Originality is overrated. Dead Space proudly wears a host of influences on its sleeve: Alien and Solaris, Half-Life and Resident
Evil 4. Plenty of boilerplate game design
factors in, too: claustrophobic corridors, explosive canisters, gathering
credits to spend at stores, even though you're on a dead ship. But Dead
Space is a reminder that influence and convention, sharply
focused, can become terrifically creepy.
The focal lens is Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent to repair the
mining ship Ishimura, disabled after
retrieving something from an uninhabited planet. The artifact, worshipped by
religious nutjobs, triggers the animation of dead flesh. The results, called
Necromorphs, swarm the Ishimura
and can only be killed by dismemberment. So Isaac, armed with repurposed repair
tools, embarks on a gratuitously bloody slog that looks like the lawnmower
climax from Dead Alive
transplanted to a working-class spaceship.
The game's utter commitment to the premise makes it work until the
threadbare story takes precedence over slicing up monsters. Horror games love
to jab at religion, but tired anti-Scientology commentary only drains tension. Mostly,
however, using an industrial saw to sever limbs from a rancid reanimated
meatbag is purpose enough, especially when done in perfectly realized zero
gravity. Throw in thinly justified powers (stasis slows monster movement, while
rudimentary kinesis manipulates objects from afar) and the occasional vacuum
(where enemy approach is appropriately silent) and Isaac's mission becomes one "Holy
shit!" moment after another.
Beyond the game: EA may
be too excited to have a new narrative property. Dead Space has already
spawned comic books, an animated film, and multiple online adventure games, all
dedicated to expanding the game's backstory and peripheral characters.
Worth playing for: The
grimy-but-gorgeous environments, decorated with holographic pop-ups and innumerable
flickering lights and shadows. The perfectly lit details are beautiful and
overwhelming. This is one of the year's most notable visual achievements.
Frustration sets in when:
Only one boss fight (the zero-g Leviathan) has any juice. Most are bigger,
louder versions of routine encounters. The rooms in which Isaac is dogpiled by
a dozen Necromorphs are far more challenging and rewarding than the
disappointing final level and end boss.
Final judgment: A forgettable
story can't handicap this sickly, atmospheric gorefest.