Dead Space Review at Paradox Designs

Dead space is a fun game. A fun, gory game. Over the weekend, I rented and played through part of the game. While I did not finish it, I have gotten a good impression of the game.

The game is very entertaining, and, although difficult at times, proves very rewarding.

Gameplay

Deadspace has a very interesting gameplay. It is a third person shooter, but it abandons many of the elements that are common to other shooters. Instead of aiming at the typical points of damage, such as head and body, you want to aim at Arms and legs. Part of this is the concept of dismemberment; when you shoot the arms and legs enough, they fall off. This is also the only way to kill them. The game features very few actual “weapons,” rather you use a modium of tools, such as a flamethrower and plasma cutter, keeping with the theme that the main character is not a soldier, but an engineer.

The mood is mostly set using music, which is wide and varied. The scarier moments of the game are mostly the pop out and get you parts, similar to most other scary games. The times when you feel the most fear, however,is when you have to confront a whole room full of enemies. This is difficult due to the combat system. You cannot merely pray and spray, and therefore will die quickly in such a situation.

In addition to weapons, you have a set of other, well, call them abilities for lack of a better name. They are the Stasis and Telekinesis, and both are very useful throughout the game. Stasis is limited, you only have so much, whereas you have unlimited amounts of TK. Stasis is refuled throughout the game from conveniently placed stasis chargers, or from stasis packs from X-boxes^[1] or corpses of enemies. Stasis is used to freeze enemies temporarily, either allowing you to do damage quickly, or flee. Stasis can get you out of many situations. Stasis is your friend.

Telekinesis is an even bigger friend. TK never runs out, and can be used constantly to no penalty. Depending on how you use it, you can kill enemies with one hit, or buy time while they are knocked down. You will also have to use it to move ingame objects to get through areas. You can use it to obtain items, such as stasis packs and other things, without triggering enemies.

All in all, the gameplay is very smooth and polished. The combination of weapons and powers make it quite varied. The only grief I have is with the control scheme. The control scheme is best described as unintuitive. There are 2 modes, Combat mode and normal mode. Combat mode is activated by the left trigger. In combat mode, you can shoot, use stasis, use tk. In regular mode you can heal, melee, and run. Switching between the 2 takes time, and so meleeing and then shooting is complicated. Other than these flaws, it works really well, and I suspect with more play time, it will eventually become intuitive.

Gameplay Rating:

Story

Deadspace is a game where the story is revealed throughout the game, so at the end, you finally know the whole story. Its revealed throughout the game through video logs, audio logs, and text logs. These are placed conveniently throughout the story. They reveal bits of the whole plot, and together add to the story. They also contribute to the idea of the game, that you are coming upon a ship with an unknown disaster. You aren’t presented with all the knowledge at once, and have to uncover it throughout the story. While this is by no means a new invention, it really contributes to the feel of the game.

Then there are the typical elements of far too many games. You have to find keys, bombs, etc, and then backtrack and place/use them. While these add gameplay time, they become tedious and irritating, and can occasionally feel like filler. Typically they are used to bring the character throughout various areas of levels, and make them pick up story elements.

Also, like many other games now days, the enemies you face are mutated humans. It seems like since Halo and the Flood, every me-too game has had a similar type of enemy. I wont spoil the story too much, but i have already said too much.

All in all, the story was very good, but a bit over stereotyped.

Story Rating:

Graphics and Physics

Deadspace has beautiful graphics. While they are by no means the most impressive on the market, they do look pretty. They are significantly better than most other EA games. You can also see most of the textures in the game, as they didn’t use too many dark lights and enviornments, as is the standard with most horror games. The change is refreshing.

The Ragdoll physics, while fun for killing enemies, can prove hindering as well. When you run past a corpse, if you touch it, the physics will make it act as if it were electrocuted, or made of ball bearings. It will move around as if it were alive. Problem is, some monsters will lie on the ground and act dead, popping up when you run into them. The movement of dead bodies will confuse you more than once, and you will look for an enemy, and possibly shoot, wasting ammo. Other than far too active bodies, it is really quite good. The physics work particularly well in the Low gravity areas, where the behave as mass in no gravity should. When you collide with them, you both move back, following the Newtonian laws.

Graphics and Physics Rating:

Overall

All in all, deadspace is a fun game, and a refreshing change for EA. While you will get an occasional scare out of it, you wont get as many as are advertised. The lack of multiplayer or co-op is dissapointing, but not a big issue. The graphics are pretty, and it is a very fun game.
Overall Rating:

Footnotes: