Game Name: Dead Space
Publisher: Electronic arts
Developers: EA Redwood Shores
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3, XBOX 360, XBOX One
Release Date: October 2008
Introduction
I had wanted to play this game for a very long time on my XBOX 360 but I never around to it. Then one day, XBOX Live Games with Gold came along and offered it for free. What a great opportunity to add it to my backlog. After almost a year, I finally got to play this game and see what the good reviews were about.
Story
The year is 2508 and you play the character of Isaac Clarke. You are a systems engineer. The ship that you are on is alerted by a distress signal and you and the team answer it. However, they are not prepared for what they are about to see.
Once that you step on the ship, you notice that something is not right. So Isaac, Commander Zach Hammond and computer specialist Kendra Daniels, seek to see what is wrong with the ship. They notice that systems are failing and Isaac is tasked with repairing some of the systems.
However, on your trek you pick up some clues with documents and audio files that indicate that there is something really wrong happening with the ship. It seems that the ship is infected with an alien called Necromorphs. These can take different shapes and some of them have different abilities. There is one in particular that will take a dead corpse and will transform them into zombie like creatures or a Necromorph.
According to audio files, there is an artifact called the Marker and this would be the source of why everything has been happening. Since the original ship extracted this Marker, the aliens are trying to get it back and will stop at nothing to get it.
The rest of the story is basically trying to get to the bottom of the situation and see who the creatures are and destroy them.
Dead Space - Sample Gameplay
Bottomline
The game itself is solid. The story line is very linear and there is not much in terms of exploring. However, it is a pretty satisfying. When you shoot aliens, it just feels awesome when you successfully get out of an intense situation.
I liked the over the shoulder (3rd person) point of view. However, I was a little less excited about the holographic menu that pops up. In most games, the whole screen will adjust to the menu, like for Fallout. In this instance the vantage point depends on where you are looking. Sometimes, you want to pick something from the inventory but it is difficult to choose and in some cases you die due to the lack of time. I do not know if they fixed this in subsequent sequels, but I hope that they do.
The voice actors are well played. They do an admirable job. I did not know the story ahead of time and that made me enjoy the story even more. At some points I actually jumped due to the surprises. It is a video game version of Aliens and it is fine by me. The tone is well done and the story flows pretty well.
I will say that at every turn, there is always an issue and Isaac is always the one fixing the problem. At some points the story felt stretched.
The only true negative that I can see with this game are the mini games that we find in the game a few times. One of them was a shooting range type thing to win bonuses. The other was a modern day version of basketball and beanbag. These took me a while to complete and they are not really tied to the game in any way.
Other than that, this is a strong title. Since this was free it is well worth the pick up. Even for below 20$ this is a great pick up. Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 were also free on XBOX Live so, I will probably play these eventually and review them as well.
Rating: 4 Necromorphs out of 10
What did you think? Do you like this game? Was I off the marl? Let me know below.
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