Dead Space “Blast from the past!!!” Review
The Good:
A lesson in true survival horrorThe Bad:
Not for the weak at heartSTORY Dead Space is set hundreds of years in the future, in a time where humanity has used all known natural resources on Earth and is scoring the Galaxy for new resources. You play as Isaac Clarke who is an engineer heading for a mining ship known as the USG Ishimura, Isaac and his team [...]
STORY
Dead Space is set hundreds of years in the future, in a time where humanity has used all known natural resources on Earth and is scoring the Galaxy for new resources. You play as Isaac Clarke who is an engineer heading for a mining ship known as the USG Ishimura, Isaac and his team are sent to the Ishimura to investigate why communications have been unexpectedly been cut off. Unfortunately for Isaac and his team, things get off a very bad start from the word go. Upon approaching the Ishimura they suddenly face difficulties with their ship and crash land on the Ishimura, which as a result leaves him separated from his fellow crew members.
He’s behind you!
As Isaac begins his search for his team and crew member of the Ishimura, he has the feeling that he’s being watched and is not alone. Before Isaac is able to gain his bearing’s his is attacked by a vicious alien life form, something that humanity has never encountered before. This alien life form is known as the Necromorph’s. It is now left to Isaac to search for the surviving crew members of the Ishimura and find out why the Necromorph’s are here and how they got here, whilst fighting his own personal demons. Will Isaac escape from this hell with his body and mind intact? It is up to you to face your fears and found out that there is a hell away from Earth.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in Dead Space are without a doubt a standout feature of the game, the game is quite simply visually stunning! From the detail of Isaac’s armor, to the moody atmosphere of the Ishimura, straight through to the detail of the horrific Necromorph’s. Immense detailing and effort has gone into the visual creation of Dead Space, the claustrophobic corridors with graphettied walls that are written in blood, the flickering light bulbs in the dark and grungy restrooms, the setting is something that is taken from the even the most demented horror minds. The Dead Space universe is all of the Alien movies, John Carpenters The Thing and the little less known Event Horizon all wrapped up in one beautiful hellish package.
SOUND/MUSIC
The sound of Dead Space is something that really brings the game to life, without the fantastic sound effects and score, it would take so much of the tension out of the game and it would be a much less memorable experience. The beauty of Dead Space is the clever use of the sound effects in the game, especially the early parts of the game when you will be twitching like a worm being poked by a stun gun in a slaughter house. So much of Dead Space consists of you looking behind your back and running away from any clambering noise, grunts and screams you can hear in the background, you really do feel like you’re constantly being watched and may be you are?
GAMEPLAY
Someone needs a breath mint
There is nothing new about developers taking gameplay directly from other popular games within its genre, as long as you can add something new to what you have inspired from. What Dead Space brings to the table is the dismemberment feature that is required to take down the various forms of Necromorph; this adds strategy to the way you bring down your enemies. Unlike a lot of games where it is normally a case of blast the hell out of whatever is coming at you, in Dead Space you have to strategically dismember the limbs of the Necromorph’s. This adds more of a panic element to the gameplay, knowing that you really have to think how you bring down your enemies, being a bullet sprayer in Dead Space will be a massive waste of ammo and will most defiantly result in an untimely death. One of the many beauties in Dead Space is that it is set in the distant future, meaning you can make up any form of technology that you wish. As I said before, Isaac is just an engineer and has no weapons training, so this means he has to make do with whatever pieces of technology he can, that will be able to be used as a weapon. Any form a weapon that Isaac wishes to use, must come from schematics that are found scattered throughout the game, then most of these weapons will have to be purchased within the in game shop and if you wish to upgrade these items, it must be done through the many workbenches that you find within the Ishimura. But you cannot upgrade these items without finding the Power Nodes and most of these are randomly hidden in unobvious places, you really have to work for you money in Dead Space.
The one thing that you don’t have to work too hard for in Dead Space is the abilities that can be used via Isaac’s RIG suit. Not only does the RIG suite offer some form of protection and shows your current state of health, it also brings the power to slow down enemies and objects as well as being able to use telekinesis abilities. Both of these abilities will be used in cunning ways to solve puzzles and disfigure Necromorph’s throughout the game and like Isaac’s weaponry, your RIG suite can also be upgraded by collecting and applying Power Nodes.
REPLAY-VALUE
It is fair to say that I have completed Dead Space more than a few times now, the story, action and horror are enough to bring you back for more. But even though Dead Space features no multiplayer, it does offer plenty of reasons to come back for more. It is impossible to achieve all the armor and weapon upgrades in one play through, so you will have to finish the game it at least twice if you want to achieve this. But the best thing about starting a new game on Dead Space is that all your weapons and armor upgrades carry on to your next player through, so you can make Isaac a super kick ass hero and enjoy the play through even more then the first. The only downside of having your upgrades carry on to the next playthrough is that you are restricted to the difficulty setting in which you originally played the game, so If you finished the game on medium, you could not carry over to the Hard difficulty setting, you would have to start a fresh game on the hard setting. But don’t let this deter you away from playing the harder skill setting, as I found it even more enjoyable and it defiantly added to the tension of the game. Dead Space is a game you will happily play through multiple times and come back to years later down the line.
Dismemberment is the key
CLOSING VERDICT
Without a shadow of a doubt this game belongs in any survival horror enthusiast’s collection, even if you are not one for survival horror games, give this a whirl and you will experience a perfect way to begin love for a new genre. I would only suggest a rental of this game if you scare to easy and Dead Space is defiantly a game not for the weak at heart. If you haven’t played Dead Space, give it a go, you won’t regret it, apart from the odd nightmare here or there
Dead Space “Blast from the past!!!” Review,
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