A deeply immersive survival-horror action game, with a mediocre plot.
The story begins when one of these plant-cracking vessels, the USG Ishimura, has its communications cut off from central command. A small team of mechanics and engineers are sent to investigate what caused the problem and, if possible, to fix it. You take control of Isaac Clarke, a systems engineer and member of this small maintenance crew. As soon as you get anywhere near the Ishimura, it immediately becomes clear that something is wrong and upon approaching the dock, your craft crashes and unknown creatures (later revealed to be called Necromorphs) begin to attack you and your crew.
After a hasty escape, it is up to you and the remainder of your team to round up survivors and fix the multitude of system failures the Ishimura is experiencing due to the Necromorphs and ultimately, find a way off the ship. As Isaac, you will be charged with fetching items and enabling systems around the vessel, all while searching for your girlfriend (a crew member of the Ishimura).
Since Isaac is an engineer and not a soldier, he must do what he can with the tools he finds. Therefore, the majority of your arsenal will be made up of tools generally used for planet cracking. They do, however, make for very effective dismembering equipment. This is a novel combat feature of Dead Space that works well for the most part; your enemies are generally resistant to blows to the head/chest, and the only way to severely damage them is to cut off their limbs. However, the close quarters combat can get a bit cumbersome and annoying. Also, you may find some weapons are slightly overpowered and make the game fairly easy, but either way it's pretty satisfying to down an enemy by slicing off both legs and finishing it off by blowing their arms away.
The game mechanics will be familiar to those who have played Resident Evil 4, as the over the shoulder camera (which makes shooting enemies a lot less troublesome) is employed. A nice addition to the gameplay is the Zero Gravity feature. In such places Isaac can jump from wall to ceiling while fighting off flying Necromorphs or even play a game of Zero-G Basketball! The way dismembered limbs and dead crewmembers float around in these environments is quite realistic and the environment also makes for an interesting boss fight in the middle of the game.
There is a weapons upgrade system, which is again done quite well. Isaac must find schematics of weapons in order for them to become available at the store, and then he must find a Bench on which to modify the equipment via use of Power Nodes. The trick is, you will not get enough credits or Power Nodes to max out all weapons in your first game, so you must choose what to upgrade carefully. You can also upgrade your suit, health, Stasis and Kinesis modules, I will explain what I mean by the latter two.
The Stasis module allows you to slow down your enemies and other objects for a temporary period of time, which comes in very handy for solving some of the games puzzles and also when fighting some of the faster enemies later on in the game. The Kinesis module allows Isaac to pick up and manipulate objects from a distance, as if he had telekinetic powers, which is again used to solve some simple puzzles or pick up random limbs.
Atmospherics play a major role in any survival-horror game, and can make or break a game of this genre. I'm pleased to say Dead Space doesn't disappoint on this front. The Ishimura is a somewhat unsettling place and the sounds the player hears, from a gentle lullaby in the distance to a dropping pipe and growl of an unseen Necromorph, are bone-chilling throughout. The game also throws in some jump moments, some of which are implemented well, others which are quite predictable.
In an attempt to immerse the player even more-so into the environment, there is no conventional HUD to speak of. Isaac's health is read directly from his back and the remaining ammo is displayed in holographic form when you ready your weapon. It works surprisingly well, aside from times when your forced against a wall or ceiling and cannot see your remaining health, making you unsure as to whether using a med pack would be wise. Use of the inventory screen is done in real-time, meaning the game doesn't pause while you look through it and hence you are vulnerable to any scurrying Necromorphs in you area. This again, is a small detail which makes the gamer feel more involved with the action at all times.
Becoming absorbed by the action is easy, however, the same cannot be said for the main character though. It is extremely difficult to become attached to Isaac, even if he is searching for his lost girlfriend in the middle of all this mess – basically because he's a mute and doesn't have a single line of dialogue making it almost impossible to sympathise! The game progresses well however, but will not have you coming back for more based on the plot, which is somewhat of a mash up of Event Horizon and Alien.
Dead Space turns out pretty good visuals with both environments and Necromorph models being excellently represented and the detail Isaac's weapons and suit standing out in particular. However, the sound is the chief characteristic of Dead Space, with ear-splitting screams and unnerving moans designed to freak you out, it is hard not to become immersed in the action. Another stand-out piece of sound design is that when you find yourself in a vacuum, all you can hear is Isaac's heavy breathing, grunting and the thud of your weapon being fired at silently screaming foes.
All in all Dead Space turns out to be a really good game, and one I didn't expect from EA. However, it is not without its flaws. The storyline is a bit weak and the main character isn't very well developed making it difficult to care too much about him. The close-quarters combat is a bit cumbersome and I never felt compelled to play through the game again. Although, Dead Space is a game where the positives outweigh the negatives significantly and should be bought by fans of the survival-horror genre and at least tried by everyone else.