In terms of third person shooter and creativity, this game is definitely one of the best in 2008.Lack of horror, however
Err…I apologize …You can ignore the "shoot the f*** out"part, but you get the idea. You are alone (sort of, most of the people you met will either die in some very bad ways or they won't last for very long…including Isaac…..). Deadspace took place somewhere in future, in a ship which full of strange, infected creatures, they were once human, but now they are just some heavily mutated "thing" that will try to kill you in every way possible. No they are not zombies, but according to someone in the game, they are the final solution to humanity. Who is him? Don't worry, you will find out…When you play the game.
Ok, when you lunch the game, the first thing you will realize is that this game has no HUD; the hit point is indicated on the back of the player's suit; bullet indicator is on the gun itself; everything is presented in sort of holographic projections and it is really creative, so far I didn't see any game have done that before. The level design and weapons in this game are creative as well, I was always wondering how a vacuum environment will feels like, and now I more or less get a feel of inside a zero G vacuum space in this game.
Gameplay of Deadspace is very simple and yet enjoyable. You kill things, and while during the process of killing everything onboard the ship, you get objectives that claim to get you out of this ship. Most of the time you will rely on the long rang weapons, but sometimes you might want to use melee or close rang weapon, it's completely up to you, you can do whatever modifications to suit your style. Some people might find the environment quite dull, but personally I never had that problem. The shooting and movement in this game is fluent, however Isaac moves very very slow, and he can't duck neither (I mean it's not a issue…just to point it out….).There are puzzles and obstacles will result instant death, so player have to be careful when overcome those problems, overall they balanced the puzzle and shooting pretty well, this is a horror survivor after all, no "found a key or items but don't know how to use them" situation will ever happen in this game.
The creature designs are extremely creative and interesting. Different creatures have its own origin, as you collect notes and information along the plot of the game; you get to know how the ship became infected, and how each creature come about. This is very interesting and fun as not most of the creatures found in the majority science-fiction game were there simply because the designer created them. In this game, every mutation is there for a reason.
There are things in this game could haven't been done better; however these minor issues generally have nothing to do with the gameplay, but they are quit annoying. First of all, the game seems randomly eats up the save files. I don't know it is because I didn't patch the game or something, sometimes I saved in the middle of the level, but when I reload, it brings me back to the start of that level. You can't reload during the game unless you died, that's something annoying too, especially with the combination of the save problem. I can't reload the game if I'm out of ammo, and when I quit the game it brings me back to the start of the level, this happened to me quite a few time , forced me replayed through three level twice.
Dead space was aimed to be survival horror, but I find there are no horror elements behind it. Yes the graphic presentations might be brutal to some people, but generally for people who played Silent Hill, Penumbra or Suffering, this game is not a horror game. The creatures are too easy to kill and you have tones of weapons and ammos to kill them. You will not feel scared if you can KILL most of them without much of problem. I feel they should give you lesser ammo while improve the health of the monsters, thus encourage players to hide and evade. Just for example, I give you a gun, and you can kill a monster with 3 good shots, while I give you a knife, and that thing can never die, will you run for your life? Will you feel scared?
However, in terms of third person shooter and creativity, this game is definitely one of the best in 2008.It's a very good game, Thou I can't say I will play it more than I use to play Silent Hill, but anyway, I'm looking forward to the next game. For those who love horror survivor games but hate the puzzle and confusing level design, this is just the right game to get.