REVIEWS
26 IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU COPY/PASTE
DEAD SPACE I
’ve just witnessed a disturbed young astronaut bludgeon her way through some poor soul’s intestines with a hacksaw before slitting her own throat, avoided being torn to shreds by a meteor shower on the exterior of a colossal deep space mining vessel, and laid waste to hundreds of horrifically mutilated beings intent on eating my face.
FORMAT REVIEWED PlayStation 3 OTHER FORMATS Xbox 360, PC PUBLISHER EA DEVELOPER EA Redwood Shores REVIEWED BY David Scammell
Sorry, let me rephrase that; I’ve just witnessed one of the defining games of the generation, and come October 24th you should too. Going by recent history, Dead Space has no right to be as good as it is. A decent sci-fi horror game is, after all, as rare as the proverbial rocking horse manure, and to be blunt, fresh IPs from EA have tended to be little more than underdeveloped ‘test the water’ releases than anything of real substance. But to call Dead Space this year’s BioShock wouldn’t be too far from the truth. The thoroughly engrossing atmosphere of the abandoned space station is brought to life by diffused beams of light piercing through billowing clouds of dust and smoke, the mute lead character is cast with paranormal abilities (albeit with the help of a futuristic armoury) and there’s a maniacal enemy hell-bent on reshaping humanity’s future through scientific experimentation. I can hear you sighing in reaction to that last bit: yes, there’s another mad scientist on the loose and yes, it soon becomes your job to stop him, but while the plot may not win any
awards for originality, the script is Hollywood-worthy and delivered convincingly by the game’s astute voice actors.
And, of course, it’s also bloody scary, a trait shared with the illustrious Resident Evil series; another title of which Dead Space borrows from heavily. Aside from the obvious Resi 4-style third-person camera and hunched “Leon S. Kennedy” walk, there are elements to Dead Space that aren’t just ‘borrowed’ from Capcom’s award-winning title, but practically re-skinned. The love/hate typewriter save points are recreated here through Save Stations, the trade merchant has been re-imagined as a futuristic vending machine complete with options to buy, sell and store items, while those little crates that we fondly remember swinging a knife at are replaced with ultramodern lockboxes. They still contain credits, though. It also seems that EA Redwood attended the Mass Effect School of Loading Screens, with elevator rides handily disguising any loading times. So why, then, does Dead Space just miss out on full marks, despite consisting of the best bits from two five star-scoring games? Well, while it’s mainly due to a few design niggles (objectives are far too often a case of retrieve X in order to get through door Y, and melee combat can often feel clumsy and unresponsive), it’s also due to the lack of innovation that Dead Space brings to the genre. What the game does it undeniably does well, but it’s far too comfortable riding on those other games’ laurels than introducing any substantial mechanics of its own.