my Deadspace review

Ok guys here's another review for you.

I recently brought deadspace a title created by EA labeled as a 3rd person survival horror/sci-fi game, I don’t think of it as a horror game I personally would class this game as a survival thriller/sci-fi game, for me thrillers suck you in, increase the intensity of the atmosphere over time and then occasionally throw something at you that scares the living jumblies out of you or shocks you deeply based on the built up atmosphere, this game does that brilliantly right from the get go, weather it is from the airy horrific scenery, the subtle play on lighting or the sound effects like the heavy breathing when hurt which is magnified by the spacesuit….quite simply this game sucks you in and doesn’t let go.



Ok so the plot in a nut shell, you take the role of engineer Issac Clark who is part of a crew sent to assist a distress call from the planet cracker USG ISHIMRA a massive deep space mining ship housing thousands, upon arrival it quickly becomes clear that something horrific has taken place, and within minutes some of your own crew are killed and you are separated from the remaining members, you goal becomes one of survival as you try to uncover the truths of this intense thriller.



The graphics of this game are top class shading and lighting are fantastic as well as the sound effects and voice acting.

There are few characters in the game which is really good in my opinion as you really start to feel alone and when you do have contact its timely and appreciated.

Issac has a space critical suit which is his armor and life support it is a great design as everything you need to know about regarding your status is shown directly on the suit, from health meter, air supply or statis meter.



Another great feature of this game is the use of holographic projections with most of your interactions, like accessing your inventory, crew messaging or sound logs, item pickups or visiting the USG ISHIMRA shop, the reason I like it so much is it really adds to the atmospheric nature of the game, the tension keeps building and building, and you never really feel you are free from it.







The action in battles is fast paced and in your face, the enemies work together to take you down, try to flank you and all and all I find the AI very good in this game, the combat is really interesting in that the Necromorph (just your average friendly alien) do not simply die after receiving a certain number of gun rounds. In fact, depending on how they are wounded, Necromorph can adopt new stances and tactics, even sprouting new limbs or giving birth in the process, id advise one to think of dismemberment as a option.



Loot or items can be had from fallen enemies as well as in storage boxes and containers, as well as that money can also be found which can be using in a variety of different manners.

One can obtain and upgrade (at workbenches) a number of different weapons but in order to do so one my find the download plans first , Issac’s spacesuit can also be upgraded and special abilities can be had like Statis (slow motion), kinesis and gravity boots for the zero gravity sections of the ship.

The USG ISHIMRA has stores scattered throughout the ship and you can buy upgrade nodes, heathpacks ammo etc as well s sell items or store equipment for a later date.



I have really enjoyed this game and think it is worthy of adding to ones collection, a few things to note, it uses the DRM securerom feature limiting the amount of times it can be installed on a machine to 5, and I have heard reports that when using a keyboard and mouse the controls can feel a little sluggish, I personally use the windows 360 controller and its already been mapped to the game so it’s a simply plug in and play, the only other gripe i have with the game is the loads times are quite long (problem fixed after turning vsync off, next to no load times at all now.)

If you like games such as F.E.A.R and bioshock then this game is right up your alley and well worth a look.

I give this game a solid 8/10

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: OS: Windows XP SP2 or Vista, CPU: 2.8GHz processor or better, RAM: 1gb or more for Xp or 2gb or more for Vista, DISC DRIVE: 1x or faster DVD-ROM drive, HARD DRIVE: at least 7gb free space, VIDEO CARD: 256 mb or more memory and contain one of these chipsets: nVidia Geforce 6800, ATI X1600 Pro or better, DirectX 9.0c compatible, SOUND: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card (as per the box)

im playing the game with the notebook in my sig and it stays around the 140fps mark with all settings on max and vsync off.

so i hope this was readable and helping in your decision making towards this great title, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

I do agree that it's a great game mtness.

Try disabling v-sync ingame, and enable it via your GPU's control panel. That way you get to play it much smoother ( 60 fps ) without tearing

 

If you turn off v-sync it will fix the "sluggish" issue you are referring too. As this is a port and consoles are synced at a mere 30FPS. I play with vsync off and have no issues since. Also i dont have any long loading times either. Very good game.

 

This is the DUMBEST thing game producers want to include by DRM....suppose I want to mod the game and I mistake gamefiles by modding the game badly, and I want to reinstall...so? If I mess up the game 5 times I won't be able to install it again...just because I wanted to mod it.....

 

It wouldnt be so bad if they just limited you to one serial key per computer.. (like company of heroes), but this just annoys people.. (and further encourages illegal downloads). When will they learn.

Great review by the way.. i am really tempted to get this now (only £7.60 on amazon with free delivery )

Blazin

 

ok thanks guys you where right it was vsync, i went from 30fps and now im hovering around the mid 140's, and load times have gone down to next to nothing...nice thanks for the reminder.....i had force disabled it on my graphicscard settings but maybe it still applies it in game.

yeah it does hurt, thats why i thought id better mention it, i have heard you can contact EA and they can allow for it to be loaded more than the five times but thats just a rumor i heard.

i agree something like how relic do it with CoH would be a much fairer way to copy protect the game, that's a great price mate, definitely worth a buy at that price, i payed 999 rupees (around $18 us) for it.

 

That's a good review. I've actually never heard of Deadspace and I consider myself being a huge gaming nerd.
If it's as great as some people say I will try it out!

 

yeah id consider it mate, its a great game and will run a dream on your machine, i wouldn't be surprised if this turned into a franchise, its got all the makings of it that's for sure.

 

Obviously you don't read/search beyond page one of these forums. DS has been discussed in great detail already, often in heated 'Dead Space vs. Doom 3 vs. FEAR 1/2' debates.


Nice review, mtness. It was a fun atmospheric shooter, albeit a bit tedious in scares after the first couple of 'surprise!' moments.

 

it is a great game, scares the crap out of me though i cant hardly play it.

 

whoever designed Issac`s ugly looking helmet once shooting.

 

Your load times shouldn't be long, at all. Even when I was playing it on an old 160GB, 5400RPM Fujitsu, my loads were less than 2 seconds, no exaggeration. The majority of those I know also report nearly non-existent load times.

Other than that, quite a respectable review.

 

Doom 3!

lol j/k

















no not really

 

Actually, I agree with you!

 

Yeah, in my first reply i addressed this issue, it was because i had vsync on, it capped my fps and had slow load times, after turning vsync off i went upto an avg of 144fps and next to no load times.

 

Oh, excuse me, somehow I glanced over your finding of the solution.

I really need to restart Dead Space. I sold my M860TU w/ 9800M GT before I got to finish the game, so I just reinstalled it a few days ago and I need to start it over again.

Protip: I highly recommend that you play the game with the music turned off. The ambient sounds of the Ishimura really get to shine, and the game is much more creepy when you don't have the music giving you queues. Try it out.

 

Thanks for the tip mate, now thats a very good idea....very good...ill definately do that....

 

Yeah, I'd turned the music off by Chapter 3. It totally changed the experience for me.

I think I was up to Chapter 10 before I accidentally deleted my save. I think I'll get started again tomorrow.

 

Perfect, im also in chapter three so i hope to have the same experience, the music gets alittle annoying anyway, and as you said theres plenty of stuff going on around the ship to not need music..great tip thanks

 

good graphics... storyline needs more development though. more interaction with some characters would be good. i found myself just walking around places, blasting monsters for no reason and doing the dirty and taking orders from the girl and the guy who just keeps telling me to fix things.. "isaac do this, isaac do that"... and that all you do throughout the whole game. just backtrack places and attack monsters. i found it pointless and boring. the game did not give me reason to go on. good graphics and environment.

 

Hey man
Nice review you did here
I really love this game,
I don't really like the really scary games like DOOM3
However I didn't find this that scary, it is more of an edge of your seat tense game
I think this is because after a while you realise which sounds indicate an enemy coming out
I found that the music complements the game well, and don't really want to make the game scarier by turning it off

I found it a bit strange that the game was running at ~24 FPS, but now I know why I had v-sync enabled from the in-game menu

I had gotten to chapter 11 when I stopped playing it randomly and my friend told me that I was close to finishing it

I am going to re-install it now for a full re-play

 

One more thing about the 5 install limit of Dead Space. EA has released a de-authorization tool for it and most of it's games with DRM. Here is a link to it:

http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/gamesList.html

Always remember to de-authorize the game before uninstalling it to keep your 5 installs

 

or you can buy it from Steam and not worry about DRM

 

Thanks for the link mate i wasnt aware of that, great news.

Some people cant download games from steam im afraid, i dont have broadband so it isn't an option downloading my games.

 

mate been playing it as you suggested for a couple of hours, whow........makes it much more intense,there are so many subtle noises and sound effects it really adds to the experience thanks again for the tip.

 

Nice review mate, I am thinking of giving it a try now.

 

Definately worth a play mate, really enjoyable, its one of the better third person shooters ive played.

 

y'know, I never thought to play it without music, you might have just given me another reason to replay it now, thanks!

 

It really changed the whole feel of the game for me, ive been playing with the music off for four or so chapters, the atmosphere has intensified, its made the game harder and there are more scary moments.....because you are not warned of attacks.....great game, really enjoying it still.