Dead Space
Graphics and Physics -
ok, gonna be honest, they're not the greatest. they're average 360 graphics, a step below Gears and maybe right around Halo 3-ish. the one thing that stood out about them though is that none of the textures or models looked unfinished. everything fit. there were no bland spots (unless you count windows as bland).
the guns were pretty awesome graphically. the blasts from every gun were amazing and i could swear i even saw particle effects trailing after some of them. I mean some left a trail of smoke but like i think the more laser-ish weapons had particle trails to make them look cool. and the flamethrower was really life-like. the fire even left blur around it.
every movement that every enemy made was lifelike. nothing was clunky. even the fat ones ran like you'd expect fat ones to run. every detail, down to every wrinkle in the skin was clearly visible. when you killed enemies in zero-g, they immediately lost control and floated off and the blood that would spray out would clot and start floating out on it's own. each limb you cut off would fall like you'd expect them to. they don't fall through the enemy, they don't stay stiff, some will actually spin in air as they fall to the ground. it's pretty amazing.
lastly i'd like to mention the cinematics. a lot of them would happen over your R.I.G. which means a little blue-scale screen would show up either with a video or a music-player looking thing with volume bars about 2 inches out from it. no matter how you rotated the camera. these things would stay relevant in position to your player. they wouldn't start turning, they wouldn't fidget. they stayed in the same place unless you moved isaac.
I'll give graphics and physics an 9/10.
Gameplay-
most people will see this game as a standard third person shooter. i can't really argue, but the unique "dismember to kill" play style, and the zero-g areas are what will set it apart in your eyes. the zero-g areas can be seen almost as puzzles, seeing as sometimes it's a little difficult to know where you want to jump to. another thing i found fun is stasis. you will have fun slowing down any and every enemy you can with it. granted you get only about 5 or 6 shots with it before it needs recharge by recharge station or stasis pack, whereas your other power, kinesis, is unlimited, you will find it fun to slow things down so that you can see them fall apart in slow motion. the main gripe about gameplay that i saw in other reviews was that your camera can be a pain in zero-g areas and that enemies that are tearing you apart may be just out of visibility. i never had this problem, except for with long range enemies, which is pretty understandable. you can't move your shooting arm around 360 degrees, so you're not gonna get to look up and behind you while in aim mode.
you upgrade everything, including the suit, which also gets upgraded in the store, with power nodes, which you can find in random parts of the game or that you can buy for 10,000 credits a piece at the store. you can ONLY UPGRADE AT BENCHES though. you can usually find them near stores
easy mode is pretty standard. anything above it gets to the harder side and if you manage to LIKE seeing yourself torn apart by the easiest to kill enemies, you can play on impossible mode, which you unlock after your first run-through
another thing about this game is that after you beat it, you can run through again with all your weapons and upgrades on the same save file, just as round 2 and so on. you won't be able to max ANYTHING out in the first run through so, i'd recommend playing through again
I'll give gameplay an 8/10.
Thrill-
something unique to horror games that more often needs a spot dedicated to it in reviews is thrill. this game never once failed to bring on some sense of terror that kept me on the edge of my seat. there's a complete sense of paranoia when dealing with other humans in the game, that will just get to you. when there are enemies, you constantly find yourself asking where they're coming from or when the wave will end, or if one's going to come up from behind, wrap it's tongue around your neck, and pull your head off. even when you aren't fighting enemies, you'll constantly ask yourself where they're coming from next. added to the thrill is the unique feeling that every time you die, you're not just falling to the ground. you're getting chopped in half or dismembered in some crazy way that you never thought possible. and if you're like me, and you aren't paranoid about watching for vents, you're going to get scared. A LOT. i don't think i ever played this once when it wasn't completely dark in the room. i even put blankets over the windows in my room to ensure total darkness if it was daylight hours.
I'm awarding thrill a 10/10.
Story-
ok, this is where Dead Space begins to lack a little. i'm not going to ruin it by going into detail with all the plot twists and such, but i am going to give you the gist of it.
there are too many cliches. there are a ton of twists that are unique to this game. but there are also a ton of cliches, and a lot of the game feels taken straight from halo. first off there's this "marker" they took from the planet and is being held on the infected ship. well, turns out it was a beacon, and the "necromorphs," what i aka as the flood, responded. turns out not only do they take over the dead bodies of humans, which in this game either committed suicide or were killed by a separate necromorph, some of which proceeded to skin the poor people, they are controlled telepathically by a mass necromorph entity, dubbed the "hivemind," which i aka as the gravemind. the only visible differences between the gravemind and hivemind are that the hivemind doesn't talk and...somehow the head managed to look nothing like the gravemind, and you actually fight the hivemind, which surprised me.
anyways, after this happens, you and the crew that you're the engineer for are sent to the ship, thinking it's a simple power malfunction or something, and get thrown into this mess. you and the only 2 that survive spend half the game trying to escape the ship, before you see the only black guy in the game, who also happens to be the captain, get brutally murdered by one of the more powerful enemies you regularly fight. (sounds a lot like Sergeant Johnson from Halo, doesn't it?). then you spend a smaller amount of time with this scientist that helped cause the problem and wants redemption by putting the marker back and the remaining survivor from your crew, the chick, trying to escape. i won't tell you the rest, because it'll ruin the point of playing the game. the last chapter, specifically right before you finally get off the ship and the final chapter, will take everything you thought was going on, and prove that you knew nothing.
because of Halo similarities, i'm giving the story a 7/10
Overall-
Dead Space is what would happen if Silent Hill and Halo spawned a child. not only is it fast paced and thrilling, it is the best damn horror game you will ever play. it is the only one that has scared me so badly that i had to finish it because of the adrenaline rush it gave me.
I proudly give Dead Space an 8.5/10.
personal notes:
i think i did well on this review
i gave you just enough info to make you want to go out and buy it, and just little enough to make you more curious about it and increase your chances of buying it
tell me how i did
^^
