I could have sworn I did a review of Dead Space, but I could not find it in my archives. What I do remember about it was that it was horrible. I was not a fan of the slow gameplay or the controls. However, many people online have said how awesome it was, and one friend in particular mentioned that the final game was better than the demo. Now, I needed to have a game in from Gamefly to last me until AVP comes out, and I decided to try Dead Space. So far, I have not been disappointed.
The game is a classic space-survival story. A crew is sent to work some routine maintenance on a large spaceship, and arrive to find that the crew of the ship are missing. It becomes a game of survival as you and your small crew must survive a creature manifestation aboard the large ship.
The gameplay is pretty awesome. Its a third-person shooter, and you have an array of weapons and melee moves at your disposal to eliminate your adversaries. However, one thing I did not like was that the main character (Issac) takes up a large portion of the screen, kind of like how it was with Batman: Arkham Asylum. The movement controls are still kind of slow, but a bit quicker than they were in the demo, and are more fluid. Within a half hour I was used to them and enjoying the game.
As I said, the main gist of the game is killing creatures. However, these creatures can take many a shot to the chest. Thus, it is essential to carefully aim your shots and shoot off their limbs. Using the default plasma cutter, you can shoot out their legs so they fall to the ground, but they will continue to crawl towards you. You will then have to shoot out their arms or head. However, a head shot is not always a one-shot kill, as sometimes the bodies will continue to blindly come at you without a head.
The sounds of the game only add to the creepiness of the creatures. There is rarely any background music, so the only sound you hear is the environment. This includes the creatures, as they scamper above you on grates or suddenly pop out of a wall or doorway. Both the visual and audio aspects of the game give it an eerie feel, and I havent been this creeped out by a game in a long time.
There is more to the game, which I will get into when I do a full review. However, the first hour in was a blast, and I am looking forward to getting more into it, including getting some game time in at night, to enhance the creepiness. As of right now, I think its definitely worth a rental to check out.
