Hello and welcome to my attempt to put down a review of Dead Space on paper.
I appoligise if it seems fragmented in places. Just this game has more than just a few things to talk about. And I tend to jump ahead of myself. And I’m attempting to fix my first attempt.
Anyway, for the past two days (and the lack of sleep) I’ve been playing it. Getting into the story. And learning in detail about the story, the characters, and other shit.
The story starts off as you, Engineer Isaac Clarke as a part of a search and rescue team, heading to the massive asteroid/planet mining ship; the USG Ishimura. It lost contact with Earth and your team is sent out to investigate. You’ve been brought on this mission due to your expertize in making ships work again.
You also have a girlfriend, Nicole, who is stationed on the ship. She mentions something terrible has happened but won’t go into details.
As you approach, you notice something very strange with the ship. It’s lifeless, and not responding to anyone. Of course though, shit goes wrong and the pod crash-lands in the ship. After the impact, everyone manages to survive.
So you follow your team into the ship and attempt to continue the mission of figuring out why the ship lost contact. Soon your team is attacked by what are known as Slashers, and you’re forced to run for your life while the freaks of nature chase you.
So, now you have a conveniently-placed gun (what looks like a gun anyway) sitting ontop of a control panel. You pick it up and notice it’s called the Plasma Cutter.
You’ll also notice something else. Aiming for the body or the head isn’t logical. You actually have to cut off the limbs of every freak you see to kill it. And if you somehow forget, it gets repeated four more times to aim for the limbs.
Tell me that isn’t stupid. Yet it’s also ingenious at the same time since in normal shooter games, aiming for the head is the best way to kill something. This is the first game I know that doesn’t follow this rule.
So now you realize this is a TPS(Third-Person Shooter). You also will realize why these freaks are onboard and why they kinda look like humans. Something about a ‘Marker’ that was brought onboard the ship after really opening up the planet below and making a nice crater on the planet surface.
So anyway, that’s pretty much the story. Now, me just tell you about the combat. For starters, you can only have a maximum of four weapons at anytime. Ammo can by found from lockers, killing freaks, and the Stores. Along with other stuff like med packs, Credits, and Stasis rechargers.
Your suit can be upgraded all the way to Level 5, but you have to find the schematics of it, and then take it to a Store to be purchased.
You can sell your unneeded crap, or store your valuable items (such as large med packs) for later use to clear your inventory.
Ok. Now we talk Stasis. Still early in the game infront of a malfunctioning door is the Stasis Module. This can be used to temporary freeze enemies in place, as you cut off their limbs. As well as getting by obstacles such as the door I mentioned.
On Level 2 when you step out of the tram, you’re given the Kinesis Module. This can move objects out of your way. As well as a ‘Gravity Gun’ against enemies. Just pick up something, then throw it by pressing the primary mouse button. Very useful in the later levels.
To use any kind of power, you have to hold your aim key at the target with your weapons crosshair, then tap (by default) C for Stasis, and K for Kinesis.
You can recharge your Stasis bar by stopping at any Stasis Recharging unit. Or use a Stasis Pack.
You can also upgrade your weapons, your RIG(armor), and other stuff by finding or buying Power Nodes, and taking them to a bench. You use the nodes to unlock circuits to boost your Damage, your damage duration, your Air, your Hit Points, and all sorts of other things.
Now I just mentioned a tram. Yes, there is a tram. It gets you to each level and section of the ship. But you have to repair it first. This can be done on the first level, while learning how Stasis works by slowing down stuff.
Now that is out of the way, time to tear this game apart and find things I hate about it. And there’s only three.
1. The stupid “Save Stations” scattered about each level. I remember another game that had this dumb feature. I think I stopped playing it.
2. The way the story is playing so far. It almost reminds me of Fallout 3. “Hey, you fixed it! Wait.. NO! Shit! This is broken now! You have to go through a shit scary area and fix it! Oh BTW, I saw something BIG down there!”, and the cycle keeps repeating.
3. Forced WASD keys. It completely ignores if you want to use arrow keys to move.
Anyway, that’s pretty much all I need to say without giving out spoilers. All I do know is there’s going to be a big boss battle at the end of this.
OHH! One last thing. Try not to save frequently in only one save slot like I did on my first playthrough. There might be a time where the game will bug out on you, and you will be fucked and have to restart the game all over again. This is why there’s 12 save slots.