Dead Space (2008) (VG)

Release Date:

13 October 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Shot To Death | Firearm | Floating Body | Crushed To Death | Severed Leg

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Tonantzin Carmelo	...	Kendra Daniels (voice)
J.G. Hertzler	...	Captain Benjamin Mathius (voice)
Iyari Limon	...	Nicole Brennan (voice)
Peter Mensah	...	Sgt. Zach Hammond (voice)
Navid Negahban	...	Dr. Challus Mercer (voice)
Keith Szarabajka	...	Dr. Terrence Kyne (voice)
Dena Ashbaugh	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Kay Bess	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Claudia Besso	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Brian Bloom	...	Baily / Bram Neumann / Crew Member / Additional Voices (voice) (as Bryan Bloom)
Patrick Cavanaugh	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Dustin Leighton	...	Additional Voices (voice) (as Dustin James)
April Jones	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Matthew Kaminsky	...	Mining Supervisor Dallas / Game Show Announcer / Crew Member / Additional Voices (voice) (as Matt Kaminsky)
Scott MacDonald	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA (2008) | Singapore:M18 | USA:M | Germany:18 | South Korea:18 | UK:18 | France:-18 | China:(Banned) | Japan:(Banned)

Company:

Electronic Arts (EA) Redwood Shores

Trivia:

This game was banned from China and Japan because of the game's excessive gory violence involving several dismemberments that the player character can perform on the enemies.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Whenever the player immolates a Necromorph with the flamethrower, the creature will be set ablaze, but will suddenly become dismembered rather then get charred and dehydrated.

Quotes:

Voice Over PA System: [singing creepily] # Twinkle, twinkle little star / How I wonder what you are / Up above the world so high / Like a diamond in the sky / When the blazing sun is gone / When the nothing shines upon / Then you show your little light / Twinkle, twinkle all the night / Then the traveler in the dark / Thanks you for your little spark / He could not see which way to go / If you did not twinkle so / When the blazing sun is gone / When the nothing shines upon / Though I know not what you are / Twinkle...

Movie Connections:

References Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998) (TV)

Rather creepy, good gore, heck it is better than most horror movies these days.

This game is very good on atmosphere and gore. Two things I love in a horror movie, throw into that an interesting story. Granted it does borrow heavily from science fiction horror classics like Alien and The Thing. It also borrows from not quite a classic Event Horizon and the really bad Ghosts of Mars. And for even more similarities watch the Japanese anime Lilycat as the monster in that movie reminded me a lot of some of the monsters here. The story starts out with you and other crew members on a ship headed for a repair job on some sort of mining vessel. Upon arrival you can tell something is wrong as there is no crew to greet you, and pretty soon you see your first necromorph creature and you are in for the fight of your life. You get separated from two crew members who will periodically try to help you and them get off this ship of death, but for the most part you are on your own in the nightmare space cruiser. You will learn, through audio tapes of the fate of this ship as you try to battle your way off. You have a variety of weapons at your disposal, though for my money the rail gun and default plasma cutter are the best. Other weapons just do not pack enough pop, others are overly complicated, still others just run out of ammo way to fast. You can update your armor and collect health packs as in any game of this type. You have levels where you must go through zero gravity and still others where there is no air. The monsters attack sometimes in such a flurry you can not aim well and you end up panic firing a lot. The weapons though are at their most effective when aiming for the creatures appendages. The game is not without its faults which kept me from giving it a ten as aspects of the story did not add up for me and sometimes the missions get a bit to long in areas. However, there are no real complicated puzzles to endure. The ending is kind of shocking however the credits are uninspired which was surprising considering the detail and effort put into the rest of the game. Still, all in all a great horror game set in space, and from the looks of it a movie version is going to be made which I am betting will not be as good as they will needlessly add to many characters or something and just make the movie less scary and I am betting the monsters do not look as good.