Dead Space is a game in the "Survival Horror" genre, as coined by Resident Evil, and in fact has a over-the-shoulder third person point of view as seen in Resident Evil 4 & 5. Dead Space incorporates some features from other survival horror games such as minimal ammunition, and a four-dimensional item box (safe). Where Dead Space deviates from the traditional is where the game manages to be at its best.
Dead Space, as the name implies, takes place in space. Fortunately the developers created a fantastic "Zero Gravity" environment, where you can force your character to perform a "Zero-G Jump". There are also moments when you enter vacuums of space, and an oxygen meter appears, as well as altering the effects of the environment. While in a vacuum, you can only hear your characters breath and muted footsteps - any approaching attackers will only be detectable by using your eyes, or once they've already made their attack. Another feature I am a big fan of is the use of the HUD, or rather, lack thereof. Instead of a traditional HUD, your character Issac's health appear as a colored bar on the spine of his suit, the ammo appears as a graphic next to the gun you are holding when it is aimed, and the in-game real time inventory-map-database menu appears in front of your character as a holographic projection. It really gives you the feel of futuristic technology. Also, conversations with other characters have audio visual appear in a similar way - real time, real danger.
Not all is positive about this game though. While Dead Space is at it's best when it incorporates these new functions, some of the basics of the game manage to dumb down the gameplay. The game is about 12 hours long, and the story line is incredibly linear in both plot and the way you progress through the game. It is broken down into chapters, you start at the beginning of a chapter, access everything you can, end the chapter and move on to another chapter leaving the previous area forever. Also, the in-game map provides you a waypoint system to find every objective - there is rarely a moment of epiphany. You know your objective at every turn, and by the end of the game the "Necromorphs" that appear are almost cliche and expected.
One peculiar method of play is the "dismemberment" as a method of killing your enemies. If you shoot off 3 limbs of an enemy, 9 times out of 10 they are dead, but if you shoot them 10 times in the chest, there is no guarantee. Strategic dismemberment is what the games trailers preach, but I'm sorry, nothing should be coming after me after it's beheaded - call me old school if you will. This game I found it beneficial to aim low to take out attackers legs to slow them literally to a crawl, and then take off an arm or a head. This seemed gimmicky and didn't work for me throughout the entirety of the game - it became redundant, and over the course of a 12 hour game, I found it obnoxious to be forced to shoot enemies multiple times when in other games popping off their heads would have done the trick.
This game is fun, but it worth a rental, not a buy. I give it 3 BuDa's out of 5. There are a plethora of weapons to choose from, and a number of ways to upgrade them, but it's easiest to trample through the game using the pistol you start with and increasing those stats as fast as possible, as opposed to wasting time on making all 7 weapons somewhat enhanced. There is a store where you can continue to buy health and ammo, so there is no real feeling of "survival". I ran out of ammo in an area maybe once or twice, and while it is terrifyingly annoying at the moment, all you need to do is have patience to run back to a save station (which are the opposite of 'far and few between', they're all over the place).
Another issue for me is the clumsiness of the melee system. You cannot control it's aim, and there are only two options - swing high, stomp low. Sometimes trying to stomp on a stationary object can take a try or two. Also, I think this game would have greatly benefited from an AI Director function as used in Left 4 Dead. L4D is a great game every time you play it because it is different and unpredictable. It would be an issue in the game if you ran out of ammo and the AI Director threw a horde at you, cutting off your way back to safety.
More Zero Gravity, more vacuums, less duplication of enemies by creating "dark" types, less linear progression, more exploration, and I need my main character to have a personality - the no speaking main character kills me. I want choice in my video games these days.
This game is fun, but it worth a rental, not a buy. I give it 3 BuDa's out of 5. There are a plethora of weapons to choose from, and a number of ways to upgrade them, but it's easiest to trample through the game using the pistol you start with and increasing those stats as fast as possible, as opposed to wasting time on making all 7 weapons somewhat enhanced. There is a store where you can continue to buy health and ammo, so there is no real feeling of "survival". I ran out of ammo in an area maybe once or twice, and while it is terrifyingly annoying at the moment, all you need to do is have patience to run back to a save station (which are the opposite of 'far and few between', they're all over the place).
Another issue for me is the clumsiness of the melee system. You cannot control it's aim, and there are only two options - swing high, stomp low. Sometimes trying to stomp on a stationary object can take a try or two. Also, I think this game would have greatly benefited from an AI Director function as used in Left 4 Dead. L4D is a great game every time you play it because it is different and unpredictable. It would be an issue in the game if you ran out of ammo and the AI Director threw a horde at you, cutting off your way back to safety.
More Zero Gravity, more vacuums, less duplication of enemies by creating "dark" types, less linear progression, more exploration, and I need my main character to have a personality - the no speaking main character kills me. I want choice in my video games these days.
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