This article originally ran under a different banner/website in January of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!! YOU FIND YOUR OLD DOOMSAYER IN QUITE A FUNK!!! With a plethora of negative news, in January of all months, I lack the will or the desire to discuss it. Don’t misinterpret my apathy. I do applaud Bungie for escaping the greedy talons of Activision. I am now intrigued by the possibility of a Destiny 3, even if it is aimed at the loyal Destiny fans and not myself. I could mock Bethesda for their cheap attempt at a Fallout 76 leather jacket, but I have a feeling I have beaten all I can out of this dead horse known as the Fallout 76 fiasco. Of course, I could chastise EA for their embarrassing use of Star Wars license, producing only two pitiful Battlefront games and canceling anything resembling a single-player Star Wars game, but EA has no shame to speak of. Oh, what is a depressed Doomsayer to do? I must do, what many gamers do in times of strife: play one of my favorite video games. Which one to choose though? Well, I did mention Dead Space during my Resident Evil 4 review. Maybe it is time I return once more to the USG Ishimura.
Our story begins aboard the USG Kellion, answering a distress call from the mining ship USG Ishimura. We are introduced to our strong but silent engineer Isaac Clarke, technologist Kendra Daniels, and senior security officer Zach Hammond. Our team is quickly ambushed by reanimated corpses known as Necromorphs. The team is split up and it is up to Isaac to cut his way through the Necromorphs, find his teammates, and get off the Ishimura. You scurry along the Ishimura, following tasks given to you by Hammond and Daniels. While many people say it feels like your support characters are bossing you around, I feel like it fits the role of an engineer. After speaking with numerous engineers on the street, many of them stated that they feel like they are bossed around to the next problem at their everyday jobs. So it is only fitting that our Gordon Freeman-like protagonist silently moves from one problem to another, not complaining even once. I also like to think, Isaac agrees to do it, because he is also looking for his girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, a medical specialist abroad the Ishimura when the Necromorphs epidemic broke out.
While my summary of the plot may make Dead Space sound like a cookie-cutter zombie game in space, I greatly assure you it is not. While the Nercomorphs have similar traits to zombies, they are more like infected corpses twisted and remade into misshapen monsters who don’t want to consume flesh but merely flay it from your skin. They aren’t looking to consume the living. The Necromorphs are looking to create more of themselves to appease an alien artifact called the Marker. On top of this slight twist on zombies, the Necromorphs take varying shapes and forms. You have your standard Necromorph, known as the Slasher, a lumber lanky horror with blades jettisoned from their arms. The Leaper, which appears as though the top half of a human was ripped from its torso and had its spine sharpened into a scorpion tail. The Lurker, a small human child with tendrils coming out of their backs that shoot spikes. A flying stingray-like creature that can turn corpses into Necromorphs known as the Infector. An engorged Necromorph that will spill out smaller Necromorphs known as the Pregnant. A sickly looking Necromoph with a yellow pustule limb that explodes when you shot at it or he reaches you. This suicide bomber is known as the Exploder, obviously. What makes all these enemies even more threatening is headshots and body shots do nothing to these monsters. You have to, as some blood on the wall states, cut off their limbs.
As I mentioned in my review of Resident Evil 4, Dead Space made Isaac feel very similar to Leon Kennedy. The camera hovers behind them but will zoom onto their shoulders when they aim their guns. Unlike Leon, Isaac is able to move while shooting. While you might find it more nerve-wrenching to have to stand still while shooting, Dead Space is willing to assault you with Necromorphs from all sides, making the ability to shoot and move almost a necessity. As mentioned earlier, Leon needs to shoot villagers in the head and chest, Isaac needs to shoot Necromorphs in the arms and legs. As if the thought of these monsters lurking in the pipes and the walls in an Alien-like fashion wasn’t enough, being told you need to shoot Necromorphs in the limbs as they are barreling down on you, swinging arms widely, creates tense gameplay unrivaled by any other game I have played. You can shoot off the Necromorph’s legs to slow them down, but they will still relentlessly crawl back at you.
Many of the guns offered are very satisfying to use due to the power behind most of these weapons. I used to be a firm pulse rifle guy but recently prefer the starting plasma cutter. I found the pulse rifle didn’t have the same impact as the plasma cutter and prompted a spray and pray mentality. Not only was it more cathartic to cut limbs off with the plasma cutter, but when I kept calm and lined up my shots, I was able to conserve a large amount of ammo which is significant aboard the Ishimura. This blend of ammo conservation and shooting limbs blend nicely together to create gameplay that excels at making the Necromorphs a terrifying foe.
While the action is tense, I often found it was just walking around the Ishimura to be the scariest moments in Dead Space. The sound design in Dead Space is like none other. As you merely walk to your next objective, you will hear Necromorphs scuttling around in the vents, small pieces of metal being knocked to the ground, and soft screaming of people being ripped apart by Nercomorphs. It works so well to make you feel like a small little mouse scurrying along inside a massive machine. This machine will also eerily creak and groan as you imagine all the Necromorphs being alerted to your location. You can feel that at any moment, this massive machine will release a horde of Necromorphs onto you. The atmosphere seeps in as you wonder if the cargo lift your riding is taking you over the abyss of a large monster’s mouth. Finally, when you are on the edge of your seat, Dead Space will hit you with a perfectly timed jump scare that has even scared me on my fifth playthrough. No matter how many times I play through Dead Space, it will always succeed at getting the hair on the back of my neck to stand straight up at attention. Now, I am sure at this moment, I can’t convince you to play Dead Space. If I at all peaked your interest in Dead Space, I have no doubt you will be playing the Resident Evil 2 remake at this time and I do not blame you. Even as I stand here on top of my soapbox, I, myself, cannot wait to get back to Raccoon City. While I can’t say I have sunk my teeth enough into Resident Evil 2, I feel confident in saying that if you are enjoying Resident Evil 2 remake, you will enjoy Dead Space as well. I strongly urge you to give it a try once you finish Leon and Claire’s adventure. You never know, it might become one of your favorite games and help you inspire you when you are stuck in a funk.
