4/5 ★ – Jack_Outside_The_Box's review of Dead Space.

I just want to address the giant, scary elephant in the room when it comes to this game, because it would feel unjust not to do so. In 2017 Electronic Arts made the decision to cancel the unnamed Star Wars project Visceral Games were working on and in turn close down the studio and make all of its staff redundant. To this day I don't think there has ever been a more prolific instance of Electronic Arts doing what it does best in mis-managing it's studios and cutting the lifeline in the wake of their own failures. Visceral made amazing games with a bunch of creative and skilled people behind them and I still struggle to come to terms with the fact it all got snuffed out so unfairly. This sad reality only get's further reinforced for me after I picked up and played Dead Space for the first time this year. Developed by Visceral and published by Electronic Arts, Dead Space is a 3rd person, sci-fi, survival horror video game released back in 2008 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It served as the starting point of one of EA's most identifiable brands back in the seventh generation of consoles spanning three main line titles and several spin offs. The series is set in the far future of the 250th centaury and follows systems engineer Isaac Clarke on a personal journey to overcome the nightmare of the Necromorph plague that is ravaging the known galaxy. The plot of the first game in the series, simply named Dead Space; follows Isaac Clarke as he finds himself trapped on the USS Ishimura in the wake of a monstrous infestation. Quickly losing access to their own ship after docking, Isaac and his fellow survivors; chief security officer Zach Hammond, and computer technician Kendra Daniels are forced to split up in the wake of a surprise slaughter at the hands of the game's resident evil; the Necromorphs! Finding themselves in separate parts of the Ishimura, as Isaac it's up to you as the player to determine the horrific mystery behind what happened on the ship and in turn escape with your head still attached to your body The plotline for Dead Space is probably one of it's strongest element's in my opinion. The concept and tone feel notably similar to that of Alien or The Thing but there's enough here to make it stand out as an original idea. The way the story is threaded out as you make your way through the Ishimura, slowly piecing together the clues you find in crew logs and the visual cues of the environment, it's subtle storytelling at it's finest. I feel there's a nice balance too in terms of the plot's pace in comparison to the horror element of the game .Survival is on the forefront of your mind, the horror that infests the ship forces you to think of nothing more than escaping so it's notable that the pace and stakes never feel weighed down by the overarching plot. New details and revelations you learn are smartly deployed and established as the game progresses, never taking away from the one true desire to get the hell out of there. It's a compelling plot in all senses, the only thing that I could probably take issue with is Isaac's presence in it all. He is mute throughout all of the game and I appreciate it as a way to anchor the player through him but he is not without a personal storyline too, and when people talk to him and he has no actual response but just proceeds to do as he's told, it's the story's only missed opportunity in my opinion. Part of what make's the game so 'bloody' good too is it's visual design. On a visual level, this game is horrific to look at and I mean that in a positive sense. The USS Ishimura is this massive planet-fracking freighter and from the very outset you feel the dread that awaits you as you approach. Environments in this game are notably varied, as you explore major sections of the ship trying to find the parts you need to fix and escape this hell hole. The one thing linking them all together is the Necromorpth devastation. All around you there are reminders of the travesty that happened on the Ishimura; blood and guts soaking all corners of the rooms, crazed ramblings and prophetic murals on the walls, the creaks and groans of the ship crying out in pain, it's all really smart visual stuff which helps to add a truly scary atmosphere to the game. The one true MVP of visual design though has to be given to the Necromorphs themselves. Serving as the main enemy of the game, the Necromorphs are the twisted and mutated creatures that were once the crew of the ship. Their bodies are anything but human anymore, skin flayed, limbs contorted into weapons and all mental cognition replaced with a primal instinct to kill. They stand out as the most horrific and scary element of the game and there is such a variety of them to face. There's something almost tragic about these creatures when you stand to realise they had al of their humanity corrupted and ripped away. The type of Necromorphs you face off against too are numerous as well. All imbued with their own tragic sense of horror some of the standout creatures for me are the Lurkers who were once infants but have now been transformed into these small, skittery projectile firing monsters. There's also the Guardian's which are these immobile sentries who serve as an monstrous fusion of a live human host and a Necromorph spawn sac , you can tell you're near one when you hear the human screaming out in pain as the the sac generates it's tentacles. These are just a few of the horrors that lie in wait for Isaac Clarke on the USS Ishimura but they are all superbly designed and scarily realised within the visual design. In terms of gameplay this aspect of the game is also pretty strong for the most part. Playing from a 3rd person over the shoulder perspective the camera knows to get you as close to Isaac as possible to help give you a feeling of claustrophobia in the wake of what lies in front of you. The HUD for the game is very smartly layered within Isaac's suit and his weaponry, cues and interactions are projected from your suit too and you can see your health and energy outlines on the back of it. I think it's another creative decision the game makes to try stand out from the typical formula and in a sense make the game as close to a HUDless experience as possible to help the horror work much better. The way combat works in the game is best described as frantic mutilation. The biggest weakness for the Necromorphs isn't their head, but their limbs! You're encouraged to sever these monsters from their legs and arms in order to truly reduce their threat and again it makes a nice change to the "shoot them in the head" formula most horror games embed. You have a very large arsenal of weapons to utilise too and with that an extensive upgrade system to help you survive as you progress further into the game. The only aspect of the gameplay I didn't gel all that well with were the zero-gravity segments. I feel the concept was cool but the way it operated with the controls and the camera made it difficult to tell where your enemies were coming at you from. Another gameplay aspect I felt at odds with was the timed shooting gallery segments. In certain moments Isaac will be in a life or death situation and be required to aim his weapon in a dire moment and break free, but the aim controls never feel all that responsive and I died a couple of times due to the unreliability of it all. If anything I'm notably disappointed, not with the game but myself. This title came out in 2008 and I knew full well how popular it was back then but I always stayed away from it out of my own fear. At the end of the day Dead Space is one of the best horror experiences we could have asked for in the past twenty years. It stands confident with it's new ideas and themes and shows there is always room to innovate in the horror game genre. This creativity and ingenuity is what makes the closure of Visceral Games all the more frustrating, when they're capable of making games this good back in 2008, I can say without a doubt EA wasted them in the lead up to their closure.