Dead Space is a game that grabs you by the Rig suit and pulls you through it's morbid world, never lettings go, and not giving a damn if you make it through or not.
Let's first start off with the standard immersion factor of this game's interface design. In one word, it is incredible. The lack of a HUD surprisingly makes the game feel less like a video game and more like an interactive movie. I heard about this feature but gave it no thought, I just didn't think it was that big of a deal. I then played the game and decided, nearly immediately, that it changes the game in a big way. Then I got to thinking about movies, and I imagined watching Predator or Alien with a HUD, meh. It just makes sense to do it in more games if it fits the setting. I hope more games can take advantage of this as it would help the player feel more like they are in the world rather than playing in it.
The story of this game is good. I feel a lot more could be done with it, but I do like how it unfolds in the end and things are set into motion for more than just the one game. I loved most of the video logs, voice logs, and text logs. They were very involving and gave the world a sense of imminent danger. It was unnerving to pick up a voice log and listen to it while walking around corners. A lot of times they would give you hints and tips of what to expect, or what the general gist of what you are doing at that is about. I thoroughly enjoyed it, I just wish it was deeper or more involved. I also would have liked Isaac to have been involved in the story more, and not just an errand boy for most of it. I wish, besides his girl, he would have had more than just a "I gotta get out of here" part of the story.
Some of the guys at work that talked me into giving this game a shot told me they didn't like the smallness of the game world, and while I normally don't like that either, it added a lot of tension to the experience. Sure, the ship is large, but do I really need to go into the kitchen to experience it? Not really, and the way they did it with the backtracking through places I had been a couple chapters before, made it more real to me. Of course the necromorphs go to where I was, they are searching for me. I personally feel that it brought realism to the game world. It also added a sense of despair and fear to it as I wasn't sure I would ever see outside of "these four walls" again.
I love the combat in Dead Space. I don't think many other games will do the whole dismember to kill theme in combat, but it was such a wonderful departure from the run and gun mentality of the genre. The ability to de-leg someone really added a lot of strategy to the game. I found myself out of ammo a lot, but I began to play through and use more strategy than I ever had in a shooter. Dismemberment combined with Statis really added some depth to the combat, more than I thought would exist or be a part of it. I really went into this game knowing very little about it and I found the combat to be the most enjoyable thing about this game. It has me addicted to this style, and I hope similar innovation rears its beautiful head in the future of gaming.
The shocking scenes throughout the game add to the sense of dread as well. I kept wondering "am I the only sane one in this mother" the entire time I was playing it. It was really heavy to watch people keep killing themselves, and the scenes where some people killed others really upset me. Not morally or anything, but upset me in the world and I wanted payback.
The boss fights... while the ending wasn't as difficult as it appeared to be, I can see how it would be long and arduous had I not figured out the fight as fast as I had. Only died once. The Leviathan on the other hand will be one of the most memorable boss fights/encounters in any video game I have ever played. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I loved the idea of the anti-gravity room type of fight. It was just so enjoyable. I died 5 times, but it was 5 times well spent... and let me not forget to mention the deaths in this game. They are so brutal. I loved them. It made the game world so much more real; you don't just fall over dead, you are ripped apart, eaten, and skewered... awesome.
In the end, I couldn't wait to the escape the game. Not that I wanted the experience to end, but the game's tension grew so much that I wanted to be done with the aliens. I really wanted to be on the escape pod, and when I finally got on it, I was noticeably relieved. All in all I couldn't recommend this game more for people that don't mind the horror and FPS genre. It is genre defining and easily one of my top 5 games of all time. I am looking forward to multiple play-throughs, something I don't do very often.
Do yourself a $15 favor and go get this game...
