Amazingly Inovative Game Falls Short With Story
Now some will say that Dead Space is nothing but a Resident Evil 4 clone. This can't be further from the truth. The only elements Dead Space borrowed from Resident Evil 4 were the presence of an infection and the over the shoulder camera. Of course the means of infection are different, in fact they're pretty much unknown but I'll let you figure that out for yourself.
One of the main elements in Dead Space is a tactic called dismembermant where instead of body shots and head shots you go for the limbs, well pretty much everything except the head. This is pretty well documented by every videogame medium so I won't go into detail but needless to say it makes for some very intresting gameplay.
On top of that you have features such as a telekenis beam on your gun as well as area's of the game where you're able to experience a hybrid of zero gravity. What this means is while your feet are firmly planted on the floor the option remans for players to fly to basically any flat surface they can aim at and walk on it. Best way to describe it is you'd be able to walk on virtually any wall, including the ceiling, in your house if it was a real life deal. Weapons and suit custumazation also insure that you'll be finding new ways to approach the game long after you've finished you're first run through. All these combined make for some of the most fun I've had playing a game in a long time. In fact the last game where I had so much fun all the way through would probably be Dead Rising back in 2006.
Did I forget to mention the game is scary. Now it isn't as scary as Silent Hill, but it's definately up there, though the weapon of choice for scares in Dead Space is monsters popping out at you. Nevertheless the point is it works. Unless you're stone cold to all things fear you will find this game scary. Oh the graphics are also top notch especially the interactive menus that blend in with the game.
Now for the bad. Dead Space itself has an intersting underlying story. However the developers of the game thought it a good idea to use a mute main character as well as make sure the game is limited to two short cut scenes. One at the beginning and one at the end. Now why I need to feel like the characters in the game are talking to me I'll never know. Sure I'm not a hollywood celebrity but I do like to think I have enough of a life where I don't need video games to make me a part of the story where people finish my sentences and presume what I'm thinking.
To be honest the whole style of storytelling is nauseating, so please if anyone at EA is reading this, no more skimping on the story. Surely you've stowed enough money away for a cut scene or two, coupled maybe with a quality script writer. The game itself is riddled with sci-fi cliches, which is fine, but when you lack presentation it becomes an eyesore. My only constellation is that the game doesn't stick you with a first person view.
Also theres a DVD that details what happened leading up to Dead Space. My advice is not to waste your time. It's basically a Saturday morning cartoon with blood and way to many F* bombs, which don't exactly offend me, but they're not a substitute for an actual plot.
Anyway I think it's worth it for any fan of survival horror to at least give Dead Space a rental. The gameplay is hellafun and the story probably isn't as bad as I made it out to be. At the very least you'll jump up in your seat a few times especially when you're in the vacum of space without sound and an enemy creeps up from behind. Happy hunting.