Unraveling the Truth in Dead Space

Title: Dead  Space

Designer: Electronic Games

Company: Microsoft

Number of players: 1

Platform: Xbox 360

ERSB Rating: M+17

Genre: Action/Adventure

Premise: You are a engineer sent aboard the mining ship Ishimura after hearing a distress call. You soon find that the ship is overrun with a alien infection and you are soon separated from your squad. You alone must complete numerous objectives in order to uncover the horrifying truth beneath the outbreak.  

Story: You play as a engineer named Issac who is a mining engineer sent aboard the ishimura in order to investigate a distress call. In the beginning of the game you are introduced to Isaccs motives, which include a quest to uncover the fate of his girlfriend. That aspect of the story becomes more fascinating as Issac's perception of what is real of hallucination becomes more changed. By that i mean that throughout the game you see things that may not be there and those moments have a overall effect on the games conclusion. In the beginning the game starts out as a tutorial giving you various weapons and enemies to dispose of. The story is handled through your HUD and by various audio logs that give clues to what happened to the people of the Ishimura. The story pacing is flawless as you make lonesome tracks from each corridor of the ship, fighting bosses, unraveling the truth, and fighting the necromorths. The necromorths are the enemies that you encounter in the majority of the game. The enemies are the crew of the mining ship and can come from any direction. That is what makes Dead Space so memorable where at every corner you could be attacked or dragged by the alien menace. Each chapter has a dead conflict and meaning, but also helps to move the story along, without having it drag on. The characters are well design and acted out and even though Issac doesn't talk, you still grow a deep bond and actually care about what happens to him in the conclusion. Each part of Dead Space is fantastic, but the most engaging character is the Ishimura itself. Throughout the entire game its the Ishimura that helps set the mood and the atmosphere which help make the campaign more engaging and more likely to venture through again, long after the main game is finished. 

Challenge: Dead Space is a hard game, that barely lets up on the intensity nor action. Around each  corner is a potential enemy and in every vent is danger. You never feel safe in dead space, thanks to the well throughout and original combat. Rather than shooting your enemies in the head your objective is to strategically dismember them, by cutting off their arms legs and making them immobile. The Necromorths are living tissues that has been reanimated which makes it harder the cut them down and kill them, making each encounter with one of them a interesting and intense fight. The game only gets harder as the game progresses, giving you new enemies and objectives that require different skills and weapons. The game also includes a detailed progression system that allows you to upgrade Isacc giving him new armor and weaponry in order to take down the harder foes. From start to finish Dead Space is a hard and atmospheric shooter that never lets up until the last credit rolls. 

The Transformation of Time/Engagement:: You could easily lose twelve hours along on the single player campaign, but when the game is done you are given the opportunity to do another run through with a pimped out Isacc. The game is a bit on the short side, but with the in depth back story ranging from hundreds of different viewpoints and characters you could lose even more time exploring the various rooms of the Ishimura. The game has depth and well worth playing thorough multiple times in order to get every part of the story and characters out of it.  The games characters are engaging and the the levels are well thought out and well made, but more of how the story unravels is what really makes Dead Space one of the most memorable experiences to date. The fantastic voice acting and engaging story help aid Dead Space differentiate itself from the other horror games out there. I found the back story of the various character the most engaging part about Dead Space. Dead Spaces story is cut into three parts the colony where the Artifact was uncovered, next the Ishimura where the artifact was brought to, than the story of Issac and his crew. (The artifact is a huge piece of the story thats value is uncovered as the game goes on). Dead Space gives you a engaging main story along with a fantastic side stories that make you wish that you could have seen the full set of events that led up to the present endeavor.

Information Structure/Clear Goals and Feedback: The game implements very little HUD and most of the information that is given to you will show up on the start screen. The game shows you how to get to your objectives by the player clicking the left thumbstick. Doing so puts out a blue light that sends you to your next objective, this helps keep you inside of the world, rather than have you going between title screen and the in game screens. Whenever you complete an objective you are rewarded new gear and weapons along with more objectives that must be completed in order to advance to the end of the game. 
Authors Note: Dead space was one of the most memorable and scariest games that i have ever encountered. It is definetly going to be remembered for its well thoughout plot and characters along with the breathtaking atmoshphere. Dead Space is a amazing game, and i would recommended it and the movie and comics that are out now. Dead Space 2 cant come soon enough.