Dead Space Review
As Isaac a deep space miner it is your job to help the rescue crew find out what happened to a ship that sent out a SOS call. Upon arrival very bad things start to happen, and some of those very bad things start attacking you, coming at you from every possible place. You'll have to fight through them, and not only find out what happened, but if you're going to be able to survive the adventure.
The graphics a very stunning, and also very eerie. You're going to be exploring a ship that will have its power turning on and off, and very animated enemies that will be tearing you limb from limb. The character design is both simple but really stands out. I do find it wierd that it appears that your costume is a normal suit that everyone should wear, and yet there isn't a single person who's uniform matches yours. The different enemy models look fleshy, and from time to time spooky.
The music, or lack there of makes the moments where there are sounds even more intense. The sounds of the scurrying around, screaming, and everything else will keep you off balanced, especially if you have surround sound.
The controls get a bit complicated, and if you're playing this game without the instruction manual, and not trying to play this game all in one sitting you might find that it will take you a bit of time every time you sit down to regain a comfortable feel for the game. You'll be using several different combinations to accomplish different attacks or actions.
So as stated before you are a deep space miner sent to a ship in distress with a couple extra people. Hell basically breaks loose as soon as you're on board, and you'll find yourself trying desperately to try to find where your fellow crew members have disappeared to. You'll also be running all over the ship completing tasks for them, and making to combat a wide variety of enemies. From mutated babies to monstrously huge creatures with tentacles. You'll get to experience zero G areas where you'll be jumping from place to place and walking on the ceiling. You'll also have to make your way through parts of levels that don't have any air. In those parts I have to say I was impressed with the muting of color and sound. There are parts in the game that might not be as clear as one would like when it comes to getting through that part of the level, but for me personally my frustration level never got high enough for me to want to stop. There always seemed to be a decent amount of save points in the game, so you didn't have to backtrack a lot if you died. There is also the RPG-ish element of leveling up your weapons, armor, kinetic energy, and more. Speaking of weapons there's a few weapons to choose from but I basically stuck with the one that I got right of the bat.
If you are looking for a unique IP that hasn't been done a million times, you might want to check this game out. The one thing that did bother me about this game was that I felt that part of the story or design came right out of the movie DOOM. So if you didn't like the movie, you might not be interested in the game. I however was still interested in the game, and enjoyed playing through the game. My favorite part was the nearly absent loading screens, and spending more time playing the game than reading loading screens. Dead Space gets a 9.5 out of 10.
