Now this might seem a little off-topic but there’s a room near the start of Bioshock that we’d like to talk about for a moment. Not long after reaching Rapture, you reach a huge chamber with a pair of rickety old lift shafts. It’s obvious that ascension is key to progression but no sooner have you figured this out than the right-hand elevator comes hurtling down, exploding at the bottom in a hail of flames and once-lush architecture. Dealing with the unfortunate Splicers who bore the brunt of this calamity takes your mind off the situation for just a moment but once the last body has been looted, your attention slowly and begrudging goes back to that lift. Your fears are, of course, utterly unfounded – this is a somewhat linear game and if this lift, the only way forward, were to suffer the same catastrophic failure as its twin, it’d be a pretty damn short one to boot. But still, that lift is the absolute last place you want to be at that time. Still with us? Good. Now apply that atmosphere, that tension, that mental anguish to an entire gaming experience. Congratulations. You are now imagining Dead Space.
Firstly, let’s just clarify that this isn’t to detract from Bioshock’s plentiful achievements, merely that moments of such sheer anxiety weren’t quite so prevalent under the bright lights of Rapture as they were in the game’s spiritual predecessor, System Shock 2. Which, as you might recall, had a grim space station setting not dissimilar to today’s subject. But again, it’s not just the setting of Dead Space that creates fear. It’s the fact that EA has managed to cram all the tricks of the horror movie trade into a space already occupied by some of the tightest game mechanics and incredible presentation we've enjoyed so far this gen that really makes it stand out from the crowd.
Dead Space sets out its stall in the opening minutes, showcasing a ridiculous level of detail which is somehow to be maintained for the game’s entire duration. Indeed, in the right environment (HD display, 5.1 sound) we’d struggle to name a game that could compete with Dead Space on a technical level. It’s all made by some absolutely amazing and often ingenious use of lighting, throwing around complex shadowing just because it can or cunningly lighting the way to your next objective.
Not that you need to worry about finding where you’re supposed to be going, as options here are threefold. The easiest and most direct of these is the navigational tool built into Isaac’s rig – by clicking in the right stick, a line on the ground points you in the right direction and leads all the way to your destination, in case you happen to get lost again. Should you prefer a little less hand-holding, there’s also a more traditional map screen you can use to find your way around the ship, although its inherent complexity will often make the guidance tool a preferable option. And for those that want to be totally alone in space, there’s no need to use either at any point unless you want/need to, making good old-fashioned exploring an equally viable option for those that feel they’re up to the challenge.
But when the ship presents countless challenges beyond simply getting around, you might want to focus primarily on the more life-threatening ones. And boy, are they plentiful. Enemies come thick and fast and by the latter half of the game, you won’t want to touch key items or crucial switches for fear of the wave of horror doing so will trigger. Or not. Dead Space never allows itself to be quite that predictable and while the odd obvious set-up is employed in the time-honoured horror fashion, just as many potentially jumpy moments play out without the expected shock or with an entirely unexpected one instead. This does a brilliant job of both providing variety and rock-solid pacing and lulling you into a false sense of security after a quiet few minutes, only for the next unpleasant surprise to freak you out that wee bit more.
All of this leads us to an aspect that some will no doubt criticize, namely the game’s rigid linearity. Somewhat bravely, EA displays no signs of trying to disguise this and the result is the prettiest ghost train of all time. Ducking into a supply room or nook full of goodies is about as far from the beaten path as you’ll go but still – and as is so often not the case – the enforced linearity gives focus and structure comparable to a decent movie. Other factors help Dead Space achieve this cinematic quality, such as the total lack of a HUD and the ingenious integration of everything bar the pause menu into game lore and logic. And of course it doesn’t hurt that everything is stunningly rendered, either. There are some cases where over-reliance on linearity can be detrimental to a game, sure, but with something so clearly and cleverly designed around it as this, it’s unlikely that many will be able to consider it a shortcoming.
It isn’t like Dead Space is trying to do anything radical or unexpected at all, in fact. Games these days have a tendency to try too hard to be clever or build bridges between genres that should never even meet, so it’s refreshing in a way to see all-too-familiar concepts and mechanics handled with such skill that they somehow manage to seem fresh. All the fundamentals are absolutely nailed and even the few shiny new ideas the game does bring to the party – zero gravity environments, for one – are so well implemented that they tessellate wonderfully with the things you’ve been doing in gaming for years and are immediately familiar.
With millions of nasties thirsty for blood and only a selection of mining equipment to back you up, you might think poor old Isaac was in for a rough time. And he is (obviously) but this is in no way due to the tools on offer. Banish thoughts of pickaxes, helmet lights and canaries, though, because mining in future space seems pretty badass. The Plasma Cutter is your primary weapon and basically plays the role of Mr Pistol – it fires a narrow blast of energy that can handily be rotated ninety degrees at the touch of a button in order to sever any given body part. It’s not what it was designed for but serves its purpose better than most starting weapons and the rest of your arsenal all manages to fall under that same banner as well. The Pulse Rifle, Flamethrower and Ripper (a house favourite that fires tethered buzzsaw blades) deal with hordes of smaller foes easily, while bigger targets might need a little kiss or two from the Line Gun or Contact Beam to put them down. Each has a unique secondary fire option as well, which will be a deciding factor when you’re working out which four horrible devices you’d like to carry around with you.
It should be no surprise that you’ve got such an array of self-defence options, though, especially given that the enemy are blessed with similar variety. Encountering and figuring each out is such a grim delight that we can’t bring ourselves to divulge too much but suffice to say that those things come in all shapes and sizes and each requires a very different approach. The biggest of these need to be seen to be believed – the scale and design of the ‘boss’ creatures is utterly insane and that tackling such incredible opposition is so logical and fair is a rare treat in this genre.
Even if Dead Space was just the sum of all its elements, it would still be an incredible achievement – we’re no mathematicians but we’re pretty sure all this adds up to ‘awesome’. But it’s much more than that, with almost every aspect of the game harmonizing with one another to create a seamless and fully believable experience. You’d have to be incredibly jaded, incredibly bored or a professional nitpicker to find fault with anything featured or omitted here as the game’s brief could not have been filled more accurately, more concisely or, for that matter, more impressively. When we say that this is a game at least on a par with the likes of Bioshock and Resident Evil 4, you should be getting a pretty clear idea of Dead Space’s outstanding quality. And for it so sit so comfortably and proudly beside some of the biggest and best titles out there leads us to just one conclusion. This is nothing short of a masterpiece.
