DEAD SPACE

I’m trying hard to resist saying it, but I might as well get it out of my system; in space, no one can hear you scream.

Well, ever since after I saw the ever so popular and awesome horror movie Alien when I was a kid, it’s not that hard to come up with the conclusion that I became a great fan of horror movies, especially the science fiction horror movies where a small group of people are being trapped in a claustrophobic environments and terrorized by a unknown horror.

I have seen a lot of horror movies with that theme, but only the locations differs whether it’s under or above the sea, the desert, the arctic and of course outer space, but in overall most of them are just cheeky, silly and unintentional comic. But that way, you can easily find those few but very shiny and beautiful gems that still survive the trials of time.

Same thing goes for horror games in my personal opinion. While some are still quite scary despite it predated graphics and whatnot, most games are placed into the same cheeky category. Like the first Resident Evil, back in 1996 the game was quiet scary and intense, but nowadays we mostly giggle at the ridiculous dialogue (Jill Sandwich), controls slow like a tank and so on. However ever since Resident Evil 4, the game series rebooted and expanded its huge franchise into epic proportions with old veteran fans praising its new game play and concept as well, making the series a new top notch in horror game industry.

Now I’m not sure how the future looks for the recently released horror game Dead Space, but seeing the hype and such, this one may have become the new next thing.

The hype and the marketing for this game have been quite amazing, but seeing that it was developed and published by Electronic Arts, it wouldn’t come as a surprise. But during its less than two years of developing, they had published a miniseries comic, a spinoff game and even an animated feature movie depicting the background story behind the events of Dead Space. One can only imagine the franchise when the sequel is coming up.

I was looking forward to this game, not only because it looked awesome and it was taken place in space which is my favourite location in a sci-fi horror story right next to underwater sea scenario, it was because that EA stated that their inspiration was Event Horizon, The Thing and of course Alien which are my favourite movies. And unlike Fable 2, Dead Space is not a guilty pleasure. Instead I got the evil giggles when I literally slaughter countless of mutated zombies with my remote controlled blade saw, and yet at the same time I get covered by cold sweat and nerves on the edge of breaking down when I find myself being cornered by the same amount of monsters and with only one or two rounds left before I run out or have to reload in a slow pace. Basically, Dead Space effing rocks.

Make no mistake, if Capcom would create Resident Evil 4 or maybe the fifth part and let it take place in space, Dead Space would be the closest thing they would get. Because basically Dead Space is pretty much as stated in the title of this journal Resident Evil 4 IN SPAAAACE (a little SpoonyOne homage there). And since I really loved RE4 and I’m sure as hell looking forward to the fifth part, I almost didn’t need to read the short tutorial on how the controls worked. There are so many things that are similar to RE4, and that’s a great thing. Hell, even EA stated that they looked at that game before doing DS.

So you play as Isaac Clark (Based on the names of two cool sci-fi novelists Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, obviously), a space marine… err, I mean space engineer who is pretty much a silent faceless protagonist (except for the intro where you see the back of his head before he will be wearing a pretty cool designed helmet, but there is a unintentional glitch somewhere I noticed) who with two red shirts, one sexy broad, and a authorial black dude are on a routine mission in course for USG Ishimura, a huge space ship known in the DS universe as Planet Cracker that literally cracks planets open in order to suck up all their resources and ores for whatever sci-fi stuff they use it for.
Faster than you can say “Get on with it”, mutated monsters mortally gwomps the two red shirts and you are separated from the rest of crew, and leaving you with a small wielding tool against an army of alien monsters. I bet that Isaac is thinking that he should be taking that job as a janitor instead.
From here, the storyline is pretty much the same as one can expect in a standard horror story, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact it’s very intense and you are pulled into finding out on what the eff happened on the space ghost ship. So while you are walking around the ship, trying to fix whatever damage and completing missions you are given, you either pick audio or video logs lying aroung conveniently on the floor. And all the while, you get the kind of déjà vu feeling that you have been playing the same game, like System Shock 2 and Silent Hill 2. But due to the solid writing, you get pulled in. But if you expect something new, don’t despair.

The game play itself is pretty much very alike RE4, with a third-person over the angle view but with a lot of great improvements.
For example, the entire interface is in game, meaning that when you try to get into you inventory menu it doesn’t pause the game, instead it shows a hologram menu. Everything is ingame, the health bar is depicted as a neon light on Isaac’s back and the amount of ammo is being displayed on the guns it selves. It kind of gives you the tension, and luckily you can press a button on your controller if you need health or air.
Unlike RE4 where you can pause the game by looking into your inventory and you have to sort out all your stuff you collected, the only thing you need to focus on in DS is to check if you have enough ammo and health because the weapons you collect are placed nicely sideways in a different menu that you can change by using the directional pads on your controller.
Also, and this is quite the liberation compared to both RE4 and RE5: When you point you gun at the enemies, you can actually move while shooting. This is the only reason why this game is actually a lot better than RE5, plus it’s actually scarier.

Speaking of which, let’s focus on the scare factor.
Okay, the major theme in DS, is mostly panic. Sure, you get the haunted feeling when you walk in a long corridor and you hear different noises from ghostly voices and such, but the main focus is the panic when you are being surrounded by several monsters and you have only a short supply of ammo and one hit left from being killed.
Furthermore, and I have to agree with another video game reviewer, is that why can’t any horror stories take place in a place where you actually would feel at home? I mean, how many times haven’t we seen dark and gloomy corridors with dark shadows and whatever?
I wouldn’t mind if a very nice ship like say any Star Trek ships with bright colours, wooden tiles and carpet cause that would create a more horrific scenario when people starts to mutate. Sure the ship this game takes place in is a working class ship but really, sometimes you walk into a place of the ship where you think does this make any sense? Even those oil rigs are built so that the crew can feel comfortable in their quarters.
But still, the environment does serve it purpose to actually scare the gamers, there are some truly epic parts in the game where you really wonder if you should go on playing, since it is quite scary enough to make you regret taking that step around the corner and you are being attacked by a huge tentacle.

Now to the flaws: I did say that the storyline is pretty good, but the missions you have to do is awfully too convenient and you are the only one who actually makes all the heavy work while the other surviving characters are stuck in a comfortable room or whatever. Sure, you are supposed to be a engineer assigned to fix the ship but really, more and more stuff keeps piling in pure both Catch 22 and Murphy’s Law settings.
You need the tram working, go and replace a new one. The air filter system is poisoned, go and kill the gigantic monster. Asteroid debris are destroying the ship, go and operate a gun torrent Asteroid style while your friends “struggles” to get the code for something or another. So you can imagine that it does get frustrated.

The control is not always perfect, but then again what game does have perfect control? Something it happens when you need to pick up an item, but there is another item in the way you don’t need but you can’t change the focus so you have to twist and turn or sacrifice some items from your inventory so that you can pick them up.

The scares in the game can get tedious in time from time, like after you encounter the third corpse you just know that it’s going to jump at you and you just know that a army is going to attack you and such.

In overall, I say that Dead Space is a clear keeper and also a hell lot better than Resident Evil 5, and yes I’m aware that I might get hateful comments on this, but kiss it.

Final Verdict: out of five