Dead Space Review – When Space Janitors Attack!

Don’t Judge a Ship By Its Hull

Never have I felt as on edge while playing a game as during my late night play sessions with Dead Space.  EA’s Dead Space was originally a game that was under my radar due to the simple fact that it was surrounded by so many top tier games when it was first released during holiday season of last year.  I had vowed to eventually bring it back to the forefront and I’m thankful that I did because it has blow me away from start to finish.

With a generic name like Dead Space one would think that this is simply another space marine FPS game cast from the same mold as Halo 3 and Gears of War 2.  But you’d be sadly mistaken if you were to make that assumption because Dead Space’s world has more in common with Bioshock than either of those two games.  Both Bioshock and Dead Space adhere to an eerie ambiance that permeates every moment of the player’s experience.  Whether it’s the story or the world itself you’re immersed in a experience rather than playing through one like you would in the former two games.

Survival Horror Done Right

In Dead Space you’re put in the shoes boots of a ship engineer (glorified custodian) named Issac that is tasked with slowly activating the various areas of a huge ship that you’re currently stuck on.  Along the way you uncover a huge conspiracy that may or may not be the cause of the ghastly creatures hellbent on throwing a wrench into your plans.  Since you’re an engineer you’re equipped with weapons that are pretty much futuristic tools that work perfectly to lop the lim

bs off of your would be assailants.  You will also be outfitted in a suit that can be upgraded and has the handy features of being able to pick up items using a telekinesis type power and slowing down enemies or machines (which sorta kinda makes sense in weird way while dealing with the huge engines on a spaceship).

Dead Space achieves what many survival horror games attempt to and that’s the simple act of being scary.  It does so by making sure the player is as immersed as possible in the game by limiting the amount game-yness that can be experienced at any given time.  Your health, power, and ammo can all be seen just by looking at your character.  All your in-game menus are also shown in teh form of a holographic display that appears in front of your character but only has depth when you look at it the hologram is paper-thin if you rotate the camera around your character which is a really slick effect.  You’re also constantly surrounded by moans and groans as you move throughout the levels which keeps you on edge even as you’re sitting in a room that’s obviously empty.

There’s not much else I can say about the game really.  It’s a fantastic ride that can be predictable at some points but utterly satisfying during others.  I loved the fact that about a quarter of the way into the game I had learned to hold up my gun whenever entering rooms which saved me being caught off guard like I suffered through the early parts of the game.  My constant vigil only helped immerse me into the game and made the experience all the more enjoyable.  I’d suggest Dead Space to anyone that is looking for a truly satisfying action horror game, also I’d suggest checking out the animated movie they released in tandem with this because there’s a lot of back story that may not be a necessity to enjoying Dead Space but does help flesh out the story.

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Tagged as: Dead Space, Electronic Arts, First-person shooter, Games, Gears of War 2, Halo 3, Survival horror, Video game