Now I've never like Electronic Arts much. Very few of their games have had much appeal to my taste so when I heard about Dead Space I was pleasantly surprised that they were dipping a toe into a genre I like so much and the end result is one of my all time favorite games.
The story to Dead Space is a fairly simple one, in the future, giant planet cracker ships have been designed to pop the core of planets and take valuable minerals from them and take them back to earth, a modern deep space mining industry. Having lost contact with the USG Ishimura, the biggest ship in her class, a small shuttle with a comms repair crew is sent to find it and repair what ever is wrong, you play the role of a technician called Issac and what you discover.....isn't so easily fixed.
One of the best features of Dead Space's design is that it doesn't use a heads up display. Issac is controlled in 3rd person as he explores around the USG Ishimura and everything is shown though something in the game world. Your health bar is set in sections down the spine of Issac's rig (spacesuit) his ammo for the current gun is shown on a holographic display when aiming. Even his inventory and video / audio files found on the ship come up on a holographic display in front of him as if he is looking at it, giving a much deeper game experience as it takes away a lot of the signs you would subconsciously associate with making it a game.
When in combat Issac aims in an over the shoulder view and R1 fires whichever weapon he has equipped, with some weapon quick change on the fly set to the D-pad. There are about 8 weapons in total found though out the game, most of which are pretty original in themselves as the Ishimura is a mining ship so sci-fi buzz saws, flamethrowers and plasma cutters are standard as opposed to Assault Rifles or traditional guns. Each weapon also has a duel function when pressing R2 while aiming, my favorite being the plasma cutter which was 3 shots in a line that can fire either vertically or horizontally depending on which mode it's in. I found this handy for one of the selling points of the title, dismemberment. The easiest way to kill, or even just slow down the mutated crew of the Ishimura is by shooting off legs, arms and tails. Head and body shots do nothing, and the various weapon functions allow you do do this with pretty gruesome and brutal results.
Aside from that Issac also has some other benefits of it being a sci-fi and has a couple of modules he can equip into the glove of his suit that allow him to make an enemy move in slow motion with stasis or pick up an item like say...an explosive canister and launch it at a group of enemies for utter carnage as well as saving ammo. These abilities are also used in some basic puzzles outside of combat to allow movement around some of the more damaged parts of the ship and have their own little arc power bar on the shoulder of Issacs rig, this has filling up points on walls as well as items that can refill it.
As mentioned above, some of the ship is damaged and to survive Issac has to fix it (He is a technician after all). This often means going out on the side of the ship, or into areas with zero gravity. I have to mention that these parts are really a perfect example of the atmosphere that Dead Space is about. In a vacuum there are only two things that can be heard, Issac's feet walking and even they come through muffled, muted from him feeling it through impact rather then the actual sound and his heart beat, that's it. It's like really being there, amazingly well done and completely absorbing.
Visually Dead Space hits the nail on the head with some amazing atmospheric design and lighting effects leading to a near traumatic playing experience. This game blew me away in 2008. The enemy designs are pretty good as well with the obvious signs of them once being human with torn uniforms and human arms sticking out of an otherwise horrible looking creature. As good as Dead Space looks however, what makes this game really stand out as a horror title is the sound, or in a lot of places lack of it. Maybe some machinery working here and there, or the sound of his footsteps walking on the steel grating all add up to a very suspenseful atmosphere. The balance is really just right, the sound design is really excellent.
My one, and only complaint about Dead Space is that Issac is a silent protagonist. Every other character you meet, and some even that you don't is voice acted brilliantly but Issac's lack of interaction with them really took away some of the realism of the title and took away some of the atmosphere.
The game lasts for about 12 hours with plenty of trophies and a harder setting unlocked to encourage extra play throughs, and with how fun the game is, it's well worth it. If you like horror games or sci-fi then this is a game you should play. I really hope the announced remake captures the essence of what made this game so great.
+ Amazing atmosphere.
+ Unique Weapons.
+ Great use of sound design in places.
+ Genuinely tense at times.
+ Great HUD free design.
- Issac as a silent protagonist breaks immersion.
The story to Dead Space is a fairly simple one, in the future, giant planet cracker ships have been designed to pop the core of planets and take valuable minerals from them and take them back to earth, a modern deep space mining industry. Having lost contact with the USG Ishimura, the biggest ship in her class, a small shuttle with a comms repair crew is sent to find it and repair what ever is wrong, you play the role of a technician called Issac and what you discover.....isn't so easily fixed.
One of the best features of Dead Space's design is that it doesn't use a heads up display. Issac is controlled in 3rd person as he explores around the USG Ishimura and everything is shown though something in the game world. Your health bar is set in sections down the spine of Issac's rig (spacesuit) his ammo for the current gun is shown on a holographic display when aiming. Even his inventory and video / audio files found on the ship come up on a holographic display in front of him as if he is looking at it, giving a much deeper game experience as it takes away a lot of the signs you would subconsciously associate with making it a game.
When in combat Issac aims in an over the shoulder view and R1 fires whichever weapon he has equipped, with some weapon quick change on the fly set to the D-pad. There are about 8 weapons in total found though out the game, most of which are pretty original in themselves as the Ishimura is a mining ship so sci-fi buzz saws, flamethrowers and plasma cutters are standard as opposed to Assault Rifles or traditional guns. Each weapon also has a duel function when pressing R2 while aiming, my favorite being the plasma cutter which was 3 shots in a line that can fire either vertically or horizontally depending on which mode it's in. I found this handy for one of the selling points of the title, dismemberment. The easiest way to kill, or even just slow down the mutated crew of the Ishimura is by shooting off legs, arms and tails. Head and body shots do nothing, and the various weapon functions allow you do do this with pretty gruesome and brutal results.
Aside from that Issac also has some other benefits of it being a sci-fi and has a couple of modules he can equip into the glove of his suit that allow him to make an enemy move in slow motion with stasis or pick up an item like say...an explosive canister and launch it at a group of enemies for utter carnage as well as saving ammo. These abilities are also used in some basic puzzles outside of combat to allow movement around some of the more damaged parts of the ship and have their own little arc power bar on the shoulder of Issacs rig, this has filling up points on walls as well as items that can refill it.
As mentioned above, some of the ship is damaged and to survive Issac has to fix it (He is a technician after all). This often means going out on the side of the ship, or into areas with zero gravity. I have to mention that these parts are really a perfect example of the atmosphere that Dead Space is about. In a vacuum there are only two things that can be heard, Issac's feet walking and even they come through muffled, muted from him feeling it through impact rather then the actual sound and his heart beat, that's it. It's like really being there, amazingly well done and completely absorbing.
Visually Dead Space hits the nail on the head with some amazing atmospheric design and lighting effects leading to a near traumatic playing experience. This game blew me away in 2008. The enemy designs are pretty good as well with the obvious signs of them once being human with torn uniforms and human arms sticking out of an otherwise horrible looking creature. As good as Dead Space looks however, what makes this game really stand out as a horror title is the sound, or in a lot of places lack of it. Maybe some machinery working here and there, or the sound of his footsteps walking on the steel grating all add up to a very suspenseful atmosphere. The balance is really just right, the sound design is really excellent.
My one, and only complaint about Dead Space is that Issac is a silent protagonist. Every other character you meet, and some even that you don't is voice acted brilliantly but Issac's lack of interaction with them really took away some of the realism of the title and took away some of the atmosphere.
The game lasts for about 12 hours with plenty of trophies and a harder setting unlocked to encourage extra play throughs, and with how fun the game is, it's well worth it. If you like horror games or sci-fi then this is a game you should play. I really hope the announced remake captures the essence of what made this game so great.
+ Amazing atmosphere.
+ Unique Weapons.
+ Great use of sound design in places.
+ Genuinely tense at times.
+ Great HUD free design.
- Issac as a silent protagonist breaks immersion.