Dead Space
Electronic Arts
PlayStation 3
5 stars (out of 5)
Review by Simon Kemp
The initial plot line of Dead Space is a bit old hat.
Small spaceship loses radio contact with big spaceship and goes to investigate.
Crew of small spaceship board big spaceship to investigate.
They find big spaceship empty.
Something happens and the crew is separated, leaving you on your own.
Nothing new, I think you'd agree, but don't worry: even though we've heard this one before, no one's ever done it this well.
Starting from the "press start" screen, Dead Space is one of the most immersive, best presented games for a long time.
You play Isaac Clarke, a mining engineer in the wrong place at the wrong time, who gets separated from the rest of the crew and left to fend for himself on what turns out to be a less than empty ghost ship.
It turns out its crew have been turned into various flesh eating undead monsters by aliens.
After a brief intro, the story in Dead Space is told through short audio logs you come across as you wander the ship, and in the occasional conversation with your crewmates.
Basically you're on your own.
As you play, the one thing that grabs you is the sense of atmosphere, made genuinely tense and eerie by some of the best audio and visual effects I've heard and seen.
The lighting, particle and mist effects and tremendous background and sound effects add to an experience that even surpasses Resident Evil 4, which until was the king of the horror shooters.
There is no heads-up display as such; your health level is shown on the back of your suit and your ammo level on your weapon.
You don't really miss it, as it leaves more screen area to look at the fantastic graphics.
Despite the feeling of being stranded, the objective marker - which can be projected on to the floor briefly - means you always have an idea of which way you should be heading.
Which ever way you go you'll end up bumping into necromorphs, the monsters which have been made from bits of the old crew.
The may initially seem a bit slow and cumbersome, but before long you'll find out that they are quick and really, really vicious.
And there's no one-shot-one-kill here - the secret to staying alive is to learn how to disable, then kill you enemies.
You have to use the weaponry at your disposal, a mix of mining tools and more traditional guns, to dismember the necromorphs and slow them down before finishing them off with a well-aimed shot or boot to the head.
One of the most useful gadgets you acquire is the Cryo Blast, which slows down fast moving objects to give you a bit more time to run, shoot or hide, depending on where you are at the time.
If you die - and you will - the save and checkpoint system works well; there are save points dotted round the ship, and the game autosaves at certain points - usually when there is something really nasty round the corner!If I had one criticism it would be that the third-person camera view sometimes gets a bit awkward, but not enough from taking any of the enjoyment out of the game.
Overall Dead Space is really enjoyable, definitely one for grown-ups only, and one of the best, most compelling survival horror games of recent years.