Dead Space
Aliens + Event Horizon + RE4 = My new favorite survival horror franchise!
- PS3/360
- Release Date: 10/13/08 (2 weeks behind)
- 3 Playthroughs each system @ 8 hours each.
- Achievements/Trophies: 100%/100% Completed #1 / Platinum #13
As a general rule, I don't replay games on another system once I've finished them. In the 3 years I've had these systems, there's only been one game upon which I've bestowed the dubious honor of playing on both the 360 and PS3, and that's Dead Space. I ripped through it in during a two week rental after it first came out in 08, making it the first 360 game I got 100% on, and I loved it so much that I vowed I would buy it someday, and I did, for the PS3, several years later in my anticipation for Dead Space 2.
Having been a fan of sci-fi horror since first seeing Aliens as a kid, I was nothing short of thrilled when I first heard that EA Redwood Shores (now known as Visceral) was developing a new IP heavily inspired by the Alien franchise and another of my favorites, Event Horizon. After playing it right after release, and then again two years later, I can honestly say that neither time was I disappointed.
Dead Space features one of the greatest openings to any survival horror game (rivaled only by it's sequel in this regard), somehow managing to pull me right in despite my distaste for being defenseless. It manages to keep the tension ratcheted up through most of the game, and is full of enough "Holy Shit!" moments to keep you from putting the controller down, no matter how bad you might need to.
Dead Space's gameplay formula is more or less identical to that of the legendary Resident Evil 4, (who can blame it, really, it's a great formula!) of 3rd person, over the shoulder, precision aiming, and character and weapon upgrades. One major difference though, is the ability to MOVE AND AIM! (Several months after DS released, Capcom put out Resident Evil 5 without this ability, claiming that being able to move and aim would undermine the tension. I called bullshit.)
In Dead Space, you play as Isaac Clarke (named after two sci-fi heavyweights I need not name), an engineer dispatched to the USG Ishimura, a huge planet cracker starship (which mines planets by literally pulling them apart) along with army dude Hammond and hacker chick Kendra (yes, they are stereotypes), to figure out why the Ishimura dropped out of contact. As soon as they land on the ship (a rough landing, which prevents them from being able to turn around in leave, in true horror movie fashion), they find out. The security team is slaughtered by horrifying deformed and reanimated dead bodies, later called necromorphs. Isaac runs for his life, until finding a weapon (the franchise's now iconic plasma cutter) and reestablishing contact with Hammond and Kendra. Together, they must find a way to escape the Ishimura, and stop the outbreak from spreading.
The Ishimura, much like the Nostromo in Alien and the Event Horizon in, well, Event Horizon, is a charcter in it's own right. Its dark and claustrophobic corridors, while occasionally somewhat repetitive, are the perfect environment for the tense and occasionally frantic gameplay. The necromorphs are truly terrifying enemies. They're vicious, fast, deadly, and very hard to kill. A headshot won't do it here, you must dismember them in order to kill them, requiring speed, focus and skill. All based around deformed human morphology, the enemies are truly disturbing to look at, and range from tiny and fast to utterly massive.
The larger story of Dead Space has been well fleshed out in other media, from the comic series and anime film to book tie ins. There's a lot of lore to be found in the game as well, from the ubiquitous text files and audio logs that we all know and love.
Dead Space isn't perfect, to be sure. The environment is occasionally repetitive, and there is a bit of Resident Evil style backtracking (though not to the extent RE did). The breakout sequences can get frustrating, and there's a few instances of instadeath that you have to learn the hard way to avoid. Ammo is scarce, especially on the harder difficulty levels, but whether or not that's a bad thing is really an issue for the individual gamer to decide.
If you are a fan of the survival horror genre and you haven't played Dead Space, let's not mince words. You are SCREWING yourself over with deprivation. If you don't do scary, keep your distance. This game gave ME nightmares. It was pretty much the scariest game I'd played until.....
Dead Space 2
- PS3
- Release Date: 1/25/11 (Not behind! Release date shipping FTW!)
- 3 Playthroughs @ 24 hours
- Trophies: 91%
I'm catching my breath. I can't afford to stop, but I can't run anymore. I'm hurt badly, limping down a barely lit corridor praying I'll find some more ammo or a medpack before the next wave of these things finds me. My nerves are shot, I can't take any more of this, but I can't stop. I hear a crash far behind me. I have two shots left in my plasma cutter. There's a window looking out on the Spawl and Saturn just ahead. If I can get them close enough, I can shoot out that window and decompress the room. The question is, will I be fast enough to shoot the emergency shutter before I get sucked out myself?
....until Dead Space 2, which bests its predecessor in almost every way. It starts with an utterly horrifying (and unfair) escape sequence and does not let up, even at the end.
A quick note of disclosure, I'm proud to be able to say that I have a small personal connection to Dead Space 2. Protagonist Isaac Clarke, a classic video game mute in DS1, is now full fledged character, voiced and mocapped by my friend and co-worker Gunner Wright! Aside from being one of the nicest guys I know, Gunner more than rises to the challenge of building a personality for a character that literally had none in the first game. Clarke is unstable, dangerous, and more than a little insane at this point. The events of Dead Space have left him scarred and mentally broken, and Wright illustrates this with gut-wrenching intensity. Gameplay-wise, little details like Clarke screaming "Motherfucker!" occasionally when stomping on a dead necromorph are an example of the far more immersive experience that Dead Space 2 provides.
Dead Space 2, like its predecessor, takes the survival horror experience we know and at times get bored of, and pushes it into the territory of real horror. For instance, the first time you're ambushed by the pack (an unsettling mob of undead prepubescents) and force yourself not to think about the children these monsters obviously once were as you shoot off their limbs to keep them from tearing you apart. The Sprawl, a massive space station orbiting Saturn, is a very different place than the tight corridors of the Ishimura. You can tell this is a very different game when you come across your first blood-stained family apartment.
Zero gravity is a far more fluid experience now, and is a vast improvement over the turn/aim/jump mechanic of the original. Overall, DS2 is one of the most, if not THE most intense survival horror game I've ever played. On the base game, I secured every trophy with the exception of one: Hardcore mode is exceedingly brutal. With being allowed to save 3 times over the course of the entire game, very limited ammo and respawning enemies, Visceral has created a challenge as brutal as it is time consuming.
A note on the DLC: Severed is another hour or two of intense Dead Space action but the writing is awful. You've been warned.
Survival horror fans MUST play this game. That is all.
If you're a Gunner Wright fan, like me, you can see one of the videos we've worked on for Verizon Wireless Here. (Fun facts, I'm the voice on the phone at 0:05 and the long-haired roadie at 1:38!) Also, look for him soon in LOVE (trailer below) and Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar! A very special thanks to Gunner for putting up with my geeking out. :)
A quick note on Dead Space: Extraction, which comes with the PS3 version of DS: I was going to review it along with DS1 and 2, however, I've decided to include it in my upcoming Broken Arm Rail Shooter Extravaganza, coming in September. Oh, it won't be that far off. We all know I date these for when I played the game, not when I wrote them. :P
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