Dead Space Preview

Dead scary

Afraid of the dark? Scared you'll be ripped to pieces by tentacled monsters? This might not be the game for you. Set in the distant future, Dead Space is a survival horror adventure that follows engineer Isaac Clarke as he's dispatched across the cosmos to investigate a stricken mining ship. Very quickly, he discovers there's more going on aboard the USG Ishimura than a snapped fan belt. The craft is swarming with repulsive, man-eating space beasts called Necromorphs. And Isaac is next on their terrifying menu.

You fight for survival via an over-the-shoulder perspective, reminiscent of Resident Evil 4, but with slightly more flexibility (you can side-step - an addition that proves essential). Your aim is to creep gingerly through the ship's labyrinthine innards, looking for survivors and facing up to the interstellar evil you meet along the way.

A saw point

The problem is, you're no colonial marine, so you can forget about laser cannons and thermal grenades. Isaac starts the game with a mere plasma cutter, the Deep Space equivalent of a pocket knife, and must improvise his own weapons from what he can find.

Luckily, there are some meaty spoils to discover, including a flame thrower and a circular saw - named The Ripper - for when you absolutely positively have to reduce everything in the room to quivering slices of deli meat. By rooting around the densely detailed environments Isaac can also find power-ups for both his weapons and his space suit armour, providing that crucial incentive to venture into those dark, ominous corners.

There's something else. Resembling the alien in John Carpenter's cult sci-fi flick The Thing, the Necromorphs can quickly mutate and self-repair - half-hearted attacks simply won't do. The designers at EA's Redwood Shores studio say that Dead Space is a game about - wait for it - strategic dismemberment. That's right, you'll need to amputate limbs, tentacles and often heads in order to take down these things, and even then, a stray arm may just get up and fight back.

Monsters! Everywhere!

The key thing is you're never safe. Some Necromorphs attach themselves to the wall and blow exploding sacks of gore at you, others lurk in air vents, waiting to pull you in with outstretched tentacles. There are also sections with no gravity, where Isaac has to float slowly to safety, leaping along walls and ceilings as the oxygen supply runs out and marauding brain-munchers close in.

Importantly though, Dead Space isn't just a slaughter-fest. The development team employed comic book writers Warren Ellis and Anthony Johnson to flesh out the back-story and create a narrative experience that ladles on plot twists, shocks and surprises as much as bubbling alien blood.

EA has even commissioned a series of comic books to act as a prequel to the game and is releasing an animated CG movie to tell more of the story. The designers spent ages watching horror movies, working out what actually scares people and then pasting it all into the game.

Winter chills

The result looks to be a fully-rounded, extremely adult take on the survival horror genre. Comparisons to Biohazard, Resident Evil 4 and Doom 3 are all being made, but Dead Space is surely more than the sum of these parts; it could well be a benchmark horror title for the PS3/Xbox 360 era.

If you have the guts (and believe us, there are plenty of guts to be had here), this will surely be a chilling treat for those long, dark winter evenings.

Preview by: Keith 'Ripley' Stuart
Preview Published: 15.10.08