Dead Space is supposed to be the game that resurrects the Survival/Horror genre from the depths of broken down series' like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. You're stuck out in the middle of space with a bunch of psychotic creatures that want to mutilate you in every unnecessary way imaginable.. are you going to be able to handle that?
Gameplay: 7.0
Dead Space is a 3rd person shooter, featuring a unique aspect on the approach you take to defeat enemies. Rather than just unloading bullets on them (which you actually can do) you're supposed to shoot them in the arms and legs to disable them and then eventually smash them or blow them to pieces. It's a weird concept - I didn't get it at first.
However, as far as a Survival/Horror game, the only way you can call it scary is in the same way that a movie like Friday the 13th is scary - stuff gets mutilated and there's limbs and blood and all that nasty stuff all over the place. I don't find it scary at all. I feel that games need to approach their horror more from the psychological aspect as opposed to grossing people out. I've been able to blow zombies apart for a decade now. It never really was scary.
Rather than be a hardcore action game, it's a lot more of a "find the key" kind of game with action thrown in so you don't get too bored. But sometimes the lapses in action are too long and running around is only fun for so long.
A lot of the weapons in the game are actually pretty clunky. My favorite weapon, like in most games, was the pistol, but they have a ton of weapons that feel very ineffective - as if you're just throwing pebbles at enemies, or they are so slow that if you miss, you're gonna pay for it. It's definitely not a smooth shooter at all, which I think was their intention to add to the suspense, but I'm not a fan of that approach. If a game is supposed to be suspenseful, craft scenes to make a user feel scared rather than throwing baseline enemies at them and making their character feel slow or weak.
This game also had a few instances of action that felt like mini-games, where you take control of a turret or jump around the room that I often found more frustrating than rewarding.
Presentation: 8.0
This game's presentation is both really good and really slick, but also annoying and clumsy at the same time.
The graphics themselves are great. It's a dark, messy game, but it's set in space so the conflict between a sterilized space vessel and a messy, blood-and-guts ridden battle scene actually works pretty well. I'm never one to sit and gawk at graphics, but there are a few points where you approach a big window on a ship that shows some scene out in space that I paused and admired.
They also have all of your menus and snippets of video right in front of you as a holographic display instead of pause screens. It brings you into the universe more and changes the game from outside looking in to just being IN the game. Going along with that, they did a good job of eliminating a need for a map by introducing a feature to click a button and show the path you need to take to your next objective.
The thing that really sucks is that your character is just too close to the camera. His body takes up about 20% of the display, which can get really annoying, particularly since you can't see the floor while also looking forward, making your character prone to attacks at his feet or just making stupid mistakes that you wouldn't otherwise make if the camera was moved back a meter or two. It's actually really irritating and takes away from the game, a lot. Such a simple flaw should have been fixed in development.
Theatrics: 8.0
Dead Space's story revolves around you, a guy investigating a disturbance on a lost space vessel and your investigation of the ship's problems.
The story is definitely spread way too thin compared to it's gameplay, and it's exaggerated considering a big bulk of the story is investigating singular events or just being told where to go and doing it.
The voice acting in this game is surprisingly good and is the redeeming quality of the story. There are only a few characters in the game and they deliver their lines very well.. although by the end of the game I didn't really care about the few characters they introduce.
Another complaint about this game is the audio levels are blaring. Frequently you'll be in a fight and it seems like every sound effect is peaking out, causing a sense of rattling in your speakers. It got a little annoying.
Controls: 8.5
Dead Space has pretty good controls. Not really a ton to say about this.
My biggest complaint is that your character feels like he weighs 1,000 pounds, again adding to the feeling that the game is clumsy and slow.
Replay Value: 3.0
It really felt like once you finished the game, you're not going to get new experiences out of playing it again. There aren't really side missions or many collectibles, and with the merchant system they have in the game you feel as though you'll be able to afford anything they have for sale by the end of the game. One play-through felt like that was all there was to the game.
Fun: 7.5
Dead Space, overall, is still a pretty fun game. They had some good ideas and experiencing some of the things they set up is worth at least checking it out. Eventually, the game wears out it's welcome due to frustrations piling up, so I lost interest pretty quickly. It's not a spectacular game by any means, but still above average and fun for the first few hours.
My Overall Rating: 7.2
Appeal and Recommendations
Honestly, this doesn't appeal very much to me both as a shooter fan and as a huge fan of true Survival/Horror games like Silent Hill. I still played it, and it was okay. It seems to be more popular among casual gamers or gamers that feel the need to play basically every game ever made (me?.. heh).
Gameplay: 7.0
Dead Space is a 3rd person shooter, featuring a unique aspect on the approach you take to defeat enemies. Rather than just unloading bullets on them (which you actually can do) you're supposed to shoot them in the arms and legs to disable them and then eventually smash them or blow them to pieces. It's a weird concept - I didn't get it at first.
However, as far as a Survival/Horror game, the only way you can call it scary is in the same way that a movie like Friday the 13th is scary - stuff gets mutilated and there's limbs and blood and all that nasty stuff all over the place. I don't find it scary at all. I feel that games need to approach their horror more from the psychological aspect as opposed to grossing people out. I've been able to blow zombies apart for a decade now. It never really was scary.
Rather than be a hardcore action game, it's a lot more of a "find the key" kind of game with action thrown in so you don't get too bored. But sometimes the lapses in action are too long and running around is only fun for so long.
A lot of the weapons in the game are actually pretty clunky. My favorite weapon, like in most games, was the pistol, but they have a ton of weapons that feel very ineffective - as if you're just throwing pebbles at enemies, or they are so slow that if you miss, you're gonna pay for it. It's definitely not a smooth shooter at all, which I think was their intention to add to the suspense, but I'm not a fan of that approach. If a game is supposed to be suspenseful, craft scenes to make a user feel scared rather than throwing baseline enemies at them and making their character feel slow or weak.
This game also had a few instances of action that felt like mini-games, where you take control of a turret or jump around the room that I often found more frustrating than rewarding.
Presentation: 8.0
This game's presentation is both really good and really slick, but also annoying and clumsy at the same time.
The graphics themselves are great. It's a dark, messy game, but it's set in space so the conflict between a sterilized space vessel and a messy, blood-and-guts ridden battle scene actually works pretty well. I'm never one to sit and gawk at graphics, but there are a few points where you approach a big window on a ship that shows some scene out in space that I paused and admired.
They also have all of your menus and snippets of video right in front of you as a holographic display instead of pause screens. It brings you into the universe more and changes the game from outside looking in to just being IN the game. Going along with that, they did a good job of eliminating a need for a map by introducing a feature to click a button and show the path you need to take to your next objective.
The thing that really sucks is that your character is just too close to the camera. His body takes up about 20% of the display, which can get really annoying, particularly since you can't see the floor while also looking forward, making your character prone to attacks at his feet or just making stupid mistakes that you wouldn't otherwise make if the camera was moved back a meter or two. It's actually really irritating and takes away from the game, a lot. Such a simple flaw should have been fixed in development.
Theatrics: 8.0
Dead Space's story revolves around you, a guy investigating a disturbance on a lost space vessel and your investigation of the ship's problems.
The story is definitely spread way too thin compared to it's gameplay, and it's exaggerated considering a big bulk of the story is investigating singular events or just being told where to go and doing it.
The voice acting in this game is surprisingly good and is the redeeming quality of the story. There are only a few characters in the game and they deliver their lines very well.. although by the end of the game I didn't really care about the few characters they introduce.
Another complaint about this game is the audio levels are blaring. Frequently you'll be in a fight and it seems like every sound effect is peaking out, causing a sense of rattling in your speakers. It got a little annoying.
Controls: 8.5
Dead Space has pretty good controls. Not really a ton to say about this.
My biggest complaint is that your character feels like he weighs 1,000 pounds, again adding to the feeling that the game is clumsy and slow.
Replay Value: 3.0
It really felt like once you finished the game, you're not going to get new experiences out of playing it again. There aren't really side missions or many collectibles, and with the merchant system they have in the game you feel as though you'll be able to afford anything they have for sale by the end of the game. One play-through felt like that was all there was to the game.
Fun: 7.5
Dead Space, overall, is still a pretty fun game. They had some good ideas and experiencing some of the things they set up is worth at least checking it out. Eventually, the game wears out it's welcome due to frustrations piling up, so I lost interest pretty quickly. It's not a spectacular game by any means, but still above average and fun for the first few hours.
My Overall Rating: 7.2
Appeal and Recommendations
Honestly, this doesn't appeal very much to me both as a shooter fan and as a huge fan of true Survival/Horror games like Silent Hill. I still played it, and it was okay. It seems to be more popular among casual gamers or gamers that feel the need to play basically every game ever made (me?.. heh).
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