Dead Space had the hallmarks of a horror classic. The atmosphere is one of the best I've seen, even having a unique HUD to where it never distracts what's in front of you, the enemies and their designs are gnarly as hell, the audio design is so eerie to where when you play with surround sound or speakers, it had me looking over my shoulder. Guess this game was ahead of its time with its creepy ass whispers like its an ASMR reading. All of this to invoke the biggest sense of dread and have this urgent need to GTFO of there.
Even the story comes into the play with you playing the, now famous, engineer issac clarke and his crew consisting of hammond and kendra, to find out what happened to issacs wife on the ishimura, a huge "planet cracking" ship that can take a piece of a planet to be studied on board. and they severely fucked up by bringing in an artifact known as "the marker" on board which causes hallucinations and can reanimate people into such nasty contorted creatures aka necromorphs. and the only way those can be killed, is via limb shooting.
Speaking of which, the necromorphs, all varied, manage to have some very gruesome designs, sure you got the boomer who spews out little fuckin minions when you shoot its belly, or the annoying as hell sprinters that give you no time to breathe. but there are those which throw a curve ball at ya like the little fuckers with tendrils coming out of their shell throwing shit at you or the regenerative one which can GROW BACK its limbs and head you shot off or the armored brutes where you have to shoot its glowing weak spots to have it lie down and attempt to shoot them off surgically precise. all of these make for some unique encounters that you can appreciate... for the most part. We'll get to why i say that in the negatives.
I'm sure many know the story of this game, given how many prequels, sequels, movies, spinoffs and even a remake has now spawned from this single game. But disconnecting from all of that, it is a great executed story on its own merits. Like i've said before with the HUD, it is non-intrusive on how it executes its story. That means 0 skippable cutscenes, all in game. Most popular example of this would be Half-life/Portal titles where characters talk in front of you while you walk around or mess around with the environment. I'd be turned off by the notion of unskippable cutscenes but Not once have i felt like the controller been taken away from me and i WANTED to see what's happening on screen, or in a mini screen on issac's visor. Be it audio logs, briefings, certain story plot points, etc. The voices are well performed, especially for 2008, Your crew members sound panicked but at least assured of themselves that they were gonna escape. or those who you find on the ship like the devout unitologist (Cult worshipping the marker and its creations) or the regretful Dr. Kyne, or various members audio logs capturing their final moments before death. To say this game is pretty bleak is an understatement. And they did a damn fine job with it. Even if Issacs a mute in this, and not the sequels and remake, i still felt bad for him and you can hear some frustration and anger whenever he stomps on a necromorph and so on.
Now since you're playing as an errand boy engineer, you are limited on your arsenal, but its unique in terms of variation. Starting with the well known plasma cutter, a weapon that can vertically or horizontally shoot off limbs easily. To the line cutter, same function but on a much bigger scale and has an alt fire that acts as a trip mine. To a flamethrower that can also shoot flame balls. To an auto rifle that can alternatively scattershot multiple rounds all over the place. To the force gun which can blow enemies back or its alt being a grenade launcher. To the saw ripper that can either activates buzzsaws in the air, slicing off enemies when held or alternatively can be shot normally. or the Beam which can be charged up to fire one powerful laser shot or can be used as a AOE explosive attack, damaging or killing those around you. These are perfectly fitted and you can see issac wielding them as an engineer or used by military personnel and none of em feel out of place. And given one of my first review on here was on Bulletstorm and how im a sucker for Guns that have alt fires, I love it. On top of these, You have a stasis module which can slow enemies down and a Kenesis module which you can guess by the title, Allows you to pick up anything in the environment and pull it towards you or forcefully push it. These work well hand in hand with the weapons to provide a unique combat experience given other horror games have you either aim for the head to kill (or in RE4s case stagger 'em for a bit for a roundhouse kick) but in this, you HAVE to go for limbs. and the physics engine, given that this is a game from the 2000s and that was the hot new thing at the time, is fun to mess around with. Having to see bodies react when you stomp on em or walk past them, including limbs and gore that much more gnarly and visceral. Which is impressive given the fact that this is the same engine that powered shit like Tiger woods PGA tour and this is all Visceral (At the time EA Redwood) had to work with, with no carte blanche and having to prove themselves.
Now why do i give this a 4 instead of a 5? Few problems here and there, One, the zero G sections are very janky as hell and can cause motion sickness for the less fortunate. Which the sequel has greatly improve on. 2nd, the bullshit enemies pull, like the sprinters completely bum rushing you and leaving you no time to breathe winds up invoking not fear or being scared shitless but rather being pissed off and had me yelling "Fuck off" during the last few levels of the game, and by that point they have worn out their welcome. and finally 3rd, CONSTANT CRASHES ON PC, MY FAVORITE. Its so much worse during the final few levels than it is previously, It runs smooth at 4k144fps on my rig no problem, but it got me frustrated having to restart a section, right as i finished but before i got to save. Even the physics weren't that fucky as i feared when typically games in this era, tie their physics to frame rate.
Other than those, I can recommend this, even with the remake out there, as it shouldn't be glossed over or worse, disrespected for its "game-yness" which is far better to embrace that mixed with cinematic storytelling than to strip all of that just to seem that much more "realistic" as i seen online when comparing this to the remake. Just prepare for crashes, play with a controller (mouse and keyboard is completely FUBAR) and brace yourself with some bullshit moments of sprinters near the end.
Even the story comes into the play with you playing the, now famous, engineer issac clarke and his crew consisting of hammond and kendra, to find out what happened to issacs wife on the ishimura, a huge "planet cracking" ship that can take a piece of a planet to be studied on board. and they severely fucked up by bringing in an artifact known as "the marker" on board which causes hallucinations and can reanimate people into such nasty contorted creatures aka necromorphs. and the only way those can be killed, is via limb shooting.
Speaking of which, the necromorphs, all varied, manage to have some very gruesome designs, sure you got the boomer who spews out little fuckin minions when you shoot its belly, or the annoying as hell sprinters that give you no time to breathe. but there are those which throw a curve ball at ya like the little fuckers with tendrils coming out of their shell throwing shit at you or the regenerative one which can GROW BACK its limbs and head you shot off or the armored brutes where you have to shoot its glowing weak spots to have it lie down and attempt to shoot them off surgically precise. all of these make for some unique encounters that you can appreciate... for the most part. We'll get to why i say that in the negatives.
I'm sure many know the story of this game, given how many prequels, sequels, movies, spinoffs and even a remake has now spawned from this single game. But disconnecting from all of that, it is a great executed story on its own merits. Like i've said before with the HUD, it is non-intrusive on how it executes its story. That means 0 skippable cutscenes, all in game. Most popular example of this would be Half-life/Portal titles where characters talk in front of you while you walk around or mess around with the environment. I'd be turned off by the notion of unskippable cutscenes but Not once have i felt like the controller been taken away from me and i WANTED to see what's happening on screen, or in a mini screen on issac's visor. Be it audio logs, briefings, certain story plot points, etc. The voices are well performed, especially for 2008, Your crew members sound panicked but at least assured of themselves that they were gonna escape. or those who you find on the ship like the devout unitologist (Cult worshipping the marker and its creations) or the regretful Dr. Kyne, or various members audio logs capturing their final moments before death. To say this game is pretty bleak is an understatement. And they did a damn fine job with it. Even if Issacs a mute in this, and not the sequels and remake, i still felt bad for him and you can hear some frustration and anger whenever he stomps on a necromorph and so on.
Now since you're playing as an errand boy engineer, you are limited on your arsenal, but its unique in terms of variation. Starting with the well known plasma cutter, a weapon that can vertically or horizontally shoot off limbs easily. To the line cutter, same function but on a much bigger scale and has an alt fire that acts as a trip mine. To a flamethrower that can also shoot flame balls. To an auto rifle that can alternatively scattershot multiple rounds all over the place. To the force gun which can blow enemies back or its alt being a grenade launcher. To the saw ripper that can either activates buzzsaws in the air, slicing off enemies when held or alternatively can be shot normally. or the Beam which can be charged up to fire one powerful laser shot or can be used as a AOE explosive attack, damaging or killing those around you. These are perfectly fitted and you can see issac wielding them as an engineer or used by military personnel and none of em feel out of place. And given one of my first review on here was on Bulletstorm and how im a sucker for Guns that have alt fires, I love it. On top of these, You have a stasis module which can slow enemies down and a Kenesis module which you can guess by the title, Allows you to pick up anything in the environment and pull it towards you or forcefully push it. These work well hand in hand with the weapons to provide a unique combat experience given other horror games have you either aim for the head to kill (or in RE4s case stagger 'em for a bit for a roundhouse kick) but in this, you HAVE to go for limbs. and the physics engine, given that this is a game from the 2000s and that was the hot new thing at the time, is fun to mess around with. Having to see bodies react when you stomp on em or walk past them, including limbs and gore that much more gnarly and visceral. Which is impressive given the fact that this is the same engine that powered shit like Tiger woods PGA tour and this is all Visceral (At the time EA Redwood) had to work with, with no carte blanche and having to prove themselves.
Now why do i give this a 4 instead of a 5? Few problems here and there, One, the zero G sections are very janky as hell and can cause motion sickness for the less fortunate. Which the sequel has greatly improve on. 2nd, the bullshit enemies pull, like the sprinters completely bum rushing you and leaving you no time to breathe winds up invoking not fear or being scared shitless but rather being pissed off and had me yelling "Fuck off" during the last few levels of the game, and by that point they have worn out their welcome. and finally 3rd, CONSTANT CRASHES ON PC, MY FAVORITE. Its so much worse during the final few levels than it is previously, It runs smooth at 4k144fps on my rig no problem, but it got me frustrated having to restart a section, right as i finished but before i got to save. Even the physics weren't that fucky as i feared when typically games in this era, tie their physics to frame rate.
Other than those, I can recommend this, even with the remake out there, as it shouldn't be glossed over or worse, disrespected for its "game-yness" which is far better to embrace that mixed with cinematic storytelling than to strip all of that just to seem that much more "realistic" as i seen online when comparing this to the remake. Just prepare for crashes, play with a controller (mouse and keyboard is completely FUBAR) and brace yourself with some bullshit moments of sprinters near the end.