Gaming, General Gaming|July 8, 2009 5:06 pm

Games That Nobody Plays Anymore: Dead Space



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Dead Space, Space Dead, Dad Space? A futuristic sci-fi horror epic, apparently, set in the future (as I’ve just said) where everything is nice and dandy. That is until EA goes back in time and tells themselves about some made up incident on a mining ship. There’s a strange feeling that it’s all an historical adaptation or something, but twisted and turned into something fictional. Just so the majority of the audience could relate to it. In 2150, I’m sure that would be alright, but as it is now… well… Dead Space isn’t the worst game in the world, but it isn’t exactly the smartest.

You play as Isaac Clarke, some engineer on some ship sent to another ship. A mining ship. The Ishimura. The crew hasn’t contacted anyone for over a billion years, so the… space police (??) send in a small crew of engineers and people to check on them. In other words, they do the most cliched thing in the book and send everybody to their doom. Especially you, oh boy do you get doomed… not exactly death… but I won’t spoil it. Thing is, on this mining ship, they’ve hit some minerals which caused everyone to mutate into aliens who like to eat people. So it’s up to you to GET TO THE CHOPPER! (Get off the ship.)

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As a plot, it’s alright. Nothing revolutionary or philosophically awesome, it gets the job done. One complaint I have to make though is why is Isaac mute? We see his face at the beginning, we see his girlfriend, we see over one hundred people talk to him and he doesn’t actually even nod. What a complete ponce. Unless he’s physically mute, at least he could nod along. I hear him scream, shout and pant when he’s being attacked so he must have some voicebox. I think that EA ran out of money, and instead of hiring a voice actor, they hired a bowl of rice.

On the gameplay side of things, it’s messy. Oh so messy. You have to stop and cycle through your weapons to equip, or go to a store to equip another weapon to replace one of the four you can carry. The inventory happens in real time so you can never get health when running from the ghoulie about to chew your face off. Dead Space also happens to have an aspiration to be a RPG as well, so you’re constantly swapping weapons, upgrading weapons, swapping armor, dancing around like a butterfly and doing what a normal RPG PC would do.

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The developers decided to be complete nuances too, and made it so that each of the aliens can’t be killed, only slowed down. You have to shoot their limbs off, which is actually kind of a fun thing, but these aliens have so many limbs they might as well be giant centipedes. It doesn’t help that the aiming and camera is out of whack, and when your face is being chewed off, you have to tap a button to slap the alien back. Some weapons do different things to fend off aliens – shoot them, blast them away and set them on fire. Which I have to ask, what is a flamethrower doing on a MINING ship?

There’s no real problem with Dead Space, just small little niggles, it’s not exactly scary either. Just disturbing. The story is OK to get through, and the final few chapters are worth it. Some little gameplay mechanics save the combat, like zero gravity and kinesis, and it can be quite cool to just carve your name into alien’s limbs. The whole main game is actually quite long too, plus there’s a heap of downloadable content to enjoy (some free, some paid). All in all, I’m going to say that Dead Space is alright… in fact I might even say that it’s highly alright.

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Author: I'm an English tween working so hard to walk the fine line between wit and breathless stupidity. PSN ID: GIVEMRUBANANAHS XBL: Bananahs
  • http://www.platformnation.com Adam Jagger (Krazy XP)

    Yeah, i hated the fact that pausing didn’t pause. And the aliens kept chewing away at my face when i was trying to get some health! Good article!

  • BR

    You guys do know that pressing one of the face buttons, either square (I think or x for xbox 360) automatically uses the smallest health pack in your inventory. Don’t rip a game just because you didn’t read the help messages in the beginning levels. It sure was more exciting than Resident Evil 5. It doesn’t hold your hand for you and that’s the point. It’s supposed to scare the crap out of you.

  • G-Funk

    Man, if this is how you review a good game, I’d hate to see how you review a bad one. First off, this game is not even 9 months old yet, and it’s already one that “no one plays?” I myself just finished it for the 3rd time in May. As far as all the stuff you complained about, it was hailed by most to be one of the best games of last year, and probably the best horror game to hit the market yet when it came out. Go cruise over to Metacritic or IGN… both professional and reader reviews are almost 9+ across the board. We’re all entitled to our own opinion, but based on this article, I won’t be putting much faith in your reviews from here on out.

  • Nathan Hardisty

    @BR I didn’t know that and to put it simply, I don’t actually have much time to play any video-game. I play them until I can justify an actual opinion on one.

    @G-Funk It’s a single-player experience, unless you’re a devoted fan I don’t see why you’d play through it again. You’d only really come back to it if you got a craving, which we all do from time to time.

    I hate to banter on but Metacritic is a collection of critic’s articles, and obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion. IGN’s opinion is radically different from mine.

    And it’s a bit harsh that you won’t check out my other review simply because of this one :(

  • UBERMANCH

    Stop being a deadspace fanboy; it was a lame game and wasnt even scary. I got more scared at your faggy post that at that game.

  • G-Funk

    I didn’t say I wouldn’t read them, I just said I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in to them… but maybe you’re right, maybe I should read a few more of your articles before coming up with that decision. BTW, I H-A-T-E IGN, I mentioned them only because they have a similar setup as meta-critic in compiling “professional” and reader reviews.

    Which brings me to UBERB1TCH. I’m a fanboy? We don’t have enough console fanboys running around, now there has to be game fanboys? The only personal opinion I let be known about the game was that I thought it was “good” in the top line. Other than that, I was simply pointing out that the vast majority of people would disagree with this review. Get over it.

  • klo-lo

    the game has some flaws… you can’t interact with the other people on your ship and dying guys on the Valor don’t ackknowledge you. the boss battles are repetitive wioth the Hive Mind just roaring at you and slamming its tentacles, Leviathan just shits in your face and teh big guy on the doors doesn’t get up and lunge at you. though you may not be expecting quarintine and the odd preggo round the corner, this game is still very good. i prefer Fallout 3 though as the top 2008 game.

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