Iv'e been going through my library of games recently, when i couldn't find anything interesting for me at the time i went out to the box in my garage that holds a massive amount of Game cases and sitting there on top was the original Dead Space case, dead space is a pretty important game to me having introduced me to real survival horror and giving me a love of horror in general so i though why not review one of my all time favourite game series, so for the next few days i'm going to dive into Dead Space and explore the lore and game play that made it such a massive hit.
Story and Setting.
Dead Space is a survival horror RPG, you take control of Isaac Clarke, an earth engineer who has been asked to fly out to the Ishimura a planet cracking vessel, in the year 2508 the Earth has became completely depleted of resources, the earth government now a global government, made the first of the planetcracker ships that were used to literally crack planets apart to extract raw materials to keep humanity alive.
The actual beginning of Dead space takes place roughly 5 years before the events of Dead Space when the CEC or Concordance Extraction Corporation illegally enters a sector of space that is off limits in the Aegis cluster, they began to work on the planet and prepare to crack it when the inhabitants of Aegis 7 turn extremely violent when they discover an alien construct known as a Red Marker, after an extended period of time the USG Ishimura is sent to investigate why Aegis 7 has stopped responded, the Ishimura is there for less than 36 hours when a distress call is sent to earth.
Isaac's girlfriend Nicole is working aboard the Ishimura as a medic so he puts himself on the team to the Ishimura, upon arriving however they discover a completely deserted ship that is almost completely locked down, Isaac and a team of engineers enter the docking station and Isaac is sent to a console to check the systems of the ship when from the vents a hideous monster drops down and kills all but 2 of the team who are then scattered as they escape in different directions.
Isaac being safely behind the glass takes the elevator down to the maintenance area where he discovered the dismembered bodies of the crew littering the hallways as well as the hideous necromorphs as they are revealed to be called, Isaac is then forced to fight for his survival throughout the ship while trying to stabilize the ship as it continues to fall out of orbit and it's life support systems fail, having only his CEC suit and a plasma cutter Isaac must discover where these creatures are coming from and where the crew has gone, as well as look for his girlfriend and discover what happened aboard the Ishimura.
Slowly searching throughout the ship, Isaac comes to the bridge of the ship and discovers the captains notes about what happened aboard the Ishimura and the now half destroyed planet Aegis 7, the Red Marker was secretly sequestered away on Aegis 7 by EarthGov a generation ago after they discovered the marker sent out a unique signal to living matter that would first drive them crazy then eventually turn them homicidal before finally reanimating the dead and turning them into the monsters now chasing him, the monsters are the remains of the crew, reanimated into killing machines by the Red Marker that seemingly originated on Earth and that Earthgov was desperate to hide.
As he makes his way through the ship, Isaac begins to feel the pressures of the task ahead of him, every time he finds something out about what happened on the Ishimura the more he fears for not only Nicole's life but his own as the reports from Aegis 7 report that effects from the marker include hallucinations, paranoia and eventual dementia and aggression, he now not only has to deal with the very real threat of the Necromorphs and the fact he has no way off the Ishimura, but also the fact that at any time he too could became insane and turn into one of the creatures stalking the hallways of the Ishimura.
A completely story driven game with deep lore, Dead Space is a great first offering in the series that serves as a great set up but also as a terrific standalone game, The Ishimura is beautifully created environment for horror, tight corridors, hall ways, and threats from every angle, the preferred mode of travel for the Necromorphs are the air vents and give that it's a space ship the vents are everywhere, also having to deal with the environmental factors left by the crew such as lock downs or hazards and a dwindling supply really fuels the narrative of the story of a desperate and afraid man who is alone with time running out and the only way to survive is to keep pushing forward and ripping limb from limb.
Like I also said, Dead Space is a great set up to the next games, Visceral did a great job of creating just enough story and plot lines to keep you interested into the second game while also giving you a great understanding of the dead space universe at large and without spoiling things, the more you discover about what is happening aboard the Ishimura and Aegis 7, the more invested you become as the consequences of success could be worse than the consequences of failure.
Game Play.
The game play in Dead Space isn't ground breaking, but it sure is fun as you unlock better weapons and upgrades your penchant for killing goes up as well, necromorphs aren't like your typical aliens/human enemies, the only thing that really stops them is dismemberment or massive damage, as it's the future and you're an engineer, you'll eventually have access to a whole host of new weapons from simple plasma cutters, to rifles to the heavy contact beam that can disassemble a necromorph with one shot.
Unlike most survival horror, Dead Space forces you to fight every step of the way sort of like Resident Evil, ammo management, health and upgrading are all important as you journey deeper into the Ishimura and face tougher enemies, it's fairly easy to die in Dead Space without some accuracy and skill but largely it's an action style game that requires you to keep on your toes to survive.
Isaac has the benefit of the CEC engineering suit, a suit used by engineers to stave off the hazards of space that provides some things like Armor, increased vitality, oxygen supply and visual and audio cue's such as navigation and current health, this can be upgraded on the Ishimura through power nodes that slot into the suit that can increase all of the aforementioned and better improve your survival chances however power nodes are kind of rare and you need to choose what you need to survive.
Alternatively however weapons also thrive on Power Nodes, depending on your weapon you'll increase 3 main things, Accuracy, Damage and Rate of Fire, most weapons come with an alternative fire but some actually change how the weapon is used and will also need to be upgraded to keep them in fighting shape such as the contact beam or ripper, so ration your power nodes and use them carefully you can't fully upgrade everything in Dead Space.
As i mentioned above Dead Space is about survival and management and while the crew may be dead, the automatic vendors aren't, they will sell you items like health packs, new weapons, ammo and sometimes even power nodes themselves depending on where you are on the ship, you can also sell things you don't want anymore such as ammo for weapons you aren't using or even weapons themselves, the ship is littered with these and the basic currency of credits which can also be used.
But down to brass tacks, the actual game play is smooth and enjoyable, as you never know when and where enemies will come from it keeps you on your toes and a simple trip down a hallway can turn into a nightmare as enemies come in an shapes and sizes and hordes of them roam the ship and given how big the ship is the further you go the harder it's going to become.
It also has some notable boss enemies and "boss" levels that require you to fight through multiple levels to restore ship systems, investigate and search for survivors, ultimately though the game play is linear, and that's a good thing for Dead Space as the game is very story driven I feel like too much emphasis on the different combat mechanics would of ultimately ruined a pretty fun game to play, i'll leave that up to you to decide however.
Critical Review and Reception.
Dead Space may be a little dated now but it's still an amazing game by any stretch with a surprising replay value attached to it, I've personally finished the series about 6 times over the years and I never get bored of it, this could be down to the fact that i love the game and the environment it creates but ultimately it's down to it's story line, while number 1 doesn't go too far in-depth, it sets up the next games in an amazing way, it's only after you finish number 2 that you fully appreciate how good number one was and what the events of the Ishimura set up.
And while the game play might not be ground breaking it's still incredibly fun cutting up monsters in every way you can think of, I said at the start of the review i might be a little biased since the Dead Space series constantly competes within my top 5 video games but I think i'm being objective enough to say a lot of people enjoyed this game and even people who have no idea what Dead Space is will still enjoy it today and want to explore the story line even further.
It's not easy to describe the atmosphere of Dead Space as it's both creepy but incredibly enjoyable at the same time, the developers over at Visceral managed to further the cause of Survival Horror without alienating fans but also by giving them a new fresh perspective on the genre so that it could be action packed while still remaining hard and a little scary in parts and by packing it full of dialogue and story lines.
I'd love to go more further in-depth but there are a lot of spoilers i don't want to ruin on the off chance someone reads this and decides to pick up the game, Dead Space belongs in that special category of games that is better to experience first hand than to talk about and then try, i know i wasn't prepared for dead space the first time i got it and i envy those who might get to experience it for the first time.
One thing i will say though, keep away from those god damn vents!
See you guys tomorrow for Dead Space 2.