Well Mister Isaac Clarke that was a fun eight and half hour experience we shared together on the USG Ishimura. The music, the atmosphere, the ambience and the Necromorphs scared the living daylight out of me more times than I can count.
Here is a summary of the story, one of my favourite stories in the last 12 months. Isaac’s ship the USG Kellion received a distress signal from the USG Ishimura, the Kellion ship tries to dock with the Ishimura but a malfunction happens and the Kellion is badly damaged. The Kellion crew explores Ishimura to find a way home, the crew notices the Ishimura is pretty much abandoned. Captain Hammond recognizes the Ishimura is suffering from serious malfunctions and sends Isaac Clarke on 12 gruelling missions to fix the ship. During the course of the game you stumble across various text and audio logs that explain the captain of the ship belong to a religious cult that sought a religious artefact “the marker” from Aegis VII by the means of illegal mining. The marker was brought on board and the crew attacked each other, killing each other. Than an alien orgasm ravaged through the ship turning all the dead bodies into necromorphs. What keeps Clarke going is the fact he is looking for his girlfriend who was a member aboard the USG Ishimura. With the critical systems repaired, they launch the distress beacon which attracts the USM Valor. The bad news, a necromorphs were already on board the Valor. Clarke than boards the Valor, fights out the necromorphs and takes the ship power core so he can fix a shuttle and leave this awful area. Dr. Kyne later contacts Clarke and urges him to return the Marker to Aegis VII, believing that it was a means of restraining the Hive Mind that controls the Necromorph. Dr.Kyne is later murdered by Isaac’s fellow crew member Daniels, who states she works for the government and she needs the Marker. Daniel tells Clarke that the Marker is actually reverse-engineered version based on an artifact found on earth. The government placed it on Aegis VII to monitor its effects (never trust the government!). The back stabbing Daniels, takes Clarkes shuttle and leaves. Luckily, Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole arrives and together they recall the ship. Together they take the shuttle and head down to the colony and replace it. Obviously, Daniels arrives and tries to stop Isaac. She returns to the marker to the shuttle, when she’s attacked and killed by the Hive Mind. Leaving Isaac to kill it and escape from the planet.
Well as you can tell I loved the story, it was very deep and interesting. The text and audio logs would fill in little details about what had gone wrong on the ship. This little concept worked great for me every time I found a new log; I would crank up the sound and listen. Even the background noises in the logs were very well done. In order to kill the Necromorphs the best approach is to dismember their bodies; my approach was to first use stasis and then shoot each leg. This gave me ample time to stop their arms and head to death. The physics and dismemberment technology was very well done and very interesting way to play a game. I hate to admit it but yes, Dead Space scared the shit out of me at least once per level. I could literally only play a level a day or so, it was truly a scary fun experience. Throughout the game you find power nodes, these allow you to upgrade your armour or your guns, I managed to find enough power nodes to upgrade my plasma cutter to the maximum, it sure made my day easier!. I had heard before I started playing this game that ammo was precious commodity, throughout the 12 levels I only had 1 section of the game where I ran out of ammo and had to use a force gun to plow my way through the enemies. Other than that I found enough items to sell at the store to buy ammo. The zero G sections in the game literally made me sick to my stomach, I’m not sure what it is about these types of scenarios in game that make me sick but they just do.
Overall I had avoided Dead Space when it launched back in 2008, there was so many games on the market that I wanted to buy and play. I regret not playing it sooner!. For $29.99 price tag, it was a great experience, I even bought some of the downloadable content to support the developer. I really hope they take what they started here in Dead Space and improved on it for Dead Space 2. I surely won’t pass up Dead Space 2 on launch.
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