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Dead Space review: A terrifyingly good game
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You activate the panel and observe the damage readout, but before you can rejoin your comrades, the quarantine system comes down like a hammer. Unable to do anything but watch through a window, you see something emerge from the vents in the ceiling. Effortlessly, it eviscerates one of your crewmates. Panicked gunfire fills the adjacent room as your superiors urge you to escape to the nearby elevator. You turn to run and suddenly another one of the creatures is right behind you, growling and swiping angrily. You reach the elevator and it starts to power up when suddenly the creature begins to pull the doors open. All you can do is watch and back away as its horrific form begins to pull itself through the doorway. Suddenly, the elevator kicks in and the doors snap shut, killing the monster. It’s been less than five minutes and Dead Space has already established itself as the scariest game of 2008.
In Dead Space you play as Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent as part of a repair team aboard a damaged mining spacecraft, the USG Ishimura. The team is met by a ship filled with Necromorphs, vicious, murderous creatures created by an alien virus which mutates dead cells. Throw in a doomsday cult, a missing girlfriend, insanity, and government conspiracies and you’re getting a sense of the story in Dead Space. It may sound cliché but the story is very well done due to how unobtrusive it is. The story is told mostly through the events happening around you and in audio and text logs you find, rather than burdensome exposition. The delivery can best be described as Bioshock-esque, which is a great fit for a game like this. This streamlined approach, matched with some sharp dialogue and great characters, makes the story more than the sum of its parts.
The game plays as a third-person shooter, arming you with various weapons and using an over-the-shoulder perspective throughout. The gunplay is well done as all the weapons are well designed and have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. One of the more unique things is that the guns don’t just deal damage, they deal shapes of damage. For example, your default weapon, the Plasma Cutter, fires three bolts per shot bunched together closely to form a vertical line of damage. Other weapons deal pinpoint damage, wide ranging damage, and other such shapes. This is significant because the key to combat dismembering your enemies, requiring precise aiming to effectively separate your enemies from their limbs. Otherwise you’ll waste scarce ammo just unloading into foes and not doing much damage. The tension between eliminating enemies quickly and aiming precisely makes combat intense and the action in Dead Space very enjoyable.
But this isn’t just an action-adventure game. Dead Space is billed as a survival-horror game in the vein of Resident Evil 4, and it actually does it better than that game. Though you’re plenty capable in combat, foes constantly surprise you, attacking you when you don’t expect you, swarming you from all directions when you can’t escape, and any other multitude of ways, all expertly designed to get into your head and keep you on the edge of your seat for any sign of attack. Combine that with an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere and a tense score and you have one very scary game.
Dead Space also makes use of its space setting by, in some parts of the game, putting you into a zero-g environment, a vacuum, or both. These parts have varying degrees of success. The vacuum was fairly disappointing as it wasn’t used very effectively, making it feel less like you’re desperately struggling to survive against the vacuum of space as much as it felt like the game put an arbitrary time limit on whatever you’re doing. The zero-g elements, however, are fantastic. The puzzle elements in zero-g aren’t that great, but the combat really stands out. Typical combat with Necromorphs is stressful enough, but throw in the increased mobility and disorientation of zero-g and it adds a whole new level of panic to the equation. Out of all the moments in the game, zero-g combat was the most memorable and really puts this game over the top as a unique experience.
Dead Space is not perfect, however. Issues include a reliance on backtracking, environments that get repetitive as the game goes on, and disappointingly easy boss fights, but in the big scheme of things those are rather minor issues. The only major issue is value. Dead Space is a great game, but it can be beat easily in less than 10 hours and has limited replay value. Unless you want to try a different difficulty, continue to power-up your character, or go after Achievements or Trophies. That’s not much for a $60 game. But if that doesn’t deter you, then pick this game up. This is the best survival-horror game of 2008.
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