Dead Space
- Dead Space (2011 on iPhone, Android, iPad)
- Dead Space (2023 on Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series)
Description official descriptions
The starship USG Ishimura sends out a distress signal to the Concordance Extraction Corporation during a mining operation on the planet Aegis VII. Another ship is sent to investigate the causes of the signal; however, as it attempts to dock with the Ishimura, it crashes into it because of a system malfunction. The crew is attacked by terrifying monsters. Only three people survive, among them an engineer named Isaac Clarke. It looks like the ship is barely able to sustain its existence, many of its systems critically damaged. Isaac is the only one who would know how to fix them, and his two companions send him on a mission to find out a way to bring things back to normal and discover the truth behind the horrible events.
Dead Space is a third-person sci-fi shooter with elements of survival horror. Controlling Isaac, the player explores the ship, fighting reanimated corpses known as Necromorphs. Combat heavily relies on the so-called "strategic dismemberment", which forces the player to cut off limbs or parts of the Necromorphs to defeat them. Wounding a particular part of the Necromorph's body may either allow the player to kill it, make it change attack patterns, or even become more dangerous.
Many of the weapons in the game are improvised mining tools, such as a rotary saw, a plasma cutter, a hydrazine torch used as a flamethrower, and others. All the weapons feature a secondary fire mode; for example, the plasma cutter can be rotated to cut off vertical limbs more efficiently. Isaac can also use special abilities, allowing him to slow down enemies or pick up and throw items from a distance. A few sections in the game have Isaac float in a zero-gravity environment. Ammo and tools can be found during exploration or purchased in automatic shops available on the ship. Workbenches can be used to upgrade Isaac's weapons and armor.
Spellings
- ăçľĺ˝ç°ćŹĄĺ ă (2008ĺš´) - Digital Traditional Chinese spelling as of 4 October 2022
Groups +
- Dead Space series
- EA Classics releases
- EA Value Games releases
- Gameplay feature: New Game+
- Games made into books
- Games made into comics
- Games made into movies
- HUDless games
- Physics Engine: Havok
- PlayStation 3 Greatest Hits releases
- Setting: Space station / Spaceship
- Technology: amBX
- Xbox 360 Classics releases
- Xbox 360 Platinum Hits releases
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Credits (Xbox 360 version)
603 People (439 developers, 164 thanks) · View all
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Lead Engineer | |
Lead Gameplay Engineer | |
Senior Gameplay Engineering | |
Gameplay Engineering | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 88% (based on 121 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 185 ratings with 7 reviews)
In space, no one can hear you scream
The Good
The sheer amount of atmosphere.This is a labour of love, showing dedication in every pixel and every frame.The surroundings are awesome, its very interesting to see how a dedicated team can create such a dense setting and atmosphere although the game plays on a spaceship.Its claustrophobic, shocking, awesome.
The game plays great (much better than for example Too Human), sounds terrifying, looks fantastic and will keep you at the edge of the seat.
The Bad
There are one, two scenes which can be a bit too hard the first 10 times You try it, but if You keep at it or play with friends, this really doesn't detract too much from the experience.Oh, and it borrows a lot from SYSTEM SHOCK 2, but You could call it an homage because it's so well done.
The Bottom Line
DEAD SPACE is a dream come true for fans of games like The Thing, Alien, Hellraiser, Event Horizon and such.It truly captures the atmosphere of such survival horror settings and keeps You in awe almost during its total lifetime.My compliments to the developers, as this is one of the rare gems where its very, very hard to find any flaws.The environments are totally convincing, the enemies totally challenging and terrifying, the story is very well told, the sound alone makes this all stand out.Although the story is not new and borrows a lot from the classic SYSTEM SHOCK 2, it retells this kind of story in an entertaining way.
Xbox 360 · by Emmanuel Henne (23) · 2008
Dead Space, where even a soft whisper can make you pee yourself...
The Good
Dead Space is a Space Survival game set on the planet cracking Spaceship the USG Ishimura. Firstly before I start anything. This is an original IP from EA. A trend I really like. Yes, now itâs a success, there is the possibility that EA will suck the innovative life out of itâs unique qualities, this hasnât happened yet. But weâre not here to talk about what could be with the Dead Space universe. We are here to talk about Dead Space as it is now, so lets get on with it.
Let me get the point of this review over and done with before I burst like a zombie with excitement: Dead Space is good. As long as you arenât too squeamish, youâll love it.
Ah, thatâs better.
Dead Space has taken something we have all seen before, Space, Zombies and gratuitous blood and violence and made a game that takes you on a Journey that you wonât forget. You star as the woefully undeveloped Issac Clark, an engineer who is thrust upon the USG Ishimura with his crew when the communicationâs go dead. All hell breaks loose when they crash-land onboard. Most of the crew are dead and there is an unusual growth creeping over the entire ship. The dead are rising and have become something unholy. And all Issac has as a weapon is the heel of his foot and a device called a âPlasma Cutterâ designed to cut through rock. Not Flesh.
The world that EA Redwood have put together is really engaging with over 160 different audio logs, a downloadable graphic novel (available free on Xbox live as videos) and text logs that perforate around the ship. The back-story and history that the characters live in is deep and real and really adds to the weight of Issacâs journey.
As Issac you receive missions from your living comrades, trying to figure out what has happened to this ship as it floats above the broken planet below and how to get out alive. Initially your arsenal is small, just the âPlasma Cutterâ, but quickly you can buy other weapons and ammo, obtain new suits to beef up your armour. On top of all that you can upgrade your weapons and suit to maximise your survival potential. There will be moments as you play where youâll look at the two shots of ammo and the one single bar of health. One room between you and the next store and you know itâs going to be tight. The tension builds within you. Itâs so good and the Dead Space plays on this beautifully.
One thing youâll really notice when playing Dead Space is that there is no HUD (Heads Up Display). The game is HUD-less. It wasnât dismembered in an unusual smelting accident or lost in a game of cards, itâs a design choice; an immersive one. Everything you do in Dead Space is in the environment and itâs a fantastic. The health bar is along Issacâs spine, the meter for your status module (a device that lets you slow time on an enemy or object) is on his back, even the amount of air you have left is displayed when you need it ticking away to you death if you donât move fast. All of your actions feel real, itâs another level to the immersion. When you get a video message it projects in front of Issac as a hologram, when you look in your inventory it pops up too; but doesnât pause the game. Often when you need to play with your inventory you either have to be bloody fast or find somewhere safe to do it. It builds the tension beautifully.
All this tension, all the creeks of the ship, all the growling of alien necomorph beasts, all of it adds to the breathtaking and pant wetting Atmosphere. Dead Space has the atmosphere down. If EA Redwood have done anything itâs Atmosphere.
Itâs obvious that the development team took their cues from film and music, the quality at manipulating the player into being really scared of walking around a corner is impressive. The Ishimura will creak as parts of the ship shear off, blood lines the walls merely suggesting the massacre that has befallen the crew. Violins will shriek only to reveal an empty room, or is it empty? Even the audio logs can make you jump as communications is sporadic at best sometimes your fellow crew will just pop up loudly in front of you holographically. Itâs all very clever and they owe me a new pair of pants. I canât wear them again and Iâm too ashamed to take them to a professional cleaner.
- Ahem * âŚ.yesâŚanyway moving onâŚ.
On the subject of the crew and characters, the voice acting is really good. Not only from the crew you landed with but from the audio logs that are scattered around the world. In a very Bioshock move, you can discover more about what befell the USG Ishimura by collecting and listening to audio logs. All of these tit-bits add to the atmosphere as they play as you walk around. Sometimes giving a hint to the horror that awaits around the next corner. You can instantly relate to the characters and they genuinely add to the world that has been layered before you.
Between fighting the animated and disfigured dead and exploration there is some light puzzling ranging from picking up power cells and putting them in wall slots to moving in zero G and moving yet more objects, itâs a nice change from the constant fear of attack, but as always sometimes it isnât even that; dealing with a puzzle while trying not to die? Tense funâŚ..
The weapons predominantly are not designed to be used against enemies, they are designed to cut rock, move large deposits of metals and minerals not for cutting the limbs off the re-animated corpses of the ships crew. Which gives these weapons a certain overpowered charm. Yes they cut through rock, but they also donât have much in the way of ammo. Adding to the âohmygodimgonna****myselfâ vibe this game has.
On the subject of these weapons and the killing of the necomorphs. They are afterall the living dead brought back in a new form from one or two or seven corpses. This means that the enemies all have different behaviours. One behaviour that seems to be universal is not going for the headshot. They get angry. Usually becoming faster and harder to kill. In Dead Space dispatching the enemy is all about dismemberment, cut off an enemyâs legs and they will crawl slowly towards you, cut off their arms and they wonât do as much damage. Eventually the necromorph will âdieâ itâs flesh no longer useful for itâs purpose. Itâs really satisfying and forces you to think and get better at aiming.
The upgrade system and is based on the idea that everything has a nano-chip and by upgrading various chips on weapons and on your suit interface (which upgrades every subsequent suit you buy from the shop not just the one you are wearing) you can shoot harder, breathe longer in no atmosphere (these sections can be particularly tense) and have a longer health bar. Itâs all based on how many ânodesâ you have these are added to the nano chip and expand it accordingly.
This small part is one of the reasons for a second or third playthrough as there arenât enough Nodes to upgrade everything in one playthrough.
So Replay-ability is high. In a very âresident evilâ fashion, you can carry over your items to the next playthrough but only on the same difficulty, only through a glitch can you use the best suit in the impossible difficulty setting. This is a bad move, the completionist in me finds this really jarring. Yes maybe impossible wonât be impossible with all the stuff I had. But who wants to play an impossible game? There is no joy in failing repeatedly. None.
The Bad
Dead Space is not without flaws, itâs save points and recharge stations are placed in such a way that sometimes the surprise of an event can be spoiled.
âOh look there seems to be an air refuel station here, hmm likely that this room will be without atmosphere at some point.â EtcâŚ
But even with itâs minor camera problems , the main protagonists undeveloped personality and history and a difficulty scale that can vastly change, there is enough balance between fighting and puzzles and youâll enjoy exploring and hopefully saving your skin on the USG Ishimura.
The Bottom Line
It all boils down to a brilliant story, fantastic atmosphere and a really solid engine that brings this game to the top of the crop. The weak of stomach however need not apply.
A definite buy. Go forth and dismember.
Note to EA: I hope that EA sees that a new IP can be really profitable as long as itâs done well and given time to complete. Take note EA we like change so long as itâs good. No more than three Dead Space games please, I warn you I have a powered up Plasma Cutter and Iâm not afraid to use itâŚ..
Xbox 360 · by BinaryDragon (18) · 2008
EA shows they're still capable of original thinking.
The Good
You're a member of a repair crew that's tasked to rescue the mining ship U.S.G. Ishimura. Upon arrival you're greeted by some unwelcome visitors, which quickly devolves into a butcher's yard of body parts.
This is an over-the-shoulder 3rd person shooter, and you get to re-learn one of the basic rules of the genre: Head shots don't mean ANYTHING. In order to take down your enemies, you have to dismember them. The aliens have one objective: perpetuate themselves and spread. In order to do this, they have to kill humans, and then 'repurpose' their bodies. The Flood from Halo are a close analogy in this regard.
EA has done something new with the weapons and equipment, which is to allow you to upgrade them with power nodes. In one playthrough you can typically upgrade your suit and two weapons, so choose what you want to power up wisely.
Also new to Dead Space is how they handled Zero-G environments. A 360 degree battlefield takes some getting used to, and it's definitely well implemented.
The aliens themselves are suitably creepy, and do very well to convey the impression of more than just a bug hunt.
The Bad
I wish it could have been longer. There are 12 acts, and once you know what you're doing these acts take an average of 45 mins - 1 hour to complete. Also there's limited replayability incentive after you've completed the game. It took me two passes on Normal and one on Impossible to unlock all 1000 achievement points. 40 hours isn't too bad for a game, but damnit, this was fun. I wanted more!
The Bottom Line
Aliens meets Resident Evil.
Xbox 360 · by Sir Razorback (5) · 2009
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Limited time free offer from Origin | Rwolf (22823) | Apr 1, 2014 |
Should I go on? | Slug Camargo (583) | May 15, 2009 |
Wii version coming soon. | Big John WV (26954) | Mar 23, 2009 |
QUERY: Dead Space demo... ending... | And Wan | Mar 1, 2009 |
Add New Game Group | bobthewookiee (73) | Feb 15, 2009 |
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Dead Space appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Air filtration room bug
Unfortunately, each platform the game was released (PS3, XBox 360, Windows) on, features the same, occasionally reproduced critical bug. In the 6th Chapter, where you are trying to pass the furnaces in the Air Filtration room, the control panels near the locked doors, which you should shoot out, are absent, and there is absolutely no way to proceed in the game. The exact steps to reproduce this bug are still unknown. No fixes exist at the moment of this trivia contribution, but a solution to avoid this bad situation does exist.
Just save your game in the very beginning of each chapter while you are in the tram, and keep it until you finish the chapter. If the bug occurs, just reload your save game and walk through the chapter from the very beginning once more. Just go to the problematic place as fast as possible and examine whether it is the same or not. Do it until the control panels appear, and you'll be able to get along.
Chapters (Spoiler!)
When put together, the first letter of each chapter's name spells out NICOLE IS DEAD.
Development
At first the game was developed for the original Xbox.
Inspiration
Producers admittedly reported to having drawn inspiration from cult-movies like The Thing, Alien and Event Horizon, as well as from successful videogames like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Prequel
Some of the characters that appear or are mentioned in the game also appear in the animated prequel Downfall, which depicts the outbreak of the Necromorphs on the Ishimura.
References
- Isaac Clarke, the main character of the game, is named after science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.
- Unitology, the fictional religion that plays a large part in the series' storyline, appears to be vaguely inspired by the Church of Scientology.
Awards
- GAME British Academy Video Games Awards
- 2009 - Original Score Award
- GamePro
- February 209 (Issue #245) - Xbox 360 Game of the Year 2008
- GamePro (Germany)
- February 26, 2009 - Best Console Action-Adventure in 2008 (Readers' Vote)
- GameSpy
- 2008 â #8 Xbox 360 Game of the Year
- 2008 â #9 PS3 Game of the Year
- 2008 â Best Audio of the Year
Information also contributed by Mark Ennis, PCGamer77, POMAH, Sciere and sgtcook
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Related Sites +
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Dead Space
Official game website. -
Dead Space Original Xbox Demo
video footage of the early and unreleased Xbox version, hosted on YouTube.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by BinaryDragon.
Additional contributors: Jeanne, Sciere, Niccolò Mineo, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.
Game added November 4, 2008. Last modified April 7, 2024.