Horror Games: Dead Space (2008)

So, I've been away for a while and unfortunately, I haven't seen anything close to a horror movie in these past 2 weeks. Unless you wanna count A Million Ways To Die In The West because that movie was definitely terrifying to sit through. However, it's not like I don't have content prepared. If you ask anybody who knows me, they'll tell you that I love three things: heavy metal, horror movies, and video games. That's just what I like. So when a video game has horror elements integrated into it? I'm all about it. Here's one of my all-time favorite horror games, Dead Space.

Yeah, it features a guy getting torn limb from limb by hideous monsters, but 18+? Nah.

Dead Space is a simple game: Monsters come after you, you shoot them, you win. Easy enough, right? Well, sir, that's where the ingenuity of this game comes in. Let's look at the plot first. A three man crew consisting of Isaac Clarke, Zach Hammond, and Kendra Davis gets a distress signal from an interplanetary mining ship, the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura has just finished up a project that involved it drilling into the core of an uninhabited planet in order to harvest resources. However, they dug up more than just resources as it seems that a deadly race of aliens has invaded the ship, killing all the crew members and setting off the distress signal. So, Isaac's team is sent to investigate. What follows is Isaac shooting his way through alien zombie monsters in an attempt to escape the ship with his life and make it back to civilization. 

What're you doin' in my basement? Get outta here. GET OUTTA HERE!

Now, for anybody else, that plot would've been more than enough. But no, EA (before they turned into money-grubbing corporate animals) had big plans for this game. The game is still mainly about Isaac trying to escape the ship, but there's a major subplot that carries over to the next 2 games as well about a giant alien artifact that the Ishimura dug up known as The Marker, which controls all of the aliens, known in the series as Necromorphs because the way they reproduce is by bringing dead corpses back to life and mutating them with their alien DNA. The Marker is the source of the Necromorphs' power and through audio logs found throughout the game, as well as one of the few surviving crew members (who is a dick that creates the gayest enemy in the series), you find out that there are a few survivors of the Ishimura attack who worship the Necromorphs and The Marker as gods. They call themselves Unitologists, and they seek to unify the universe under the rule of the Necromorphs by taking The Marker to other planets and spreading the Necromorph outbreak. So now, not only is Isaac tasked with escaping the ship alive, but he also must stop this cult before they achieve their goal of eradicating all life in the universe. The Unitologists aren't brought up much in this first game (like I said, only in collectibles and that one guy), but their presence is still touched upon. They play a much bigger role in the sequels, which we'll get to eventually. 

Hooded robes means it's a cult.

Okay, there's the plot, but how's the scary factor? Honestly? Meh. It's okay, I guess. Most of the scares come from the monsters popping out of unexpected places, accompanied by a stinger sound effect for maximum jump scareitude. There's a couple of spots where the atmosphere is nice and creepy, especially when you're in the labs and you know that there's an indestructible monster behemoth created by that Unitology guy chasing after you. Oh, did I mention that while that indestructible killing machine is chasing you, the ship's oxygen reserves go out and you're left in a race against time to turn the oxygen back on before your spacesuit's tank runs out? Yeah, that's pretty freaking terrifying. Other than that, the game doesn't have much in the way of scare factor. 

EXCEPT FOR THAT! JESUS!

The combat in the game is your basic 3rd person shooter mumbo jumbo. Aim your gun, shoot your gun, and if your aiming reticle was over the enemy, you kill it and win. Except for the added bonus of the dismemberment system! Yessir, this game takes conventional shooter combat and throws it out the window! You're used to shooting things in the head to kill them? Well, screw you, here's a bunch of enemies that need to have their limbs sliced off before they die! In order to kill the enemies in this game, you're required to cut off their arms and legs. The reasoning for this is that the limbs are the connecting points where the Necromorph DNA can interact with the human corpse. Cut off the power source, the whole machine stops working. On top of that, you can also use telekinesis to pick up and throw objects, you can use stasis to freeze enemies in time, and you can.......

CURB STOMP THE EVERLOVING CRAP OUT OF EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!

Overall, Dead Space is a terrific game, even if it's not as scary as I'd like it to be. The gameplay is smooth, I never experienced any glitches, and the combat is extremely satisfying. I give Dead Space 8 dismembered alien limbs out of a possible 10. I'd say go get yourself a copy if you love shooting alien zombies and you have a pension for over the top death scenes. OHMYGODIFORGOTABOUTTHEAWESOMEDEATHSCENES! LOOK AT THIS, YOU GUYS!