Dead Space is here as I’m sure many people have picked up (just as I have) and have already enjoyed it plenty. It’s truly a fabulous game, but one question was lingering around before it’s release quite a bit, is it scary? It’s supposed to be a quite frightening game, but I have come up with an answer. No. It isn’t scary. However, it is very unnerving.
That is the best word I’ve come up with to describe and I haven’t tried to think of any more because it fits perfectly. The game is absolutely unnerving in every way. The space station you have come to has some serious problems going on with it, after all that’s why your there. The cause for it’s problems is yet to be revealed (I’ve completed only the first two chapters so far), but the entire place has this literally dead, empty, abandoned feel to it.
Something stands out even more to me though and that is your character. He feels completely departed from the world. He feels like he has no spirit in him, no soul, no will to live, but he’s just going through the motions. Like a machine of sorts. His motions are rather stiff, he isn’t overly muscular looking nor totally wimpy, and it seems that he’ll never speak or show any emotion. Emotion is really the key one actually.
The “silent hero” isn’t a new concept by any means, Link and Mario have been silent hero’s since day one. However, both of them share one common factor, they make noises and facial expressions. This gives them life even though they don’t communicate via speech. Our character (not really a hero, just a guy attempting to escape with his life) wears that big (an awesome looking) mask over his face the whole time that represents human life in no way. He makes no noises when he’s getting attacked, nothing. He just walks and kills.
As usual with “horror” games, the sound is what does it. When you walk in a room and here things running around in the vents (which is how these things travel) you freeze and look around in that way where you don’t want to find anything but you don’t want to miss something that is going to find you first. Anyone who has played a Silent Hill game probably knows the feeling.
The weapons are pretty awesome as well, along with the dismemberment system. The weapons all have these slick looking blue laser system similar to the Resident Evil 4 red laser. I pick out RE4 because this does the same type of camera system. Your always in that over the shoulder off centered view.
Really, it’s a great game so far. It plays tight. It looks gorgeous. It’s got a terrible unnerving atmosphere. It’s bloody and in your face. And it looks like there is no hope. So I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
