Dead Space

By Sam Collins

In space, no one can hear you scream. From the comfort of your living room or bedroom, someone might. That’s where EA Redwood Shores' new sci-fi survival horror game, Dead Space, comes in. Players will assume the role of Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent as part of a team to investigate a lack of communication from the ‘planet cracker’ USG Ishimura, a gigantic vessel used to rip apart old planets and smelt them down for resources. From the get-go it’s clear this isn’t your routine communication breakdown - your everyman engineer has a bumpy, dark and alien infested ride ahead of him.

Keeping with the theme that you’re an engineer, you won’t be very well equipped to fend off the mutated alien hordes. For example, one of the first weapons you have access to is an energy-powered mining gun; no pulse rifles here. Also acquired along your journey will be a telekinesis gun (suspiciously similar to HL2s gravity gun) and stasis gun. The telekinesis (or TK) gun will allow you to pick up pieces of the environment or, more awesomely, severed alien limbs to use as weapons and for puzzle solving, while the stasis gun has the ability to shoot out bubbles that rapidly slow time for anything caught within. Staying true to survival horror convention, Dead Space is all about conserving ammunition and players will need to get creative with their use of the TK and Stasis guns if they want to survive aboard the Ishimura.

Thankfully, Dead Space isn’t all about sticking to the survival horror guide book and testament to that is the HUD... or lack thereof. In an attempt to further immerse players in the experience, Dead Space will feature an in-game display without ammo counters, weapon displays or health bars in the traditional sense; instead players will be able to see their health displayed in coloured bars that run the length of Isaac's spine with air and energy supplies appearing on his shoulders. Ammunition and other items will appear in a holographic image over your weapon (for the ammo count) or above the item in question for things like air supply canisters or battery packs.

Atmosphere is everything and it looks like Dead Space has dread and despair packed into every nook and cranny of its detailed environments. Exceptional attention to detail has been given to alien (and player) dismemberment with ‘procedural tentacles’, a physics-based system for all the strung out entrails, extra limb-like appendages and other by-products of rapid mutation on display. Speaking of dismemberment, it’s going to play a big part in staying alive, with players having the ability to target and remove specific limbs (or what passes for limbs with aliens). Be warned, taking something’s head off will not necessarily kill it – you’ll need to assess what type of alien you’re coming up against and dismember accordingly. For example, if something has gigantic scythe-like arms and is running at you screaming it’s probably prudent that you remove those as soon as possible.

Dead Space has all the makings of a good survival horror game and it will be interesting to see how the weapons, natural HUD, dismemberment and environment types all come together to scare players senseless in the finished product. Look for Dead Space in New Zealand stores around the end of October / early November and stay tuned to NZgamer.com for any Dead Space updates including a full review in the future.

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