Dead Space Review

Wandering through a hallway with broken wires hanging, spitting sparks as you pass while the wall next to you has a hole torn in it, as if something bursted out of the wall. The hall is dark due to the flickering lights and it's quiet. You find and pick up a video recording off the hallway floor, disregarding the blood staining the floor around it. Watching and listening to who apparently is your girlfriend on the recording, you walk cautiously to the door and wait for it to open. The recording ends soon after and you enter another door, finding nothing useful in the first room. Now it looks like a procedure room for surgeries and other medical related issues, but of course, it's drenched in thrown around equipment, stains of blood and emptiness. You approach the double doors ahead when all of the sudden, it locks on you. You begin to panic as you hear a grunting but screaming noise. You turn around to investigate, only to find a monster running towards you. You quickily aim your Plasma Cutter and shoot its limbs off before stomping on the creatures head, watching the blood spurt from its neck as its head rolls across the floor.

This is your average experience in Dead Space. The sounds of the echoing hallways, the moans of the ship, the distant cries of the necromorphs, (the main antagonists of Dead Space), flickering lights, occasional black outs, and Isaac Clarke's (the protagonist) heavy breathing as he paces step by step down the halls. Not only is the sound clear and beautiful, but everything you see is just amazing. When I say amazing, I'm not only referring to the environment, but the game interface as well. You don't have your everyday ammo, health and radar display in the corner of your screen. It's actually implemented into what is called your RIG (Resource Integration Gear, or your little space suit thing). Your health is located down your spine, the ammo is displayed on your weapons whenever you raise them to aim, your oxygen levels appear above your suit in a hologram display when you enter oxygen deprived rooms or areas. You can also bring up your inventory in a hologram styled display. You can scroll between recordings, both video and sound, which you can watch and/or hear as you shoot necromorphs, text records, and your map, which you can look through while exploring the USG-Ishimura. Not only do you have this beautiful styled interface that submerses you into the gameplay environment even more, but you have the magic of the 'B' button! One press of the button uses one of the first-aids in your inventory without you having to open the inventory, press the 'A' button on the first-aid and choose "Use". And in order to conserve your larger health restoration items, it uses the smaller first-aids first. How wicked is that?

Alright, now for the intelligence of the enemies as well as in-depth character descriptions. First, we have our heroic Isaac Clarke, who will go through hell to fix this floating wreckage and salvage whatever's left of the USG-Ishimura. You have your lovely Kendra Daniels to guide you through your adventure as well as Zach Hammond. Isaac is an experienced engineer who is not fit for killing aliens comprised of dead tissue, but happens to have the courage to face them, regardless. He is unarmed at the start, but soon does his arsenal of weapons become available to him in order to make necromorph confrontations a little more interesting. He also finds two useful little devices that serves great purposes. The Stasis Module is used for slowing down enemies and objects. See a wacky door and don't want to get cut down by its malfunctioning fury? The Stasis Module is here to help! See a fast and twitchy necromorph running at you? The Stasis Module is again, here to help. However, there is a downfall to this useful tool: it needs to be recharged. Your stasis supply is not unlimited, so find the nearest stasis recharge station or stasis supply. Next device is our Kinesis Module. This little device allows you to pick up and move certain objects in your environment. If you want to conserve ammo, you can use the Kinesis Module to pick up the nearest box, explosive barrel or even a severed limb and launch it at your enemy. It's also great for moving heavy objects that block your path. Kinesis Module does not require recharging, but can only pick up objects or items from a limited range. Plenty of tools to use when playing with Necromorphs, and that pleases me.

The necromorphs. Sneaky creatures who want nothing more than to kill you and use your body to spawn more necromorphs. We can use our several weapons and tools to handle this hostile threat, but the method of approach sometimes makes that difficult as well as the variety of different necromorph encounters Isaac must face. The most common of necromorphs is the slasher. Long spines protrude from his palms, two little arms protrude from his belly and he's missing a lower jaw. This ugly and typically fast monster, like every other necromorph, can only be killed by dismembering it. No cliche head or body shots - just pure disturbing dismemberment. I love this concept because of its originality and interesting approach when handling the foes. Not only are these deadly creatures hostile, but they're sneaky too. They mainly get around the USG-Ishimura by running through the vents - and they're good at it. Walking down the hall? Keep your eyes on the ceiling or walls. A necromorph is bound to pop out somewhere. The lack of music and intense sounds leave you just anxious as you anticipate any possible necromorph attack, whether it be a lurker's screaming firing of barbs, or a brute's deadly charge, or even a leaper's sudden ambush. No matter the foe, they always keep you on your feet, traumatizing Isaac to an extent we can only imagine. The boss fights are difficult too. The most difficult for me was a creature called the Leviathan. I died countless times on the impossible difficulty (unlocked once you beat the game once), and I had very little ammo, but I eventually prevailed. However, the most disappointing, but still visually appealing, boss fights was the final boss. I'm not gonna' lie, but he was probably the easiest necromorph I ever encountered, and you'd think he'd just destroy you with his immense size and telekinetic strength. The Hive Mind sounds and looks scary, but really, he's a joke. Still fun to fight though.

Finally, the story line. Isaac, Zach, Kendra and a few soldiers are sent to investigate the USG-Ishimura after recieving a distress signal. They crash into the ship, however, due to its shutdown asteroid defense system. Luckily you all survive (it wouldn't prove to be a very long game if you died as soon as you started the game). You all realize it's empty. It doesn't take long, however, for the true greeting to reach out and shake you like a blender. You're right away, running for your very life, unarmed as the deadly necromorphs are pursuing you. You soon find a trusty Plasma Cutter to help you through, though. In fact, you get a nice achievement if you complete the game with nothing but a Plasma Cutter (I have every achievement for this game). Oh, and did I mention that Isaac's girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, is on this ship? So not only are you trying to fix the entire USG-Ishimura, but you're also desperately searching for your girlfriend. Of course you encounter video recordings here and there, but the truth behind the cause of this misfortune will probably drive you insane. Haha! The very end has an amazing twist as well. I was shocked upon discovery. I couldn't believe it. It left me with countless questions and wonders. Oh, and not to mention that Isaac will probably have intense psychological problems if he is to survive this mess.

That's about all I can say at this time. I give it a good 9.2/10. This is one of my all-time favorite games and a true blessing to the gaming world. Dead Space will leave you anxious, yet desiring more as you venture deeper into the chaos that is the USG-Ishimura (I've mentioned the name of the ship over five times. Can you remember it now?!). I strongly recommend you try this game.

I'm also looking forward to the sequal. Oh, and there's an animated movie called Dead Space: Downfall. Really good backstory to the game. Another great addition to the backstory is Dead Space: Extraction for the Nintendo Wii. Styled like House of the Dead, and sure to keep you going, although I've never played it.

Sincerely,
Bleed.