Dead Space (PS3)
Pub: EA/Dev: EA Redwood (Visceral)
ESRB: M

Dead Space is a very significant experience for me, as it marries two things I’ve adored about two of the leading survival horror genres.  It unites the gameplay bliss of Resident Evil 4 with the WTF terrors of Silent Hill, and it’s able to bring in several of its own unique qualities to the table.  It’s an astounding game that comes close to dethroning its influence, but it’s not infallible.  But, before we nitpick, let’s praise.

Dead Space is not quite as story-heavy or chatty as its prequel Extraction, (due to the player handling the majority of the game’s tasks on their own with occasional guidance or hindrance from teammates or poor souls trapped on the Ishimura) but the overall plot remains intriguing and well-spun.  It leaves doubts in the player’s mind about our hero Isaac – is he crazy, or is all of this chaos truly happening?  The developers did a brilliant job leaving that fairly ambiguous and up to the player to unravel up to the end (not spoiling it for you), and even then you’re not quite sure.  Well done.

Isaac is very similar to Leon S. Kennedy from RE4 in terms of controls – Isaac lacks a quick turn, but spins faster than Leon and can move as he aims, mostly negating that issue.  Isaac also has all of his vital HUD info cleverly built into his suit, making the screen clear from distracting meters.  His RIG inventory/database is neatly tied into his suit as well, with a holographic image displayed in front of him when you access it.  I also like how holding the right stick in enabled his objective beacon, minimizing confusion on where to go next (and making side rooms more tempting). The store allows you to buy, sell and store items in a easy-to-understand manner, and the game features a “bench” that grants Isaac the ability to upgrade his suit, weapons and special systems with power nodes, which can be found or purchased at the store.  All of this is very well done.

Isaac utilizes futuristic mining equipment that he’s modified for the majority of his arsenal – a military-grade pulse rifle is the only true gun in the game.  That’s not to say Isaac is in dire straits and the player is screwed – quite the opposite.  These mining tools are quite effective at taking on the Necromorph hordes lurking in the ship.  The default weapon, a plasma cutter, is ideal for severing off the limbs of your antagonists due to it deploying a small stream of plasma that can be shot at a vertical or horizontal angle (which is the device’s secondary firing option – all of the weapons feature some special alternate mode).  If the creatures get a bit close, Isaac can try to punish them with a melee clothesline or stomp, or in desperate times when Isaac has gotten caught by one of the beasts, jam on the X button to free himself (and occasionally kill the damn thing).

Beyond his firearms, Isaac has two other nifty gameplay mechanics to his repertoire – the kinesis and stasis modules.  Kinesis is awesome – it lets you grab items, ammo and dead bodies from far away – a big plus given how necromorphs like to jump out at you as you move around.  With this, you can get all the ammo strung about with little fear of reprisal.  Also, you can catch large projectiles and throw them back at your foes, which is really fun.  Some of the random junk on the Ishimura can be flung as deterrents or explosives, as well, making kinesis a valuable tool in surviving.  Stasis slows down enemies and parts of the Ishimura machinery, both of which having their obvious uses.  It has a special meter that you’ll have to keep an eye on unlike kinesis, but it can save your life if you remember you have it.

That’s Isaac boiled down – now let’s focus on what makes the game so thrilling.  The reanimated corpses that you have to outwit are brilliant foes.  They are able to track Isaac down through the vents of the ship, making retreat a less viable option than you may expect.  They are vicious, fast and tend to use surprise to catch players off guard, and they don’t operate under the usual gaming standards of body/head shots equaling success in an action game.  Their limbs need to be severed to properly defeat them quickly, and these can be tricky to aim at as they sprint or burst out of the hull of the ship at you.  There’s also a steady stream of additions to the enemy roster as you plunge deeper into the game, which expands the tricks of the standard foes or throw curveballs into what you expect to happen upon defeating them (a couple unleash smaller necromorph threats if you hit the right area, so you need to react accordingly to minimize burning health and ammo on a poorly aimed shot).  The game’s boss encounters are also wonderful, with the two Regenerators matching RE4′s Verdugo in terms of awesomeness (and similarity - you have to slow down the Regenerators by crippling them for a moment and then setting off a specific trigger to truly win the fight, sort of how using the liquid nitrogen tanks in RE4 made Verdugo easier to take down).  Tense moments, those.

This all sounds great so far – what knocked the game into second place for me?  Well, with RE4 I can’t point at any one part of it and say, “god, if that wasn’t there this would be perfect”.  Even Ashley’s jaunts with the Armaduras and some Zealots is great (although I do wish that tile sliding puzzle wasn’t there…but anyway).  There’s a couple of parts in Dead Space that I truly wish were exorcised from the whole, because it dragged the game down.  The main offender is the first turret minigame.  Trying to blast all of those asteroids to protect the integrity of the Ishimura’s hull is a frustrating task that can go awry all too quickly.  On my third attempt I passed it, but even finishing a third of the sequence with no hull damage I barely pulled it off.  Secondly, the game’s plot, while solid, relied far too much on “if you don’t do this (random task we present to you suddenly) Isaac we’ll never be able to escape” shenanigans.  I understand why the developers took it that way (what better way to drive the plot than to constantly be in danger if something isn’t fixed?), but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t noticeable.  Grace pointed that out more than once that the game seemed to be one big fetch quest of fixes, which Extraction curiously did not follow.  And, since we’re comparing this to RE4 so much, while Leon had to rescue Ashley a few times beyond his initial heroics, it wasn’t EVERY single chapter of the game (and it was nice having a reprieve from protecting her for a bit) like Dead Space’s “OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE IF YOU DON’T DO SOMETHING ISAAC” narrative.

Still, being so close to toppling RE4 is a massive compliment, one that Dead Space wholeheartedly deserves.  It’s a brilliant first game in what I hope will be one of my favorite series (it’s on its way!), and definitely worth some playtime if you like RE4-style action.