Forums > Submission Feedback > zippdementia's Dead Space review

Interesting.

Have you played System Shock 2? That's been the 'space-station horror' benchmark for nearly a decade, and while this doesn't have the RPG elements of Shock I'd be interested to see how this compares in the atmosphere department.

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I predicted a while back that Dead Space would be the BioShock of 2008. I'm not going to make the mistake of buying into the hype of this one.

The review itself... uh, I'm going to say you've still got a lot to learn. Cleanly dividing the review into sections (and labeling them) makes for an awkward read, and the intro could have pulled me in a little more.

You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

Your mom could have pulled me a little more.

As far as the game goes, of course there's criticisms I could level at it, I've yet to find a game I couldn't criticize for something.

In Dead Space's case, there's of course the glitches. There's an inordinate amount of them for a game that's been well into development for over two years, and has such high production value.

Then, too, every run through tends to be pretty much the same thing. There really is a fairly limited number of ways to approach each fight, so especially on replays of the game, things can get a bit old.

But really, despite those things (which might sound really bad reading them here) the game does not lose its perfect score. I can't emphasize enough how well put together it is. Part of it is that it's highly focused. So many games these days try to be everything that they end up being nothing, really. Dead Space knows what it's good at, and it does it over and over and better each chapter. It's well paced, the environment is chillingly immersive, and I was tense as a teenager on his first date for the entire thing.

I really can't reccomend it enough.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I'm gladdened by this review's enthusiasm. People are getting too blase´ these days because they're spoiled all the time. I just did the rounds of looking through lots of the speculative pre-release discussion about this game on the net, and I found people's underwhelming responses to plainly good preview material, and also their apparent expectations ('this game will have to be like nothing else in history, otherwise it must suck') completely ridiculous.

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Thank you! I do think that if games take what was established here and improve upon it, Dead Space will eventually fall out of memory, but I think it did what too many games these days DONT do: it established a clear goal, and then focused on achieving that.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I gave this game a spin earlier.

Now I won't be able to sleep tonight. o.o

"Either, sir, you're an ass or masquerading as one."
- Nero Wolfe

I played it last night for the first time. I must say, I wasn't impressed.

I only played an hour or so, but my impressions read like this:

It's Doom 3, on a space ship, with Silent Hill's monsters and more lights turned on.

Every enemy attack involved a baddie either jumping out from the ceiling, from under the floor, from over a wall, or behind me. The gore is so ridiculous that it creates almost a comic book effect - it's unnecessarily gratuitous and completely overblown. It controlled nicely, I must say, and the 'stomp' feature is a little odd but it works. Anyway, I gave up when an enemy jumped out at me just as I was saving the game, and since I was low on health at the time, I managed to single-handedly destroy any possibility of continuing.

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Ah, but you were expecting dissapointment from the start, Lewis. Anyways, it's the kind of game whose point is to have enemies jump out at you every step of the way. You're completely ignoring the innovation of the gunplay, which enforces precise aiming in tense situations. Also, the environment is quite a step above Doom... give it THAT, at least.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

"Ah, but you were expecting dissapointment from the start, Lewis."

I wasn't at all - it's foolish to go into anything with prejudice. On quite the contrary, I've been looking forward to playing it for quite some time, but my fears about the game turned out to be true: it's jumpy, not scary.

I fail to see what's so innovative about the gunplay - a load of other games use that sort of strategic placement of shots/cuts/whatever. Hell, Fallout did it in 1997. Dead Space controls beautifully, I'll admit, but that's only the form it uses; the actual idea isn't new at all.

It's not crap, clearly. It probably borders on 'very good' from what I played of it - but it still felt hackneyed and bland. I'd be more inclined to side with Jeffrey's 7/10 review, particularly the parts about the bland and infuriatingly designed levels, but really, I haven't played enough to tell.

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Fallout's system didn't require the user to aim, though. It just required you to select your body part. Unless you're refering to the new one, which frankly, while I love, doesn't have very precise combat controls. Dead Space forces you to try to calm yourself in jumpy moments, and aim well. It's pretty cool.

I'll admit, I had a lot of trouble deciding whether to give this an 8 or a 10. It was going to be one or the other, no in between futzing, but ultimately I went for 10 just because I felt they accomplished everything they set out to do and didn't make pretense to more. I respect that. And what they set out to do was no small thing.

There are dissapointments, sure. The last level is fairly stiff, for instance. The bosses are very straightforward. But I know that I couldn't put the damn thing down, and I was wired all week because of it. Anything that has that heavy an effect on me is worth it.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Straying between an 8 and a 10 seems odd. What's wrong with poor old 9? Did 7 eat him?

(The old jokes are the best.)

Anyway, elsewhere, Ben Croshaw of The Escapist puts it better than I ever could.

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I didn't want to fritter about with 9's. It was too much of a compromise.

Yahtzee always says it better (and more wittily) than anyone else. Although, to be fair, his method usually involves focusing on a single bad element of a game and espousing on it for five minutes.

Don't get me wrong, I love Yahtzee. I was one of his fans back when he was still floundering about on youtube and in the back pages of PC Gamer.

I still liked Dead Space, and I still reccomend it to everyone except Lewis.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

"I didn't want to fritter about with 9's. It was too much of a compromise."

This is a really odd thing to say, and I still don't understand.

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I'm mostly being sarcastic. I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I'll explain better now.

Basically, I was either going to give the game a perfect score for achieving what I thought it clearly set out to achieve, while taking no prisoners and not trying to be anything more than the sum of its gory goo filled parts.

Or, I was going to hold it to the rigorous set of guidelines I hold most games to, which would've lowered it to an 8.

I was impressed, though, by DS' focus, huge game world outside of the game (I'm talking tomes of history and locations that don't even get mentioned, but do influence the game setting), and its dedication to sticking to its guns and not branching out. Also, it happened to scare and disturb me quite a bit, which is hard to do. I think it was mostly the sound. I'm very sound oriented, and DS delivers an audial experience unlike any I've encountered before.

Anyways, I opted for the 10.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Sometimes you look back over stuff you wrote a while ago and wonder what the hell you were thinking.

This is one of those reviews.

I still wouldn't change the score. I still think the game deserves the 10, if only for its fresh approach and beautiful attention to environment (especially sound), but Sho was absolutely right about the style of this piece. It shows a complete lack of knowledge as to how to write a review.

I think I was just trying something out, but I don't know what it was... LSD maybe?

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I could have worked if you'd have built the structure and segues a bit better. Don't worry about it. It's not your best work, but not everything can be.

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I would like to rework it some day, though

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

... and that day has come. I'm going to shortly delete this review, replay the game, and rewrite it. This was more an early draft, anyway, of the horror article you'll soon be seeing, Lewis.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Oh, for the halcyon days of October 2008! We all were so innocent back then!

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I still have trouble sleeping.

"Either, sir, you're an ass or masquerading as one."
- Nero Wolfe

You should be using it to finish your damn reviews, then!

In an effort to stay on topic, I recently played an hour or so of Dead Space and I... didn't hate it? It was okay, but it didn't drive me to obsessivley play more.

For us. For them. For you.

I don't know why I loved it so much. This will be a journey to discover why. Can't be as good as Alundra, though.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."