Dead Space

Play as engineer Isaac Clarke in this explosive shoot em up that has more than a passing resemblance to Resident Evil and Alien. You are trapped on a spaceship full of zombie-like creatures that have been hit by a mysterious virus. They are resilient foes that a mere round of gunfire cannot eliminate - just when you think you've finished one off, it'll give birth or sprout new limbs, yuck! To defeat one, limbs need to be dismembered in a certain order - meaning a gorefest of the highest order that's not for the faint-hearted. You can also get on the outside of the ship as it sails through space but there's the added danger of flying debris, whereas back inside, there are zero gravity and decompressed areas that you have to navigate with the help of your magnetic boots. Warning: this is blood and gore-filled.

• Chris Minton February 24, 2010 360

  ****

  If you enjoy being so scared by a game that you besmirch your tighty whiteys then Dead Space is the game for you.
  
  Best played alone and in the dark, Dead Space follows the exploits of one Isaac Clarke and two other members of a rescue team sent into deep space to discover the fate of the unresponsive USG Ishimura 'planetcracking' ship. The Ishimura has gone to the dogs in recent times and our protagonist engineer is charged with the task of sorting things out. The mission gets off to a bad start when Isaac's ship crash lands into the docking bay of the Ishimura. Both he and the crew survive the crash and board the 'planetcracker'. The fun (sheer terror) soon ensues as we experience our first meeting with the Ishimura's 'new crew'...Queue underwear change No.1.
  
  In space no one can hear you scream...but the neighbours definitely heard me through the adjoining wall as I plasma cut my way through the eerie, claustrophobic corridors of the Ishimura. An incredible story with more twists than a bag of pretzels, Dead Space is both thrilling and terrifying. You'll want to run screaming from the room and curl up in the foetal position, singing 'Don't Stop Believin' by Journey just to remind yourself that Glee still happened and you're not stuck in space, trembling with fear and fighting for your life. I'd recommend this game to any survival horror fan who enjoys scary late night game sessions in the dark. I would not however recommend it to anyone with an existing heart condition, anyone adverse to changing their pants more than five times in a day and pregnant women.
  
  Verdict: Excellent!
  
  
  

• Paul Martin June 18, 2009 360

  ****

  Let's be honest when you hear thriller/shooter/horror games, your mind automatically jumps to the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series. There aren't many games that compete in this genre to the 'big guns' so to speak, or so we thought. Dead Space is on par if not better than both of the above series.... it has very similar ideas to Resident Evil and even your character moves and feels similar throughout the game. Don't let this fool you though, it isn't the same game and there are many things about Dead Space that you won't see in Resident Evil.
  
  You play as engineer Isaac Clarke and are sent to the USG Ishimura, a space mining vessel that contact has been severed for one reason or another. Isaac is part of a team sent to resolve, repair and report any problems, however, with a secret agenda the story evolves. The team land, or rather crash and find the USG Ishimura abandoned. At this moment you instantly think 'Aliens' (if you have seen them) but unfortunately Ripley doesn't make an appearance this time round. Something has inevitably taken over the ship and Isaac has to find a way off alive.
  
  At this point you may be thinking it sounds like every other basic thriller/horror, you're on the ship...oh my god an alien...kill the alien...everyone lives happily ever after. Well this isn't any basic thriller/horror story. The actual ship itself is pretty much all accessible at some point in the game, this makes you feel actually apart of the game as well as on the ship. The great thing about this environment, however, is each individual place can be distinguished in its surroundings. Each corridor or room rarely look very similar to the previous corridor or rooms you have travelled through, unless you're going through the exact part of the ship you travelled through before! There are really no glitches that I have discovered in my play-through of the game and the physics of the environment are very realistic. Isaac eventually gains the ability to use kinesis with a device at some point in the game. The reason I mention this is because you can actually pick up all small objects in the environment... say a glass for example, you can use this kinesis to throw and it will smash like a glass it won't just disappear. With this kinesis it brings a new element to the game that Resident Evil and Silent Hill series don't produce within their games.
  
  The game really shines through on the music and sound effects. The music appears in all the right places to give that edge effect and feel to the game that so many previous thriller/horrors fail to deliver. The sound effects are brilliant also, at one point you actually step outside the ship where the sounds effects make you actually know your outside.... with the sound of Isaac breathing oxygen in his spacesuit and the weird but well put together silence of space.
  
  The voice acting in the game is well put together... it's not a huge cast but why would it be, although that being said the voice acting that is in the game is very believable and works very well keeping the mood of the game throughout your experience.
  
  The gameplay is a lot more fluid and fast paced than the Resident Evil series, with the ability to move whilst shooting. This is probably due to the enemy AI not providing any sympathy they will simply try to charge towards you and won't stop unless you make them. As you go through the game naturally enemies grow bigger, faster and harder to increase the challenge of the game. However the developers where very sensible to stop any really frustration by not making too many enemies come towards you at one time especially earlier stages of the game.
  Eventually you will fight more than 1 enemy on more than one occasion but it feels just right and doesn't make you feel like ripping you hair out.
  
  The AI of these enemies is very clever. An experience I would share would be the time I shot an enemy in the back, for it to then jump into a vent.... thinking I am safe and it won't come back it actually came from the ceiling. It's extremely intense and you will find your legs kicking as they edge closer to Isaac.
  
  The idea of how you kill these creatures is unique; again think of Resident Evil there renowned for killing a zombie by shooting it in the head. This game has a different approach but a very cool yet unique way to kill the enemy, which provides a good balance of gameplay and fun. The shooting systems works like a treat and is fluid and easy to use.
  
  The only minor problem would be the melee system - It's bad and needs a lot of work... I found it hard to take on enemies and its very clumsy, it somewhat feels rushed and put into the game at the last conceivable second. That being said there are several weapons in the game which means melee is a last resort, as expected you start out with something small to only then unlock more throughout the game.
  
  All weapons and even your suit is upgradeable at points throughout the game, leaving plenty of replayablity, this involves the players health. The health bar is actually located on the back of Isaacs's suit and there's no real pause menu in the game as all menus are produced by hologram so you may find some frustration in changing weapon when an enemy is on top of you. This is a good and bad thing as it keeps the game moving but can be annoying at times, however please note that you can actually pause the game simply press start and the screen goes black with the words... yes, you guessed it, paused! But it doesn't give you any menus it's pretty much only used if the gamer needs to leave the console for whatever reason.
  
  With the above being said it only leaves one more thing, the story. I find it hard to think of a better story so far for a game in this genre, it's simply that good. I found myself emerged in it and the urge to finish it or see what happens next. It lasts around 15hrs maybe more if you look around all the ship, but to sum the overall experience it has the occasional jump and squeal and I found it no less than breathtaking. The story actually has a good start, middle and end, so it makes the game more enjoyable and leaves a sense of accomplishment at the end. I have no doubt hardcore gamers and some less hardcore gamers will want to replay the game on its higher difficulty setting.... if you dare to try it that is!
  
  The highest difficulty setting is actually unlocked after the game is complete. This automatically makes you wonder what it will be like to be even harder than the 1st time you played through, my suggestion.... try it! You don't know fear unless you have actually played this game on its hardest setting.
  
  Overall the game is definitely worth a buy as I found it more enjoyable than any other game in its genre. Its only downsides are that there is no multiplayer options and a clumsy melee system, so it's very close to being a masterpiece. It also lower in price now, so is even more a bargain than before. I would have bought this at full price and felt it was money well spent.... 9.5/10
  
  
  
  

• Andrew McBride February 17, 2009 PS3

  ****

  This is an excellent and challenging game that isn't too easy and different to your average FP shoot 'em up. It is very atmospheric, capturing the eerie and chilling feeling of deep space with horrible and scary monsters and zero gravity to deal with. And it has been reduced in price now so you can grab a bargain and have "fun"!!??

• cyrus fan February 08, 2009 PS3

  ****

  This game is one of the best survival-horror games in the history of survival-horror games and was ranked scarier then resident evil 4. The story line goes: when a ship called the Ishumora lost contact with earth, Isaac Clarke and his group were sent to fix the problem, only to find it's a living nightmare. They attempt to escape but everything keeps going wrong. In every corner you'll be too scared to look and to make it worse you can hear weird noises going everywhere. This game is worth every penny of your money and you won't regret buying it! finally the storyline, it can get confusing when you're trying to concentrate on killing monsters but its pretty easy to understand and the puzzles are there to just take away the scariness sometimes and to make you think, as some puzzles are pretty hard to figure out.

• Thomas Burns January 14, 2009 360

  ****

  I am going to keep this review short, as only playing Dead Space can truly do this incredible game justice! To put it as simply as possible, this game is a masterpiece of survival horror gaming - a harmonious mixture of all the best scenes from space horror films and a more than generous dose of pants-filling, resident-evil style survival gameplay, all glossed over with the jaw dropping magic of 3rd generation presentation. Everything in this game screams class, from the way all your video and audio updates are relayed via projections from your futuristic helmet, to the reverberating muffled gunshots when in a vacuum section of the spaceship. The graphics are amazing! The horror is genuinely scary! The presentation is 2nd to none! And the gameplay is enthralling and rewarding! Get this game for the most nail-biting, heart stopping excitement you can have with a joystick and six buttons.

• Ben Coles November 23, 2008 PS3

  ****

  Dead Space can be summed up in three words 'scary as hell!!' there is no moment in the game where you feel your character is safe from attack, every corner, vent and dead body you look at as if its about to become a monster and you regret it if you don't.

• James Bracher October 27, 2008 PS3

  ****

  EA have created a phenomenon in Dead Space.In Dead Space you play as Isaac Clark, a space engineer who works for the Concordance Extraction Corporation or C.E.C. The C.E.C are sent to a 'Planet Cracker' called Ishimura with an aim to find out whats been going on there. Played with a similar camera angle to Resedent Evel 4 and Gears of War this game looks to be a real hit.

• Dead Space 360PS3PC | 01:23 Play Trailer