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I have been playing shooters for a long long time. After DOOM, no one had the guts to move away from head shots. Almost 3 decades has come and gone and shooters have remained the same. Woow these guys did get away with it, and they have come out with amazing results. This is the power of creativity.
We have played shooters with zombies in them, horror sci-fi games, different permutations and combinations. All have few different monsters as enemies. Either you shoot them in the head or it is some kind of quick press events to kill the bosses. Here you have to understand what every enemy is, remember how to kill when you see them again. As you walk through the levels, you see clues written in blood on what to do with each enemy.
The game continuously throws new surprises. You have to explore every level to find items to upgrade your weapons. When you first step into ZeroG... the fights gets crazy. Enemies will come from every direction, the map is a big globe. The level design is fantastic. Every single detail from hospital rooms, kitchens what ever that will be required in a big space ship is there. It is not like the super tidy carpeted Trek space ship. It is supposed to be some thing like a dirty mining rig, and you surely get the feel of it.
There is lot of creativity that has gone in.. which I didn't expect from a big publisher like EA. You don't find any M16, AK46, turret gun here. All the weapons are mining equipment. Our future mining equipments are lot more interesting than what we have today. As the main character is a engineer lot of things he does very cohesive with the gameplay. When you actually fix a lever and move things around it feels lot more natural.
I do have to say one thing about this game. It is truly meant for mature audience. Please don't buy this game for very young children. There are few sections where you have to kick and stomp baby zombies. It gets too violent and scary. But as a horror/survival/thriller you need creepy enemies. Also they do give you a reason to keep searching and not quit half way around. The theme may be slightly similar to DMC4 girl friend search... but executed very well.
One gripe I have with this game as with DMC4 is backtracking. The game is quite long by today's standard. The space ship feels much better because you are visiting some of the same areas while backtracking. It is not horrible, but it is there. I wish they hadn't done that.
To give developers credit, they have done enough to avoid the regular backtracking nightmares like lost routes. You can always use your analog stick to show the dotted green walk line.
Previously I thought this one will be like Silent hill, this one is more closer to Resident Evil. Falls more in the creepy, scary game than survival horror game.
Technically, I don't have to say much. Any one who has seen videos of the game already know this game looks stunning. Fantastic way to start the holiday season. Brand new IP, silky smooth game play, really well done game. Go treat yourself.
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After reading reviews that Dead Space was the second coming of the original Resident Evil, I decided I'd give it a try. Review sites were claiming it to be "the scariest game evar!" Hell, when I picked the game up from a local store I was boldly told, "within two minutes of gaining control of your character, you will jump out of your skin!" Eagerly, I rushed home, ready for my next jolt of adrenaline. So, it was with a pair of rubber underwear (I kid...or do I?) and some excitement that I set out to see what dark terrors Dead Space would contain.
Turns out there's not much here we haven't seen before. No, I didn't jump two minutes into the game...and in fact the first chapter felt pretty tame. Monsters pop out of vents or can be seen in the distance, usually followed by a loud "DUN!" from the soundtrack. Maybe I've grown so hardened from my years of playing horror games that the thrills in Dead Space don't amount to much. I'm also wondering who these reviewers are. If Dead Space is so terrifying to them, I'd hate to see what'd happen if they got their hands on F.E.A.R. or Condemned, for example, two games that have made me jump out of my skin.
Things improve as the story continues, though, with some disturbing images (usually involving a crazed survivor) and some stick with me, even now. The game does improve on its terror level, the further in you get and there are some shocking moments, both in terms of graphic depictions but also in a "holy crap, I'm being dragged by a tentacle" way. But, as a personal opinion, I've never really been fond of the silent protagonist. And here we have not only Isaac, the mute, but Isaac the faceless since he's always holed up behind some mask. Sure there is a personal story here for him, what with his girlfriend stuck on the ship somewhere, but it never really clicked for me simply because Isaac felt like a doll and not a real person.
This isn't to say Dead Space is a bad game, just the opposite! I had an absolute blast playing it because what it does, it does exceedingly well. The weapons are never your cliched space marine-type fare, which brings a fresh feel to the game. They can be "leveled up" via work benches, and you can really design both your suit and your weapons to fit your play style. Dead Space also controls amazingly well and you'll never feel like the game is hampering you by horrible movement. The graphics are pretty damn awesome, especially in terms of the grotesque monster designs (which remind me of The Thing) and the animations. The concept of "strategic dismembering" is also a fun little twist of the genre, as you'll find yourself blowing the hell out of their limbs, just to keep them from coming at you.
I also appreciate how each level feels completely different from the last and EA has truly made the Ishimura come alive. When I first heard that the game took place on a ship, I was worried. Usually that means the same old corridors and bad level design, but here it means a fully realized space ship. Breaking up the action are sections taking place in zero-G areas, which are great, and some puzzles that require you to utlize the environment.
All in all, and even though I don't share the opinion that it's the scariest game ever, Dead Space is a terrific game. The plot is very intriguing and pulls you along, but it's everything else that really adds up to making it what it is. In the end, Dead Space feels more like Aliens than Alien, and that ain't shabby.
Definitely recommend a purchase.
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Let's face it: October's a rather crowded month. Literally every single week has one top-tier title that's massively anticipated and will instantly become day one purchases for many. Call it the Summer Blockbuster Season in games, really and thankfully a game like Dead Space has generated quite a bit of excitement and won't become one of those forgotten Ico/Beyond Good and Evil-type gems that barely anyone played yet people who have sing its praises whenever they can. While it's not exactly original and there's incredibly small gripes about the gameplay, Dead Space has all the makings of a great experience and I'd recommend it to anyone...provided you're over 18.
Story: You play as Isaac Clarke (a little nod to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, writer of 2001)who is an engineer that gets called in to investigate the distress beacon activated by the USG Ishimura, a "planet cracker" ship that literally rips holes in planets and mines the chunks for minerals and ore. But upon arrival, Isaac and a couple of his shipmates crash onto the ship and have to investigate what happened. But instead of finding its crew, it seems to be infested with new residents: that of grotesque, mutated creatures.
Graphics: This game is different than say Heavenly Sword or Uncharted which had lush and colorful visuals. Dead Space is more about poor lighting, flickering light sources and shadows across the floor. That being said, the graphics are unbelievably impressive and the immersion into the environments is stellar thanks to how the ship is presented. Also notable is the gore which is decidedly ramped up and whether it's you being on the losing end or you besting your enemies, you're guaranteed to run into some gruesomeness.
Sound/Music: Anyone who knows anything about horror is that it's just as much about how it's presented than what and all that is thanks to sound. The sound here is unbelievably impressive with clanks, roars and screeches, the unexpected loud encounter and even faint whispering, the aural design here will definately be effective if you have a killer surround sound system. The voice acting is also quite good and while they're not exactly flashy roles, there's no breaking the atmosphere with awful line delivery or melodramatic bellowing.
Gameplay: Strangely, the PS3 version of Bioshock is being released a week after this game which is a creepy, atmospheric FPS. This is a creepy, atmospheric 3rd-person shooter similar to Resident Evil 4. But what helps the game is the completely intuitive and immediate feel in the controls. While the controlling is simple and seen before, it's the weapons and others where it becomes key since I found switching weapons in previous games slightly clunky. Basically pressing L1 makes you aim and your action depends on what button you pressed. Pressing Square activates your Stasis, a kind of slow-motion weapon for those fast enemies, or just managing the battlefield. X is Reload while Circle activates your Kinesis which works similarily to the Force Grab in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (and not as awfully done either). R1 controls your firing while R2 is the weapon's secondary mode so your first weapon, Plasma Cutter cuts horizontally in default, pressing R2 changes it to vertically which is perfect for arm dismembering while the default is great for legs. You also have several other weaponry to use, all based on mining equipment so you have one gun which has saw blades, a flamethrower or a rapid-fire pulse rifle.
By the way, don't think you can rely on headshots galore in this game since that can make it worse. Instead, you have to essentially take your enemies apart to wipe them out. Blowing their legs off reduces them to a crawl while going for their arms robs them of anything to attack you with (and with Kinesis on the arms, they make for great impalement tools). That also gets a great use as well is the bigger variety in how you kill your enemies. For example, in addition to the arm-blade tactic, you can grab a flammable tank with Kinesis and launch them, creating a bomb or squishing them in doorways or getting them into gravity panels on the floor and launching them towards the ceiling with a nice, satisfying "squish" sound. While we're not talking about Bioshock-levels of variety, it's a great change of pace from just shoot-shoot-grenade-shoot in other games.
The other thing to mention is that in order to completely immerse you in the environment, EA didn't do a traditional HUD with your health bar, ammo and mini-map in the corners of the screen. Instead, everything is on your body with a vertebrae-like meter running up your spine that drops when you take damage to a half-circle for your Stasis meter, a pop-up for Air and a visible hologram for your ammo. It's a wonder that nobody seems to do this more. Word of caution: entering your inventory does not pause the game (that's what Start is for). So this effectively can leave you wide open for enemy attacks so best to wait till the coast is relatively clear. But having video logs and transmissions coming in front of Isaac and not a separate cutscene is great.
Oh, and speaking of air: on occasion you'll hit Zero-G environments where there's no air and you're able to jump to other parts of the room which lets you even stand on the walls, complete with shifted perspective. While it's disorientating and hard to tell what's exactly jumpable until you tried to jump, it quite works within the game and the near lack of sound really helps sell it. Plus let's face it: it's hard not to yell "woohoo!" like you're on a roller coaster every time you jump.
There's a couple parts in the game where I hit a proverbial wall and died a few times (it's reminiscent of "Star Wars" and even has a trophy named after one of Han Solo's lines), this isn't a difficult game so much as it's intense. Only brief times I can recall where I was more overwhelmed by enemies and didn't have a good strategy as opposed to Uncharted where enemies seem to have bullet-stopping skin or Call of Duty 4 where enemies seem to have better aim at 200 yards away than you do. While you can separate the game's experience into sizable chunks thanks to the clear chapter progression, the difficulty is so inviting that you just want to keep playing and not feel like Ninja Gaiden-levels of frustration and "finally for the 10th time!" shouts.
Is this worth a purchase? Well for me it is and I had such a blast with this game but for others, some might not get the big deal or they're too busy playing the other big games of the month to bother but I say definately do not pass this one up.
Honest reviews on Dead Space (PlayStation 3)
Look, if you love Dead Space, have dedicated your life to the game and think its the best thing since antibiotics, then I apologize for the coming blasphemy. I liked so many aspects about this game but overall it just didnt resonate with me. Here's why:
I love the horror/survival horror/action genre, so I came into it with positive expectations. This had Ridley Scott's "Aliens" movie written all over it. I was psyched.
Graphically, the game is pretty amazing, possibly one of the best looking games out there in the space-genre. The atomosphere of Dead Space is remarkable, I've give you that. They really captured the scale and isolation of space, and will positively creep you out with the strobe-lit rooms with random blood spatter. There is much detail here, but I appreciate all the effort in that.
Audio-wise, I think this may be one of the most effective uses of surround I've seen so far in a game. Its so damn eerie at times, I muted the volume. Random screams, metal grinding and breaking free, whispers (or are they?), things crawling through duct work, out of sight...this game does "ambient" better than some games do their main audio. Its almost as scary when things ARENT jumping out at you as when they are, and Dead Space uses that Hollywood scare tactic a lot. A whole lot.
I like many aspects, zero-gravity, the work stations, even the weapons were ok, but why 3 stars for fun? Because I played several sections into the game and realized not only how massive the amount of time it was going to take to solve it, but also how I was going to be repeating so many tasks so many times, and then backtracking through all the areas I previously passed through, like some kind of masochistic scavenger hunt. I can take this for a while, but not for an entire game the size of Dead Space. Even the cool new areas and details werent enough pay-off to make me want to spend the kind of hours I was going to need on this one.
Its an interesting lesson for game developers: beauty, atomosphere, storyline may not be enough to make a game "5-Star" fun if it requires a lot of repetitive work. Many, looking at the ratings, feel differently, but I was surprised enough by this to want to write a "second-opinion" review for those who havent yet played it. You may love it, buy the animated DVD and the comics and pledged your life to it, but you may not, so before you buy, you may want to try (rent).
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There are a lot of reviews here, so I'll just hit a few highs, plus a low or two. This refers to the PS3 version.
I've played a lot of shooter and survival games, but Dead Space adds some great twists that make it fresh and exciting.
First, fighting tactics. As others have said, you don't go for the usual head or torso shots, you go for the limbs. This is great fun.
Second, the graphics. Absolutely gorgeous and faultlessly detailed. No render errors, no load snags, no frame rate problems. None. And no constant reuse of pipes, walls, etc. except where it's appropriate for them to look the same as another spot.
Third, environment and sound. You're kept on your toes by the creepy atmosphere and the sound is fantastic. Distant clangs, soft nearby noises and other sounds constantly keep you wondering if there's a baddie behind the next corner.
Fourth, realism. There are many zero G areas where you have to leap from surface to surface (your boots are magnetic). These are challenging but not annoying and add a nice twist. There are also areas where there is no atmosphere and you have to watch your air supply closely.
Fifth, perspective. For the first time, your health and your suit's special power meters are on the back of your suit itself, not in a corner of the screen. The over-the-shoulder perspective is nicely judged you're not so close to yourself that you can't around, but far enough back to get a good, wide view. Your body does block a part of the left half of the screen, but I've never found this a problem.
The not so good? Mainly two things that are far from a killjoy but could have been better.
One, the on-screen displays when you view your "rig" inventory, the map, and text logs you collect have absolutely puny text. They're almost impossible to read on a 34-inch conventional TV using the 3-prong high-quality video (not hi-def).
Two, you upgrade your weapons and suit powers at "benches" using "nodes" you collect along the way. Both the nodes and benches are few and far between, so you don't get to upgrade as much as you'd like.
That's it. Dead Space is simply the best game I've played on the PS3, and possibly the best ever. It's richly detailed in every possible respect, brings fresh ideas to the 3rd-person shooter experience, and has no functional flaws and no real controller-throwing frustrations.
Absolutely highly recommended!
