Review – Dead Space (PS3)
What makes a survival horror game special? As the name of the genre suggests, it’s all about horror. It’s about scaring the pants out of you. This is done two ways: a) by startling you, and b) mindfuckery. Several months ago, I touched upon this topic while playing Dead Space for the PlayStation 3. Since I haven’t finished the game back then, I can’t really say which type of fright Dead Space is focused on. Today, I show you.
Dead Space is a mix of Doom and Event Horizon. It’s horror in space, set in a ship whose inhabitants are nowhere to be found. What players do find are monstrosities. Lots of them.
Let me get straight to the point: Dead Space likes to startle people. Its designers placed the monsters in places where you’d least expect to look—usually behind you. The game’s difficulty is increased as monsters get faster, and the designers have even bothered to make an explanation as to the increase in mobility. Granted, there are some sporadic mindfuckery involved, but they’re too far in between.
Dead Space: Where scares are cheap.
Gems:
- Great control scheme. It uses a layout somewhat reminiscent of Resident Evil 4 but with a twist: the player can move while aiming.
- Gruesome and accurate decapitations. You’ll inflict more damage on enemies if you shear off limbs. If you aim and shoot at a particular section of a body, the decapitation is made at the exact place where you land your shot. The results are horrible—in a good way.
- Outstanding production values. Survival horror is dependent on good audio and graphics; Dead Space excels in both departments. Every footstep, wheeze, inhuman shriek, and dead silence is heard. Try the game on surround sound for best results. The visuals are appropriately gory and dark. Everything is rendered in sharp detail with no stuttering.
- Variety in gameplay. Zero-gravity basketball? Check. Shoot asteroids before hitting the ship? Check. Giant boss fights? Check. There’s a lot of stuff to do here.
Germs:
- Not really scary. Like I said, Dead Space aims to startle. Having good gaming habits like strafing, looking constantly behind, or using choke points would spoil most of the cheap scares.
- Unimpressive level design. To make things “scarier,” players are usually subjected to fight in close quarters with their backs against the wall. Sure, it builds some sort of tension, but it’s still cheap.
Bottom Line
Dead Space is an example of a finely-tuned game. The controls are tight and well implemented, the decapitation concept is novel and fun, and the production values are topnotch. Unfortunately, for a survival horror title, it’s NOT scary. Still, Dead Space was fun while it lasted.
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February 8th, 2009 at 8:07 am
take note of the first letters of every level. good luck! scared me, i’m not playing that game. zero gravity is cool but makes me dizzy.
the anime prequel is pretty good, but is full of gore.
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February 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
First letters? Hmm, I didn’t notice that before. Yeah, I heard about the anime prequel that showed the story of the Ishimura. I should really look into it. Thanks Issai.
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