Stranded in Space with only a Line Gun for company. (Dead Space (PC))

Member Name: jonnyr

Product:	Dead Space (PC)
Date:	04/12/08 (138 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Immersive gameplay, excellent graphcis and sound

Disadvantages: Feels like a console game at times

It's not often that a game will scare you senseless, but Dead Space is one of those rare gems which, if you allow it, will leave you with nightmarish visions, twitching in the corner!

Dead Space takes a slightly different spin on the usual First Person Shooter genre by positioning the camera just behind your avatar's shoulder, in a similar vein to Gears of War. At first I didn't think I'd like this angle, but after a few hours of gameplay I hardly even noticed the aspect shift; infact I'll go as far as to say that I think it adds to the game, showing your character (Isaac) getting slammed to the floor, or dragged along by his leg by a monstrous tentacle, which brings me nicely onto the best aspect of dead space - the enemy!

The game's opening cinematic gives nothing away - you and a small crew aboard a service ship are heading towards the USG Ishimura to repair a damaged comms array; from the moment you step foot off the shuttle you can fear the tension close in around you knowing full well that something is about to go hideously wrong. This is one game that really needs to be played in the dark with a good pair of headphones in order for you to get the most out of it; The audio is superb with a great score which puts the predictable dross of the Lost Soundtrack to shame. This is further heightened by whispering voices, malfunctioning equipment and eerie clanking noises emanating from the vents and ducts. The game has some excellent environment effects, the first time you experience a hull breach and are introduced to the vacuum of space is pretty intense.

The game continues the immersion by removing all HUD elements from the screen; this is replaced with a health meter running down your character's spine and ammo readouts on the weapons themselves. The developers came up with a clever system for accessing the inventory; pressing the Tab key will project a hologram infront of your avatar which moves around in the game world. Activating the inventory does pause the game, so there's no respite in the midst of an intense battle, again adding to the sense of urgency rather than taking away from it. New weapons, ammo and items can be purchased from the shops which are scattered around the game - I find it hard to believe that these would still be functional whilst the entire crew lies in pieces, but I guess the story writers ran out of good ideas!

Some reviewers have critiqued Dead Space for its unimaginative and repetitive scenery, however I think this is slightly unjust given the setting of the game (Spaceships, for all their intergalactic glory, are pretty grey affairs on the inside). The Game progresses you through multiple parts of the Ship with boss battles taking place around the usual landmarks (The sequence in the morgue is particularly memorable). However I will agree with others that the range of weapons is lacking - you'll often find yourself falling back one one or two staple weapons, especially when the ammo starts getting sparse later in the game, but I guess we should be grateful that the developers didn't fall back on the usual Doom formula of shotgun, rifle, rocket launcher.

Dead Space is another one of those game which feels like a console port - for example, you can only save you game at certain Save Points (at which you are also limited to four saves!) and there is no Quick Save (but again, this adds to the tension and makes you value your health!). The transition from gamepad to keyboard feels slightly strange and no matter how I remapped the keys I never felt I had that "Half-life level" of keybinding. There are also certain gameplay elements that don't translate as well; one mission has you shooting at incoming asteroids, something which is quite tricky on a PS3 (or so I'm told), but it was just 5 minutes of tedium for me as I popped off rock after rock with the pinpoint precision a mouse offers you)

The graphics are one place where the PC version shines above its console brethren; I was able to run the game with everything on High setting at 1680x1050 resolution on my 768mb Nvidia 9800GTS (far in excess of the 720p limit on the consoles). One small problem that I came across was the incredible mouse lag when I first started it up; this was quickly solved by turning off the VSync setting in the Graphics menu (and no, this did not produce any visual tearing for me). It should also be noted that you can further improve the graphics by enabling Anti-Aliasing in your Graphics Card settings as there are no AA Options in the Game.

To conclude, I really can't fault Dead Space, it's been a long time since I've played a game compelling enough to warrant 8 hour stints that last long into the night. Of course, this game is not without its faults, but it would definitely be in my Top 5 picks of 2008. This game would make an excellent present for any avid gamer, but I wouldn't reccomend letting younger children play it due to the extreme graphic nature and the incredibly dark and twisted setting (I've woken up from a couple of warped dreams since playing this game!)

Summary: This game will suck you and and try and rip off your arm!