Battleangel | Personal

I normally don’t like horror themed corridor crawlers, but I will say that Dead Space (wiki) at the very least delivers on its promise.  It is beautiful, well constructed, terrifying and gory. Also, level loading times are suspiciously fast and the game doesn’t crash or stutter. So unlike most games these days it lives up to the basic tenet of being playable and so for once one can move on to the actual gameplay.

Obviously, I’m not a big fan of the overly immersive design of the game in its ‘over the shoulder’ third-person perspective. And I’m still no fan of console co-development. The game just reeks of a console taint. Also I see very little of replayability in a game like this. Once you’ve been over the game, seen the story evolve, been ambushed by the scripted "Necromorphs" trying to gnaw your head off and puke on you (although not necessarily in that order) you know all about the game. There is no reason to play it again. There is no multi-player or instant action mode to pass the time.

Also, I have to admit, being immersed in a virtual world where you are constantly in a fight-or-flight acute stress response is actually not very appealing. Basically the game is really scary and keeps you on your toes for hours on end. You kind of end up feeling stressed out and overworked from playing a computer game.

Having said all that, and given the parameters of the game, I think it feels solid. Watching the prequel animated movie Dead Space: Downfall was also surprisingly entertaining. So basically it’s a good story all in all and in my book that beats the hilarious turd that is Far Cry 2, even if the latter probably offers more game time and more replayability. Your time is valuable so why not make the most of it.