Sunday, May 7, 2017

Dead Space (PS3)

I was never huge on survival horror games growing up.  Sure I had tried Resident Evil and did enjoy Resident Evil 4 when I finally got around to playing it in high school but I was never a huge fan of it.  This game kind of changed that.  This is easily one of the most accessible survival horror style games out there.

The story isn't hugely deep.  You are a space engineer set out on a job to fix a spaceship.  Things start out bad with a lot of strange happenings and only get worse.  Delving into concepts of religion and sacrifice, this game starts the series off on a good note.  It doesn't feel like the normal space-marine shooter and at times you remember that the character you control is not a hardened soldier but just a guy trying to do his job and survive.

Combat is a huge draw in this game.  There are a good variety of weapons but the initial weapon you get, the Plasma Cutter, is all I needed.  I played the whole game only using this weapon.  It is very versatile and covers all your needs for the entire game.  Just like a typical survival game, ammo and resources are limited.  There is a good customization option for all the weapons and armor to cover all the needs a player may have.  One thing that is really different from other zombie games is that headshots are near worthless.  The game really wants players to use the dismemberment mechanics to good use, encouraging arm/leg shots.

This is one of the few horror games that I legitimately was scared at times.  Most of the scares are jump scares but sometimes there are some pretty weird psychological things going on.  The combat is nice and the game has features that make it so the player never really gets lost.  At times this is really nice and is a totally optional part of the game for those players that want to discover where to go on their own.  It is a shame that this series kind of goes downhill and is pretty much dead at this point.  If you like survival horror games or just space games with zombies, try this game.  It is well worth the effort.

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