Dead Space PC Review

I know its late to review Dead space now, but i will be reviewing complete dead space series by end of this month (hopefully) so you can get the feel of series. Since its a been a long time Dead space was released, i may as well include some spoilers. Those of you who dint play it yet, watch out!! :D








Dead space is a sci-fi horror survival game starring the protagonist Issac Clarke. Issac Clarke is a ship systems engineer who is deployed on USG kellion to answer the distress call sent by USG Ishimura. So basically mankind has exhausted all the resources present on earth, but has mastered space travel and created some really cool weapons. Crew from earth is sent to answer the distress call by Ishimura. Landing on Ishimura, hell breaks lose.

Issac Clarke

When the crew lands on the ship, they find out that most of the systems failed in the ship. When the crew enters into the main deck of the ship, deadly beings called Necromorphs attack some of the crew members. The player gets separated from the crew (and for the rest of the game we are alone) and in due course of the game we find out that most of the crew members are dead. Then we realise that the distress call is more to it than meets the eye. As game progresses, players find out that there is something called 'The marker' which is sending out hallucinations which is hypnotising some people to kill themselves, coagulating the dead peoples' body parts to form deadly beings called Necromorphs. Issac Clarke comes to assist in this mission mainly because of his girlfriend, Nicole, thinking of rescuing her in case she hasn't turned into one of 'them'. Interestingly the story takes superb twist at the end of the game, revealing Kendra's true intentions.

Gameplay
Dead space is a third person over the shoulder perspective game. Most of the story is conveyed through spacial holographic 
projections, rather than cut scenes. We play as Issac Clarke. Issac Clarke is not your typical survival kinda hero or has some specialised military training. As mentioned before, he is a systems engineer dispatched by maintenance crew. When i first played the 
game, i really underestimated the plethora of options that can be possible during the gameplay. Issac can project beam kinda of thing onto the floor stating or guiding to your objective. 

Weapons--Plasma cutter

Player wields up to four weapons. Basic weapon player equips is plasma cutter. Plasma cutter projects a beam mainly used for cutting limbs or tails. Oh by the way...almost forgot, dead space features what is called as 'strategic dismemberment'. It means the enemy can be dismembered off its limb which deals with maximum damage. This is very useful and a new strategy employed by the developers. As we progress, we buy newer and better weapons. I particularly liked the plasma rifle. Weapons can upgraded and the game boasts of new type of upgrade system. Basically upgrade system is made like its some kinda of tree which has many branches. Each branch has nodes which can be only filled when the previous node is filled and adjacent to the node being filled. Upgrade is done by collecting or finding 'power nodes' and by visiting the 'Bench'. 

Different kind of upgrade system

There are places called 'stores' where the player can buy things in exchange with credits (maybe their currency). Player are able to collect items like air cans, med packs, credits, line racks, etc and can exchange or sell them to get money to buy new items. Hell! we can even store the items in a vault. This feature is really useful. 

Player can even move a object or slow down a fast moving object using stasis or kinesis feature.This enables to clear off the road 
blocks and player can take their time to neatly dismember the enemy by using stasis. However stasis get depleted after usage which again can recharged at stations.

There are numerous save points where one can save their game. The game also has zero gravity areas where the player can float and 
travel to any point. This feature although depicts the reality possible during the era in which game takes place, it is really frustrating. For example it not really possible to travel to any point. And also one 
wouldn't know which is the ceiling or floor. 

The game is said to take place in year 2508 but the elevator takes like forever to get to the next level/floor. Also Issac is really rigid and the controls are not fluid enough. He runs like he is carrying a bag of rice behind him. Also zero gravity feature can be really frustrating sometimes.

Enemies are gruesome and really gross looking. There are of different kind. One who carries a huge glowing sack, one who can regenerate, one who is really tall like slender etc. At first enemies can be easy to get through, but as players progress in the game and 
hallucinations become worse, enemies become very fast and stronger. 

Enemies are gruesome!!

Graphics and sound 
As needed by horror type of genre, game is really gross. I mean in a right way. Loads of dead bodies throughout the ship, blood spilled 
over at some places, limbs or other parts of body flying in the air during the zero gravity really brings out the reality of situation the 
player is in. 

Graphics in Dead space

Sound as we know plays an important role in horror games. Sometimes there is no sound giving you a lonely feeling, sometimes there is sound of creature moving towards you, sometimes its just you walking. I am not able to exactly tell how i felt when i played but trust me, Dead space delivers right amount of sound or horror required by its genre. 

It took about 12-13 hours for campaign. I really wish i played multiplayer. Well its definitely is a great example of the horror survival genre and is an awesome way to launch a franchise. Awesome job by EA and Visceral games. God!! I can't wait to play the sequel now. Will start Dead space 2 as early as possible. Watch out this space for Dead space 2 Review. Coming up next!!! :D

My rating is 7.5/10....

+ New concept   
+ Story is believable 
+ Weapons

- Zero gravity is frustrating sometimes
- Controls are not fluid enough