Dead Space

12.06.08

If there is anyone who has drawn the galactic short straw, it is definitely Isaac Clarke. Who really wants to carry out repairs on a spaceship that hasn’t broadcast a signal for some time? Quite apart from the fact that he is wearing a suit that looks like a mobile torture chamber, immediately after the arrival on the spaceship "USG Ishimura", he is also separated from his two companions. Wonderful; the galactic short straw is quickly followed by the galactic foot in the mouth. He is not a fighter or a soldier, just a technician who thought he had to solder a few wires, replace something here or there... What a poor sod.

Isaac is in a bit of a jam, for once not because he has forgotten the UK adapter for his cordless screwdriver. Soon our technician realises that a few things have gone wrong on the "USG Ishimura". The bloodstained walls and body parts lying around speak a clear language. All you can hear is Isaac’s breath and the heavy steps of his gravity boots. Then, a scratching. Isaac grabs the plasma cutter, the only "weapon" he has at the moment. The light cast by his torch moves slowly across the metal corridor walls, ventilation shafts and pipes of the "USG Ishimura". Suddenly an unholy shrieking shatters his gloomy exploration tour. He yanks up his plasma cutter, three bluish laser points, closely arranged in a line, fall upon a nightmare of a creature. The grotesque figure, with disgusting, bloated skin, swollen stomach, deformed head and tentacles leaps at him. The plasma cutter performs its new job for the first time, splendidly and bloodily . Extremities are neatly severed where the three laser dots had been a second earlier. A truly reliable and precise tool. Pity that the monstrosity, which was apparently once a human crew member, grows three new tentacles armed with spikes from the places it was hit. Ok, let’s try another tactic. Every mutated creature has to be "trimmed", or rather taken to pieces, differently. One wrong cut and the monster suddenly has four instead of two tentacles to hassle you with. If one of the beasts gets too close, Isaac does better to rely on his metal boots, which turn out to be genuine close combat weapons. It will be an ugly mess in any case, no matter how carefully you get to work.

So far, so bad. Technician Clarke is on board an out of control spaceship where the entire crew has succumbed to some alien power. He is alone, totally on his own and somehow has to escape from this incarnated horror. In ‘Dead Space’ the horror should reach a nerve-wracking peak and the player should get the creeps from here to the end of the universe, so to speak. It is the declared goal of the developers to create the most frightening and creepy game to date. The music, sounds and sound effects of the game should play a decisive role in achieving this goal. The sound technicians really got to work, to create an assortment of haunting background noises and even climbed into subway tunnels, just to capture the right blood-curling, threatening sound effect. Of course you wouldn’t want to miss out on using flash visuals in order to conjure up a scary setting. A fascinating, top-class play of lights, cramped corridors, an impressive character model and the grotesque mutants are impressively staged and well implemented. If Isaac gets into an area where gravity is suspended, you can only sit back and gaze on in wonder. To start off with, these parts are just crying out to be experimented in, and secondly, you have to stop and stare, open mouthed, at all the bodies, junk and drops of blood that realistically drift around the area.