Game Review - Dead Space
There's a quote from a poster on Kotaku that I really like: "Hating EA is so last year." It's really true. EA saw their market share steadily decreasing after repeatedly fucking their customers in the ass and releasing shitty products and franchise updates. Realizing they needed to reconnect with their fans, EA set to work on creating some compelling titles including *GASP* new IPs. Dead Space comes as a result of this.
Dead Space is a survival dismemberment horror game where you dismember enemies to kill them by dismemberment. Got it? The game really only has one cool feature and it tends to get old before too long; shoot off the limbs of enemies and they die. Rinse and repeat. When you first start, this is awesome. I loved the game for the first few hours until I realized that it wasn't going to get any better.
As for the "horror" part of survival horror, the devs just missed the point. Survival horror, and horror in general, really, is about suspense and the possibility of danger. It's about surprising the player when he's not expected it and doing nothing when he is. In Dead Space, it's always expected. You always know when the monsters are coming and they can never really sneak up on you. The other problem with their take on horror is their lack of a safe zone. There's no area in the game where you can relax and let down your guard. Without that, you become overloaded by the input and desensitized to its effects. In short, it becomes the norm and you no longer care.
To be fair, Dead Space is an incredibly polished game and does what it does well. Unfortunately, it missed the mark on a lot of the important aspects of its genre. Overall, I'd recommend this as a rental, for sure, but pass on the 60 dollar price tag.
Dead Space is a survival dismemberment horror game where you dismember enemies to kill them by dismemberment. Got it? The game really only has one cool feature and it tends to get old before too long; shoot off the limbs of enemies and they die. Rinse and repeat. When you first start, this is awesome. I loved the game for the first few hours until I realized that it wasn't going to get any better.
As for the "horror" part of survival horror, the devs just missed the point. Survival horror, and horror in general, really, is about suspense and the possibility of danger. It's about surprising the player when he's not expected it and doing nothing when he is. In Dead Space, it's always expected. You always know when the monsters are coming and they can never really sneak up on you. The other problem with their take on horror is their lack of a safe zone. There's no area in the game where you can relax and let down your guard. Without that, you become overloaded by the input and desensitized to its effects. In short, it becomes the norm and you no longer care.
To be fair, Dead Space is an incredibly polished game and does what it does well. Unfortunately, it missed the mark on a lot of the important aspects of its genre. Overall, I'd recommend this as a rental, for sure, but pass on the 60 dollar price tag.
posted by ddbrown30 at
8:06 PM
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