Dead Space - PC, Playstation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360 (360) Previews


	Platform PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Genre Action / Shooter Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Redwood Shores ETA October 28, 2008
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Dead Space

Set on a futuristic mining ship that has been infested by a devastating deadly alien infestation, Dead Space is a new original game coming this Halloween from Electronic Arts.

This is a welcome break for EA from its usual sequel-laden release schedule, and although the setting may be familiar to all that play it, EA is hoping that Dead Space bring a new level of tense, scary boogeyman-around-every-corner third-person gaming that will follow in the legendary frightfest footsteps of the

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Resident Evil franchise, DOOM 3 and most recently Bioshock.

In the role of Concordance Extraction Corporation engineer Isaac Clarke, gamers will discover that the USG Ishimura “planet cracker” mining ship, which has sent out a distress signal, is infested with a most unfriendly alien race known as the Necromorphs, ghastly DOOM-looking creatures

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of all manners of grotesque shapes and sizes.

Naturally, as soon as Clarke boards the Ishimura, he’s separated from his landing party, forced to survive the alien onslaught on his own as he works his way through level after darkly lit, creepy level of the ship. As gamers progress through the game, they’ll discover that a mysterious alien artifact was recently brought onboard the Ishimura, and somehow made the ship’s miners go insane. Oh yeah, there’s also a cult known as the Unitologists that have a vested interest in the artifact, too.

That’s the story behind Dead Space, with its many almost-familiar story elements. Despite that, though, the early glance seems to show that the game’s developers from EA Redwood Shores have hit their scary mark. One of the early videos that seemed to be from the early stages of the story literally startled me. It appears that the developers will go overboard making sure that there’s never a “feel safe” moment throughout the entire time that gamers spend on the spooky ship.

Featuring a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective, not unlike Gears of War or Resident Evil 4, gamers will don a pressurized suit with magnetic boots that will become useful when the gamer experiences weightlessness in decompressed environments, including some “missions” outside the ship’s hull in the void of deep space.

Bringing a more realistic approach designed to suck the players into Clarke’s boots completely, the gaming interface will “read” info via translucent screens and lights that float over his armor and weapons.

Speaking of weapons, there won’t be any of the ridiculously destructive DOOM–type arsenal lying around for Clarke to pick up and inflict major damage on Necromorphs. He’s on a mining ship, so the best he’s going to have for weaponry is basic energy weapons, bolt cutters and stasis guns.

Making the going even tougher for Clarke is that enemies just won’t die because they’ve been shot. No, the developers made things much more complex than that. Necromorphs can respawn limbs or take on entirely new attack strategies unless they’ve been destroyed by having the gamer find their weakest point and take them out 100%, with dismemberment being the most effective killing method.

Dismemberment means that there’s going to be a lot of bloody battling, with plasma-spurting crimson fountains pouring out of recently beheaded creatures, and that’s just the way the developer has planned it. Dead Space promises to be one of the goriest games this year if nothing else.

Visually, the game looks very good at this point, if a bit too reminiscent of DOOM 3. With a somewhat familiar story, it may not be the most original game this fall to come out, but it certainly has a chance to be the very scary game it definitely wants to be.

‑ Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(July 8, 2008)