Dead Space (Value Game) previews

Dead Space plays much like your standard survival-horror – a lone protagonist with minimal resources facing a horde of horrifying enemies. If you've played any of the Silent Hill games, or are familiar with genre classics like System Shock, then you'll know exactly what to expect… almost.

Our hero, Isaac Clarke, is an engineer, and a member of a maintenance crew dispatched to investigate problems onboard the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura is a planet-cracker, a massive vessel tasked with dismantling entire worlds in order to extract natural resources for a depleted Earth. Accompanying Isaac are Zach Hammond, a security consultant for the corporation which owns the Ishimura, and Kendra Daniels, a computer expert.

As soon as the colossal ship is sighted, things start to go awry. The team's own ship, the Kellion, crash-lands on the Ishimura, finding it virtually deserted and under ship-wide quarantine. In short order, the lights go out, a necromorph bursts from a ventilation shaft and the Kellion's pilot and co-pilot are both viciously butchered. Chaos ensues and Isaac is promptly seperated from both Zach and Kendra. Cue lots of slinking through dark corridors, jumping at shadows and desperately hoping that ventilation shaft doesn't contain any nasty surprises…

Graphically, Dead Space is to die for. The Ishimura is rendered in spectacular detail. The USS Enterprise this is not, and you'll find no sterile white corridors, plush carpets or comfy Captain's chairs here. Everything is grimy, industrial and claustrophobic; an environment designed for utility rather than aesthetics. Likewise Isaac's “weapons”, which are, barring a largely useless assault rifle, tools rather than actual weapons. Isaac wields plasma cutters, force guns, contact beams and power saws to great effect, and for good reason.

Necromorphs prove disturbingly resilient foes. Unloading a clip from your not-so-trusty assault rifle into the face of a necromorph will only serve to irritate the creature. If you hope to survive you must swiftly familiarise yourself with the concept of “stratregic dismemberment”, whereby you employ your plasma cutter to systematically amputate a necromorph's limbs. Blowing the creatures legs off will frequently result in it using its remaining appendages to drag itself along the floor after you, though you will buy yourself some time. Immobilisation is key. Blow off one leg and one arm, and you're usually pretty safe. Other creatures, necromorph spawn in particular, require an altogether different approach. Experimentation pays dividends.

Any survival-horror worth the price of admission relies on atmosphere, and its hard to create tension or inspire a sense of creeping dread without investing heavily in the sound department. The developers obviously realised this and the game's sound plays a vital part, not only in setting the mood, but also in alerting the player to points of interest and the presence of enemies. Over the hissing of leaking gas valves, the dull roar of the ship's engines or the sparking of a malfunctioning console you'll often hear necromorphs scuttling through the ventilation shafts. Creeping hesitantly down one dark corridor, I could hear a rhythmic thud coming from just ahead. Turning a corner I encountered a surviving crew member who, having lost his mind, was repeatedly smashing his skull against the bulkhead. Dead Space is full of such disturbing imagery.

While exploring, Isaac will happen across stores and workbenches. Stores permit you to purchase weapons, ammunition, health packs, environment suits, power nodes and stasis units. You purchase this equipment by selling items you don't want, and by spending credits you find scattered about the ship. Power nodes are used at workbenches to further upgrade your equipment, increasing the speed, capacity, damage, duration and/or distance on the applicable weapon/unit. However, these nodes are scarce and you won't be able to upgrade everything during your first play-through so choose wisely. Likewise, Isaac's environment suit has limited inventory slots so careful management of ammunition, health packs and stasis units is critical.

Much has been said of the way Isaac handles in terms of both player perspective and character responsiveness, or lack thereof. Given that the entire GUI functions as an holographic projection emitted from Isaac's environment suit (there are no health bars or ammo counters super-imposed over the action), the over-the-shoulder perspective really doesn't restrict your field of vision to the extent that some claim. It takes a little getting used to, but you soon find yourself adapting.

Regarding the alleged lagginess of Isaac's movement, sure, even with mouse sensitivity cranked all the way up, Isaac tends to move as though he were wading waist-deep through cold porridge. Initially, this annoyed the crap out of me and I found controlling Isaac, especially during fire-fights, an exercise in frustration. Then I discovered stasis, and also read an article somewhere regarding certain design decisions taken by the developers in terms of Isaac's abilities.

Isaac is not a genetically engineered super-soldier. He's an engineer. He's the brains, not the brawn. The bulky environment suit he wears probably doesn't do a lot to enhance his speed or agility either. To compensate Isaac has stasis units. Stasis units allow you to slow down charging necromorphs in order to more accurately dismember them. Stasis is critical to your survival when facing multiple opponents. In addition, Isaac also has a kinesis unit hard-wired into his suit. Kinesis is used to remove obstructions, solve puzzles and hurl explosive canisters at rampaging necromorphs. To my mind, these two useful additions to Isaac's arsenal render his somewhat lethargic movement a trivial concern.

If the game has one flaw it's the repetitive nature of the missions. You repair the tram system in order to gain access to the rest of the ship only to discover you need to refuel the engines. Then it's fix the communications array, life-support system, asteroid defense system and so on. The game is strictly linear. Proceed to point A, then point B, then point C… etc. However, because the gameplay is so tense and the story so intriguing you keep playing in the hopes of finding one more audio log that might help to shed light on just what happened onboard the Ishimura. Audio logs live or die by their voice acting, and I'm happy to report that the voice acting in Dead Space is stellar.

So, what did happen onboard the Ishimura? I'm not saying. Though I blame L. Ron Hubbard. Make of that what you will.

I am finding it hard to rate this to be honest. In some respects it is unique, in others disappointing. Overall a good game thought.

Good points: unique weapons and death: weapons allow dismemberment of monsters in a variery of neat ways. Being able to “power stomp” on the head of your enemy after killing him is rather satisfying. Very pretty: well…gorey…whole environment is just great. Good story: The plot line ticks along well and the audio/video logs make it very immersive. Neat looking character interfaces: Again with the immersion. Inventory/video logs/map etc all appear as 3d displays “in mid air”.

Bad points: Controls: 5 seconds of the “over the right shoulder” control will leave you screaming for an FPS view. Not sure if this was just my system, but the mouse had a very perceptable mouse lag (even on menus – so not my computer lag) and this made controlling my character very clumsy overall compared with COD4-MW. (for instance) Monsters: Very limited selection of monsters. Not that many either – although you would not survive if there were. Upgrades: increasing basic stats only. Kind of limited. Could have done a lot more here. Not a sandbox: I love sandboxes. This is not one.

It all started when the Concordance Corporation receives a distress call from the USG Ishimura, a starship which was mining ore on the planet Aegis 7. In response, the company sends the USG Kellion to fix whatever mechanical problem the ship has and sitting in a seat quietly, Isaac Clarke watches a communication from his ex-girlfriend who is currently on the Ishimura. However, the Ishimura is in a much deadlier situation then a simple mechanical problem and Isaac will soon be thrown into the fight of his life.

The Kellion suddenly experiences mechanical failure and crashes into the landing bay of the Ishimura. After the crew of the ship comes to, you take control of Isaac. Immediately when you begin to take control, you might find that the game is much more different than other games you have played. All the health gauges, air gauges, etc. are directly on the back of Isaac's suit and since you see his back for the whole game it's not a bad place to put it. This removes the HUD completely and adds to the immersion.

Anyway, as soon as you take control of Isaac you follow the rest of the crew to the inside of the Ishimura. The detail here is amazing. The hangar is in crisp detail and the characters you are with seem very realistic. As you walk further with the crew, you will enter a room with the lights out and the crew starts to become very edgy as there is no contact from anyone else on the ship. This game is really good at setting the mood for a horror game and you can't help but feel edgy throughout the game.

You are then told to activate a computer and from then on, you will be introduced to many strange, bloodthirsty creatures throughout the game who can't help but to leap out from ceilings and walls, and it gets even more startling when these things leap at you in zero gravity environments.

As you go along, you might find that the game is pretty easy once you get the hang of it since you start know what to expect. However, they still manage to blindside you once in a while and dealing with that is the most fun aspect of the game.

If you like blood, gore, horror, and action, this game is the game to play. If you were wondering why I am being so cryptic about the story, it's just that knowing too much about what to expect in a horror game ends up taking away some of the shock value. Besides, finding out what happened to the Ishimura, Isaac's ex-girlfriend, and Aegis 7 is part of the fun.

This game is great! A fine example of a horror/survival/FPS game that will leave you wanting more! (Thankfully, Dead Space 2 is in the works) To be honest I bought this game when it first came out but somehow did not play it and uninstalled it, it was more than a year later that I thought about getting into it and finding if all the hype was warranted and I am glad I did because it was great and the hype is definitely warranted! This game deserves to be bought and played, just be aware that you are limited to 5 installs on different machines (you can install the game on the same machine as many times as you want) so don't let that stop you from buying this game. I loved it and I definitely recommend it. Satisfaction guaranteed!

Why is the roof crawling with creatures? Im playing deadspace. Deadspace is very scary, especially at night with no lights on. I dare you to try it

This game is what horror really is. In every turn, every corner, every shadow and every time you think you are in the green zone.. You are being watched. This game gives you action, horror and somewhat some strategy. This is a game that once you start you will not be able to stop. This is quite a long game too so it's your in for a long ordeal. Great graphics especially when you blow the head off an alien with your lazer gun. 6/5

Really enjoyed this game from start to finish. Had the lights off, headphones on the game loaded. Great third person shooter with an insane amount of blood from freakish monsters whilst their limbs fly off! The sound and music were fantastic, adding the the anticipation of something jumping out at you and the crunch of teeth on your rig. PROS: Great fun, good length, great sound and graphics. Does a horror game well and makes for an interesting story too. CONS: Controls can be a bit tricky to get hang of at first. Zero gravity can be a bit disorientating.

All in all, a must play!

as a fan of the alien movies, the resident evil games and the science fiction and horror genre in general I must say this is one of the best games I've been playing this year. the fact that its down to $35 is a nice bonus too.

in this game everything is in the right place, the story is great, the sound and visuals are close to perfect and the controls intuitive, still it can be a bit complicated using a mouse so I recommend playing it with a controller.
I also own a xbox360 and I can really recommend using the gamepad on your pc. the only negative point might be that there is no multiplayer mode, which actually doesn't bother me since this the whole game is about being alone on a creepy spaceship and not about funny multiplayer battles against your friends.

anyways for me this game is already a classic.

This is a pretty impressive title once you get past the minor flaws. The graphics are great and I had no issues running the game. There are some original features, though it's very similar in many ways to Resident Evil 4.

When you first start playing you might find the over the shoulder view a little annoying and granted when it comes to close combat it can be, but you soon get used to it. Your entire current ammo gauge, health and other statues are displayed on your gun (ammo) and on your suit only. This can be slightly annoying if you can't get into the right position to check you health when something has you cornered and is trying to tear your face off.

The game has a lot of customization options as well as things to unlock and a shop feature were you can use credits to by items, the shop will be updated with new items for purchase as you go along and you can store items if your inventory is full to equip or sell later. Although there is no multiplayer it's still good value, it's a pretty huge game. The music is high quality, the voice acting is pretty good and the storyline is satisfying, although the constant "you fixed this but now this is broken” may have you rolling your eyes but hey, if everything went smoothly the game would be over pretty quick.

Killing your enemies is fun, not a chore, which is more then you, can say for a lot of other shooters. You will be needing to cut their heads / limbs off, shoot them till they pop or stomp them etc to kill them, which is very satisfying. The amount of and timing of encounters is well balanced too.

There is a decent range of creatures for you to dispose of and you will want to decide carefully as to what weapons you are going to purchase and upgrade as like most shooters some are better at disposing of specific enemies then others. All up this is a high quality survival horror game and good value for money.

I think Dead Space was a pretty cool game overall, the visuals of the ship you play in and the windows showing asteroids and such outside are terrific and the holographic displays everywhere are pretty neat. The weapons are gory and great as well, although take a bit to getting used to.

A few things annoyed me though, like how your character is so close to a 3rd person view, how slow the character moved, especially when your trying to get away from enemies, and the lack of control changes from WSDA to Up, Down, Left or Right.

But overall, its a very good game filled with “musically intense” scenes that can freak you out if playing at night and great visuals, that made the game very fun to play.