Author Topic: Power Up: Dead Space  (Read 1828 times)

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Offline cannedcream

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Power Up: Dead Space
« on: September 01, 2011, 09:45:40 AM »
THE STORY

Engineer Isaac Clarke and the small crew aboard his ship head towards a mining vessel to discover why the ship has dropped all communication, even before they land things go horribly wrong. Their shuttle crashes into the ship’s docking port, nearly tearing it and the men inside to shreds. From here things only get worse. Upon entering the vessel Isaac discovers the entire crew of one thousand missing and in their wake is a slew of horrific monsters. Isaac must battle his way through the ship, making repairs as he goes along in a desperate attempt to find a way out of this floating hell, all while the truth about a powerful cult, his crewmates, and his wife unfold around him.


THE GAMEPLAY

If you ever played a shooter, then you’ve pretty much played Dead Space, but that’s a bit like saying “if you’ve played Go Fish, you’ve played Texes Hold’em.” Sure both are technically in the same category, but it’s the differences that make this game worth the play. As anyone who has every played a game where you pick up a gun and bad things run at you has come to be taught, most enemies can be fallen by pumping them full of ammo. Dead Space takes a unique little twist on this concept to put the player in a new and uncomfortable position in each firefight. As the player, you are unable to fall enemies by blasting them full of bullets, or even by taking off the head. Each enemy needs to have its limbs severed from its body before it will fall, meaning that accuracy is a far better skill to have than speed. It’s an interesting spin on the franchise that works rather well.

The number of weapon you pick up through the game is a bit on the small side, but each one unique enough that you have to wonder if more guns would have just become redundant. Every type of weapon you could want is represented here, be it a flamethrower, a machine gun, or even a gun that fires hovering saw blades. Most players are sure to find a weapon combo that works for them and will enjoy switching on the fly to hack monsters to bits, and being able to upgrade your arsenal as you go helps make each weapon feel a little more personal, make you able to turn even the starting plasma beam into an unstoppable wave of death.

Along with the guns, Isaac eventually gains two pieces of tech. The first allows him to telekinetically pick up objects and either hurl them at enemies or drag far away times to him. This power works rather well and is used occasionally throughout the game to solve puzzles. Though it’s best used for chucking explosive canisters at monsters and bosses.

The second power has Isaac slowing down enemies or objects to a crawl. On bad guys, it’s perfect for getting yourself some breathing room if cornered, or to line up the perfect shot. And like the telekinetic, it’s occasionally used to help advance through the levels, like by stopping a malfunctioning door, for example. Unlike the previous power, though, this one costs energy to use, and while the plus side of this is that it keeps players from spamming the power, the fact is that there are so many recharge stations scattered around the levels as well as power packs to find that it might as well be unlimited.

Speaking of the levels, one of the biggest faults with Dead Space is how linear it is. There is one path and one path only from Point A to Point B and very little room is left for exploration. At best, players may find an alcove or two with some ammo or credits lying about, but don’t expect to feel any sort of accomplishment for finding an area that anyone else not playing the game with the TV turned off and working the controller with their feet could find.


THE AUDIO/VISUALS

Like a good horror movie, Dead Space brings together both lighting and sound to really put the player on edge. Pitch black corridors or malfunctioning lights giving a strobe-light effect screw with the player’s vision, making them really work to comprehend if that shape in front of them is a shadow or some new horror ready to pounce. The music is a bit generic and forgettable, but it does its part in riling up the nerves. And the sounds of scraping against the walls or the far off screech of something very inhuman will cause almost anyone to slam down on the trigger button.

Playing through Dead Space, I was often reminded of my first job at a haunted house attraction. Set in a military complex overrun with a zombie toxin, Dead Space captured a lot of what my work place did: same type of dim or flashing lighting, same use of sound effects to put people on edge, same decoration of blood, gore, and forced abandonment. To me, this made the game a little extra special. Not only that, but I found myself appreciating the effort that went into putting an edge against a player’s senses. But even keeping this in mind, there was no escaping the fact that graphically, this game is rather bland in the visual department excusing the few times you get to venture outside of the ship. Otherwise, expecting hours and hours of looking at metal, metal, metal.


THE BOTTOM LINE

Not really being a fan of shooters, even I have to admit that Dead Space hooked me. Sure it was only for a brief bit because this game is very short, but the point was I still had fun. Still, outside of being able to carry over my weapons, armor, and items into a New Game Plus (as long as you’re okay staying on the same difficulty), there’s not too much reason to take this trip again anytime soon. For me, if I’m going to drop money on a game, I want more than two to three days of causal play out of it.

All in all I would say that this is the perfect type of game to rent for yourself during a slow patch where nothing good is being released and you find yourself bored with whatever your collection of titles may be, but for the interesting new things brought to the table as well as some very stable gameplay, I can’t get passed how scripted, linier, and short Dead Space is.

THE REPORT

SKIP/RENT/BUY

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

It's summertime, and you know what that means. Gonna head down to the beach, gonna do some beachy things. It's summertime, feels just right. Gonna gather all my friends and we'll party through the night. It's summer time lo-uh-uh-uhvin', lovin' in the summertime.