DEAD SPACE (PS3)

Dead Space shows that a game does not have to do something totally new to be outstanding. This survival horror title borrows heavily from other titles, mainly Resident Evil 4, Doom 3, and Bioshock. Dead Space tells the outstanding story of a man named Isaac. Isaac is part of a crew heading to a deep space vessel to determine why the vessel has lost contact. As opposed to Doom 3, you also learn quite a bit about Isaac’s personal story. It quickly becomes apparent that things are not well on the deep space vessel. You spend the lengthy campaign fighting the various monsters that the vessel crew has morphed into. The game tells the excellent story through audio and video logs, as well as communications from Isaac’s crew. Unlike Doom 3, the audio and video logs are well-integrated into the game play and it does not feel like a hassle to get the back story.

The over the shoulder game play (similar to Resident Evil 4) in Dead Space is top-notch. You fight various forms of monsters and new ones are thrown at you as the game progresses. Interestingly, these enemies are killed by blowing off their various limbs. This adds an interesting element as you are not killing enemies in the way you normally would. The game has a good weapon selection and each weapon has an alternate firing mode so the effective number of weapons is doubled. Power ups are achieved by finding power nodes throughout the vessel. These nodes are used at various “benches” for powering up your character or his existing weapons. The benches will remind you of the power up options in Bioshock. Your character will also have the ability to purchase new items at the various “stores” throughout the vessel. These stores, again, are highly similar to the Bioshock vending machines. The varied environments and situations the game puts you in leaves the game play never feeling old and leaves you wanting more once you have completed the campaign.

Dead Space is impressive from a technical standpoint. The game looks and sounds amazing. Also, the vessel has a massive area which leaves you appreciating the time and effort that had to have gone into designing its various parts. Our play through with the Play Station 3 version showed no noticeable glitches or bugs. Also, the frame rate stayed consistent throughout, even in the most intense battle sequences.

The only criticisms one could level at Dead Space would be the lack of original game play features and the lack of multi player. It is true that Dead Space does little to nothing that is innovative as the game is largely borrowed from other successful titles. This, combined with the lack of multi player, may discourage some. This video game, however, takes what was done well in other games and does an excellent job of blending it together. Dead Space will not leave you disappointed and should be purchased as soon as possible.

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Grade: 9