I’ve always been a big fan of survival horror games. I played the original Resident Evil for the Playstation and all its sequels. I’ve also played other favourites such as Dino Crisis and Silent Hill. And even though Dead Space doesn’t revolutionize the already established genre, it manages to establish itself with its unique atmosphere and engaging gameplay elements.
When I inserted the disc into my Xbox 360 and watched the opening trailer, I thought, “This is going to be good!”, as I smiled uncontrollably. I wasn’t disappointed. I haven’t been this stirred by a videogame since I played God of War 2. Five minutes into the game and I was hooked.
Overview
Dead Space is a futuristic science-fiction survival horror game that takes place in space. The protagonist, Isaac Clarke is an engineer sent to repair a distressed ship when things go horribly wrong.
From a technical standpoint, Dead Space is unabashed in its liberal ‘borrowing’ of established survival horror standards. The game combines the tense and disturbing atmosphere from Silent Hill with the survival horror elements of Resident Evil 4. It even borrows ‘fetch quests’ that were prevalent in the first 3 Resident Evil games.
The story is satisfying, and scary. Even though the writers left enough material for a possible sequel, nearly all the major plot points were resolved by the game’s end. The result is a satiating experience. There are no ‘Halo 2 endings’ in this game.
The visuals in Dead Space are disturbing. Human bodies litter the ship, mangled and disemboweled. I found the visuals and situations to be far more disturbing than Silent Hill. The human survivors you do find have clearly lost their minds, further emphasizing the stressful and dramatic events that have transpired. The spooky sound effects will keep you on your toes as you wonder when the next monster will appear.
Gameplay
Dead Space features an ‘economy-driven’ item system. Weapons, ammunition, armor and health items can be bought at stores. Unlike Resident Evil 4, the quantity of each item is unlimited. I found this approach to be refreshing. Unlike Resident Evil 4, I never felt like the game was holding my inventory back with an invisible leash.
Because you have complete freedom over your purchasing decisions, you will have to make some tough choices as to how to spend your limited credits. Should you buy a new suit of amour (called a Rig in the game), or should you upgrade your existing armor? Should you upgrade your weapon, or should you buy a new one? Should you buy more ammo, or more health items? These are some of the tough choices you’ll have to make.
Fortunately, the game’s economy isn’t broken. The amount of credit/loot dropped feels about right. At no point do you feel exceedingly rich. Initially, you’ll have slightly more credits at your disposal, but this balances out as the game’s difficulty increases.
The 5 or so boss battles peppered through this 12-hour game will put your skills and inventory depth to the test. You’ll find yourself expending ammo, like it’s going out-of-style, as you desperately try to defeat some of these bosses.
Even though these encounters are rare, they are often exciting as they involve a mixture of run-and-gun and run-for-your-life. Some of these bosses are invincible and you’ll find yourself running for your life as your ordinary weapons fail to put them down for good.
The ‘fetch’ missions are serviceable and they do not feel tedious like Resident Evil 2. There’s no mistaking the purpose of these missions; they’re simply there to increase the play time. But the suspense-filled atmosphere and varying enemy placements keeps things interesting.
In order to keep level re-tracking interesting, the level designers placed excess item boxes in each area. Some boxes can only be opened during the first visit, whereas the remainder can only opened on the subsequent visit.
But Dead Space’s innovative approach to level design doesn’t end there. The space theme also allows for zero-g environments and vacuum environments.
You’ll stick to walls with your magnetic boots in the zero-g environments. You can ‘fly’ to walls in this state, and some puzzles will force you to transcend along the X, Y and Z axis of the level. It can be disorientating, but it’s not as vomit-inducing as Crysis’ poorly implemented weightless level.
The vacuum levels are timed-based. You’ll be forced to complete tasks and solve puzzles as your oxygen supply quickly evaporates. The appearance of enemies increases the urgency of these highly tense encounters. A word of warning though, don’t use the flame thrower in a vacuum – fire cannot exist without oxygen.
The Bad
Unfortunately, I was put off by several other design elements of Dead Space. Text can be difficult to read if your television is smaller than 40 inches. Also, too much of the story’s backlog appears in the form of hard-to-read text. The indecipherable size of the text forced me to skip most of it. It also feels counter intuitive when compared to the audio and video logs available in the game.
Summary
Dead Space is a well-developed survival horror game that boasts a unique style and setting. It feels like a well-polished amalgam of survival horror games that have come before it. Experienced survival horror experts and neophytes in the genre will likely find something entertaining about Dead Space. I highly recommended it to anyone who can stomach the gore. 8.8/10
