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Review: Dead Space
For this and other reasons, the game exists on a knife-edge. And when you’re not studiously reloading all of your weapons – you have slots for four but are able to put others in storage – you’re wondering when it will fall. A vertiginously hardcore arena battle, perhaps, a cheap boss or a trip to the ‘toilets and packing crates’ level. Trapped on a Nostromo-esque company ship in a Capcom-inspired game, surely they’re just around the corner.
Or not, as the case may be. Instead, the bosses go easy, the ship is never as dull as its blueprints suggest (though there are toilets), and the battles are tweaked almost to perfection, often with a satisfying gimmick to round them off. The frequent trips into zero-gravity are outstanding, not to mention a gore-hound’s delight. And with save points on almost every wall and checkpoints at almost every door, it doesn’t outstay its welcome. The developer may have copied but it has also learned – and what it’s learned most of all is that gamers, much like moviegoers, don’t like to think about their aching buttocks. As such, the only things stopping you are fear and the prospect of a cup of tea.
Those expecting evil twins, monsters from the id and blood pouring out of the elevator shafts, though, should probably go after those 100 DVDs instead. Perhaps inevitably, the game is no better at imitating classic psychological horrors than Event Horizon before it, the story reaching a similarly harebrained conclusion. Its final plot twist is so Earth-shatteringly obvious that even Clarke puts his hand to his forehead, and the characters around him work almost entirely as dynamos for tension and plot. This is stellar stuff, regardless, but more in the vein of Alien than Don’t Look Now.
Word has it that Dead Space began life as a ‘skunkworks’ project – a hands-off experiment designed to test unproven talent and forge new IP. There are also apocryphal tales of numerous project restarts. Whatever the truth, Redwood Shores can at least take its unenviable reputation – From Russia With Love, anyone? – and blast it out the nearest airlock. With the aforementioned J-horrors approaching difficult fifth instalments, the nightmares resume here.
8/10
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
Yeah, this game is absolutely awesome. What's crazy is how it integrates the bits inspired from other games/movies with the innovative bits to deliver a very coherent universe and game. I think I'd be ready to stamp it game of the year, in account of 1) How great it is, 2) The fact that this is a brand new IP (and not the nth installment of the same concept).
@ Dogstar060763: I have to say that when I talked about this game to friends and coworkers, the Doom 3 inspiration wasn't at the top of my list. When you look at it, almost everything you listed is related to the story/backstory, and these are fairly common scifi themes. But when you look at gameplay, there's not much in common between Doom 3 and Dead Space; only the log system - which is now a very classical way to naturally unfold narrative - and the manipulator - which is also a classic nowadays (wait, you mean the time-slowing thing or the Grabber? Not that it really matters actually, as both have been done before and haven't been invented by id software in the 1st place).
"...Taking Event Horizon and Resident Evil 4 as its starting points..."
At least I finally get to take issue with EDGE over this. I can see where you get the references from and how you apply them to Dead Space, but in my experience with the game, Dead Space's closest influence is, without any doubt, Doom3. But look for any mention in this 98% of professional reviews of this game and you'll be searching in vain.
And I really need to ask "Why?".
Dead Space borrows most heavily from id's Doom3 in so many ways it's almost laughable how most critics seem to be going out of their way NOT to mention any of it.
Well, allow me, EDGE:
Ancient relics
Video, audio and text logs setting out the back story
A time-manipulation device (see: D3:RoE)
An organic infestation
Dead crew reanimated as mindless killers
A high-tech, brilliantly designed SF environment consisting largely of linear 'corridor play'
Fantastic use of light and shadow
Cloying, relentless atmosphere, enhanced by clever use of sound
Etc, etc...
How did you NOT see any of this, EDGE? My God, there's even - if you look closely - a direct reference to a certain 'Carmack' in one of the text messages picked up by Isaac (Carmack is referred to as 'a scientist').
This was a disappointing review - not for the score, which I think is fair - but for the shabby and almost wilful decision not to include the most obvious game reference applicable. If EA Redwood Shores' own dev team saw fit to pass a nod to John Carmack in their own game, I find it beyond belief journalists of the calibre of EDGE could miss such an obvious shadow (if you'll forgive the pun) cast over the game.
The fact that in the self-same issue you carried the rather excellent retrospective on Doom3 kinda evened things out - but I'm still, as you can no doubt tell, chafing.
Good points on Doom 3.
However, there are at least one major difference: the lack of the occult in Dead Space. Its story might not be the most sophisticated but it's far more interesting than Dr Kleiner Goes Mad and All Hell Break Loose on Mars, right?
Great game, some cheap scares but very very much enjoyed - they ripped off a lot from system shock 2, everything from the loading screen to some of the missions; but overall effing great stuff.
Huh?
Original IP from Electronic Arts? And it's GOOD?! That's fantastic news! I just wish they'd figured out how to make a good game after Christmas when I could afford it!
This is the first game I'm considering not finishing because it's too scary. I've only finished the first two levels/chapters and I've already jumped 4-5 times. I'm a pretty big horror game/movie fan and the more gory, scary, and disturbing the better for me. I do have the game on hard instead of starting on normal, but it seems death comes often and ammo doesn't. The fear may also come from that fact that each enemy has the ability to end your life pretty easily so you have to be careful with any enemy you come into contact with. That may have more to do with it being on hard than the game balance itself, but it does seem like (as the reviewer mentioned) ammo amounts have been intentionally left sparse so you really need to be accurate with your shots. I think that adds to the tention because if you're not accurate enough you just might run out of bullets and that typically ends with you losing any number of limbs, your head, or just being cut right in two.