I would like to preface this review by saying that I think Dead Space is a fantastic game, and it does a lot of things really well, but I can't help but feel that it wears its influences on its sleeve a bit obviously, as well as not fully understanding what made those influences great. But I first want to start with the good, cause like I said, I think it's a fantastic game when looked at and played in a vacuum.
The atmosphere is what is considered to be the games strong suit, and I think I can agree for the most part. The USG Ishimura is probably up there as one of the best settings in a horror game; the nature of being on a gigantic mining ship in the far off future lends itself to easily alienating the player. The halls of the Ishimura are long and lined with air vents that build dread with the sheer potential that something might come crawling out of them; the scattered bodies of former crew mates and their deranged ramblings written in blood on the walls serve as a grim reminder of the situation at hand; and the moments where you are outside the ship in space, where you can catch a brief glimpse into the vast emptiness of space, leave the player with a feeling of overwhelming sense of isolation. But, like I mentioned earlier, Dead Space wears its influence on its sleeve, and I think that is most apparent here in the games world. It is extremely similar to both Doom 3 (yeah I know) and Prey 2006, all the way down having anti gravity mechanics and weird, alien, fleshy stuff overtaking the facility as you progress; and I can't help but feel like those games did what Dead Space does but better. Doom 3’s first person perspective allows for much more immersion into the environment, and Prey just goes all in on all the weird and trippy stuff Dead Space only flirts with. Dead Space also makes the mistake of never leaving the player alone; the atmosphere works well in Doom and Prey because there is ample time for the player to digest the environment and create their own fear. Dead Space has a constant need to explain and guide the player on absolutely everything, there is no getting lost or ambiguity in the game's objectives, either a NPC tells you exactly how to solve a problem or the game literally gives you a line to follow on your map. I am not going to pretend like Prey and Doom aren’t linear games, but they at least give the player the freedom of discovery, and that is just something Dead Space doesn’t allow.
As well, I think combat suffers from a similar problem. Again, I think when looked at on its own, it is great. The necromorphs are terrifying in looks and varied in design, they all have different ways of attacking the player which leads to the player needing to prioritize threats beyond just which enemy is closest to you, a problem that I think even the Resident Evil games struggle with. The necromorphs physical design also plays really well into the dismemberment mechanic; the dismemberment is a direct evolution of Resident Evil 4’s combat where enemies would respond accordingly to where they were shot, the difference here is that instead of just staggering the enemy, you completely sever their limbs off, and it is as glorious as it sounds. Crippling an enemy by shooting off its leg with the plasma cutter, or cutting down a whole group of enemies with the line gun is endlessly satisfying and only got more enjoyable as the game went on and acquired more weapons and faced bigger necromorphs, but where I think this fails in comparison to to the likes of RE4 is that the player is too powerful. RE4 struck a balance between a power fantasy and helplessness by having a combination of highly resilient enemies and pretty standard firearms; yes the guns were satisfying, and yes Leon could supplex and roundhouse kick enemies to timbuktu, but he could die just as easily because he couldn’t move and shoot, and because of the sheer number of ganados. Here in Dead Space, however, Issac can move and shoot, and while the enemies are about as aggressive as in RE4, the weapons are far too powerful. Being able to knock an necromorph on their ass with the force gun over and over again makes them feel like a joke, and having the ability to freeze enemies in place at the click of a button kind of dissolves any tension the combat encounters had. There was never a time where I felt out of control; I always had enough ammo, always had enough med packs, and, while I didn’t always have a full stasis meter, I always had it when I needed it. Don’t get me wrong though, I still think the combat was really well done and was by far my favorite part of the game, I just think it fails to understand what made its primary influence so great, as well as failing at creating meaningful tension.
There are also a couple things that I left out but still feel are worth mentioning; the sound design is great, if it did one thing right from RE4 it was definitely the sound design; The story was very intriguing, and while I personally haven’t done any research into its meaning, I can tell that it has something to say and was presented in a thoughtful way; and lastly the game just looks gorgeous; I know that it wasn’t built using ID Tech 4, but it is very reminiscent of that engine and is probably why it still looks great today (it also may be why Doom 3 and Prey kept coming to mind while playing).
Dead Space Is a game that has aged gracefully, it is truly incredible how this game's mechanics are still enjoyable and comparable to games coming out today. And although I personally think it is rather derivative of its influences, I can’t ignore the fact that it is still fun as all hell; and hey, I am very analytical when I play games, but if you’re not like me you probably won’t notice all the little flaws that I did.
The atmosphere is what is considered to be the games strong suit, and I think I can agree for the most part. The USG Ishimura is probably up there as one of the best settings in a horror game; the nature of being on a gigantic mining ship in the far off future lends itself to easily alienating the player. The halls of the Ishimura are long and lined with air vents that build dread with the sheer potential that something might come crawling out of them; the scattered bodies of former crew mates and their deranged ramblings written in blood on the walls serve as a grim reminder of the situation at hand; and the moments where you are outside the ship in space, where you can catch a brief glimpse into the vast emptiness of space, leave the player with a feeling of overwhelming sense of isolation. But, like I mentioned earlier, Dead Space wears its influence on its sleeve, and I think that is most apparent here in the games world. It is extremely similar to both Doom 3 (yeah I know) and Prey 2006, all the way down having anti gravity mechanics and weird, alien, fleshy stuff overtaking the facility as you progress; and I can't help but feel like those games did what Dead Space does but better. Doom 3’s first person perspective allows for much more immersion into the environment, and Prey just goes all in on all the weird and trippy stuff Dead Space only flirts with. Dead Space also makes the mistake of never leaving the player alone; the atmosphere works well in Doom and Prey because there is ample time for the player to digest the environment and create their own fear. Dead Space has a constant need to explain and guide the player on absolutely everything, there is no getting lost or ambiguity in the game's objectives, either a NPC tells you exactly how to solve a problem or the game literally gives you a line to follow on your map. I am not going to pretend like Prey and Doom aren’t linear games, but they at least give the player the freedom of discovery, and that is just something Dead Space doesn’t allow.
As well, I think combat suffers from a similar problem. Again, I think when looked at on its own, it is great. The necromorphs are terrifying in looks and varied in design, they all have different ways of attacking the player which leads to the player needing to prioritize threats beyond just which enemy is closest to you, a problem that I think even the Resident Evil games struggle with. The necromorphs physical design also plays really well into the dismemberment mechanic; the dismemberment is a direct evolution of Resident Evil 4’s combat where enemies would respond accordingly to where they were shot, the difference here is that instead of just staggering the enemy, you completely sever their limbs off, and it is as glorious as it sounds. Crippling an enemy by shooting off its leg with the plasma cutter, or cutting down a whole group of enemies with the line gun is endlessly satisfying and only got more enjoyable as the game went on and acquired more weapons and faced bigger necromorphs, but where I think this fails in comparison to to the likes of RE4 is that the player is too powerful. RE4 struck a balance between a power fantasy and helplessness by having a combination of highly resilient enemies and pretty standard firearms; yes the guns were satisfying, and yes Leon could supplex and roundhouse kick enemies to timbuktu, but he could die just as easily because he couldn’t move and shoot, and because of the sheer number of ganados. Here in Dead Space, however, Issac can move and shoot, and while the enemies are about as aggressive as in RE4, the weapons are far too powerful. Being able to knock an necromorph on their ass with the force gun over and over again makes them feel like a joke, and having the ability to freeze enemies in place at the click of a button kind of dissolves any tension the combat encounters had. There was never a time where I felt out of control; I always had enough ammo, always had enough med packs, and, while I didn’t always have a full stasis meter, I always had it when I needed it. Don’t get me wrong though, I still think the combat was really well done and was by far my favorite part of the game, I just think it fails to understand what made its primary influence so great, as well as failing at creating meaningful tension.
There are also a couple things that I left out but still feel are worth mentioning; the sound design is great, if it did one thing right from RE4 it was definitely the sound design; The story was very intriguing, and while I personally haven’t done any research into its meaning, I can tell that it has something to say and was presented in a thoughtful way; and lastly the game just looks gorgeous; I know that it wasn’t built using ID Tech 4, but it is very reminiscent of that engine and is probably why it still looks great today (it also may be why Doom 3 and Prey kept coming to mind while playing).
Dead Space Is a game that has aged gracefully, it is truly incredible how this game's mechanics are still enjoyable and comparable to games coming out today. And although I personally think it is rather derivative of its influences, I can’t ignore the fact that it is still fun as all hell; and hey, I am very analytical when I play games, but if you’re not like me you probably won’t notice all the little flaws that I did.