Dead Space Comic, Animated comic for EA's Sci-Fi Survival Horror. Options

[AC9breaker]

I don't know how many of you guys have heard about this game, Dead Space, but it seems quite promising. When I first heard about it on GametrailersTV I didn't pay much attention except for when they where talking about strategic dismemberment. Then they began releasing trailers for the game and what really caught my attention where the animated comics. I've heard they've even published them too. Anyway, I thought you guys might wanna take a look. I'm leaning heavily towards picking it up. The story is filled with a good amount of mystery and suspense.


Issue Zero


Issue One


Issue Two



Issue Three

[AC9breaker]

Just beat the game, this game totally deserves a review. Incoming wall of text.


So what exactly is this game about? To put it bluntly, Dead Space is artistic satire on Scientology heavily borrowing from pop culture horror references such as Event Horizon or Aliens. It even has a classic vague horror movie ending leaving room for various interpretation.

The story was vague enough to leave room for possible sequels as well as being compelling and satisfying enough to please most gamers by the time they finish this bad boy. The dialogue and voice acting are exceptional but what I think is best about this game is the dark, dry humor the game employs. "Safety First" signs covered in blood and decorated with limbs or accompanied by a corpse. Various subtle messages like that really made me laugh, "Report all injuries immediately" reads one of the scrolling signs at the medical bay, where corpses laid with exposed chest cavity's . Then there is our silent protagonist, Issac Clark. The man you control throughout the game. The lack of emotion he displays makes the scarce emotion he does display through out the game that much more poignant. It's quite humorous though how you are deemed the only one able to accomplish the various daunting tasks asked of you. Gordon Freemen 2.0. In keeping with that, all story is told in real time; even more immersing is the fact that you will be under attack and the enemy will not wait for you to listen to your audio com, or vid com. Even menu navigation and map checking is all in real time. Your never taken away from the action unless you pause or save. Leaving you vulnerable to attack, which brings me to my next point...


Immersion
The game has an incredible atmosphere. This is pulled off by the amazing graphics, intuitive interface, as well as psychological games the developers play on the player; such as the points where enemies ambush you from. You will always be on your toes and never feel safe. But what really sets the tone for the game is the sounds. The various sounds you hear are so unsettling and where the biggest scare factor for me. Weather it be the howl of a dying pregnant, the scuttling of stalkers in air vents. A random pipe dropping in the distance. Even the debris that litter the floors of the corridors you walk through as you stumble past them is enough to get you. The music matches the game perfectly supplementing the horror moments to a tee. The combination of all these elements make for incredible atmosphere. That nevers takes you out of the experience.

The art direction is equally as fantastic. While the game employs/play homage/rip offs aspects of popular sci-fi films it doesn't feel that bad becuase the game looks so unique. Weather it be the silhouette of your characters iconic armor in the flashing emergeny lights, the memorable gothic structure of the USG Ishimura, the striking appearance of the various different enemies you encounter, or the tangible feel of your futuristic tools and interior design of the ship, everything comes together perfectly and just feels right.

Gameplay
Finally, the real meat and potatoes is the gameplay. Gameplay pretty similar to Resident Evil 4. An over the should view, and while the game is in the survival horror genre, it seems quite action paced like RE4 since ammo is plentiful if your playing the game right. What do I mean by playing it right? The developers have been trying to push the term stratigic dismemberment to descibe the game. If you don't totally immoblize these guys, they will still some how find a way to come at you. I clearly recall in a space vacuum area shooting off the head, both legs and either the right or left arm of the creature and it was still coming at me. In some cases head shots make things much more difficult since the creature will begin swinging and moving wildly making it that much more difficult for those precision shots which the game game forces you to focus on. Then there is the standard rpg feature where the game lets you upgrade your various weaponry or armor. It's actually quite shallow but none the less is still an enjoyable feature which makes you prioritize since the items used to upgrade your gear are very limited or difficult to come by and once used can not be used again.


Negatives
The game of course is not without it's faults.
My first gripe, one that stood out for me was random pixelation on certain background images. The game looks beautiful, but if your as attentive to detail as me you will notice a few small areas where the quality isn't on par with the rest of the game. Most likely however the average gamer will not see these parts.
Lack of an ability to change difficulty after clearing the game. The game lets your carry over equipment from your previous save to a new game once you've cleared it, however you are stuck with that difficulty level unlss you start a new file. Pretty frustrating, especially since the game unlocks an "Impossible" difficulty once cleared for the first time.
Some of the facial movements of the characters got me iritaed as well. They lacked emotion, which was pretty big for me since most of the time you get your story elements from a vid com. consisting mostly of someones face. I would have apperciated a little emotion, especialy since my character is Gordon Freemen 2.0 and hardly displays much emotion.
My last gripe is that the game becomes formulatic. Generally you can expect new enemy spawns once an objective has been completed. I personally would have preferred some spontaneity which would have totally cemeneted the feeling of immersion and insecurity, but the scripted events and atmosphere of the game or so well done that it pretty much cancels it out.

The are a few other complaints that several other reviews have pointed out, but I personally feel that those are just matters of preference and their design was intentional which makes the game that much more enjoyable.
One was lack of quick turn around. I thought this was a better move, it makes your character feel that much more clunky and gives the game a claustophobic feeling. With due reason as well, your character is lumbering around in bulky space engineering armor and walking around with weapons and gear that weigh in at well over 60 pounds such as the Line Gun.
There are complaints that the puzzles where too easy, I personally think it wouldn't make sense if puzzles where too hard since most of the puzzles revolve around what Issac Clark specializes in, Engineering. They're all observation puzzles, if your an astute observer you shouldn't have much trouble accomplishing them.
The other was that the game was too easy. Sometimes it did feel like the enemies bled ammo instead of blood. But in all honesty, when the shit hit the fan I know I panicked and missed a lot of shots. I consider myself a quite experience gamer, so I can only imagine how people aren't real big gamers would do in this game so overall I think it was the best decision to reach the largest demographic.
Finally Zero-G combat can be quit disorienting.

Jerry Springer
In closing, this is an extremely solid game. A must rent for anyone, a must buy for survival horror fans, or a must buy for someone out there just looking to buy a new game. My score on a scale of 1 to 10 would be a solid 9.