Customer Reviews

Dead Space Platinum Hits Edition

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Dead Space is a game that has achieved instant classic status with me. There's just no other way to say it. After finishing the game, I came to the realization that the game had me on edge the entire time I was playing. This game really succeeds at sustaining an atmosphere that keeps you on the edge of your seat with the certainty that just around the next corner is something particularly vicious waiting to sink its teeth into your flesh. You are never given a moment's rest and they really amp the tension up way past what would probably be considered healthy levels.

I'm not one to ruin stories and I'm not making any exceptions here, except to say that this game would appeal to anyone with an appreciation for horror and sci-fi flicks, especially movies that combine the two genres like Aliens, Event Horizon and John Carpenter's version of The Thing. This game proudly wears its influences on its sleeve and manages to produce something genuinely great out of its many forefathers. The creative team behind this title did their homework and it shows. From the very beginning, I was pretty much glued to the controller.

GRAPHICS: Astounding. One of the things that make this game such an incredible experience is the sheer scale and design of the levels. It has the fusing of metal and flesh aspects of Doom 3, the lighting of Bioshock and levels with large areas like something you'd see in Ninja Gaiden 2. Certain portions of the game have moments where you just have to stop, look around and take it all in because you can just "feel" how large your surroundings are. I don't know if that makes any sense but I'm sure when you play the game, you'll know what I mean. The design on the monsters owes a lot to the nasty, tentacle ridden horror flicks of the early 80's and these critters enjoy popping out of nowhere, screaming and growling. I thought the creatures were really impressive and definitely serve as formidable obstacles in your path to finding out what the hell is going on in the overrun ship the story takes place in.

SOUND: Wow. I may have to go on record as saying that the sound in this game is probably the best I have heard in ANY game to date. If you have surround sound and have been feeling like your speakers haven't been very active lately, don't worry because this will probably be your new demo disc when showing off your sound system to any of your pals. This is the kind of game that uses sound mixing and design to make the game even better, creating an incredible atmosphere of fear and tension that like I said before, just doesn't let up. Whispers, dripping water, wet, squishy sounds coming from the air vent above you, faraway screams, babies and adults crying, chanting, inhuman grunting, moaning, laughter.... all sorts of things that you DON'T want to hear in the dark corridors of a monster infested ship. The weapons sound nice and loud. I honestly believe that the sound in this game is its best and strongest point. Seriously, it would most likely be an injustice to the sound designers to not play this game with a proper surround setup and the volume high up.

GAMEPLAY: Great and fluid controls. Only become a very minor problem when you get crowded by monsters as the close quarters combat isn't the greatest. Still, not too much to whine about. The inventory and map interface is great, coming up as a digital hologram in real time. Cool moments like bouncing around the walls while in zero-G and being in vacuums add to the game. You upgrade your weapons with power nodes which are very valuable and scattered across the levels. Creatures are dispatched easily when you shoot off their limbs but usually take a lot of hits if you're just aiming for the body so it lends a whole strategic kind of thing to the mayhem. All of which happens in nice, gory detail.

Bottom line: If you have any desire to feel terror and dread for a good respectable stretch of playtime, look no further. This one pulled no punches and left me freaked out and jumpy on many an occasion. I have absolutely no regrets on picking this up as it earns its "M" rating by delivering a truly scary experience. I have a feeling that this one is gonna be a sleeper hit.

Dead Space is a fantastic and refreshing new game to come out in a long time. The game is like a combination of Bioshock-Resident Evil-Gears of war all combined! If you liked any of those games or all 3 (like I did) then you should do your self a favor and get this game NOW!

It is a wonderful mix of sci-fi horror 3rd person shooter with a great story, plenty of action and gore.....creepy. A good example of the scare tactics used in this game are the wall busters(as I like to call them) you could be all caught up in the moment only to have a creature bust through the vent shaft, ceiling, glass...any where they can and scare the heck out of you! You will get goose bumps(I know, I have) The controls might take a little time for some as there are 2 button combinations for some actions like: LT+A or LT+RB which should not be to difficult to pick up pretty quickly.

The graphics are top notch along with a spooky sound track that you would expect from this type of game. The story is done very well in my opinion and keeps you alert as to what you need to do next. There is a very helpful direction laser as I like to call it, that when activated (Pressing down on the right thumb stick) can show you the direction you need to go, very helpful if you get stuck. There are some zero gravity areas that some gamers might find disorienting a bit, but should not be for most. The is not a game for the faint at heart, be prepared to get scared and have fun at the same time!

Graphics:9.5
Sound:10
Story:8.5
Action:10
Controls:9.5
Blood:9
Gore:10
Equiptment upgrades:Yes
Scare facotor:100%
Goose Bumps:10

My score: 9.8

This is basically a mix between Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and Aliens (movie). The game is freaking scary, and very very creepy.

The visuals and art style are amazing which is important in a horror game like this I feel and this game does both well, everything is very well thought out, all of your menus display off the main characters suit rather than on screen, making it a little strange at first but it only pulls you in more.

The sound is even better, you really feel on edge as you walk through the halls with eerie music playing, something banging on the walls or falling off a desk, you're just waiting for something to rush in and scare the heck out of you. And when it does it's aim shoot and hope what your shooting at kills the thing. Headshots aren't the most effective in this it can be the worst thing you can do actually, the monster will flip out and go berserk taking more shots than before.

i'm a 60 year old former executive who bought an xbox 360 and 16 different videogames just to see what was up with the medium. having played to the finish all the popular titles from GTA 4 and Fallout 3 to Bioshock and Crackdown, i have to say this game ranks very high on graphical quality, ragdoll and object dynamics, creature and environment concept, sound effects, musical score and plotting. it's the whole package.

the plot is straightforward: a crippled mining ship, boarded by a repair/rescue crew, finds the crew gone, replaced by horrid alien creatures. through many tasks and trials they appraise the situation, attempt rescue and escape, and finally deal with treachery among themselves. at the end the hero faces one of the visually most impressive boss battles in any game i've played, and the hero (if he wins) barely escapes with his life. or does he?

this game avoids all the annoying features of other games. save stations are well situated, and entire levels load in one shot -- as a tram ride from one part of the mining ship to another. there are no annoying waits as subsections load during play. the QA is excellent -- i encountered no bugs or crashes. there is a selection of six weapons, all fun to use (the line gun and plasma cutter are mainstays), and (unlike the tedious diversity in bioshock) only two "special powers" -- projective kinesis and time stopping stasis. there are one or two "stores" in each level where scavenged credits and materiel can be traded for weapons, ammo, health and suit upgrades (up to a level 6). when you're done, you can play through again, keeping all the weapons and credits you've earned, but without advancing to a more difficult level.

the internal navigation and guidance helps (pop up three dimensional map, pavement guideline that appears by pressing a motion stick, hero journal, archive of audio recordings, etc.) make it hard to get lost or get confused. the tutorial episodes at the beginning of the game are clear, and the control combinations easy to remember.

the art is one of the real pleasures in this game. environments have all been lovingly painted -- none of the tessellated pavements and walls of cheaper games -- and there is real diversity in color, lighting and clutter. the music is cinematic quality, and one of the points i especially enjoyed was the way mechanical sounds (malfunctioning doors slamming repetitively, fans scraping rhythmically) were seamlessly woven into the musical soundtrack as percussion effects. the monster effects are creepy and there are plenty of horror film "gotcha" moments woven into the action.

my only suggestion is that players tackle the game in "easy" mode. as far as i can tell, the only difference in play is how hard you have to work to kill aliens and find ammo; and you will surely die often at the difficult level. this means you'll have to really work to get past attacks, and sit through repetitive and extended cut scenes of your own dismemberment and evisceration before starting over. in the "easy" level you can actually go through an entire level without dying, and this creates an immersive, continuous play experience that is very much like watching yourself in a movie. this heightens the horror experience and involvement in play. and to really enjoy the art and action, you should only play this game in the dark!

Many survival horror fans have gotten jaded. They think the genre is dying and in one review I heard someone saying Dead Space was RE 4 in space. While dead space has similar controls as RE 4 and even an over the shoulder 3rd person view point it is NOT remotely similar to RE 4 in atmosphere or level design.

For one thing,Issac is not a super elite mercenary. When the Ishumura planet resource harvester ship goes haywire Issac's job is to do some routine repairs. However there is a bit of worry right away when he receives an odd SOS from his main squeeze Nicole who is a medical officer aboard the space ship he is charged with fixing up. Luckily her message is so subtle and obscure it does not give away the whole story right away.

Along with Issac is a tough as nails take charge leader type and a female crew mate who is the shiznet at hacking and cracking. While these characters "help" Issac through a holographic communications screen with advice our poor protagonist ends up separated from his team and completely alone.

Dead Space is really good at telling you everything you need to know WITHOUT accessing a menu. Issac's health is measured by the glowing tubes down the spine of his armor and almost all information is relayed to him through a pop up screen device on his helmet he can manipulate at a whim. Likewise the crescent glowing icon on Issac's right shoulder gauges his "stasis energy" used to slow the opening and closing of malfunctioning doors. This makes Dead Space a more seamless experience and lulls you into a creepy train of thought of playing the game without always having the reminders it is a game.

Much like Bio Shock Issac comes to terminals where he can buy equipment such as ammo, health packs, and even new weapons. Each main ability or weapon is upgraded by circular disks called "nodes" you apply at fold out work benches. Nodes are rare, luckily they can be bought as well albeit at a high price. Issac even gets telekinesis. He can move things around and toss them similar to how Gordon Friedman does with the gravity gun in Half Life 2. Add all this atop of using gravity boots to mag lock onto walls and ceilings when in zero gravity it quickly becomes apparent Dead Space is not a tired retread or lackluster clone of Resident Evil. The only similarities it bears is that it is a hybrid between action thriller and survival horror. Luckily for those of us who love a good scare it is more terrifying and surreal than it is cheesy and over the top epic.

You can run and gun in dead space (further accentuating the differences between it and RE). As a matter of fact when hordes of necromorphs attack it is a good strategy to run backwards while firing away, or at least getting your bearings as you occasionally let fly with some sizzling plasma bolts.

So what are necromorphs? Apparently after busting apart a planet for resources the Ishumura away team found an odd artifact with ruins on it. Somehow this began mutating crew members into monsters. While that is not very original as a concept Necromorphs make ganados and zombies look tame by comparison. Even after having legs or an arm blown off these hideous freaks will still come after you and sometimes they may play dead after you hammer into them with a few rounds. As you confidently twirl your plasma torch and turn your back "wham!" you get a bone blade appendage through your kidney for not being thorough. I wasted a lot of ammo to make sure I decapitated every dead body or slain monster. Call me paranoid but hey, I rather be safe than sorry!

Each level has a series of mission objectives that range from refueling the Ishumura to recovering the captain's log. While these may seem a bit dull at least they make sense within a science fiction setting . In dead space you never have to find a ruby and an emerald then put them into the eye sockets of a gargoyle statue. Normally a puzzle requires using your telekinesis to move something or using a stasis shot to slow down a dangerous moving obstacle so you can past through into the next area.

While dead space is gory it does not just rely on blood n guts to frighten you. Even when you are not attacked by necromorphs the ship's metal haul creaks menacingly and the voices of the dead are heard whispering in select locations. You even pick up data pad diaries from Ishumura's crew and as you can well imagine their last moments were filled with dread and hopelessness. Witnessing Issac having to wrestle for his dear life while locked in the clutches of a necromorph is not nearly as bone chilling as helplessly watching the person who seems safe behind a window get impaled and dragged into the shadows screaming or having to look at a nurse cackling insanely right before she fires up a bone saw and cuts her own throat. You wonder who you have to pity more...the grotesque creatures or those who were left unaltered as normal human beings?

If you approach all this from the optimistic perspective of an enthusiast instead of an embittered fan boy Dead Space is a wonderful horror game. As much as I covet RE 4 and RE 5 and herald them as awesome games they are "thrillers". Dead Space quintessentially is "true dread" pumped right into your veins. It's not toying with your emotions or trying to be something it is not.

I began playing it in the day time and it still got my heart pounding. For the foolish elitist bigots out there unshakable in their stance that "western developers" don't know diddly about true horror this game has arrived to bust their chops!

In closing if you have played these games for many years you're not going to jump from fright every 2 minutes. Once you become accustomed to scare tactics it can NEVER compare to the glory days when you were a virgin of the genre playing Silent Hill or RE 2 for the first time. However to me this game is so excellent at what it does it deserves some grudging respect from the survival horror community.

Pros

+Intriguing story

+Unrelenting terrifying enemies that give their all even after their limbs fly off.

+Atmospheric creepiness that balances out the blatant blood and gore

+Easy to learn controls

+Can run and shoot.

+Things such as anti gravity exploration and using telekinesis "mix up" the usual horror experience.

+No annoying menus to jolt you out of the fear. Every aspect of the game from your health to gathered information is all woven seamlessly into the technology of Issac's suit!

+Issac's "weapons" are actually tools to start with reminding us he is a mechanic and not a steroid popping space marine.

Con

-It's a space ship so some areas get to look very much the same after awhile.

-Reading text logs via Issac's holographic visor is near impossible. In my opinion everything should have been voiced.

-Enemies are varied at first but get repetitive later on.

Pro or con??

+/- Issac is a silent faceless protagonist very much akin to the hero in Bio Shock, Gordon Friedman in Half Life 2, and Master Chief in Halo. To some of you this maybe a problem however my take on it is as follows.

"Issac doesn't talk but it is the very fact he doesn't spout cheesy one liners or ridiculous catch phrases that makes his struggle that much more realistic, horrifying, and genuine."

+/- There's alot of gore, perhaps moreso than any other game I've played. Sadly those that pride themselves on loving "psychological horror" are going to snub their noses at Dead Space a lot for that reason alone and in so doing miss out on the parts of it that are very surrealistic, thought provoking, and haunting.

Known primarily for overdoing a franchise with multiple releases (see the endless yearly outings of sports titles, EA went a bit against the grain and released 2 original IP's in the fall of last year: Dice's Mirror's Edge and EA Redwood's Dead Space. Whereas the former was at times fun but other times frustrating, Dead Space is just top-of-the-line from head to toe. Everything about the game feels perfectly balanced and even small nitpick worthy issues can't stop it from being an exhilarating ride...at least during the first time.

Story: In the near future, such ships exist called "planet crackers" which essentially grab gigantic chunks out of planets and mine them for resources and minerals. When the top ship, the USG Ishimura, goes silent and no contact can be made, in comes Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent in to what they think is just a communication equipment problem. Get in, fix, get out except the ship's crew has changed and not for the better as they're disgusting and deformed creatures hell bent on seeing you dead, often in the most gruesome manner possible.

There's really only 2 complaints I can level at Dead Space's story: one, we're told to sympathize with Isaac thanks to a sidestory involving his girlfriend Nicole only Isaac doesn't say a single word throughout the entire story and makes him a bit more autonomous and hard to sympathize with. The second is that the game is essentially a glorified fetch quest only instead of collecting items, you're fixing stuff. Literally every chapter you'll receive reports from either Kendra or Hammond, your shipmates, that something on the ship needs to be fixed lest something bad happen. A chapter where your completely cut off from everybody would've heightened the tension and made you go "now what?" but otherwise, you're just errand boy. However thanks to the graphics and the pacing, you'll be quite hooked into the story.

Graphics: What makes Dead Space such an immersive and effective game is the graphics since the ship just FEELS possible, as if this thing can actually exist. It's a lot more effective when you take into account the layout, lighting, various facilities and levels and everything from detail in the environments, the gore effects and especially that one part during chapter 4 involving the bridge makes you go "holy ****". Larger detail is lost more farther away things are and bodies on the floor have a weird ragdoll quality and it's not uncommon to start shuffling bodies with your feet like they're mannequins.

Sound/Music: Equally impressive is the sound mix from the roars, screeches, pipes and cans dropping from...somewhere, this is the game to have if you have surround sound as the sound mix will easily make you paranoid about everything. The voice acting is one of those functional types where no one really excels in their roles but they don't stand out in the awfulness either. Primarily the voice acting comes from Kendra and Hammond who do good jobs for your voice characters. All that's heard from Isaac is his yells during hits, breathing when he runs and being in air vacuums.

Gameplay: The first big thing Dead Space does is have no HUD displays anywhere on screen, well at least typical ones. There's no Halo-esque radar or ammo counter or a shield meter in the old-fashioned sense but rather everything's on Isaac's body. His health is a bar that runs up his spine separated into segments, his Statis (slow motion for specific things such as enemies or equipment) is a half-circle while ammo counters are displayed on top of the weapon in a display. Even cutscenes and character meetings don't have a separate cutscene but either come through holographic projections or brief moments where camera shows an action from somewhere else. This helps with the game and makes one wonder why most game designers don't use it more.

Instead of traditional weaponry a la shotguns and assault rifles, Isaac carries engineer-type equipment from plasma cutters to rippers and the equipment feels like what one would use in their fixing duties so it's nice that they're functional for killing some beasts. The core of the game is to dismember your enemy, essentially take them apart piece by piece. Take their legs off and make em crawl or take their arms away and leave them attackless. Of course knowing how best to dismember is key since some actually change should you do something and screw you over even more. But with flamethrowers, pulse rifles and melee attacks at your disposal, you're more than well-equipped and that's what makes the game work: it's not difficult per se a la Ninja Gaiden but rather it's an even matchup. You against them and not feel handicapped by anything.

With kinesis which acts similar to Half-Life 2's gravity gun where you can grab distant objects or move big things you couldn't otherwise move, there's also the aforementioned stasis which temporarily slows time down for an enemy which is fun since it's for a specific enemy so the annoying one can be slowed while you deal with the lesser types at full speed. Another of the more funner aspects is zero G. Just aim and if you can jump, you'll go flying which'll get you either on the ceiling, walls and all over. It's incredibly fun and having an enemy flying at you is a bit intense. The segments where there's no air are also great since the sound is drastically cut down save for muffled gunfire and yelling from Isaac.

My one complaint is that the game isn't as amazing the second time since it becomes a bit more predictable. "Oh, this is where I get ambushed so better go this way and do that" and since some of the achievements are most definately multiple playthroughs needed, it doesn't make it chore-like but it drags it down ever so slightly. Whereas Mirror's Edge frequently had great moments mixed in with completely off-the-rails segments and gameplay moments, there's very little that breaks Dead Space. It's not "scary" per se and won't make you lose sleep but it's an intense ride.

I've been a fan of the survival-horror genre for a long time now. Way back when, I remember being in college and running out to buy my PSone after seeing the original 'Resident Evil' for the first time. Since then, the category gained a great deal of popularity and we've been treated to the birth of terrific franchises like Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, and now Dead Space.

One of things I was impressed by the most was that the game play itself is outstanding. You can see a very defined purpose for every object, every room, every weapon, and every tool in the game. It isn't like there are weapons and ammunition just wantonly scattered all over the place. This is a mining ship and crew, so 90% of everything you use in-game is related as such. Your weapons are repurposed mining equipment (a saw, a cutter, a bolt shooter, etc). Most of the ammunition you use will be stored in lockers, closets and storage cubicles. Each part of the ship is completely unique. For example, you'll never wander into a room and get the feeling that you've been there before. That its just a room that's been re-skinned to look different. The camera is the same over-the-shoulder style that 'Resident Evil 4' used and anyone that played that gem (and if you're reading this, you should have) should immediately feel familiar with the controls.

I love that everything is done in real-time. Do you need to check your inventory, hit the store, or double-check an objective? All of this is accomplished via a pop-up holographic projection that your mining suit creates directly in front of you. So if you need to do anything, you better be sure you're in a cleared room.

On top of a beautifully rendered ship, the tight hallways create an unnerving sense of claustrophobia. You'll find yourself just creeping down every hall with your tool-of-choice drawn, just waiting to see what's lurking around each corner. The low-lighting and mangled equipment will have you double checking every shadow for movement. You have a 'sprint' button, but (trust me) on your first round of the game you'll hardly ever use it. You truly never know when something is going to leap out at you.

The 'Necromorphs' are relentless too and 'Dead Space' made the way you kill them completely original with the introduction of the 'strategic dismemberment' system. Since these creatures aren't human and just reanimated dead tissue, head-shots don't make a bit of difference. In fact, in some instances it just makes them angrier. The way to stop them, is to selectivly seperate their legs and arms from their bodies and tear them apart. Each creature is a little different too, so what work against one won't necessarily help against another.

What I felt was the best part of the experience though (and I'm not sure it gets enough credit) is the sound. Whether its the sound effects from the equipment, the functionality of the room, or the distant screams of the few remaining crew, if you have a 5.1 surround set-up then turn down the lights and pump-up the volume. The sound will have you totally creeped out and jumping out of your seat.

Although it's just an outstanding game and I can't praise it enough, 'Dead Space' might have one or two areas where there's a little room for improvement. The first is when you finish the game and unlock the 'Insane' difficulty.

There are two things related to this. The first is that, if you start an 'insane' round, you need to start from scratch and you can't carry over any weapon upgrades or equipment that you may have earned from a previous session. I would have made this a little more flexible. Myself, I know I would have been a little more likely to have played on 'insane' for my second game if I could have carried over all my tricked-out rig and gear. This would have allowed me to continue chasing down several of the achievements that eluded me on my first run-through. The second issue with 'insane' is that the ONLY time you can start an 'insane' round is immediately after finishing the game. For example, if you choose to restart a game on the difficulty you just finished (to keep the items you just earned) you'll have to finish that second game before 'insane' unlocks again. Again, I think if they were a little more flexible here, it would have made the replay value a little higher then it is.

Occasionally, there is a small bit of back-tracking within the ship and the feeling toward the end of the game that you're just on a series of 'fetch quests.' I would have maybe tried to include a little more personal choice in the game that might affect the outcome in some way. It would make the gamer feel a little more personally invested in the experience and (again) jack the replay value up a little bit.

In the elite crowd of 'Bioshock' and 'Gears of War', 'Dead Space' is probably one of the best games I've played on the 360 so far. The story is as intelligent as it is engaging, the action is extremely violent, the design and graphics are frighteningly beautiful, and the atmosphere that's created is genuinely scary as hell. If you're a fan of the survivor-horror genre this is one that you owe to yourself to check out.

Dead Space for the XBOX 360 is the best game I have played of the "survival horror" genre since Resident Evil 4. There is allot to like about this game, though unfortunately it has some shortcomings as well. On the plus side the action is top notch. The "futuristic" weapons are fun to use and offer a bit of fresh air on the traditional "pistol, shot gun, flame thrower" mix that one usually expects in these types of games. Furthermore the enemies are challenging, and to successfully defeat them you have to "strategically" target various body parts to most efficiently put them down, simply put the combat is very very fun. Next the environments are beautiful, the various places you will go are reminiscent of a big budget sci fi movie. On the negative side the story is quite poor and does not develop/conclude in a manner that is at all engaging or satisfiying. Furthermore the game is quite short, it is a 10-12 hour experience. Now even though the story is dissapointing, those 12 hours of gameplay are very challenging and very fun. If this game had a more fully developed/executed story this would be a 5 star game. That not being the case 3 and a half stars.

What can I say that hasn't been said already about the game? Dead Space is a great game.

I really enjoyed this game on the Impossible Setting , I felt like it was a better game on that setting. This setting is only unlocked beating the game once.

I also enjoyed the fact that you could use cheat codes and still get achievements. Something that is very rare in games these days. The cheats don't really ruin the game as you don't have God mode or infinite ammo, but they do help remove some anoying features like running out of oxygen and running out of stasis.

I also liked getting the one gun achievement.

This game has a pretty decent replay value as you can carry your items into the next game ,UNLESS YOU CHANGE DIFFICULTY, you can restart a game with all of your weapons ,items ect.

For those of you wondering what weapons are best?

IMO the best armor is the TANK ARMOR and can be downloaded off LIVE.

The best overall gun for the one gun achievement is the PLASMA CUTTER.

The best overall gun if ammo wasn't an issue would be the LINE GUN.

But as I played my 2nd time through I found myself really getting into the other weapons. Strangely though the flame thrower is weak and should be the last gun you upgrade.

The other weapons are good ,its just the plasma cutter and stasis seem to be the best combo for beating the game. Freeze and enemy and shoot their limbs off will be the main combat component. The LINE GUN is devistating when your out of stasis and enemies are rushing you as the LINE GUN just slices them in half.


I also enjoyed the basket ball mini-game. YOu could probably make a full fledged Xbox Live Aracade Game out of this mini-game. It's pretty kool and involves you using gravity and multiple hoops and involves you using gravity boots .Overall really kool feature.

Also I liked the gravity feature one of which involved you walking on an asteroid and another which involves you throwing giant glowing radioactive balls out the ships air hatch.

Dead Space does have some repetive momements , your basically on one large ship and each level basically is a reworked lateout of the next. Same Hallways, Same look , over and over. But I will say it still is a very good looking game. I had just wished they mixed up the same-ness of the levels.


The story isn't hard to follow IMO and has a almost predictable ending , but still a good ending and an overall game. The ending and story is enriched by reading the text found along the way in the form of audio and video files ,although they are completley skippable and up to you to read them or not.

I wish the DLC was free by now ,maybe they'll release a version with all of the DLC.

But if your wondering the best armor by far is the Tank Suit , so I would get that as soon as possible off LIVE, you don't absolutley need it , but its the best rated suit and should be the one you get if you want the strongest suit.

I got my little brother Dead Space for his X-Box 360 for Christmas. The game ended up spooking him enough so that he was barely able to get past the 2nd chapter, and so he flew it my way to see what I would make of it. The game took me roughly a week to polish off (between work and sleep) and I found a thoroughly frightening game with beautiful graphics and one of the spookiest atmospheres to be found in any horror/survival shooter game. Beware, a few mild spoilers ahead!

Dead Space takes place in the ever far-flung future around a distant planet called Aegis VII on board a derelict mining ship called the Ishimura. It seems that that CEC (Concordance Extraction Corporation), the company which owns and operates that mammoth ship, has lost contact with it. To make matters worse the ship, populated by 1,000 miners, scientists, and ship command types, is transmitting a distress call. So the CEC sends another ship, the CEC Kellion off to Aegis VII to see what's happening. The Ishimura is an interesting vessel, officially titled a "Planet Cracker". It cuts away a huge portion of the planetary landscape, pulls it up into orbit, and commences to refining these large chunks of rock into ore. And, predictably, a ship with this capability is going to be, by necessity, a rather large vessel by default.

The Kellion carries a small complement of personnel who are there to find out why the ship went silent and are tasked with repairing it. But shortly after arrival the Kellion crashes inside the landing bay of the Ishimura due to a malfunction of the guidance control. Among the personnel on the Kellion is Isaac Clarke, the story's protaganist, and the guy you'll be playing as. Seems Isaac has a girlfriend on the Ishimura named Nicole, and Nicole sent him a strange little video before the ship went offline. Isaac also happens to be an engineer, and he has a real knack for taking existing mining tools and weapons and "upgrading" them to make them very palatable for use as weapons. From the time the Kellion crashes in the Ishimura's landing bay you'll know that something has gone horribly awry because the ship seems to be deserted. By the end of the first hour of play you'll wish it *was* deserted and filled with anything *but* the nasties that now inhabit it. By the time Chapter 8 rolled around (there are 12 total) all I wanted was to go home. I did not want to be on this ship at all and the feeling of constant dread that accompanies the game really amps up the fear factor considerably and in turn makes it that much more viscerally enjoyable.

Dead Space isn't a FPS but rather a Third-Person Shooter (like Tomb Raider). The view the player has is over Isaac's right shoulder, which is a bit unusual in a game of this type. There are numerous weapons for use by the player, starting with the basic Plasma Cutter (a mining tool) to the Pulse Rifle (a military assault rifle) on up to flamethrowers and a nasty little weapon called the Ripper, which teleports a circular sawblade out about 10 feet where it hovers (and in turn shreds) any mutants that happen to be standing there. All weapons have a secondary fire mode. The Plasma Cutter can swivel 90 degrees allowing you better "cutting" angles for severing limbs off of baddies, while the Line Gun can fire off a mine which deals blast damage to any monsters standing in its radius. In addition to this Isaac gets a nifty little item called a Stasis Module, which can dramatically slow down moving objects (including monsters) so that they can be bypassed or taken apart at the player's leisure. Isaac also wears a specialized suit called a RIG, with armor plates and visual aids which let the player know his current health and how much juice he has for his Stasis Module. If all else fails Isaac can use two melee attacks, one in which he stomps his rather large, armored boot on the ground (which destroys little swarming enemies) and one in which he swings a big ol' haymaker at his opponent using his weapon. It's a lot to keep track of, but after the first chapter or two much of it becomes second nature.

From the get go Dead Space makes you feel very alone. The Ishimura is a *huge* ship and it is filled with hundreds of nooks and crannies potentially filled with monsters that want to dismember you piece by piece. And the monsters (named Necromorphs) are actually dead members of the original crew. And since there were originally 1,000+ crew this means a whole pile of monsters. Necromorphs come in several varieties. The most common are former humans whose arms have been transformed into stabbing weapons with long spikes where the hands used to be, while others were transformed from infants who like to crawl on walls and shoot long range barbs at you. Others have been absorbed into the ship itself and blast explosive, sentient tentacle beasts in your direction. Early in the story you're separated from your compatriots and have to work entirely alone to repair the ship and bring its basic systems back online, and Necromorphs will drop in to visit at typically the worst possible times. There were moments in the game where I audibly yelped in surprise at my TV screen as a Necromorph dropped from the air vent above me, depositing a bundle of undead nastiness right in front of me. The game is loaded with moments of this type and I found I was unable to play more than 3-4 hours at a time because it was simply too much for my nerves to handle. This isn't helped by the ambient atmosphere, filled with sounds of metal clanging below you, or air vents hissing above. You're constantly looking around to see where the next attack is going to come, even when none does.

The graphics for the game are really pretty and the Ishimura reminds me a great deal of the Nostromo from the movie Alien with its "used future" look. There's no doubt this is intentional and fans of Alien will probably react with the same degree of paranoia and fear inside the Ishimura. At various points around the ship the player can stock up on supplies from Stores, sort of an electronic vending machine, as well as Power Nodes, which are the critical component used to upgrade weapons and armor for use on the Work Bench. Enemies routinely drop ammunition and money (possibly what their previously living human incarnations were carrying at the time of their...necromorphing). By far the most precious commodity are the Power Nodes, and collecting them becomes a pastime of its own. They don't drop from monsters (except for one or two bosses) and can only be found in power boxes located sporadically throughout the ship, as well as being purchased for hefty sums from the Store. But even the humble Plasma Cutter can be come a customized killing machine if it is upgraded enough (the P.C. became my weapon of choice as a direct result of it).

Dead Space also separates itself from the rest of the horror/shooter genre by including two very unique spins on the basic theme. The first is to be found in Zero-G operations. Newtonian physics, monsters, and loaded guns always make for an interesting experience, and the Zero-G segments tend to come across as a puzzle of sorts loaded with adrenaline. The second nuance is that there are numerous spots on the Ishimura where the hull is exposed to open space and requires that you use a finite source of oxygen in your suit. Once the O2 runs out so does your life. One can carry small oxygen canisters around with them, but they take up valuable space and when one isn't sure when these airless episodes are coming one may be disinclined to carry them. Fortunatley the player can upgrade the amount of air their RIG carries by upgrading it at the Work Bench using the aforementioned Power Nodes.

Deep Space draws from many sources, but at the end of the day I was amazed at how very close in flavor it was to System Shock 2. In fact one can put the plotlines for both games side by side and say they're almost the same game, just with different names, monsters, and a few added bells and whistles to Dead Space. The plot for both involves a lone player tackling on a crew transformed after death and tackling a biological entity which controls the whole collective. Both plots involve a ship that is slowly turning into a biological organism and which have a device of some sort which instigates the whole problem in the first place (Shodan in SS2, the Marker in Dead Space). Both involve betrayal from trusted friends and sometimes even helping your enemies a bit when your purpose temporarily is in line with their goals. And both contain video and audio logs of deceased crewmembers providing hints on how to beat the Great Opponent, as well as backstory. However to say that Dead Space is a remake of System Shock 2 is a bit unfair to it too because many games have given nods to SS2 (Doom 3, Bioshock, and several others) in very similar ways. Dead Space also takes a healthy heap of atmosphere from movies like Event Horizon, the aforementioned Alien, Aliens, and yes, even a pinch from Night of the Living Dead. Thus I would sum up by saying that Dead Space is really a fusion of the best these games and movies have to offer presented to the player in a very cinematic way. It's literally like starring in your own sci-fi/horror film. And there may just be a moment that comes along and makes you soil yourself, as the title of my review indicates. Fortunately this didn't happen to me (like I'd admit it!) but I will say that when my dog came up behind me and put her cold, wet nose on my ankle at 2am I jumped 3 feet in the air. Now that, my friends, is a game!

For the price Dead Space *cannot* be beaten. For a paltry $20 this is a horror/survival game that very much is worth every penny you'll pay for it. If you loved the System Shock series, Bioshock, Doom, Aliens versus Predator (PC games), and the like then you will want this game on your shelf. Now, off to go find a fresh pair of drawers.