When the boxart for a game features a dismembered hand floating through space and a Mature label in the corner, you should have enough confidence to know that something like Dead Space can't go wrong. With the huge lineup of big name franchises hitting shelves this holiday season, it's a no-brainer that a game like Dead Space will fly under most folks' radar. It's an original IP from a company that usually does little to nothing well over the years with original IPs. It's a survival horror game on a market that's crowded by survival horror games. The biggest thing going against it is the fact that it is not named Fable, Fallout, Far Cry, or Gears of War.
Despite all of that, Dead Space is THAT gem. It's the diamond in the rough that we see every once in a while, whose pedigree feature names like Beyond Good & Evil, Freedom Fighters, Vagrant Story, and other games that just came out in the wrong place at the wrong time, but have stood the test of time. Beneath that rugged cover and dismembered hand, you'll find a game that has been lovingly crafted to offer a truly gory and atmospheric experience while exhibiting good game design choices, and only a baby-sized handful of problems really ever appear in the game. None of those issues, however, are big enough to keep Dead Space down. Consider it the "Little Engine That Could" of the survival horror world.
In Dead Space, you'll fill the space suit of Isaac Clarke. You, a guy named Hammond, and a lady named Kendra are on your way to the Planet Cracker Ishimura, where communications have been lost after breaking into the planet Aegis 7 on a mining excavation. Right from the beginning of the game, you are thrust into problem after problem confronting you, as your shuttle crash lands on the Ishimura's docking port...and you soon find out that the entire ship has been infested with hideous and bloodthirsty creatures. Really, that's about all you need to know without getting into any spoiler material. The story as it is will seem incredibly thin, and it is...but it doesn't really matter that much, as the story that is presented is told well. There are maybe three or four cutscenes in the entire game, while everything else is done in-game via video logs, audio logs, text logs, and general in-game dialogue ala Half-Life. The twists in the story are definitely exciting to hear, although somewhat predictable to some. The ending is debatable as whether it is a solid and defining or if it is indeed a cliffhanger (this reviewer believes the former more than the latter, but time will tell). Overall, the story just never feels like it's intruding on the action. It feels...natural. If the story can be accused of anything potentially negative, it's the fact that it feels a little too close to possibly being Bioshock. The nuttiness of some of the Ishimura's inhabitants definitely feels like Rapture at times (although pushed just a bit further), and there's even a whacked-out doctor to chase along for half the game.
This story is told throughout a highly atmospheric backdrop of blood, guts, emptiness, zero gravity, and outer space insanity that just happens to be one of the best looking games of the year. Dead Space's environments tend to look the same from time to time, as some areas look very close to (if not identical) to previous areas that you've visited. There are a handful of spots that are really unique, like the ship's bridge, the hydroponics lab, and the end level, but the rest never really break out from a mold of "look at this empty ship hallway". Regardless, the lighting effects used here keep the suspense up along with all of the audio cues. If there is anything that I have to cut loose from a professional standpoint and say, it's that the sound production on Dead Space is phe-fucking-nomenal! I cannot think of a single game in the last 10 years alone, including Call of Duty 4 and God of War, that has this level of sound quality in a video game. You could bottle up the amazingness of this game's sound, stack it on shelves upon shelves in a warehouse, and the amount of amazing in that warehouse would easily rival the amazingness of a warehouse full of the ending to Stephen King's The Mist (the movie). There are tons of subtle little things, from gasps of breath to whimpering to scratching, squashing, slumping, ambience, stillness...and when you mix those in with the violins and other music in the game, it truly forces you to be involved in this world.
As for the overall gameplay, any fans of Resident Evil 4 will automatically feel right at home when they first touch the controller. The over-the-shoulder camera angle and "ready your weapon" gameplay definitely makes you realize that this game is trying to one up Resident Evil 4...and in some ways, it does. You can actually move while your weapon is drawn, there's a slightly less viewable area which forces you to pay attention to that sound design a bit more, and your inventory management isn't nearly as complicated. Instead of fumbling around for herbs to heal yourself with, you can just press an assigned face button to heal up with the lowest quality pack in your inventory. You still have to go to your inventory screen in order to use things like air cans or stasis packs, but to be honest, it's not that hard when it's a simple button press and directional pad movement away. Your inventory screen will generally be auto-organized to make health, air cans, and statis packs at the top, making them easily accessible.
The lack of a HUD in the game is also another big selling factor, as Dead Space executes its immersive gameplay nigh flawlessly. Your health meter is located down your spine, a statis meter to the right of that, and your gun will display the amount of ammo you have left. Any form of video that is projected from your suit into the air in front of you, and even things like log databases and your map are done in the same matter. Essentially, what I'm saying is that you will RARELY be taken out of the game. I say rarely because while many of the functionality portions of the HUD are in-game, there are a few exceptions, namely save points and pause menus. Yes, you heard that right. After all those rumors about Dead Space having no pause function (and if you didn't hear those rumors...well, there were rumors that Dead Space would have no pause function), there is after all a pause function. This angers me slightly, as I think it would've been interesting to be playing on Impossible mode without being able to pause the game at all, meaning that even while I was away from the controller, I wasn't out of the experience. Other than that, the map that you can pop up leaves a little to be desired, as it's hard to navigate it and actually see anything more than what level you need to go to on some elevators. Otherwise, you can just click in your right analog stick for a handy-dandy holographic line that will trace your required path out in-game. Again, while having no HUD at all isn't necessarily a new innovation (and even borderlines the presentation of Doom 3 at times), it's one that is executed VERY well in Dead Space.
You'll pick up a couple of "special powers" along your journey. By the second stage, you'll be mastering your Stasis skills, which is a module that allows you to shoot out a freezing blast to slow down objects and enemies. This is primarily used for solving puzzles in the game, but in higher difficulties, it becomes essential to effectively taking down an enemy without wasting too much ammo. By the fourth stage, you'll be picking up your Kinesis module, which allows you to pick up and/or move heavy objects. Again, this is used mainly as a puzzle solving mechanic, but it's something you will likely ONLY use for that purpose. It said on the loading screens (which only appear when you are entering or exiting a game or moving between levels on the tram system) that I was able to use Kinesis to pick up enemy limbs and use them as weapons, but I never once saw that as being either practical or effective against anything.
The weapons you'll fight with are definitely on the "homemade" side of things, again like Bioshock. However, in Dead Space, weapons aren't used for headshots. As a matter of fact, just throw the idea of headshots out of the damn window, because it's all about limb dismemberment here. In order to effectively kill anything hear, it's all about nailling the arms to kill an enemy (essentially, I guess, by making them bleed out), while taking out their legs will slow them down for a moment before they start dragging themselves around...and headshots will do next to absolutely nothing but cause a mess. You'll start with the Plasma Cutter, which is essentially the pistol/shotgun of the game. Over the course of time, you'll pick up varied weapons ranging from the Ripper (a modified rotary saw) to a Line Gun (which shoots out mines) and even something called the Contact Beam (massive laser that will crush pretty much anything it hits). However, of all seven weapons in the game, the Plasma Cutter is all you really need for most of the game until you hit the higher difficulty levels of Hard and the unlockable Impossible mode. It's efficient, has quick reload, and the ammo is pretty cheap at the in-game store. There's even an achievement for beating the game on any difficulty with only the Plasma Cutter being used as a weapon. Needless to say, it doesn't feel balanced enough. Granted, once you upgrade all your weapons with power nodes collected on your adventure, you can make all the other weapons uniquely powerful, but in terms of all-around usage, the Plasma Cutter is the weapon of choice in most cases. Besides all that, it seems to be the only one with a logical alternate fire that basically just turns the three-lasered muzzle on its side to take out legs instead of arms.
Aside from the balance issue of the Plasma Cutter being a relatively powerful weapon available right at the beginning of the game, there's another issue I have...and it's not necessarily with the game. Pre-orders of the game allowed people to get an exclusive Level 5 Scorpion Suit, while there were two other console-specific Level 5 suits available for free as DLC at launch. Now, maybe it's just me, but giving someone what essentially is the next-to-best suit in the game right off the bat...is a bit of a joke. It makes the point of calling yourself a "survival horror" game slightly less meaningful. You don't actually HAVE to use the suit if you don't want to, and in the Hard and Impossible difficulties, it's almost completely understandable using it. However, going into Easy or Medium with it turns the game into a cakewalk, and it's just downright embarrassing that something like this had to be available without an ounce of work being put forth. It definitely affects the score I give the game.
Another qualm that I have is that the boss battles in the game are relatively easy and lackluster pattern-based dribble. In most cases, some of the regular enemies lurking around the Ishimura are far more challenging and hellacious than the boss battles. Nonetheless, the few bosses that do show up are big...and I mean B---I---G, which is nice to see. The Necromorphs on the ship, however, can prove to be very difficult at times, especially when there is a mass amount gunning for you. Between the basic slicers, the babies with tentacles, the bloated corpses spewing little chunks of hatred at you, and the wall-mounted bags of puss...you'll find a ton of crazy creatures around here. The one that takes the cake and will create the highest number of memorable moments, however, has to be the "bats". These little guys will run around the ship, bringing any corpse with limbs back to Necro-life...and it can turn ugly very quickly. The enemies are also smart in the game, as they will avoid obstacles that can kill them (like gravity wells), will feign death to lure you in a false sense of security, and they will even avoid incoming fire with quick maneuvers.
Dead Space looks and feels like a clone in many ways: part Bioshock, part Doom 3, part Resident Evil 4, and part Event Horizon. However, the sum of all those parts come together in magnificent form to create a cohesive and memorable experience with a good amount of replay value and maybe even some of the heebie-jeebies scared into you. The main word that describes Dead Space, I believe, is "more": it's more blood, more gore, more scares, more unsettling, more unnerving, more intense, more jolting, and more satisfying than so many other games out there. The few VERY minor drawbacks don't keep this game from being a shining example for the survival horror genre. Whether EA finds a new lucrative franchise somewhere in this is something that, again, time will tell. Right now, though, I think it's safe to say that the IP has proven its worth beyond any doubt. This game isn't a rental - it's a flatout must-buy.
P.S. - I want to commend Redwood Shores for putting out one of the first games I've seen on the Xbox 360 that was 99% bug and glitch free. The one bug that I did find (a box that I Kinesis'd into a wall) was so minimal that it could not affect my judgment of this game. Congratulations, and I wish more developers would follow this excellent example and philosophy of game design.