The most obvious influence on Dead Space is definitely Resident Evil 4, but it also has a surprising amount in common with classic Doom - the ability to strafe and move while shooting, the inability to jump, the constant key-hunting and backtracking punctuated by intense combat sequences, and the fusion of high-tech architecture with hellish organic material. And much like the movie Gravity did with the space sci-fi genre by saying "hey, you know space actually kinda sucks", Dead Space adds a heaping helping of realism and grittiness to its two chief influences, being less power fantasy or campy B-movie and more desperate fight for survival. You're not the action hero throwing out one-liners as you save the day; you're the lowly technician fumbling around dark corridors repairing McGuffin after McGuffin just so your ship doesn't explode or the life support doesn't switch off. And you do all this not to a heavy metal soundtrack but to the unsettling ambient noise which could be an enemy, or just your imagination?
While I wouldn't class this as a genuinely scary game, it manages to keep a sense of tension and foreboding throughout. The game establishes very early on that there are basically no safe spaces - not elevators, not save rooms, not even while using the upgrade bench! It's this knowledge that an enemy could drop in at any time combined with the masterful graphical and sound direction that kept me on edge; was the noise I heard an echo of my own footsteps or something else? Is the clanging of machinery masking an approaching enemy? The game also used light and shadow very well - several times I startled myself with my own shadow as a spark of electricity suddenly lit up the wall in front of me.
The gunplay is obviously very well done, and the various enemy types were well-designed and presented a decent challenge from a mechanical point of view. One memorable sequence stood out for me by combining pregnants with exploders - the most efficient way to kill the exploders (a shot to their explosive arm) releases the crawlers in the pregnants' bellies, so it necessitated very careful and deliberate aiming in a fast-paced sequence where your first and fatal instinct is to spray and pray.
In the end, what makes Dead Space an 'excellent' rather than 'genre-redefining' game like RE4 (besides the fact that it came out later) are the small things. The slightly undercooked-ness of some of the mechanics like stasis and kinesis. The poor conveyance of some of the set pieces where I had no idea what I was supposed to do (something the very best games somehow manage to avoid). But most of all, it's the very nature of Dead Space, like RE4: it has an excuse plot, very good gunplay and combat, mostly-scripted enemy appearances, and a New Game + mode. In other words, this is a game that through its structure is meant to be scary the first time through and then fun the subsequent times. And it's simply less fun than RE4 - the combat just slightly less satisfying, the set-pieces less varied, and much more visible 'strings' holding up the fact that the entire plot is a series of fetch quests.
Still, one of the best RE4-likes I've ever played, and something I can see myself returning to.
While I wouldn't class this as a genuinely scary game, it manages to keep a sense of tension and foreboding throughout. The game establishes very early on that there are basically no safe spaces - not elevators, not save rooms, not even while using the upgrade bench! It's this knowledge that an enemy could drop in at any time combined with the masterful graphical and sound direction that kept me on edge; was the noise I heard an echo of my own footsteps or something else? Is the clanging of machinery masking an approaching enemy? The game also used light and shadow very well - several times I startled myself with my own shadow as a spark of electricity suddenly lit up the wall in front of me.
The gunplay is obviously very well done, and the various enemy types were well-designed and presented a decent challenge from a mechanical point of view. One memorable sequence stood out for me by combining pregnants with exploders - the most efficient way to kill the exploders (a shot to their explosive arm) releases the crawlers in the pregnants' bellies, so it necessitated very careful and deliberate aiming in a fast-paced sequence where your first and fatal instinct is to spray and pray.
In the end, what makes Dead Space an 'excellent' rather than 'genre-redefining' game like RE4 (besides the fact that it came out later) are the small things. The slightly undercooked-ness of some of the mechanics like stasis and kinesis. The poor conveyance of some of the set pieces where I had no idea what I was supposed to do (something the very best games somehow manage to avoid). But most of all, it's the very nature of Dead Space, like RE4: it has an excuse plot, very good gunplay and combat, mostly-scripted enemy appearances, and a New Game + mode. In other words, this is a game that through its structure is meant to be scary the first time through and then fun the subsequent times. And it's simply less fun than RE4 - the combat just slightly less satisfying, the set-pieces less varied, and much more visible 'strings' holding up the fact that the entire plot is a series of fetch quests.
Still, one of the best RE4-likes I've ever played, and something I can see myself returning to.