If you’re looking for a survival horror game to tide you over until Resident Evil 5, then look no further. Dead Space is a new IP from EA Redwood, which mixes the best parts of action and horror games, to create an extremely enjoyable and well paced experience, which may change your perception of what survival horror should be.

 

In the distant future, human kind has mastered space travel. Giant mining ships under the command of the Concordance Extraction Corporation (C.E.C) roam the galaxy, harvesting valuable materials for colonized planets. The events in Dead Space take place aboard one such ship, the USG Ishimura - a Planet-Cracker class ship designed to break down entire planets. As Isaac Clarke, a Systems Engineer for the C.E.C you are sent on a mission to repair the damaged Ishimura, but soon discover mechanical failure isn’t the ship’s only problem. The ship had be overrun with a rapidly mutating virus, which turns dead human flesh into horrific abominations known as Necromorphs.

 

Progression in the game is managed by your two team members, Kendra and Hammond, who were sent along with you on your repair mission. The two characters are often at ends with each other, and play a big role in managing your progression throughout the game, as well as shedding light on the events leading up to now. As an engineer, you’ll spend most of your time travelling from point A to point B, repairing critical systems aboard the ship, which is enormous in size. To traverse the whole thing on foot would involve a lot of walking, and regular back-tracking, which is sadly common to most survival shooters. To alleviate this problem, you are tasked with bringing the ship’s tram system back online in the first chapter, which allows Isaac to travel to many different sections of the ship. There are twelve chapters in all, and in each chapter the location is different, keeping the scenery fresh and the story moving at a constant pace.

 

Gameplay feels very much like a mix between a number of recently popular games. Exploring the aftermath of some unknown cataclysm, discovering audio and text logs from various people who perished aboard the ship, and piecing together the events preceding your arrival, may remind you very much of Bioshock, which isn’t surprising, as both Bioshock and Dead Space were designed as “spiritual successors” to the System Shock series. Unlike Bioshock, Dead Space leans more heavily to the horror genre, and takes its cues from established survival horror franchises such as Resident Evil. However, instead of adopting all the mechanics of previous games, Dead Space build’s on what worked with the Resident Evil games, and cuts out what didn’t. Tedious “where do I go next” gameplay, and back-tracking are out - fast-place action and constant new environments are in. As a result, you’re constantly being forced into new, unknown areas, and very rarely seem safe from harm.

 

From the moment you take control of Isaac, you feel more like you’re in a science fiction horror movie such as Event Horizon, than a traditional survival horror game. Though the Godfather engine it uses is dated, it‘s been heavily modified, and Dead Space comes off looking extremely polished. You view the game entirely in third person, with an over-the-shoulder camera being employed to great effect. Screen space is maximised by the lack of a standard user interface. Instead of a standard health bar, LEDs running up the spine of Isaac’s engineering suit, or RIG, display your health. Ammunition, objectives, waypoints and other information are all displayed through the use of 2D hologram projections coming from your RIG, which you can tilt and pan around as if they were actually being projected. This creates a strong sense of immersion, and even though the setting is drenched in science fiction, the game comes off feeling that much more real. There is also no pause screen, save for the start button, which only gives you the ability to change in-game options and quit the game. If you need to stop and check the map, read your journal, or fiddle with your inventory, you’ll be doing it all in real time.

 

Before talking about the combat, is important to understand exactly what kind of enemies you’re dealing with. Nercromorphs share a lot of characteristics with zombies, in the sense that they’re both dead, and they both react less to damage taken in to torso area, and more to damage to their extremities. Taking it one step further than zombies, necromorphs are extremely resilient creatures, and the most effective means of dispatching them, is dismemberment. The basic form of a necromorph is a relatively humanoid looking creature, with large scythe-like protrusions where arms should be. They don’t require any one limb to function, and can still pose a nasty threat even when their head has been removed. Only after removing a sufficient number of limbs (three will usually do it) will a necromorph be put down.

 

The combat in Dead Space is primarily gunplay, however Isaac has a few extra tricks up his sleeve for managing larger groups of enemies, and getting out of tricky situations. The first of these additional attacks or abilities are the melee attacks. There are two melee attacks Isaac can employ, and though these moves aren’t designed to be used as the primary means of dispatching neromorphs, they do actually pack the power to kill enemies, so they’re not just for show. Isaac can perform a sweeping strike with his weapon hand, which comes off looking like a colossal backhand, to do damage and hopefully break up an enemy’s attack. The second melee attack, is a vicious stomp, used to finish off necromorphs low to the floor, and effectively remove any remaining limbs. Isaac’s RIG also includes a Stasis module, which can be used to temporarily slow down enemies and objects to a crawl, allowing you to quickly remove an enemy’s limbs, or put one enemy on ice while you take care of another.

 

These melee attacks and stasis fields are relatively useless without being backed up by the brunt of an actual weapon, and thankfully Dead Space has a range for you to use. At the beginning of the game you’re given the Plasma Cutter, a basic pistol which can fire a three pronged shot horizontally, or vertically. The plasma cutter is great for surgically removing necromorph limbs, and remained a constant weapon in my arsenal throughout the game. As you progress further you’ll be able to purchase additional weapons from the various shop terminals around the ship, and you’ll also discover schematics, which can be redeemed at the shops and purchased for credits. There are eight weapons in total, however you are only able to carry four at a time, so you’ll need to think carefully, and make sure you have a weapon for every situation. Throughout the game you’ll also purchase and discover power nodes, which can be slotted into your weapons, to upgrade statistics such as firing rate, capacity, reload speed and damage. Your RIG and modules can also be upgraded to provide additional health or power, depending on the item.

 

I could talk at length about additional aspects of the combat, the well thought-out and (at times) subtly delivered storyline, and just the obvious care EA have taken in developing this title, but I recommend you check it out for yourself instead. Dead Space is out now for the PS3, 360 and PC, and I’ve already got a PS3 copy for people to borrow, so really you’ve got no excuse. If you’ve ever been a fan of survival horror games, and thought one set in space might be cool, if there weren’t mecha-dinosaurs involved, do yourself a favour and pick it up. It turns out intricate narrative and well paced action does actually go hand in hand with gratuitous blood and psychopathic undead nightmare creatures.