Dead Space

É não só uma das experiências mais aterradoras dos vídeo games, mas também um dos survival horror que melhor envelheceu com o tempo e cujas mecânicas mais cruciais ainda não encontraram parâmetro em outros jogos. Acerta ao tornar seu protagonista silencioso e sua jornada solitária, elementos que amplificam a sensação desoladora da nave Ishimura.

Por ser o primeiro jogo da franquia (e de 2008), os cenários repetitivos e a narrativa clichê - piorada por objetivos pouco originais na campanha - podem ser perdoados.

With Halloween just around the corner and a remake on the way, I figured I’d never find a better time to take a crack at the original Dead Space. I went in expecting an experience similar to Resident Evil 4 – heavy action with a side of horror – and Dead Space did not disappoint.

The game is at its best when you’re stalking through cramped environments and dismembering zombies Necromorphs with a variety of futuristic firearms. Your default weapon, the Plasma Cutter, feels punchy and responsive, and I found unique satisfaction in rotating its firing pattern by 90 degrees to more effectively separate my adversaries and their limbs. The rest of your arsenal is hit or miss, with a couple guns that feel underpowered and others that are only useful in limited situations. However, I did appreciate that no two weapons felt alike – a rare feature in games with an arsenal as wide as this one.

Necromorphs come in many shapes and sizes, and each variety requires slightly different tactics. Weak points are easy to spot but targeting them never gets old. The only enemy type that really irked me was the Guardian, a legless creature that hangs on walls and constantly spawns tiny Necromorph pods. Cutting these abominations down is best done with the Plasma Cutter, which became an issue on occasions when my Plasma Energy ran dry. Thankfully, my encounters with these wallhuggers were few and far between.

The zero-gravity sections were also a highlight for me. Not even being up to my neck in death on a derelict starship could crush the inherent joy of gliding across zero-G spaces. Choosing the target of my jump and launching into the air felt so intuitive that I didn’t mind that there was no way to adjust my trajectory midflight.

Though it’s ostensibly a horror game, Dead Space isn’t very scary. The main protagonist Isaac is the strong silent type and clearly gets his fashion advice from Doom Guy. I wouldn’t be surprised if his middle name is Ultraviolence.

As for the story, well, if I never have to endure another monologue delivered from behind a glass window, my life will be all the better for it. The plot is strong conceptually, weaving threads of religion and alien artifacts into a tapestry that should intrigue science fiction junkies, but the haphazard delivery is too shaky to support the big ideas. Plot twists are either foreshadowed too heavily or given weak reveals that dampen their impact. I was always more interested in what I would shoot next than what would happen next.

But hey, this isn’t a movie – it’s a game, and a fun one at that. I’m glad I played it before the remake is released, and I look forward to playing part 2 (and perhaps even part 3) in the near future.

Once you embark on the main quest it's hard not to be overly geeky about this game. The story premise is a perfect segue to a tangible, living-screaming sci-fi world tuned to stylistic perfection. Inspired by thriller type of terror of Resident Evil games, mystique-infused space horror from the likes of Event Horizon and Alien, Dead Space takes notes to create a blend of Lovecraftian fear of the unknown with Saw's unnerving brutality.
I like about that the most is how from the get-go world-building goes hand in hand with the core gameplay. You are moored to Ishimura literally as a working class hero, with nothing but a bad feeling about this right after a harsh landing and too soothing welcome announcement. What appeared to be a lead-pipe cinch for an engineer will soon unravel a more scary repair task than a broken Wi-Fi, soaking you into a compelling plot with twist upon twist.

So, when you pop the cork in the prologue you will watch Isaac trapped in a place where roses are blackened as ink and only the dead can hear you run. The key fact about the ship is it's mining purpose, which led to it digging an otherworldly discovery at the center of it all. That thing is a perfect example of "in ideas the unimaginable, in words the unspeakable". After the events went haywire it succumbed everyone to madness. You will constantly see sole survivors scratching themselves like meth addicts until they bleed out. Aside from your 2 distanced shuttle members serving as briefing machines Isaac is indeed lost in this gradually suffocating isolation... when you are not facing the necromorphs...

The brilliance of Dead Space gameplay is evident by bringing utility tool to a mutant fight. These truly imposing creatures are ought to tear off your skin, make a coat out of it and use the spine as a tube for a pus-blood cocktail in Isaac's body. Nasty and gory-disgusting, they are rapidly rushing with cannibalistic urge. And you are forced to, in fact, just incapacitate them by cutting of the limbs with space-engineering stuff like a precise plasma cutter, more widespread line cutter or, my favorite, a pipeline saw. Meaning that aiming at center mass or a head won’t work, decapitation even aggravates them more, although you can do that just for the sake of the stopping power effect. Whilst you are about to be crumped by necrophilies you also switching vertical-horizontal aiming modes on the almighty cutter tool - handle with care.
In the heat of the moment Isaac's tanky, but not sluggish movement makes outmaneuvering them a class act. However, you can stomp the car wreck victims like a savage with your military grade boots or just hit them with an arm's swipe - obviously risky, but seeing procedural dismemberment makes your inner censor happy.
To diversify maim-mutilation process the devs can introduce other not necessarily engineer-related stuff like a pulse rifle, flamethrower or a laser-beam gun. I salute this arsenal for not supplying you with a know-how solution. Each weapon comes with an alternative fire, but also with both purpose and shortcomings. You'd think that a pipeline saw capable of temporarily keeping the blades at a distance is OP, but it can make you vulnerable if you are not preserving the needed range. RIfle's 360° fire mode is useful for crowd control, but depletes ammo in seconds.

Overall DS is an easygoing - nervously tangling fun where improvisation can be your lifeblood. It's necro ecosystem makes sure if you utilize all the tools to a great success. The bosses rather bark than bite, but each encounter is a spectacle to behold in vein of God of war's gigantism.

But the 石村 won't fix itself, so cowboy up before the next repair objective revolving around puzzles. The game will push you through mesmerizingly handcrafted decks where everything is thought-out. From med labs with artificially grown babies and nature-sounding orangeries to stark industrial environments where asteroids are decomposed within the power fields. From time to time the level-design opens up to screen saving panoramas in outer space presenting you highly atmospheric zero gravity action with bits of debris floating around. You can even play multistaged space basketball or practice on targets in the security barracks.

For a game using the Godfather engine Dead Space looks impressive, dare i say, timeless if you won't look at the textures under a microscope. It's stellar art direction exemplifies that graphics is nothing by itself, because the design leaves an indelible imprint on it. The enormous technocracy of dieselpunk setting. The all-industrial practically of Issac's suits. Rotted versions of necromorphs with glowing eyes and dark rancid flesh covered in cysts. Not only does Dead Space cleverly uses the interplay between lighting and fog, but refuses to leave you confounded with it's diegetic HUD. The dynamic waypoint trail saves yourself a headache, especially when all falls apart. Dead Head Fred game was the first to put on a back a life indicator, but DS has improved it with various states of health.

Given that this was originally intended to be a System Shock 2's sequel, the horror is not so subtle. You walk through foreboding hallways where everything is orchestered within the game's linear structure. It's cool that necromorphs can hoap out of vents, but i expected it to be random with such amount of spawn points. Some are posing as corpses punishing you for unattentivness. But the game can do better. There are unexpected jumpscares in previously safe areas. Every train ride is a paranoic nightmare due to smoke hiding the enemies. As you uncover the story closer you will usher into horors of your own imagination. The thing has tampered with the crew's minds so badly that you can stumble upon cryptic messages showcasing unique language, which looks like a mix between ancient greek and hebrew - you can decipher it.

The neatest part about DS horror is it's skin-deep sound design, which gels well with everything in the game. With my Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO plugged into DAC this was an aural bliss. When the game is not trying to scare your eyes it can do it with noise. Almost everywhere smth around you is happening on the background making prediction of forthcoming events a wild guess. The sound of falling pipes increases paranoia, necromorphe warns in the distance with his indigestion, Isaac reacts to high-stress fights with a heavy breathing in his helmet. Secluded rooms tells your tales of despair with whispers in your ears, making you reach out for schizo pills. Jason Graves has composed pretty traditional score, but the one which yanks you out of the comfort. Eerie-grimmy cosmic ambient is f@ckn glorious.


Dead Space is not the most scariest or complex game around, but with so many innovative ideas being interwoven it presents a memorable horror where the real monster is a human church.

D!XI

 Make Us Whole

Of all the over-the-shoulder horror-shooters that appeared in the wake of RE4, Dead Space is probably the best. Set in a derelict spacecraft packed with grotesque zombies, it shows a real commitment to tone, using a diegetic HUD and forgoing big action setpieces in favor of intense dread. With that said, it still features a bunch of unimpressive boss fights, a lot of cheesy narrative moments, and an unreasonable number of fetch quests, especially towards the end. Overall I would still give it the thumbs up for its dingy, dreary ambiance and amputation-based shooting mechanics, which make for pretty fun combat in a horror game. There's also a fair bit of replay value, and, typical for the genre, some fun unlockables.

Dead Space is an Action Horror game. I watched an interview with the creator who stated the game took inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and Half Life. The 3rd person perspective was inspired by RE4, whereas Half Life inspired the idea of a silent protagonist, and the physics equipment.

Isaac Clarke and a team go to a mining facility to investigate what happened to the crew; Isaac is particularly interested in finding his girlfriend Nicole. They find it overrun with an alien species called necromorphs and find that the crew had been slowly losing their sanity.

I started playing the game before EA’s announcement to remake it. I thought the graphics have held up really well and it doesn’t need to be remade. The gameplay doesn’t feel dated either, so it’s going to be interested how they approach the remake.

At times the camera is zoomed in a little too much, so combined with the dark areas, it can be hard to view your surroundings at times - but this could be an intentional design choice to make you feel more claustrophobic or tense.

The lighting effects are great and the game makes good use of them to add tenson. Even more impressive is the sound design. The facility’s ambience, the necromorph screams, the squelshing of limbs, the whispering in your head - is all unsettling. Even the sound when the game boots up and shows you the menu was unnerving. There are sections where you step out into space and then sound is limited so you have to rely on visuals which is unnerving in a different way - it’s the lack of sound that creates the tenson.

Instead of cluttering the screen with a HUD, all the info is shown on your equipment. So the health bar goes up your spine on your suit. A radial meter shows your stasis charge. Your gun displays the ammo count, and communications are projected from your visor.

The first weapon you find is the Plasma Cutter. This fires a blast of 3 concentrated energy bolts either horizontally and vertically. It is great for cutting which is the necromorph’s weakness. Instead of going for headshots like in most games, you need to cut off their legs and arms which does more damage and restricts their movement. There’s different types of necromorphs which can have slightly different strategies.

The standard “slashers” are the most frequent enemy, then there’s faster variations later on in the game. The “Lurkers” run close to you, then raise their tentacles that will fire projectiles at you, so you need to slice these. “Infector” try to reanimate dead bodies, so it’s always a good idea to stamp on dead bodies when you find them just in case Infectors are in the area. There’s many other ideas, and some boss fights.

You unlock and can purchase weapons as you play through the game. I stuck with 3; Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle, and Flamethrower. I thought the guns were weak until you upgraded them. Each weapon has an upgrade tree which is displayed as a circuit of connected nodes. You have to place a power node into empty slots and not all nodes give you an upgrade, so you may have to use up to 3 power nodes for the upgrade you want.

The Pulse Rifle can fire fast but isn’t too good at dismembering the enemies. Flamethrower was decent for clusters of enemies, and seemed to stall enemies to allow you to back off.

If enemies get close you can melee them to push them back, and if they are on the floor, you can stamp them. This is quite risky because these techniques are slow and don't have much range so it is easy to miss and your enemies will also be trying to attack. Even if an enemy has no legs, they will have their scythe-like arms to slice you.

Enemies can drop ammo, health-packs and cash, but you mainly find them in lockers and crates. There’s a type of crate that can be smashed, so you can also use your stamp to open these. You can also buy ammo from the shop which is an electronic terminal.

You unlock some abilities called Stasis and Kinesis. Stasis slows things down which can be used in combat or to navigate the environment. When it is introduced to you, there will be malfunctioning doors that repeatedly open then slam shut. So you use stasis to slow their movement down so you can go through. Kinesis can pick up objects and you can then fire them to use as improvised weapons. It’s used in puzzles so can drag large objects into position, or pick up energy blocks and reposition to power doors. Stasis is limited use so you need to use an item to replenish it or find a charging station. For “puzzle rooms” there will always be a charging station so you cannot get stuck.

There’s some zero-gravity sections where you can leap across to other surfaces. These could be quite interesting but I often found them very disorienting. Once I leaped across and the camera pans back into position, I ended up having to look around to understand my new position.

The game does use a lot of jump scares, intentional or otherwise. Some scripted sequences occur where you will see aliens move under the floor or ceiling, or run across your view when you open a door. There’s plenty of grates on the walls that enemies can pop out of. In the “arena”-type fights, these are used as their spawn positions. The game did seem to mix up the spawn points, so if you had your back against a wall with a grate behind you, the game will definitely spawn an enemy there. “Arena” fights usually involved locking the doors and turning off the lights for “quarantine” then things will go back to normal once you defeat all enemies.

Sometimes you will be introduced to new enemies behind glass so you will see them attack a human whilst you watch. Most humans you encounter are already dead, but there will be occasions where you come across them in their final moments. For example, you see someone repeatedly headbutting a wall, then as you get close, they collapse dead.

You save the game at dedicated save points and I found these to be very frequent. When you die, you don’t necessarily get placed back at the save point, because there are also checkpoints in many sections. When you die, you usually get a brutal death scene with Isaac being gibbed.

It’s easy to find your way around because you usually navigate through fairly linear areas, with locked doors guiding your way. You can also press the Ctrl key which draws a line towards your destination. You have a map but I rarely used it. You often return to areas but new enemies will appear. The game is split into chapters with a tram taking you to the next area.

I don’t play many horror games because being constantly on-edge doesn’t really appeal to me. I had been meaning to play it for some time after seeing it being covered in various YouTube videos (some on game design, some top 10 Horror games, top 10 games that need to make a comeback etc), and one of my friends recently revisited it. It’s easy to see why people rate the game highly. I had a great time with Dead Space and it really surprised me how well the game holds up.

This game is really repetitive and stupid easy on medium. I heard hard is a little better but I don't care to try it out. Every level is the exact same and it's not scary.