Dead Space: Complete Impressions (PS3 style)

i`m going to see if i can MAYBE structure this a little bit. if i`m going to write these damn reviews, i might as well get some sort of a system worked out.

lets start with the story. in the future, with the Earth`s resources dried up, huge spaceships called Planet Crackers are sent out to harvest resources from other planets. they are like huge oil platforms in space, essentially. they harvest all the resources they can carry, and then haul them back to Earth. the Ishimura is the largest ship in it`s class, and it has had a total communications blackout.

cue the repair team, including the main character of the game, Isaac Clarke, and engineer. the team is dispatched to make contact with the Ishimura and make the repairs necessary for it to complete it`s mission. upon arrival, you quickly discover things have gone less than ideal, and it pretty much just looks like a slaughterhouse now. after an early attack by hideous creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac is split from the rest of the crew and must make various repairs to traverse the ship. you later pick up other story bits involving a kooky religion and such things, but i`m not going to go into that.

next up i will address the lighting and sound. the lighting is pretty much creepy as hell. it varies from dimly lit, to barely lit, to brightly lit, to flickering lights. the lights cast shadows in a realistic and spooky manner. there are also a lot of different colors of lights, from the flourecent white to the emergency orange-yellow spinners, and even some soft greens. there was never a point where the lighting seemed out of place or took away from the experience. it was just always done so well that you didn`t really even notice it was doing anything at all. it just blended perfectly with the mood of the game.

the sound was also outrageously terrific. from the spinning blades of the Ripper, the footsteps, and even the airlocks opening and closing, the sound was very well done. the music was also very subtle to the point where i can`t really remember any of it. thats not to say it was boring KOF style music. the music just fit and played it`s part. this is first and foremost a game, and i think the developers understood that. nothing really gets in the way of the gameplay. the music is just there to help set the mood, and that is just what it does.

up next is the controls. i generally can complain about something when it comes to controls, but there was really nothing to complain about here. there is no quick turn, but i can`t think of a game that uses dual analogue control and also has a quick turn. you can invert the controls, if you`re ONE OF THOSE. i was concerned that readying the weapons with L1 was going to be a problem, but it really didn`t take any getting used to at all, it just worked.

R1 and R2 are primary and secondary fire, respectively. you also have two melee attacks for when you aren`t aiming your weapon. the wild haymakers and a super stomp. running is performed by holding the L2 button, which is also surprisingly lovely. the directional pad switches to one of your four held weapons, while pressing in the right stick is probably the greatest thing ever. a blue line forms on the ground pointing you in the direction you should be going. no more getting lost a la Resident Evil or opening the map every 5 second like it`s Silent Hill.

onward to the gameplay, the important stuff. i`m only going to touch on the combat as it pertains to the two enemy types: regular dudes and BOSS MEN.

as far as the regular Necromorphs are concerned, most of them are defeated by severing their limbs. this deals extra damage and has the added bonus of making them less dangerous. cutting off a head makes them blind, cutting off the legs forces them to crawl. this turns the game into more of a strategic shooter rather than an "aim for the head" or just fill `em full of lead shooter.

the boss fights i found to be very very awesome. they are somewhat objective based. two of the bosses you can`t even kill through normal means. they require you to use your weapons and skills as a means of slowing them down to spring a sort of trap on them. while this can be mildly frustrating when things aren`t going your way, it`s not by means of the game just being a total prick. it`s more because you simply didn`t do something right.

there is a boss fight done in one of the games gimmick sort of features, the Zero-G. in Zero-G your magnetic boots let you walk on walls, and you can jump from one surface to another. this boss fight takes place in a large tube structure, with an entire end of the tube being clogged by the boss. it had a sort of old-school feel to it.

the final boss also was sort of an old-school throwback kind of boss, in my mind. there were certain points you had to hit, and a certain pattern you had to get into the groove of. it really was an enjoyable boss battle.

well, this structure caused me to miss a few things i`m sure, i should have just babbled like i was talking to someone. hopefully this review was at least helpful to the three or four people who will read it and don`t really play video games of this sort anyway.

~Maxie