Dead Space (2008) reviews

Dead Space may very well be the prototype space horror game out there. It is a first-person-shooter first and foremost but tells a compelling story on it's way.

The year is 2508. You are an engineer tasked to repair a mining starship stranded in space which has gone silent. As you board the ship, the story unfolds...

As it happens, while mining, some ancient, dark, evil secret (think of 2001: A Space Odyssey paired with Event Horizon) was unearthed which infested the starship and now you have to fight your way through.

So, an FPS in space. Boring, nothing new? Not so fast! The game excels in a number of points. Apart from the AI which is quite good and gives you a number of shocker moments you have to decide throughout the game how to spend your upgrades. You can upgrade your weapons or your armor - how much hitpoints you have or how long you can survive in outer space (your oxygen reserve).

Upgrading your weapons is what really makes this game fun (and adds a lot to replayability). The weapons are completely diverse and upgrading them adds new functionality. You have to decide which weapons to upgrade in which way (you can always decide to upgrade clip size, reload time, output and if you upgrade to the end you get a bonus fire mode).

This is one of the games you will want to play on the hardest mode again and again and test out if your choices were viable.

To sum it up, the design team behind this game did their work. The upgrade system for your weapons (in an FPS) in Dead Space is easily the best you will find. I played through this twice just to test out different weapons. And if you like a good space horror story, this game is an easy bet.

Also, this is one of the FPS where your choices and skills really matter. You will be eaten up alive if you approach this casually. If you put some thought into it you may go a long way :)

Dead Space is one of those games I will always come back to every few years - just to see the story once more like in a good movie and because every playthrough is different (based on your upgrade choices).