[OD]Renamon
Saturday, January 17th, 2009, 07:44 PM EST
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/title.jpg
First off I had not played long with the game, watched a walktrough on youtube to get the hang of the feeling of the game and the story. Watched the Comic and the movie aswell. This is my first review, so if it sucks it is not a huge problem, I would love to hear some criticism and response to it :3. I am not much into Horror games as they scare me quite easily. Anyway, onto the game review then...I chategorised it this way:
(1)Graphics:
- Enviroment
- Enemies
- Main character
(2)Story/Background story:
- Background information
- Character infromation
(3)Misc:
- Controls
- Situations
- Complaints
(4)Results
Graphics:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Enviroment.jpg
Inside the Ishimura
Enviroment: It is very astonishing (at least for me), the game looks wonderful even on medium settings, the ship's interrior is full of bloodmarks, scratches and flickering lights blend together with the small smoke clouds. The whole enviroment is also designed to distract the player a lot, a shadow moving and quickly dissapearing in the corner, lights suddenly turning off as you enter a corridor or a random body just falling down from the ceiling, chewed and mutilated. Boxes and containers are littered around the ship, making sure you always have something to find in a room and you will encounter many dead bodies along the way aswell. There are Vacuum areas where sounds changes accordingly and Flamethrower does not work, there are also Zero Gravity areas (or both at once) that give the player some fun jumping practices and of course give space to some nasty ambushes.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Necromorph.jpg
Some Ugly necromorphs
Enemies: The same is what I can tell about the monster looks, they are ugly and grotesque, stagger around, bleed and can be dismembered and I could even play football with their head if I would want to. However at this point I must mention that I find the ragdoll effect to put off a lot from the "realisticness" of the whole game, I know there is no better solution but it is just simply funny when you "drag" around bodies on the ship's interrior. They come in all shapes and have variations, like the basic slasher can be male or female, can wear leg armour (if it was a security personel before) or completly naked, there are altogether 13 type of monsters you can meet, and most of them has an enhanced form that is pure black, they are more badass then the rest and thus harder to kill and will take you down easier. Also 4 bosses are awaiting the player to be purged.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Isaac.jpg
Isaac telling a necromorph that no hugging is allowed
Main Character: Isaac Clark, an engineer who turns out to be a zombie mutant serial killer, you can stomp, you can shoot and you look hyper awesome in your uniform (skin tight ftw x3). His Standard equipment is his RIG that shows the health bar, a stasis cell status and a telekinesis device (although the Stasis and Telekinesis will be aquired later in the first two chapters of the game), he will also be able to use a few type of weapons aswell (which from most are mining equipment, only one is a standard weapon). His armour can be changed aswell later on, giving him more defense/life/inventory space.
Personaly I would give the Graphics an 8 from a 10th scale, ragdoll effect really gets old after a while.
Story and Background story
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Comic.jpg
Sample of the comic cover
Background information: EA was kind enough to provide pretty much a lot of footage to get ahold of the mood of the game even before the release, a comic that explains the happenings on the Aegis 7 colony before the arrive of the Planetcracker ship USG Ishimura, how the infection starts and how the colony gets completly wiped of life. A Mystical religion and their beliefs and how that helps fuel the whole disaster, also gives a hint on the origin of the virus that creates the necromorphs. The movie (Deadspace Downfall) tells us about the happenings after the Ishimura arrives and how the infection spreads up there to, completly eliminating the whole crew (there are some survivors in the game, but they die when you encounter them).
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Movie.jpg
Sample of the movie: Dead Space downfall
The game picks up from the point when the last surivor tries to warn the outside world about the events that took place on the Ishimura and then commits suicide (wether the message got trough is not known). A nearby ship responds to a call from the ship in hopes of helping to repair the Planetcracker. After this point the story rolls on as you complete objectives crutial to your and the ship's survival, the story getting feeds in the forms of audio and video logs that you find scatered inside and sometimes outside the damaged hull.
Character information: Sadly this part lacks a lot imo, there is not much information about Isaac, other then he has an Ex-Girlfriend onboard of the Ishimura (who sends the request for him to help them) and on the course of the game you will not know anything more about him, yet another point tha bothered me is that he seem to lack emotions and a voice aswell. You can hear him grunt, yell, scream but he never talks and apparently shows no reaction towards those who he is working with (when Kendra gets attacked and the transmission cuts off he says nothing and does nothing either), maybe it is just shock, but it does not help getting in touch with the character you are playing.
To this chategory I would give a 6 out of 10, knowing almost nothing about the main character (and him lacking reactions to events) makes the player less attached to the character altogether. The background story is very well done however, even if the story is a mixture of popular horror themes (System Shock, The Thing, Alien).
Misc
Controls: At this point the PC version has a few bugs and annoyances, first thing is that it is hard to get used to the over the shoulder view kind of gameplay. The mouse sensitivity seems slower then that I experianced in other FPS type games and also it is plagued by a bug/feature(?) that makes the sensitivity in aim mode much slower then usualy, making aiming hard or sometimes almost impossible. Turning off V-sync helps on the problem but does not solve it, kind of a shame that this pulls the game down quite a bit.
Situations: Mostly you walk into set situations and monsters will come from a set direction rather then randomly appearing, despite that fact the game developers made quite a good job at keeping the player always tense, creating a scary atmosphere that follows you throughout the whole game.
Complaints: Aside from the Character story/Control issue I might aswell mention the set savepoints (and the lack of save menu point), I know all the ups of this but I also see a lot of downs and I am in the chategory who highly dislike it. Especialy if they get scarce as you go deeper in the game, it is not fun to restart the game from a point and rekill the 25 random mutants you had killed previously.
Results
Summary: Dead space is a good game with several minor problems, but overall it is the type of Survival horror that catches the interest of those who play it for the story and for those who play for the chance to get scared in it. At first it is hard to get the hang of things in the game, but I am sure that later on things will get better and despite those problems I mentioned, I like the concept and the game aswell (not something I will play 24h though, but that is because of my own things.)
Graphics: 8/10
Sounds: 10/10
Feeling: 10/10
Story: 7/10
Features/controls: 6/10
Final score: 7,5/10
PS to Nachos: hope you don't mind me posting this here, if it is in the way feel free to remove/move it.
First off I had not played long with the game, watched a walktrough on youtube to get the hang of the feeling of the game and the story. Watched the Comic and the movie aswell. This is my first review, so if it sucks it is not a huge problem, I would love to hear some criticism and response to it :3. I am not much into Horror games as they scare me quite easily. Anyway, onto the game review then...I chategorised it this way:
(1)Graphics:
- Enviroment
- Enemies
- Main character
(2)Story/Background story:
- Background information
- Character infromation
(3)Misc:
- Controls
- Situations
- Complaints
(4)Results
Graphics:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Enviroment.jpg
Inside the Ishimura
Enviroment: It is very astonishing (at least for me), the game looks wonderful even on medium settings, the ship's interrior is full of bloodmarks, scratches and flickering lights blend together with the small smoke clouds. The whole enviroment is also designed to distract the player a lot, a shadow moving and quickly dissapearing in the corner, lights suddenly turning off as you enter a corridor or a random body just falling down from the ceiling, chewed and mutilated. Boxes and containers are littered around the ship, making sure you always have something to find in a room and you will encounter many dead bodies along the way aswell. There are Vacuum areas where sounds changes accordingly and Flamethrower does not work, there are also Zero Gravity areas (or both at once) that give the player some fun jumping practices and of course give space to some nasty ambushes.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Necromorph.jpg
Some Ugly necromorphs
Enemies: The same is what I can tell about the monster looks, they are ugly and grotesque, stagger around, bleed and can be dismembered and I could even play football with their head if I would want to. However at this point I must mention that I find the ragdoll effect to put off a lot from the "realisticness" of the whole game, I know there is no better solution but it is just simply funny when you "drag" around bodies on the ship's interrior. They come in all shapes and have variations, like the basic slasher can be male or female, can wear leg armour (if it was a security personel before) or completly naked, there are altogether 13 type of monsters you can meet, and most of them has an enhanced form that is pure black, they are more badass then the rest and thus harder to kill and will take you down easier. Also 4 bosses are awaiting the player to be purged.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Isaac.jpg
Isaac telling a necromorph that no hugging is allowed
Main Character: Isaac Clark, an engineer who turns out to be a zombie mutant serial killer, you can stomp, you can shoot and you look hyper awesome in your uniform (skin tight ftw x3). His Standard equipment is his RIG that shows the health bar, a stasis cell status and a telekinesis device (although the Stasis and Telekinesis will be aquired later in the first two chapters of the game), he will also be able to use a few type of weapons aswell (which from most are mining equipment, only one is a standard weapon). His armour can be changed aswell later on, giving him more defense/life/inventory space.
Personaly I would give the Graphics an 8 from a 10th scale, ragdoll effect really gets old after a while.
Story and Background story
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Comic.jpg
Sample of the comic cover
Background information: EA was kind enough to provide pretty much a lot of footage to get ahold of the mood of the game even before the release, a comic that explains the happenings on the Aegis 7 colony before the arrive of the Planetcracker ship USG Ishimura, how the infection starts and how the colony gets completly wiped of life. A Mystical religion and their beliefs and how that helps fuel the whole disaster, also gives a hint on the origin of the virus that creates the necromorphs. The movie (Deadspace Downfall) tells us about the happenings after the Ishimura arrives and how the infection spreads up there to, completly eliminating the whole crew (there are some survivors in the game, but they die when you encounter them).
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a99/Traul/Reviews/Movie.jpg
Sample of the movie: Dead Space downfall
The game picks up from the point when the last surivor tries to warn the outside world about the events that took place on the Ishimura and then commits suicide (wether the message got trough is not known). A nearby ship responds to a call from the ship in hopes of helping to repair the Planetcracker. After this point the story rolls on as you complete objectives crutial to your and the ship's survival, the story getting feeds in the forms of audio and video logs that you find scatered inside and sometimes outside the damaged hull.
Character information: Sadly this part lacks a lot imo, there is not much information about Isaac, other then he has an Ex-Girlfriend onboard of the Ishimura (who sends the request for him to help them) and on the course of the game you will not know anything more about him, yet another point tha bothered me is that he seem to lack emotions and a voice aswell. You can hear him grunt, yell, scream but he never talks and apparently shows no reaction towards those who he is working with (when Kendra gets attacked and the transmission cuts off he says nothing and does nothing either), maybe it is just shock, but it does not help getting in touch with the character you are playing.
To this chategory I would give a 6 out of 10, knowing almost nothing about the main character (and him lacking reactions to events) makes the player less attached to the character altogether. The background story is very well done however, even if the story is a mixture of popular horror themes (System Shock, The Thing, Alien).
Misc
Controls: At this point the PC version has a few bugs and annoyances, first thing is that it is hard to get used to the over the shoulder view kind of gameplay. The mouse sensitivity seems slower then that I experianced in other FPS type games and also it is plagued by a bug/feature(?) that makes the sensitivity in aim mode much slower then usualy, making aiming hard or sometimes almost impossible. Turning off V-sync helps on the problem but does not solve it, kind of a shame that this pulls the game down quite a bit.
Situations: Mostly you walk into set situations and monsters will come from a set direction rather then randomly appearing, despite that fact the game developers made quite a good job at keeping the player always tense, creating a scary atmosphere that follows you throughout the whole game.
Complaints: Aside from the Character story/Control issue I might aswell mention the set savepoints (and the lack of save menu point), I know all the ups of this but I also see a lot of downs and I am in the chategory who highly dislike it. Especialy if they get scarce as you go deeper in the game, it is not fun to restart the game from a point and rekill the 25 random mutants you had killed previously.
Results
Summary: Dead space is a good game with several minor problems, but overall it is the type of Survival horror that catches the interest of those who play it for the story and for those who play for the chance to get scared in it. At first it is hard to get the hang of things in the game, but I am sure that later on things will get better and despite those problems I mentioned, I like the concept and the game aswell (not something I will play 24h though, but that is because of my own things.)
Graphics: 8/10
Sounds: 10/10
Feeling: 10/10
Story: 7/10
Features/controls: 6/10
Final score: 7,5/10
PS to Nachos: hope you don't mind me posting this here, if it is in the way feel free to remove/move it.