A smorgasbord of bloody goodness if you can get past those horrid controls.
Graphics: 9
Sounds: 10
Value: 8
Tilt: 8
Actual score: 8.3
Back in 1979, the film Alien brought viewers a new meaning for deep space horror as the slogan correctly states 'In space no one can hear you scream'. This brought a new form of horror that viewers and later on gamers craved for more. EA Redwood Shores caught this concept and upon many months of researching space horror ideas released Dead Space and the net result: a smorgasbord of bloody goodness if you can get past those horrid controls otherwise the Alien's slogan will change to 'In space everyone can hear you scream'.
You play the main character Isaac Clarke (named after the science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke) and with a small team of engineers, answered a SOS request from the biggest and meanest Planet Cracker USG Ishimura for repairs. Instead of landing in the docking bays of USG Ishimura, the pilot decides to crash land the craft otherwise if he didn't there will be no story. And besides the hero Isaac also has a secondary agenda that his girlfriend Nicole Brennan was actually on Ishimura as a medical expert and considering her last message was requesting help, naturally one assumes that all is not rosy on the good ship. As far as a storyline goes, it's a little overused however the only thing that puzzled me was that considering the repairers only consists of a handful of chaps, if you do a size comparison to the Planet Cracker USG Ishimura, personally I would send an armada of engineers; say at least one hundred.
Dead Space revolutionised some motions of how this game should work. The ole familiar HUD is no longer there as players sometimes complained about the HUD took up screen space; well to those who expressed their concerns, Redwood Shores made the HUD as part of the armour; that glowing light on the spine is his life points, the ammo clip is marked on the weapon and the stasis is that circular object to the right of the glowing spine. All the quests, logs and inventory are displayed using holographic projection and when traversing in vacuum the 'air timer' is located on your neck so it's goodbye to HUD and hello to viewing the entire character which takes up a quarter of the screen - very ironic indeed.
Another revolutionised concept is the dismemberment of foes. Yes I know that this is not original however the easiest way to kill the enemies in Dead Space is to dismember them so forget about shooting their abdomen and welcome 'Texas Chainsaw' style and please don't hold back. It's obvious that the developers put ample of time in this form of killing as practically every limb can be chopped away; legs, arms, head, tentacles and whatever else protruded out from these fiends. In addition, dismemberment equals lots of blood so please don't be shy and try to be creative. Heck, I got into the habit of 'foot stomping' the bodies just to see the blood rain heavily out and do some more until they completely dried up; then telekinesis the parts for good measure over rails and if possible into space.
If you are as blood thirsty as I am (maybe I was a vampire in my previous life) all of these actions are not easy to perform. The controls for Dead Space are nothing more than dead confusing. Every combat action requires Isaac to aim and this is where the game gets really scary; if Isaac wants to shoot, aim and click the left mouse button (easy); if Isaac want to use telekinesis aim and press the assigned key (whatever that maybe and nope the left mouse button has already taken), using stasis, aim and press another key; jump (in zero g) aim and press another friggin key (and so on). Unless you have more than five digits per hand this is not cool. In addition to all of this nonsense the game has a noticeable lag when 'mouse aiming' however the solution is turn v-sync off. That's not a bad idea if you want extremely slow aiming motion yet when v-sync is turned on the mouse speed lags a moment when moving. My solution: when you hear/see a creature, r-u-n like hell then compose yourself and pray.
Considering Dead Space being tagged as a survival horror, Isaac is going to work hard to obtain equipment and items and it certainly pays to rummage around the Ishimura for cash, ammo, power nodes (which make items upgradeable and unlock certain rooms), systematics and logs. Money can be used to purchase more items but only systematics allows you to unlock more weapons and enhances armour (similar to Bioshock where you collect scraps and cash to upgrade/purchase more ammo/weapons). Also Dead Space encourages thought process that sometimes just dissecting the enemy is not the only way (as it waste ammo) therefore utilising the telekinesis to fling canisters towards your foes could be a much more viable option for example.
The graphical power behind Dead Space is no other than the Unreal 3 engine as this engine is arguably the most utilised and resource friendly to date. Everything from Isaac himself to the critters are all rendered to perfection. Considering that Dead Space is also tagged as a survival horror, lighting effects are very important to create the ambience and loneliness when traversing the ship. The gaming optimisation (e.g. resolution, AA settings etc) is somewhat on the poorer side as there are little to choose from however (and luckily) the Unreal engine is well scripted therefore any mid-range PC can enjoy the visuals without too much sacrifice to frame rates. And if you have enough health points or if you are a sadist and like to see Isaac breathe his last breath, the death cut-scenes are really cool to watch as sometimes Isaac might punch/kick the enemy off him or simply get sliced into half.
The real highlight though for Dead Space is in the sounds as the entire package really brings out the terror just by listening. Every creature has its own noticeable yet terrifying noise that can really bring shivers down your spine as they range from moans to clicking to even scratching and bone-crunching as they walk, scurry and even fly about. Also the sounds of blood gushing out, bones snapping and even bodies squishing when walking/stomping on them adds disgust but in a good way. What enhances this haunting ambience are the occasional whispers echoing the corridors about 'search and rescue' and et al in addition there's one chapter you can hear faintly the song 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' (with modified lyrics) can startle even the most 'ice cold' person.
The musical scores are all in high quality as you expected to hear if you are watching a high-budgeted film and not surprisingly the composer is none other than Jason Graves. It seems that EA really want to enter the music market as you can download the soundtrack via iTunes as it's a well-deserve purchase to those who likes intense compositions. The voice acting also needs to be commendable as the entire cast certainly shows emotions when conversing with Isaac yet and unfortunately so, Isaac is your typical mute hero but credit is due as you can hear his wheeze and suffocation when getting wounded/run out of air as it's so well recorded it can even make you feel the same.
As far as a third person shooter goes and the amount of activities you need to finalise (that is locating all the logs, shoot hoops via the zero g basketball game or even score high in the shooting gallery) this game can easily take between fifteen to twenty hours and if you are a sadist like me to foot stomp at every opportunity or attempt some 'house cleaning' via the telekinesis expect more hours. Considering there is no multiplayer option, completing the game does unlock further features (which I'm not going to mention) and naturally there's a wealth of information on the internet about the world of Dead Space. In addition, Dead Space also has a prequel movie 'Downfall', a six part comic series and a free 'Myst' type online game 'No Known Survivors' so there's plenty to do beyond the game itself. And lastly if you are a clever duck, there's an easter egg in acrostic form that explains some things and I hope this wasn't a *ahem*dead give-a-way.
Dead Space promised the collection of all things horror and certainly succeeded in doing so. With such a talented team behind the game (e.g. the musical scores, acting, graphics etc) and all things being equal Dead Space is a sure champion. But sadly though, the mechanics is something that should be improved on as the game feels as it was designed for the controller only. However all is not lost as if you are able to 'retrain' your thoughts to grasp these newer forms of controls you'll find that Dead Space is certainly a game not to be missed. In hindsight, Dead Space is like a combination between Bioshock, Doom 3 and Cold Fear; that said if you like at least one of these games, boot up Dead Space and enjoy the ride.