Dead Space (Value Game)

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.

Hi

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and highly recommend it to anyone who likes FPS games with a decent storyline – great fun too!

Arrived promptly and undamaged and you can't beat the price, the game is excellent.

Exelent game. Hard. That is the whole idea. Is not--

Im not a big horror gamer but this is an amazingly fun game, and it incorporates many features gamers like me cherish eg weapon and armor customization , a butt load of different weapons and tough but beatable enimies.i highly recommend this game for both horror and shooter lovers.