Game Review - Dead Space (XBOX 360)

Dead Space

Horror video games rarely go the way of shooters; instead, they insist on more tactful ways to survive, requiring you to conserve ammo or even run away from monsters. There might be more hand-to-hand combat, and putting you close to the action serves as a way to scare the player. But Dead Space doesn't limit itself to survival horror like the early Resident Evil or Silent Hill games do - instead, the game finds a way to put you in some very tense situations where the only way out is to strategically blast your way through.

Dead Space's story is fairly simple. You're on a rescue crew sent out to a space station that has been overcome by Necromorphs, humans who have been transformed by an alien artifact on the ship into monstrous creatures. A third-person camera views over the shoulder of your character, Isaac Clarke, as he is sent throughout the ship to find out what's happening. Along the way, he stumbles upon some even bigger bad dudes, a doctor who seems pretty crazy, and a few other surprises which keep the story fresh. Though the plot of the story is pretty similar to Doom 3, which released a while back, it never feels too unoriginal or repetitive.

The Necromorphs that you face all have a common flaw in their genetic make-up: if you blast off their appendages, they take more damage. This is a technique different to most shooters; instead of pelting enemies in the head and body, you'll have to target the legs or arms of the creatures in order to conserve ammo. It rewards the practiced player - if you can get good at cutting off limbs, you should have no problems with the weaker Necromorphs. It's the bigger baddies that'll get you.

The creature designs are varied, and you'll encounter around five different types of Necromorphs. A pregnant Necromorph will spill out mini-Necromorphs that attach to Isaac's suit and prove to be quite a hassle. There are Brutes, very tough, armored Necromorphs that charge and take a lot of health away. There are some even bigger enemies as well, but I won't spoil the surprises.

The guns will help you out big time, though. The weapons are less like guns and more like saw shooters, because most of the weapons have some sort of device that chops things up into tiny bits. Each gun has a secondary shot as well, so there's a lot of experimentation to be done on different enemies to see what works the best. Just don't waste too much ammo.

The gameplay's pretty solid, switching areas up between dimly-lit, small corridors and wide-open areas. There're also a few mini-games to played as well, including zero-G basketball and some turret-gunning segments sure to frustrate (at least for the achievements). Shooting is relatively easy to get used to but hard to master, especially in hectic confrontations with a few Necromorphs at once. Dead Space can sometimes overwhelm the player into shooting willy-nilly.

The game can be pretty scary for the first few hours, especially for players just starting out. Enemies jump out of grates in the walls, sometimes dropping down right behind you if you're not paying attention. You'd think that open areas might be less scary as well; not so in this game, as you can never be too sure where a Necromorph is waiting. Sound is key here, and the effects are fantastic. After a while, one gets used to the common places Necromorphs are found, but for the first few chapters of the game, I proceeded very cautiously, scared at every turn that a Necromorph would be looking me in the face.

Replay value is also pretty high. A few achievements require multiple playthroughs, including the difficult Impossible mode. One can also upgrade their guns to maximum for use on a second playthrough of the game on the same difficulty level.

Dead Space is a pretty scary ride, and definitely long enough to be worth your money. For the hardcore gamer, it might take 7-10 hours to finish the game on the first playthrough, but the achievements require additional hours spent. If you're looking for a scary, action-packed, fast-paced horror game, Dead Space is a better bet than slower, methodical games like Resident Evil, and the gameplay is ultimately more varied due to the reliance on limb-cutting.