By Sam Coles:
I remember buying Dead Space when I was 16 years old
from my local retro game store which I still go to now. When I took it to the
counter the guy asked me if I have heard of this game and I said No, I bought
it because it looked cool. How he described was “Resident Evil 4 in space” I
was immediately sold on that concept because I just finished Resident Evil 4 at
that point. I took it home and it was a hot and dark evening everyone in my
house had gone to bed and I didn’t realise how tense and scary this game was
not only through the jump scares, but with the atmosphere as it borrows from
Doom 3.
You play as Isaac Clark an engineer who has been
sent to a space station that has gone dark on the radar. You get to the station
and find that no one is there and there is nothing but darkness, silence and
the distant hums of machinery still working. It’s not long until you find out
that everything has gone wrong and the station is occupied by mutated humans
called necromorphs. Isaac runs for his life into a lift where the monster tries
to pry open the doors but the strength of the doors over whelm it where the
doors then proceed to snap shut and tear its arms off. This game is very gory
so if you don’t like intense violence then you won’t like this.
The gameplay is a third person shooter mixed with
survival horror like Resident Evil 4, you would think that this game wouldn’t
be scary as you have a decent amount of ammo, you would be wrong. The atmosphere
is what sells this game for me the game is surprisingly quiet most of the time
with no music, it’s the distant hums of the computers and machinery in the
background that accompany you throughout the game with the subtle scratches in
the vents as the necromorhps stalk you. This game makes you cautious about
corpses where you curb stomp them without hesitation because you never know if
it will get up and rearrange your head towards your chest.
The main gameplay mechanic/gimmick is that you have
to shoot off their limbs in order to kill them because shooting them in the
head won’t cut it no pun intended. Aim for their legs, arms or cut them in half
with a buzz saw it is really satisfying the combat.
You have upgrade elements with your suit which will
let you take more damage or increase time of your telekinesis or time slow
down. Oh yes you have specialised powers similar to Bioshock which will help
you solve puzzles or give you an edge in combat.
Presentation is fantastic with detailed environments
and the character models still look good whether they’re human or not. Actually
let’s talk about the enemy design because it’s very interesting because if
memory serves me Visceral based the design of the necromorphs on human accident
photos they studied with horrendous injuries hence why they look so grotesque
with bone protruding out of their shoulders etc.
Dead Space is a tense and terrifying experience if
you’re looking for a good horror game for your Xbox 360, PS3 or PC then grab
this game it’s very cheap and easy to find so go out and get it!
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