Dead Space - review (spoiler warning!)
Posted 12-12-2008 at 07:54 PM by Kipi
I bought the game about a week ago. As a fan of survival horror games (Silent Hill, Resident Evil), I was tempted to check this game out, as as far as I know, no other game takes the survival horror to the space setting. Again, as in case of Fallout 3, I was playing it on XBox 360, so there might be some things that can be explained by that fact. And even thought the title warns about spoilers, I try to limit those to as minimum as I can without spoiling the story.
Controls 8/10
The controls of Dead Space can be a bit difficult to get used to at first, basically because shooting is made more restricted than usually. Before you can shoot, you must first aim, using LT, then shoot by using RT. The most complain comes from the fact that shooting is made too difficult to situations where you must move, change direction and shoot in short period of time. Mostly this happens when you are surrounded by several enemies, especially when most of them are moving fast.
Also, changing weapons is a bit problematic in fast spaced situations. Not once, twice or even thrice did I accidentally selected wrong weapon, just because when I tried to push right in D-pad, I pushed instead upper right, thus selecting the weapon assigned to upp button in D-pad. In fast spaced combat such thing usually results at least heavy loss of health, many times to death.
After getting used to the control system, especially about shooting, it's okay, and even works better than many other games. But since there is couple of bad things in it, I give only eight points to control system.
Setting 9/10
The setting promises a lot. Empty space ship with flickering lights and no idea of what waits behind the corner. There are several times when I actually nearly jumped out of my skin, which is good thing in case of survival horror.
There is only two things I complain about the setting. First of all, even though the you get the feeling that you have freedom of choice, you don't. The game is mostly tunnel running, from point A to B, then to point C and return to point A. There was only once or twice when you could actually select the route which you could go, and even in those cases the other route was the route I used to get to there.
Second complain comes from the fact that the attacks of alien monster was quite predictable. You get to the point B, you pick up the item needed, and it was very sure that the return route was inhabitated by monster when you try to return. If we think of games like Resident Evil, such thing was quite rare. And even in such cases, the item usually was responsibe of the reinhabiting. But in Dead Space, it was more than common.
Story 10/10
I'm sorry, but I won't get to the story too much, as that would spoil it. But I quarantine, it is good. You start of as a member of ship, which get an assignment to repair the other space ship. The beginning of the game goes mostly in trying to repair the critical system for surviving inside the ship, and then the plot thickens. One of the best plots I have seen lately with twists and cliffhangers.
Feeling 9/10
Dead space makes you to be afraid of what waits you behind every corner. In some cases, the feeling even beats Resident Evil series, which I keep in high regard in survival horror games. Flicking lights, echoes, maniac laugh, everything keeps up the atmosphere that something is terribly wrong. Definately not the game you should be playing alone, in middle of night, without any light in your appartment and with full audio.
The only complain, which I stated earlier, was that usually the attacks were too predictable. But otherwise, very good.
General complains
My first complain was lack of information, especially what you can do and what not. For example, after chapter seven I discovered by accident that you can destroy and loot certain things by picking them up and "throwing" them with telekinesis. Nothing ever stated such thing, and if I had knew that earlier, I would have saved a lot of cash from buying ammo and health packs.
Second general complain is rather close to the first one above. Many times the game just thought that I know what to do, especially how to kill something or how to get further. No hints, nothing actually told what to do. Most of the times it was pure luck to discover how to kill certain monsters.
Third general complain goes to the map -system. It's basically useless. It's hard to use, hard to understand, and if you really want to know where to go next, pressing right stick gives you clear direction where to go. No map needed.
The last complaing goes to the weapon system. All the weapons have two different firing modes. Most of the time, you don't need the second one at all. In worst cases, I couldn't figure out what use certain weapon's second firing mode has. Only two out of seven weapons had more or less usefull second firing mode. And those were only usable in special hard situations.
Summary 8,5/10
Dead Space is good survival horror game. If you like that genre, especially games like Resident Evil, then I recommend it! But if you are fan of general shooters, well, perhaps Dead Space just isn't worth of time and money.
Controls 8/10
The controls of Dead Space can be a bit difficult to get used to at first, basically because shooting is made more restricted than usually. Before you can shoot, you must first aim, using LT, then shoot by using RT. The most complain comes from the fact that shooting is made too difficult to situations where you must move, change direction and shoot in short period of time. Mostly this happens when you are surrounded by several enemies, especially when most of them are moving fast.
Also, changing weapons is a bit problematic in fast spaced situations. Not once, twice or even thrice did I accidentally selected wrong weapon, just because when I tried to push right in D-pad, I pushed instead upper right, thus selecting the weapon assigned to upp button in D-pad. In fast spaced combat such thing usually results at least heavy loss of health, many times to death.
After getting used to the control system, especially about shooting, it's okay, and even works better than many other games. But since there is couple of bad things in it, I give only eight points to control system.
Setting 9/10
The setting promises a lot. Empty space ship with flickering lights and no idea of what waits behind the corner. There are several times when I actually nearly jumped out of my skin, which is good thing in case of survival horror.
There is only two things I complain about the setting. First of all, even though the you get the feeling that you have freedom of choice, you don't. The game is mostly tunnel running, from point A to B, then to point C and return to point A. There was only once or twice when you could actually select the route which you could go, and even in those cases the other route was the route I used to get to there.
Second complain comes from the fact that the attacks of alien monster was quite predictable. You get to the point B, you pick up the item needed, and it was very sure that the return route was inhabitated by monster when you try to return. If we think of games like Resident Evil, such thing was quite rare. And even in such cases, the item usually was responsibe of the reinhabiting. But in Dead Space, it was more than common.
Story 10/10
I'm sorry, but I won't get to the story too much, as that would spoil it. But I quarantine, it is good. You start of as a member of ship, which get an assignment to repair the other space ship. The beginning of the game goes mostly in trying to repair the critical system for surviving inside the ship, and then the plot thickens. One of the best plots I have seen lately with twists and cliffhangers.
Feeling 9/10
Dead space makes you to be afraid of what waits you behind every corner. In some cases, the feeling even beats Resident Evil series, which I keep in high regard in survival horror games. Flicking lights, echoes, maniac laugh, everything keeps up the atmosphere that something is terribly wrong. Definately not the game you should be playing alone, in middle of night, without any light in your appartment and with full audio.
The only complain, which I stated earlier, was that usually the attacks were too predictable. But otherwise, very good.
General complains
My first complain was lack of information, especially what you can do and what not. For example, after chapter seven I discovered by accident that you can destroy and loot certain things by picking them up and "throwing" them with telekinesis. Nothing ever stated such thing, and if I had knew that earlier, I would have saved a lot of cash from buying ammo and health packs.
Second general complain is rather close to the first one above. Many times the game just thought that I know what to do, especially how to kill something or how to get further. No hints, nothing actually told what to do. Most of the times it was pure luck to discover how to kill certain monsters.
Third general complain goes to the map -system. It's basically useless. It's hard to use, hard to understand, and if you really want to know where to go next, pressing right stick gives you clear direction where to go. No map needed.
The last complaing goes to the weapon system. All the weapons have two different firing modes. Most of the time, you don't need the second one at all. In worst cases, I couldn't figure out what use certain weapon's second firing mode has. Only two out of seven weapons had more or less usefull second firing mode. And those were only usable in special hard situations.
Summary 8,5/10
Dead Space is good survival horror game. If you like that genre, especially games like Resident Evil, then I recommend it! But if you are fan of general shooters, well, perhaps Dead Space just isn't worth of time and money.
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