptional modern horror experience.
Dead Space
90%
The Good -
• An all-round powerhouse of audio and visual effects.
• Top quality voice acting for lots of in-game dialogue and story.
• Extreme gore and dismemberment; isn’t shy to shock.
The Bad –
• A few plot holes that need filling.
• Level system can cause irreversible regrets.
• Not for the light hearted.
Here goes…
*Inhale*
1) Why are dead babies carrying items?
2) Why are their SO MANY dead babies on the ship? Did they have loads of orgies?
3)Why can I buy weapons on a mining vessel?
4)Why are upgrade tables haphazardly located around the ship? Did their shit break down that often?
5)Why do I have to buy upgrades to my suit? Seems kinda cheap that a mining company makes its workers buy better protective gear.
6) Why is one of the main turrets ONLY accessible via a space walk? Kinda shitty ship design.
7) Speaking of ship design, why are important parts I need for certain systems so far away from where they need to be used? Who organised their supplies a fucking retard?
*Inhale again*
I’ve got more, but that seems sufficient. EA Redwood, learn to write a story, but the gameplay elements were fun.
Comment made on January 5, 2009 @ 9:29 pm
Yeah the story is pretty meh and though I did complete it I got to a point where I just wanted it to end. The game is pretty much:
1) Be told to find an item to fix the ship
2) find item
3) fix ship
4) some random event breaks ship again
5) rinse and repeat for 10+ hours. Boring.
I figured out the ending about 10 minutes into the game.
Also the fact you can finish the game with just the cutter is stupid; there is even an achievement for it. It’s basically a reward for being boring, it’s not actually any harder, the cutter is just as strong as all the other guns. Also the secondary fire for the rifle is utterly useless.
Some good points:
Looks good and runs fantasic on PC. One of the fastest loading games I have played in a long time.
Good atmosphere, even if they just took Event Horizon and put less imaginative versions of the Suffering’s enemies in it. Speaking of which the Suffering is a much better action horror game.
Controls are good, and it’s easy to ignore the Resident Evilishness about them (your guy controls like a tank) because he’s in a heavy space suit of course he’s not going to be agile. Overall I enjoyed it to a degree but found it pretty generic, if it wasn’t for the creepiness of empty space ships this game would be nothing.
Score: 75%
Comment made on January 9, 2009 @ 1:59 am
The serious flaw in this game is that it was coded terribly. I can’t play it on my computer because I decided to have my “my documents” folder as the root of a drive (A really easy setting change in windows). I can’t have vsync on, or I get terrible mouse lag, so instead I but up with terrible screen breaking. Still no patches. Fuck you EA.
Comment made on January 24, 2009 @ 11:52 am
To clarify above, the “my document” folder creates a problem where I cannot save my game.
Comment made on January 24, 2009 @ 11:55 am
Why are there flies on the dead bodies? Did flies evolve into space-flies when humans went into space?
Very intriguing.
Comment made on January 29, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
This is for Jebus(your mom gave you that name?), Adrian(I’m guessing you’re a male, right?), and Brady. You guys sound a little tight assed and closed minded. I say it’s a bad ass fucking game. Yeah, there’s some shit that don’t make sense, but you guys(or gals)are cancelling out the possibilities. Brady, take a breather, you have some valid points, however I think the story was good. It made it’s point for the whole structure of the game, you must watch horror movies and play games to where you’re not getting laid, huh? Adrian, I’m gonna step up to your level, which is dork level. I think if they made a ship that size that is big enough to manage agriculture, then how can it not have insects like yourself? I just wanna know where all the fucking pets went? The colony and the ship should have dog and cat Necromorphs running around, right? But look into reality, PETA might tear up in their “GINAS” if EA made that happen, not to mention they took a bold step with the infants. But that’s America, where animal cruelty is wrong(Just ask Vick) and abortion is a fucking right. What I’m saying is they probably had a fuckload of ideas they wanted to embark on, but couldn’t, and so you only have an akward amount of possibilty. You know, like your date nights, Adrian. And as for the boy named after his fucking JimBob parents, Jebus. Son, you need a better computer it sounds like, here you are blaming EA for YOUR shitty ass computer. How’s about gittin a that there job, Jebus? Den maybe I reckon yous gits a better software thingamajig? Sound Peachy there, bubba? Awright, then.
To end this off, I know it’s been months since a new comment has come around, but I just happen to be browsing and found this site with all your stupid little comments in it, ripping apart what is one of the greatest horror games ever made, putting your ever dissappointing Resident Evil series down on it’s sore, faggot ass. (anybody in here thats apart of GLAD, sorry for saying faggot. And when I mean anybody, I mean Adrian.)
Seriously, do you guys just sit on your zit infested asses and knock off good games all the time? I’m guessing yes,so if you manginas wanna burn a game title that deserves to be ripped on, please do it to that Bitchmade game, HALO. Other than that, you have no right to exist, you should have been swallowed.
PEACE!
Comment made on June 13, 2009 @ 11:48 am
@ matthew simmons
If you honestly think that Dead Space is one of the greatest horror games of all time then I feel sorry for you. Eternal Darkness, ANY Resident Evil game, ANY Alone in the Dark game see these games all have one thing that makes them better then Dead Space…they’re imaginative! Dead Space was repetitive, the atmosphere was hardly scary/tense/edge-of-your-seat, they reused almost every goddamn sci-fi cliche ever, alot of the story elements didn’t make sense and as Liam pointed out the whole thing was predictable to the point where 10 minutes in you knew how it was all going to end. Art isn’t all a matter of opinion, their is such a thing as a making a poor artistic decision…and alot were made with this game. Also their wouldn’t be animals on the ship moron because it’s a company owned mining vessel…you think they’d let people bring their pets on a goddamn submarine or oil rig? Of course you don’t really KNOW all of these things because we’re all making assumptions based on a fake reality, including you Matthew, but some things you just have to base on common sense within the reality and alot of things on that ship didn’t make sense/stay true to the reality which it was set (see my first post). See all you’ve done Matthew is state that you’re right and everyone else is wrong with insults to back up your claims…bad form dude. Now lets move onto YOU cause I’ll bet you’re a goddamn talentless n00b that couldn’t beat Xaero on Nightmare to save your life. I’ll bet you only play games like Dead Space cause when you go online to play competitive games with the big boys you get your arse handed to you in a million pieces! If you honestly think that Dead Space is “one of the greatest horror games ever made” then you really are a n00b and your opinion means nothing. Go play some Solitaire n00b!
Comment made on June 13, 2009 @ 12:57 pm