Dead Space is an action adventure - survival horror video game released back on 14 October 2008. Developed by Visceral Games and published by EA, Dead Space has a large budget behind it but can it change the way people view survival horror games?
The story behind Dead Space, at first glance, is that it’s like every other survival horror game, but you’d be wrong to think that. Dead Space’s story, yes, it may be set in the future, and yes, it may take place on a shutdown spaceship, thousands of miles from any other life but the story has so much more to it then that.
The story follows a space mining engineer named Isaac Clarke, who boards the shutdown ship known as the USG Ishimura with a 5-man team who are investigating why its lost communication. After boarding the ship, all hell breaks loss as your arriving ship is destroyed, your 5-man team is shrunk down to 3 and you are all separated through the ship through the swarm style attacks by the alien race known as necromorphs which, as quickly realised, have taken control of the ship.
During this 10–15 hour game, Isaac goes from attempting to save and restore the ships primary functions, to attempting to save himself from what seems like an endless swarm of necromorphs, whilst also trying to find is girlfriend Nicole, who was stationed on the ship before the necromorph take over.
The game is a very tightly packed and enclosed, making all the great game moments very memorable from beginning to end without the feeling of getting bored or tired.
The way you get through to these story points and moments, is by playing the game and Dead Space’s Gameplay is another strong point of the game.
Dead Space has very tight and balanced controls, especially for a survival horror game; there is nothing to complain about when talking about the controls. The speed the camera turns is fast, the time between aiming your gun and shooting an enemy in the face is very short, and all the button presses are immediately responsive. From moving, shooting, and even zero-G jumping they all feel balanced, and fun to do.
A large gameplay mechanic in Dead Space is ‘Strategic Dismemberment’. It is basically a term for you severing the limbs off your enemies, slowing them down and used to kill them with as fewer shots as possible. As well as shooting there limbs off, you can also punch and stomp the enemies limbs with a satisfying crunch as you do it.
A key lesson to learn with Dead Space’s gameplay is that headshots don’t always cut it with this game. Pumping round after round into any enemy won’t work this time, but take the time to shoot the limbs will be a much more effective strategy against the necromorphs. Shooting the legs off slows the enemies down, shooting the arms means they have no means off attacking you from range and combining the two resulting in a fast way to slaughter the necromorphs.
Although shooting the enemies with you mining equipment isn’t the only mechanic in the game that works on the necromorphs, Isaac also has a stasis device with allows him to project a field with slows down enemies and objectives. The stasis device is used in many puzzles throughout the game, but it is better used on slowing enemies, allowing you to line up the perfect shoot for taking them down.
Stasis isn’t Isaac only suit power, he also has a telekinesis module which allows Isaac to move objects and throw them in any direction. Useful when there is a flammable canister and a swarm of enemies. The good thing is that Isaac Clarke doesn’t possess these powers; they are built into his suit, making the story much more believable and a real world scenario.
Also built into Isaac’s suit is gravity boots, allowing you to walk on walls when in a zero-gravity area. These parts if the game is where you fill find a large selection of puzzles and time shortage, but also a large amount of fun. Just jumping from one wall to another and seeing everything else around you float freely is amazing. Enemies can come from just about anywhere in these sections of the game, making the combat a bit more tricky, and a lot more fun. It’s incredibly satisfying to shoot down on an enemy knowing you are stood on the ceiling of a room.
From Zero-Gravity rooms come the vacuum sequences, where you are out in space, except everything is silent, except for your breathing and clanging of your boots, but apart from that, there is next to no sound, not even when an enemy comes up and attacks you from behind. I enjoyed the vacuum sequences a lot in Dead Space; the sense of urgency is thrilling as the timer ticks down on your back, and you have a silent fight with a group of necromorphs, knowing you’re hanging onto the side of a space ship, attempting to complete puzzles which admittedly can get a bit confusing sometimes.
The sights and sounds in Dead Space is something to admire in a video game, with a nice, big HDTV at your disposal, you’ll come to love the sights and sounds coming from dead space, such as the scale of the boss battles, the lighting from the ships interior, and the next to nothing display.
Isaac’s health, ammo, and even map are all displayed on Isaac’s suit. Displayed in front of you when opened will be your map, objectives and inventory and all viewed in real-time, meaning enemies will still attack you if in combat and never taking you out of the game.
The scale and size of the ship blew me away throughout the game, the large open space scenes to the large and tough boss battles, all of which left me shocked at what a great looking and great atmospheric game has been made my EA.
Enough though some ideas are not truly original to dead space, a lot have be perfected to play and function like a horror game. Dead Space is a game any horror game fan should play and appreciate and even those who don’t usually play horror games, should also take a look into the Dead Space Universe.