At this time of the year, there are so many anticipated releases that some lesser-known titles are bound to be trampled on by the heavy hitters. Dead Space looks to be one of these games, never overly hyped, and being released at a tough time, especially with games like Gears of War just round the corner. But it shouldn’t be; it has everything going for it. Impressive visuals, an epic story, and the best gameplay elements from other games in the genre. It sounded great on paper, but after playing Dead Space, I realise that I wasn’t ready for just how good the game is.
Set aboard a seemingly abandoned space ship, you are part of a team sent to investigate why the ship has lost all communications. What is found up there is more disgusting than the team could have ever imagined, with horrific monsters roaming the ship. Always dedicated to the mission, your commander decides to salvage what he can from the ship, a decision that splits you up from the rest of the team. As the basis for the story in Dead Space, this opening sets the scene for an epic space drama, which expertly avoids the clichés expected in this setting.
As you learn more and more about the events that have happened on this ship, through both written and audio logs left by the crew who once occupied the desolate place, the plot unfolds itself into a brilliantly dramatic story, with twists, and the odd creature round every corner. It feels remarkably like Bioshock in both it’s story of exploring an unknown setting, and the way the game tells this story in game-rather than using cutscenes. This is one of the many links between Dead Space and other games that can be made, the others being much more obvious, with these pulling the originality of the experience down a notch.
With comparisons to the likes of Resident Evil 4 in mind, it’s obvious to see where EA have got their inspiration from in Dead Space, the game being a survival horror 3rd person shooter and all. You control your character in the same way as games like Gears of War, with strafing and aiming assigned to the left and right sticks respectively. None of the control choices come as a surprise, which makes it easy to get into from the outset. The same can’t be said for the real time menu screens though, which will take some getting used to. In fact, there is no HUD at all in Dead Space, with every icon, ammo indicator or item selection done through a hologram that appears in front of your character. This feels strange at first, but soon becomes an integral part of the experience. Trying to select an oxygen pack while a 15-foot monster is breathing down you neck is scary stuff, made even more intense by the lack of any noise in the vacuum you currently occupy. The same way that the inability to move while shooting in Resident Evil makes it even scarier, this subtle addition to the game makes the frights that bit more severe, which the game needs thanks to the somewhat disappointing monster design.
Next to the well thought out, inventive environment of the ship–ranging from the green tinged interiors of the hydroponics lab, to the bleak mining section-the creatures aren’t as horrifying as they should be. With limbs flying all over the place they are only scary the first time you see them, which is a real shame when held up against the rest of the game. They may look like something from Alien, but the most interesting thing about the enemies is how you deal with them. Pounding them with bullets is hopeless, and so you have to aim for the enemies’ limbs; dismembering them deals double the damage. This makes the fights a lot more frantic, and tough; you can’t just shoot and run, you have to use your weapons effectively throughout. Good job your arsenal is top notch then.
The weapons are a highlight in Dead Space, not because they are big and flashy, but because of how brutal, and satisfying they are. On this desolate ship, you would never have access to a fully-fledged pack of weapons, and so instead, you have to make do with whatever equipment you find along the way. You have a flamethrower that is an easy but unsafe way to dismember enemies, and some pulse rifles the crew have as backup for unexpected events. But two weapons in particular will become your best friends, a standard, but immensely powerful handgun style weapon, and a gun that shoots a spinning serrated metal disc dying for a bit of monster limb shredding. The latter of these making you feel so Badass whenever you use it. You can upgrade your weapons, and your kinesis and time slowing powers too-used for small bouts of puzzles that letter the game. This development means that no matter how tough the monsters are, you can put up a fight, if you have ammo that is. Like most Survival Horror games, ammo is limited on board the ship, making certain chapters of the game immeasurably tense. It never gets to the point of annoyance, but just makes it even more intense.
It’s hard to deny that Dead Space looks fantastic; it really pushes whatever platform it’s on to the fullest. But the most aesthetically pleasing aspect of the game is the sound. By using haunting music, subtle sound effects and making the monsters sound scarier than they look, the developers make the game as atmospheric as they come. This is seen no better than the only time there is no sound in the game. The Zero Gravity sections that take you into a vacuum have you hearing only the sounds of your body’s insides. Not even your death, which is sure to be horrific, is heard, with this silence taking the game to another level of brilliance. Aesthetically, Dead Space is fantastic.
Dead Space is derivative. It steals ideas from nearly every game in the genre from the last few years, taking what made them games great and throwing in an interesting story and setting. This should make the game feel more like a retread than a step forward, but instead it feels like a refinement of what the games it takes ideas from have tried to do. It’s similar to last years Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and in fact it could well be the Uncharted of this year, in the way that it defines the genre, rather than re-define it. But this is enough for Dead Space to be an essential purchase, if you can stomach the gore that is. The small inventive things that the game does, such as the lack of a HUD make the experience that bit more exciting, and all in all, the game surpasses all expectations. Dead Space is a space mission that everyone should go on, and it may become lost in the glut of releases at this time of year. Buy it now, you won’t be disappointed.
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