Dead Space is an adventure game at heart. No, I'm not talking about those old-school adventure games with a bunch of different dialogue choices. I mean, it's an action adventure game, with a horror twist. The horror part of the game is definitely dominant, but not too dominant. I guess this game could also be put into the survival horror genre of games. It's a lot things. And one of those things happens to be: fun. Don't get me wrong. Dead Space is not a perfect game. But it does have a lot going for it. It has a strong, human main character you get to play as. It has the great enemies you lot to kill. And, it has a great story you can really get behind. Yeah, I'd have to say, Dead Space is a great game. You play through the game as a character named Isaac Clarke, who, for some reason, seems to have the worst of luck. His ship is stranded and he's stuck on it all alone. Well, mostly alone. The rest of his crew have contracted some kind of virus, and are now mutating into some ugly looking freaks, with a desire to kill any and all humans in site. Isaac is tasked with finding a religious artifact called 'the marker', which, to some cult-like members of his crew, is the reason behind the outbreak. Of course, who's to know, because they're all dead or mutated. Anyway, the main idea behind the game is fighting your way (via 3rd person perspective, of course) through all of these freaks, while looking for surviving crew members and trying to apprehend 'the marker'. You have some help via your friends on other ships, but most of the time, you're by yourself on this adventure. There is a large variety of weapons and upgrades for them, so it's always interesting to play the game through multiple times with different weaponry and upgrades. Isaac can also upgrade his suit, called a 'rig', to increase his breathing time for when he's in space environments, and increasing his health bar. You can do this with power nodes found throughout your adventure. I'd also like to note that I really like the fact that each chapter, or level in the game, is set on a different part of the ship. So, when you're done with a chapter, you simply go the subway-like train and transport to the next area of the ship, where the next chapter begins. Also, when killing the freaks in the game, you can't just shoot them in the head. You have to dismember their arms and legs to kill them. This takes more precision aiming and fast thinking. It's a good idea. This game is set in the far reaches of space, so it's also a sci-fi game. Basically, it's sci-fi horror, which isn't done much in games, so it's nice to see. The whole game has an interesting look to it, which brings me to the graphics.
The graphics are very nice, and there's little here that isn't done well. The metal walls of the ships interior (and exterior) look great, and Isaac's suit looks really well designed and futuristic. The enemies look very creepy and it's all done with top of the line texture modeling and animations. This game looks great. Keep in mind though, it's very gory. There's a lot of dismembered limbs and blood in this game. The death scenes when an enemy kills you is particularly gory.
The sounds of the monsters and just the noises that fill the silence of a room on the ship really help bring out the tension and fear in the player. This helps to set the mood, and let you know what's going on in the ship. The music only helps it more, by providing some creepy string music to help carry the frightening mood. It's all here in true, classic horror movie style.
The game is presented very well, with all of the menus done with an interesting hologram display, that you can move the camera around and look at at all angles. The game's title screen is the same way. It's futuristic and does the trick. However, I think the designers could have done better.
Overall, Dead Space is a very scary game, and one of the few games that truly brings the thrills and chills of a good horror moving to the small screen of gaming. It's also a very well done action adventure game, with an original story and gameplay that could build a strong series for EA. I hope it continues. (In fact, as of this writing, Dead Space 2 has already been created, and Dead Space 3 is in the works). This is horror gaming done right.
Graphics: 8.9 out of 10
Sound and Music: 9.5 out of 10
Presentation: 8.4 out of 10
Gameplay: 9.4 out of 10
Overall: 9.0 out of 10
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