Mr. Choppy gives Isaac a goodbye kissDead Space sounds scary. What's it about?Dead Space is a science fiction survival horror game developed by EA|Redwood Shores for the PS3, XBOX 360, and Windows-based PC. As such, it involves a futuristic environment infested with disturbingly gruesome, frightening, and horrifying monsters called Necromorphs who want to kill you dead. They will attack singly or in groups, have varied abilities regarding offense and defense, and will keep coming even if you remove their heads.
This is what happens when Mr. Choppy gives you more than a kiss
Artist's impression of the Necrobaby, which you meet early on. You will come to hate these. They are this game's Giant Rat, but worse.You play the role if Isaac Clarke (a tribute to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke), an engineer sent with a team to find out what's going on aboard the
Ishimura. You've been sent there in response to a distress call, but when your ship, the
Kellion, tries to dock, there's a malfunction. You end up on the
Ishimura, and that's when all hell breaks loose.
Holy CRAP! How do I fight these things?!?
This is a very sound piece of advice.The weapons you will be using in Dead Space are, for the most part, repurposed space mining tools. They include items such as the Plasma Cutter, Ripper (a hovering saw blade you can direct? Yes, please), the Line Gun (which shoots a horizontal bolt of energy that can clear entire corridors at its highest upgrade level), and others. The only actual gun in Dead Space is the Pulse Rifle, which looks and acts exactly as one would expect.
In Dead Space, you'll use a tactic known as "strategic dismemberment". This means exactly what you think: cut off their limbs. It's sick, it's ugly, and it's totally necessary. Because of the need for this, some weapons you'll come across are better than others. I will say right now, however, that the flamethrower is nearly universally agreed upon even by fans of the game as being completely, utterly useless. It might look cool, but just sell it. Even the Pulse Rifle is a better- although by no means optimal- choice.
Can I upgrade my weapons?
Oooohh, yatatataa.Yes, dear. You can add more power, capacity, and speed to your weapons, health or extended oxygen to your suit, and other things at the Bench. It should be point out here that bench time is nearly always sacred, so feel free to utilize them wherever you find them. You will definitely want to upgrade your weapons of choice to their utmost, but be advised: there are not enough power nodes, which are used as currency for the bench, to fully upgrade everything you have in the game. Thus, you will have to choose. It's best to pick a favorite weapon earlier rather than later, because power nodes are few and far between, and underpowered weaponry will hinder you later in the game. I cannot stress enough that you can and should also buy power nodes at the Store as often as you can afford to do so. If you don't, you will end up being Very Sad.
What about the interface? The HUD? Like, and stuff...
The game is presented with the camera solidly over Isaac's right shoulder. The camera is very solid in its position, and I can honestly say it is placed and behaves nearly perfectly. Early on, I didn't like this aspect of the game, but as I played, I realized that having the point of view come from slightly behind Isaac, along with the camera's fixed position, makes you, the player, part of Isacc's experience, and makes the game much, much scarier.
Well, Mr. Clarke, it seems you have a clean bill of health... for now.Isaac's health bar is located on his back, and ammunition for your chosen weapon is shown as a hologram on the weapon itself, and the inventory is presented as Isaac would see it. I should note here that
the game does not pause when the inventory is open; this makes opening your inventory (or in fact any projected game element, such as videos from other characters as well as the in-game map and audio and text logs) a seamless act that doesn't break the overall flow of the game. In this way, there is no traditional HUD, clearing the screen for the most horror possible.
What has it got in its pocketses?YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING BUGDo NOT choose "continue game" when you start playing a saved game. Use "Load Saved Game" instead, and go from there. Choosing "Continue Game" sets the difficulty level to "medium" automagically on at least the PC version of Dead Space. You've been warned...
Okay, so. How hard is Dead Space?It depends on the difficulty level you choose. On easy and medium modes, ammunition and credits will be coming out of your ears. On hard mode, not only is there a great deal less ammo to be had, but the enemies themselves will behave very differently.
There are times in Dead Space when you just will not want to keep walking forward, not because of anything you can see or hear, but precisely because there doesn't seem to be anything to be afraid of. Don't let the quiet areas fool you- they're usually a prelude to a monster that will try to rape your face. Some rooms will go under quarantine lockdown when you enter them, forcing you- regardless of your health or ammunition supply- to defend yourself. Thus, ammunition management will be one of your primary concerns, because your only other course of action will be to either run (which sometimes isn't possible) or beating them up with your sadly empty weapon of choice. Fortunately, you do have two other tactics: the stasis module and the kinesis module.
Stasis? Kinesis? Do tell...
Look Ma- no hands!
How do you expect me to kill you when you're moving that fast? SLOW DOWN, dammit!Kinesis lets you pick up objects like you can with Half Life 2's Gravity Gun. It works in pretty much the same way, and doesn't have a limit on the amount of time or the distance you can carry objects using it. This device works on everything except the enemies themselves, and yes, Virginia, you can indeed use it as a weapon by throwing things at the Necromorps.
Stasis is a little different. This module will maaaake thiinnngs ssllllooooooowwwweeerrrr. This one
does work on enemies and devices. You will be using this often to slow down enemies by ones or twos, as well as using it to solve various puzzles throughout the game. This module
does have a usage meter, and you'll find yourself looking on the map for the nearest stasis charger more often than you would like.
Okay, I think I get it now. Is this worth adding to my library?Absolutely. Dead Space represents the first entry in a terrifying new universe. Its atmosphere, enemies, and immersion makes it easily one of the best horror games recently released. The soundtrack in Dead Space is straight out of any good horror film, and although the plot is at times a bit shaky, it is nonetheless an excellent survival horror experience.
From the first, weaponless encounter to the visually stunning conclusion, Dead Space will have you on the edge of your seat- or, in some cases, jumping out of it in fright. So go forth, retrieve thy plasma cutter, and start ripping off some limbs!
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
