Recently I have been playing Dead Space, ironically finishing it on Halloween. And it is safe to say that this is most definitely a contender for sleeper hit of the year.
Just to give you some background, Dead Space is a survival horror game developed by EA. You play an engineer named Isaac Clarke who is responding to call from the USG Ishimura (a Planet Cracker class ship that destroys planets). However upon landing on the ship you find out something has gone terribly wrong. It seems that the ship has been infected and consumed by some hostile alien race.
One thing to note, this game will scare the crap out of you. Well it did me because I don’t really like the horror genre due to the impact it has on me emotionally. However I can handle games, unlike movies which I stay clear of as much as possible.
Once you enter the Ishimura you are immediately sucked in. One aspect that makes this game so tense is the sound. Holy shit walking down corridors and just listening to were these guys crawling around in the vents, or coming to a corner and your here something around the corner only to see it has disappeared. If you have a good surround sound, like I have, prepare to be on the edge of your seat.
GAMEPLAY:
One thing to note here is that the game never takes you out of the experience. To give you an example your health bar is your spine, as you are wearing a suite. The game plays like a mix of gears of war and resident evil games, as the way the camera is located. Although the guys at capcom better be taking notes as this game controls so much better the resident evil 4.
So your health is on your spine. When you pull up your inventory its in a hologram infront of you. When you are watching video messages from other characters that also shows up in front of you. When I say “you” I mean infront of Isaac. The reason for this sort of gameplay is because there is no hud. So everything appears on your back. Or in holograms infront of the character. And the ammunition count appears on the gun.
Also the game introduces these zero g areas similar to like astronauts in space or a being in a giant vacuum. Normally you will have to solve some puzzle in these areas or kill some enemies and watch their limbs float around in the vacuum. Another thing that makes this game is so tense is that you will also have these areas in which their will be no oxygen and Issac has a time limited time in which his suit can hold on for. This timer is also displayed on your back. In this instance you will be in zero g then you would restore gravity but then the oxygen would be sucked out and you have to get out of their in addition to fighting off some enemies. At these situation I was like “O, O, SHIT, SHIT.” Adding to this Isaac will start gasping for air as he starts running out of oxygen.
Another thing unique to this game is the way you kill enemies. Normally in most zombie type games you would just shoot the head and thats that. However in this game you have to take out their limbs. You shoot their head off they will still be coming at you. The idea is you have to take out their limbs (legs, arms), which makes them immobile then they die. Which is very cool because it make you really think on how to take out these things.
WEAPONS:
All of Issac’s weapons are all mining or engineering tools. I only have 4 favorite as the other 4 are quite week or they never gave me tactical advantage when I came across an enemy. The first one is the Plasma Cutter. This will be your best friend as this is the best at taking off limbs of the enemy. The Plasma Rifle which is the only actual weapon in the game, is pretty much an assault rifle. Line Gun which is larger version of the Plasma Cutter that helps to chop limbs from multiple enemies. And my favorite the Ripper, which is pretty much a saw blade that you can guide and control to saw up the enemy.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Damn was this tense. As you play through the game you can see a lot of games that have influenced the game in some way. If you liked Bioshock and if you thought that game was f**ked up, then this game takes f**ked up to a whole new level. Although the story is not as good as Bioshock it is definitely more tense and more scarier. What makes this game so good is the atmosphere, just like Bioshock you know were you are and you know this place is f**ked up.
On the subject of story, the ending is good. With all the build up from the beginning the ending is a little weak. Its not on the same level as like Indigo Prophecy, but it is ok. Also the replayability is not very high as you will most likely on play this game once through. This would be a very good rental and I highly recommend it.
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