Dead Space

Hello and welcome to another blog post. Today's topic is the game Dead Space for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a survival-horror game that is, though scary at times, a blast to play and a great game to play with your friends, since you're probably going to be too scared to play it by yourself anyway. The story sets itself far into the future, where our protagonist Isaac Clarke is on his way with co-workers Zack Hammond and Kendra Daniels in order to repair communications with the mining ship, the USG Ishimura. Isaac's girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, is a medical officer on the ship, as well. It doesn't take long for them to realize that something is deathly wrong. After the crew was somehow sucked in by dysfunctional gravity panels, they are attacked by the former crew of the Ishimura, who have been transformed into hideous creatures known as Necromorphs. It is then that the remaining survivors of the repair crew, Isaac, Zack, and Kendra, set out to find out what happened and fix the problem... if they can.

Dead Space takes a turn from other survival-horror games and actually has you playing in third person view, with you looking over Isaac's shoulder's in order to shoot and other such nonsense. Instead of traditional weapons such as guns and knives, you sport an arsenal of mining tools, which is silly, but effective. The main gimmick of this game is instead of just shooting wildly, you aim for the limbs. You end up wasting a lot more ammo shooting it in the face, than if you were to just cut off the arms. It's a very nice game play mechanic, because it makes you think and gives you an actually strategy than just praying and spraying.

The story in Dead Space is effective and a driving force for the game. You are stranded on a mining ship, all communications are severed, your significant other is somewhere on board, and all hell has broken loose. In Gamespot's review of Dead Space, Lark Anderson writes, "With its disturbingly twisted visuals, its deeply engrossing story, and innovative strategic dismemberment combat system, Dead Space is a best-in-its-class game that surpasses other entries in its venerable genre in nearly every way and will be the standard by which they are judged for years to come." Branching off of that, IGN's review by Jeff Haynes states "Dead Space is a great example of the genre and is an awesome way to launch a franchise that could continue for many years to come." Dead Space hits top marks for gamers everywhere, and fortunately for us all, a sequel is due within the year. Until next time, happy hunting.