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Dead Space

• By Travis Moses
• November 08, 2008 13:53 PM PST
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Dead Space is a riveting survival horror game, unflinchingly violent from start to finish. Blindly unpredictable and incredibly intense, Dead Space keeps your heart pumping the entire game. It's got aliens, zero-g shootouts, blood, guts, and broken bones. It's unnervingly tense one moment and piss-your-pants terrifying the next. It's an exhilarating tale of aliens, claustrophobia, and isolation in a dark corner of outer space where no one can hear you scream.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Dead Space is a showcase piece of dark-side entertainment that rivals the marvelous designs of such games as BioShock, Gears of War, and Resident Evil 4. But be advised that it is definitely not for the queasy or the faint of heart. Still, if you can stomach its horrors, you will be rewarded with one of the best survival horror experiences ever created.

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EDITORS' NOTE: After extensive play through both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 versions of Dead Space, we found both versions to be identical in terms of gameplay, graphics, and control.

Read "Surviving the 20 Biggest Moments in Dead Space" here

Crash Landing

Dead Space draws inspiration from a variety of sources but its most obvious reference point is the movie Aliens. The simple yet effective story centers on a three-man crew of space engineers who are sent to investigate a distress signal aboard the USG Ishimura, an enormous mining vessel capable of harvesting entire planets for resources. The mission is routine: repair the communications blackout and return home. Of course, things won't stay that simple for long.

You are cast in the role of Isaac Clarke, a space engineer equipped with a protective armor piece called "the Rig." After Clarke and the other engineers crash land on the USG Ishimura, you quickly discover that the mining vessel has been overrun by an infection of mysterious origin called the Necromorph. The creatures in Dead Space hide inside their human hosts and mutate into disgusting creatures, much like the baddie from the film The Thing.

To survive the xeno-onslaught, you must shoot the crap out of everything that moves. But the aliens in Dead Space don't die if you shoot them in the head. An effective kill requires that you first dismember the appendages-arms, legs, tentacles-of an alien before you can be sure it won't get up again. It's a unique twist on the familiar "headshot" equation and the strategy and creative aiming required adds an interesting twist.

Desperate Times, Brutal Weapons

To help you kill off your foes, you'll gain access to a wide range of mining tools that prove adept at slicing and dicing the grotesque abominations; these unique armaments range from plasma cutters to industrial lasers. The weapons convey a satisfying sense of destruction when fired, and they can be upgraded to deal more damage, reload faster, and increase ammo capacity. Each weapon also has an alternate attack that proves equally useful as the primary fire. The firefights are in your face and frantic, thanks in large part to the brutal and resilient adversaries you'll face.

In addition to the laser guns, flamethrowers, and buzz saw launchers, you also have an arsenal of telekinetic abilities. Stasis is a slow-motion projectile that's used to stop enemies and slow down fast-moving platforms or doors. Telekinesis allows you to manipulate objects from afar, pull distant items closer, move broken spaceship pistons, and hurl explosive canisters. Telekinesis is essentially the equivalent to having Force Push and Grip powers from Star Wars. Why your character has psychokinetic powers is never addressed by the narrative but they definitely add a nice flair to the gameplay.

If You Build It...

Throughout the game, you will also come across blueprints for new weapons that can be redeemed at the in-game store. The same goes for ammo, items, and suit upgrades. They're expensive, but upgrading your Rig suit to level five is crucial to your survival (and it looks really cool to boot). As the suit levels up, more and more armor plating is applied to The Rig's outer frame; it's one of many nice graphical touches throughout the game.

The same goes for the level design in Dead Space. You're confined to a single spaceship and the game takes you through the different compartments, from the crew's quarter to the hydroponics lab and the awe-inspiring command bridge that looks out into deep space. Every section of the ship has a different look and feel, and even though you revisit a few of the same locations later in the game, it never feels repetitive or tired. Besides which, the environments doesn't exactly stay static, but I won't say anything beyond that.

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