Dead Space Review

These days, the survival horror genre is saturated with zombies, deserted towns and cheap scares. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen something truly different in terms of environment and gameplay. Enter Dead Space, a terrifying game that takes place not in a village or empty city but on board a spaceship in the middle of the void. Luckily for anyone who plays it, the game brings a much needed healthy dose of originality to the genre in this new setting.

In the future, the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) builds ships to perform mining operations known as “planet cracking,” in which a planet is broken to pieces and its resources stripped and sent back to Earth. During a cracking op the USG Ishimura, the most experienced mining vessel in the CEC fleet, goes dark. The last of the ship’s communications is a lone distress signal. You take on the roll of Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent with a team to assess and repair the damage to the Ishimura. When his ship crashes into the Ishimura, Isaac and his crew are in for hell. It isn’t long before they see firsthand what caused the ship to go dark: deadly creatures known as Necromorphs. They kill most of Isaac’s crew and separate him from the rest, leaving you to wander the darkened halls by yourself.

Right off, it’s pretty clear that this isn’t a simple alien infestation. Through audio and text logs scattered around the ship, you learn about the strange and secretive nature of this ship’s mission. Walls contain incomprehensible writing scribbled in blood. Logs talk about a mysterious religious group that seems to worship the Necromorphs and government conspiracies. You realize pretty quickly that this ship wasn’t meant for a routine mining operation. There are other forces at work, and some of them are still alive somewhere in the ship.

What this story really lends itself to is the atmosphere. The setting is what separates the game from others in the genre. This ship is cold, dark and covered in bloody mysteries. Shadows move, trivial sounds such as a fan become dangerous. You feel the cold and hear the noises. You learn not even trust the corpses on the ground. You’ll be scared out of your mind, always looking over your shoulder with your weapon drawn.

Isaac can buy new weapons and supplies from convenient store kiosks scattered around the ship. He can further upgrade his armaments by rewiring them via workbenches. By using very limited power nodes, you can upgrade things such as reload speed, damage and ammo capacity Resident Evil 4 style. These weapons are mostly improvised mining equipment such as a floating saw blade. Each one is unique, firing differently and having different effects on your slimy enemies. You can only carry 4 weapons so it’s important to experiment to find which weapon set is most effective for you.

The gameplay resembles others horror games. An over the shoulder camera, aim with one shoulder button and fire with another. Even the aiming system seems reminiscent of other titles such as Resident Evil. It sets itself apart in the form of strategically dismembering your adversaries. For example, you’d benefit strategically from separating the legs from a fast enemy. It mixes up the gameplay a little, but not by much. Minus the occasional zero-gravity sequence (all of which are extremely fun) the gameplay doesn’t bring much innovation to the table.

To put it frankly, Dead Space is freakin’ scary. It perfectly blends together its music, sounds and visuals to create a perfect freaky atmosphere. Even though you may not be wowed by the gameplay, you might still find yourself looking for another play through just to experience the scares all over again. Every gamer should try it, but if survival horror games are your cup of tea (probably not a very appetizing tea…I take my tea without blood and severed limbs) than Dead Space is a must-play.

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