Why Was Dead Space 1 SO AWESOME?!

a good horror game is a lot like a hot girl who isn't crazy they're basically extinct nowadays which is why we're gonna take a trip back to 2008 and revisit one of the scariest bricks shooting video games ever made dead space you might have noticed that triple-a publishers and developers in recent years have kind of alienated pun intended the horror genre of gaming maybe it's because the sub-genre of survival was hijacked by Minecraft and handed to a bunch of early access garbage that has since tarnished the reputation of survival games beyond repair but seriously in the last like eight years we've had a good Resident Evil game a couple shitty ones the evil within one and two and not much else comes to mind as far as Triple A games go the indie market is really where the horror genre shines what happened to companies wanting to scare the pants off their consumers perhaps survival horror just isn't as marketable a concept as it used to be or maybe it's because it's hard to create a scary video game when you're trying to sell loot boxes no wait that's the best way to put fear in gamers but seriously dead space is a one-of-a-kind experience there's nothing out there that feels quite like it now before you go down to the comments obviously the developers at visceral games god bless their souls rest in peace press F in the chat to pay respects took heavy inspiration from Resident Evil fours over the shoulder perspective aiming and inventory management systems the similarities are striking to say the least as speaking of systems did you know Dead Space was originally going to be a System Shock 3 and it was actually the release of Resident Evil 4 that caused the studio to rethink their approach with it giving us the product we have now this is a perfect case of a company taking inspiration from one thing and replicating it in a way that creates something new and fresh without being just a blatant ripoff we are concerned that dead space may be replicating the experience that Resident Evil 4 is known for huh you thought I was finished with that mean where you at blue hole pieces of [ __ ] getting back on track dead space is officially 10 years old that's a long time for a horror game so as the critical acclaim been sucked away by the space vacuum of time are the scare still scary do the gameplay mechanics and graphics hold up to this day and was the story and universe any good or interesting well let's make us whole again just hold [Music] the dead space franchise is pretty unique in how it progressed over the years with each game being radically different than the last and nowhere is this more apparent than in the marketing commercials and advertisements Dead Space 1 was very clearly portrayed as a brutal horror game in the twinkle twinkle little star trailer it was pretty intriguing terrifying really drew you in first time watching it I knew this would be a game that would make me [ __ ] my pants and somehow make me enjoy it flash-forward to Dead Space 2 when what we got for advertisements was this I think it'll make a person become insane it's violent it's everything you love in the game mom's gonna hate it why would they even make something like this Dead Space 2 rated M for Mature looking back it's it's pretty goddamn cringy but at the time it almost made me want to show my mom this game because she would definitely be one of those moms as funny as it is it's just not fitting for a horror game to be so self-aware and like trying to be cool of course Dead Space threes marketing wasn't as bad but they were just generic and boring advertisements what I'm trying to show you is how different each game has been marketed and presented Dead Space 1 comes across as simple straightforward and genuine so the game starts off with a loading screen cutscene that establishes the basics and the setting we also get this mission log that gives us the who what when where and why which is a much more interesting way than just having someone say it to us I haven't seen you shut up Fred I'm reviewing Dead Space take notes black ops 3 Battlefront 2 and halo 5 simplistic exposition 1 ship the USG Ishimura is orbiting a planet and has had a communications blackout which can only mean one thing invasion it's up to the crew of the USG kellian to diagnose and fix the ship the crew consists of Kendra Daniels computer specialist Zach Hammond the chief security officer a couple of guys who are gonna die and Isaac Clark ship systems specialist and the protagonist will be playing as it's me I wish I could talk to you I'm sorry I'm sorry about everything what's happening we learned that Isaac's journey to the issue Mora is personal as his girlfriend Nicole is stationed there and naturally he wants to get some of that puss-puss there ain't gonna be no time for that Isaac now one thing that has always bugged me and maybe it's because of how the plot is working in the background we'll get to that later but if humanity is so dependent on these external resources from other planets and the USG Ishimura is such a highly valuable ship you'd think they'd send more than like four people there to go and fix it and diagnose what's wrong but again that could just be you know part of the twist near the end anyways so your rescue ship crashes onto the issue Mora and it's up to Isaac in the gang to figure out what's going on seems like everyone who's trying to pack in a hurry the place seems deserted and you got to walk into this room press a button and yeah pretty self-explanatory game we see a damage report pop up on that floating mini screen you know that's a cool way to display the information to us and hope it's that some sort of lockdown procedure I guess not sure what's gonna oh god what the hell is that [ __ ] alone Jesus we just lost two men run run you piece of [ __ ] Mike come on come on come on come on open the [ __ ] door hey y'all hey I'm safe in the elevator we made it I can't believe we made it son you just ran across the hall let's not throw a party till we fix the ship now we'll get into the story of dead space down the line but for now I'd like to talk about the game's presentation and how phenomenal it is stylistically I knew right off the bat that dead space was gonna be special the instant I saw this shot the way it all comes into view the ship the planet bits a debris floating around it's the calm before the storm the presentation of what happens in the game just feels so natural probably because there are very few instances where control is taken away from the player just take a look at this scene near the end of chapter 1 and you'll see what I'm talking about Isaac is trying to repair the kellian but naturally there is no escape for our silent hero and then BOOM notice how after the ship explodes you're thrown right into the combat no loading screens it's like it wasn't even a cutscene that's the presentation I'm talking about a good horror game needs to maintain immersion and dead space doesn't shatter that with countless unskipable cutscenesthat's so when the plot is moving along on screen it feels the same as if you're just you know shooting the Necromorphs a lot of times video games will like yank you out of the gameplay in order to show off some flashy Super HD cutscene Blizzard games are a perfect example of this contrast and graphics which can sometimes be pretty jarring here's warcraft 3 gameplay and here's a pre-rendered cutscene now i'm not saying every game needs to abide by this idea i'm just given dead space and visceral games some much-needed credit and respect for making this decision because it adds so much to the presentation and feeling of the game aside from that though dead space is one of the most graphically sound video games i've ever seen ten years later this game looks fantastic it doesn't quite have the timeless art style of halo 3 or you know the cartoony visuals of conker live and reloaded or something like Super Mario Sunshine all these games that look good years down the line there's something to be said for that and it's like it's hard to find a spot in dead space in the entire game where you look at it in you're like oh god that looks really bad now this the graphics are just fantastic and once again presentation in a horror game is so important so when the visuals maintain this level of quality 10 years later and I don't feel like I'm playing of a [ __ ] ugly game that's incredible what's interesting is the world of dead space is captivating for the same reasons that I talked about in my Dark Souls masterpiece video the universe feels cohesive and logically sound because every part of dead space functions in a way that relates to the story lore and gameplay think about the settings and the characters Isaac is an engineer repairman aboard a vessel whose purpose is to mine resources and Zach Hammond is a security officers you know obviously these planet crackers have some sort of military backing in case [ __ ] goes wrong with this in mind when you look at the weapons they feel more like tools you know the plasma cutter would probably be something you'd use to clip wires or cut out a piece of rock basically a utility tool the forest gun would likely be used to push rocks and debris along and you might look at stasis as something the developers put into the game so the player can slow down the Necromorphs and maneuver around easier but being around all this huge dangerous equipment you know it's probably useful for crew members to slow parts of the ship down in order to move around and fix stuff and it's entirely feasible to think that this many years in the future with such advanced technology that they've created stasis or some sort of time slowing thing and the zero-g areas aren't just a gimmick if you're in [ __ ] space there's gonna be zero gravity sometimes and it's like when you start using your imagination and connecting the dots between the weapons locations this universe the suits people where and the way everything functions it all makes perfect sense now of course a videogame needs to show you your life bar your ammo map screens menus all that stuff one of the coolest and most unique aspects of dead space is the way it presents all the information to the player the suit is the perfect example while it would have been easy to just slap a health bar in the top left corner with a stasis meter and animal town the bottom right just like every other video game the designers took the opportunity with the setting they created to display that important video game information in a more creative and immersive way your health is displayed on your back clear and visible and you can probably imagine that with all these guys working in space and dangerous locations with possible foreign aliens that could attack or whatever that'd be important for all the crew members to be able to see how healthy everyone is at a glance hold still Isaac I'm you know everyone's rigged with the ship okay we're done clean bill of health for everyone ammo is displayed above the weapon itself clearly visible because if you were a miner or whatever it'd be helpful for the tools to tell you how much ammo you have while you work also because these guys work out in space they'd likely have some video screen set up so they could Skype chat with each other from different parts of the ship is under attack by the evil forces of ganon I'm going to gamilon to aid him and if they wanted to read journal logs or listen to audio recordings you know whether they'd send each other's stuff like hey go fix this [ __ ] well the soup covers all those bases too and the neatest part about it is whenever something's playing or you're reading a log or looking at the map screen you can still move Isaac it's not it's not a pause menu what's funny is I don't think anyone would have complained noticed or cared if the journal map screen inventory waypoints ammo health and all that were displayed in the traditional manner but it's because in this regard of video games that dead space is different that it makes it one of the most vivid aspects of the game there's nothing else that looks like this that has this type of interface a cohesive universe where all the components make sense and work alongside each other is an invaluable asset for creating an authentic and captivating single-player experience and dead space is able to utilize all these elements I talked about of storytelling world building and gameplay mechanics to great success and it makes the Ishimura and the dead space universe feel so real and immersive when talking about combat and dead space there's no question it's a masterpiece in my eyes it's crazy how simple the idea for the gameplay was hey let's make a game we're shooting the head isn't the easiest way to kill things BAM there you go unique gameplay a cheap dismember the limbs Isaac Clark might be an engineer but he's also an expert in creating quadriplegics his boots are also made of just the strongest material possible as one stomp can dismember several limbs each weapon has their own unique laser sight and it takes time getting used to but they also have an alternate firing method which I always thought was something shooters should do a lot more of it gives each weapon a sort of backup way to handle a situation you need to be precise to kill the Necromorphs thing is it's hard to be precise an aim for the limbs when they're sprinting full speed at you flailing all around so sometimes you panic shoot them but oh [ __ ] you miss and it scares you even more because the enemy isn't dead but you just wasted ammo and now you have to reload and you're vulnerable and you just pissed your pants there's a lot of neat mechanics and dead space that differentiate it from other shooters and other horror games Kinesis is really cool and versatile allowing you to pick up items from far away often times you can find some secret stashes of weapons or health packs floating off in the distance that would otherwise be unreachable you can also throw things at the Necromorphs which can stun them but isn't all that useful unless you're trying to conserve ammo Kinesis is also used to solve puzzles open secret areas all sorts of things kind of like what I talked about my halo combat Evolved review the same applies here in both games every enemy type serves a specific function within a couple fights you'll understand what each class of Necromorph does you got the standard slasher which is kind of like the cannon fodder the Necromorphs you see these guys more often than the others and they can quickly overwhelm you if you're not careful there's the leapers which leap around and are commonly found in zero-g areas these guys will pounce at you from every conceivable angle so nowhere is truly safe lurkers are no this isn't Starcraft lurkers are reanimated babies man we're killing babies now Jesus and they'll stay at range to Pelt you with quills so shoot those tentacles use the line gun swarmers are little pests that do as there name suggests and the little down your health if you're not careful the infect there is definitely the scariest looking Necromorph as the only means of dismembering it is the purpose kiss which only comes out when it starts to infect the body protip if you see a lot of corpses in a room with nothing going on lay the boot on them because chances are a couple infectors will pop up there later then there's the pregnant which functions similar to the slasher but is bulkier slower in you it hoops out baby's gross man don't shoot the stomach brutes are basically the tanks from left4dead they serve as great boss fights throughout the game will absolutely punish you if you're not careful but if you keep your stasis meter full you can absolutely destroy them Guardians are stationary and shoot out these little pods that will harass you focus fire on the tentacles and keep moving to avoid the projectiles these guys are here to defend and lock down areas so if you get too close to them they might just slice your head off the hunter is basically invincible in the chapters you encounter it and it keeps pressure on you as you have to fight the other enemies around it take off its legs hit it with some stasis and run away the exploders are basically suicide grunts but luckily those giant yellow ball sacks can be used to your advantage cut it off and throw it with Kinesis or shoot it directly and you'll save yourself some ammo and a headache of course the divider is a big lanky and imposing creature that will split off once you do enough damage shooting the big man is one thing but trying to hunt down and exterminate all its pieces is another and last but not least there the Kinesis lashes which are insanely fast even when they're crawlin man take these guys out as fast as possible what's really cool is how the game takes extra special care and introducing new enemy types for example we see the lurker pin this helpless fool in a room filled with infants I mean that sets the stage pretty well don't you think and when we first fight the effector we see exactly how they reanimate corpses into even stronger Necromorphs we get a glimpse of the brute and Chapter five before he smashes through a wall and charges us and before we even see the full thing we get a glimpse of the dividers pieces but when we do run into one of them for the first time it's creepy as [ __ ] that low howl dude and God is perfect presentation and build up I'll say it once more dead space also has a few boss fights and they do not disappoint well maybe a little bit but we'll get to that while the brute the hunter and even the dividers lean more to the mini-boss side I consider the hunter a full-fledged boss because of how much effort it takes to bring it down in chapter 6 after clearing out hydroponics and fixing the air quality we go into this big chamber this foreboding hallway follow this crap on the sides and then holy [ __ ] that thing is huge and disgusting this fight is pretty intense and you can never stop moving you got to use zero-g to avoid the tentacles and Kinesis to catch the pods it takes a long time to kill little Leviathan and after a while it does get kind of boring and the novelty wears off but maybe that's just because I was sucking fat tentacles in chapter 8 we got to sweep this giant slug thing off the side of the ship's hull and it's not a traditional fight you use the cannons to take it down it's a fun little gimmick finally we got the hive mind the big [ __ ] and this is just a pure spectacle of a battle we've been attacked by the tentacles plenty of times throughout the game build-up you get it anyways it's all about shooting the glowy spots until the next phase begins you know the drill it's intense as [ __ ] I remember the first time I was playing dead space it took me like 15 tries to get its patterns down and tamed the Beast realistically though the hive mind is just a tad disappointing because of how easily it would just absolutely destroy Isaac like realistically everything else in the game I can actually see Isaac killing and overcoming but not not the hive mind dude he would get shrekt all these fights are about dodging diving dipping ducking and dodging positioning is also a key factor in your success if enemies run away from you or escape chances are they're making moves to flank you so watch your back you need to get familiar with your surroundings so you can have a back-up plan if [ __ ] goes haywire and you get gangbanged this is especially true in zero-g areas as Isaac can hop around the ship and enemies will follow this Oh G areas are ginormous and often hold a lot of really good items and you can use the jump mechanic to cleverly outmaneuver the Necromorphs I had far too much fun in the zero-g areas of the game even if the mechanic itself is a bit janky so a player needs to be smart about positioning weapon choice knowing how many items you have what you can use in any given situation and knowing what the enemies do their behaviors and weaknesses understanding all of these things is how you can master the game and boy oh boy is dead space a fun game to master I mean the satisfaction you get from mowing them Necromorphs down with the Ripper or placing accurate shots with the plasma cutter filling them full a led with the pulse rifle it all feels so good naturally because mining rocks out in space can be tedious and tiring work the issue Mora and USM Balor have mini games where crewmembers can work on their aim or play basketball futuristic basketball you get some nice rewards for doing these minigames too and there are a lot of fun I always appreciate when a game can throw in some little gimmicks like this for some fun on the side but besides the pure combat I was talking about earlier the decisions you make before battle are just as important the store is gonna be your best buddy throughout dead space and every time you see one you can breathe easy friend by picking up schematics throughout the game you'll unlock the ability to buy ammo for all the guns new weapons health packs everything and best of all new suits of armor oh hell yeah I love watching this animation Isaac just looks so [ __ ] bad-ass better suits give you more damage resistance and increase your inventory slots so they are essential it is especially important to decide what to use power nodes on and what to upgrade you'll find these guys on tough enemies or secret spots these blue panels on the wall and you can buy them for ten thousand credits each at the store they ain't cheap kids but if you want to stand any chance against the Necromorph invasion you'll need to upgrade your [ __ ] problem is with only four weapon slots and a very limited amount of power nodes you basically have to pick four weapons and stick with them otherwise you're gonna be losing money mostly you want to prioritize damage on your guns and get ammo capacity when you're low because it gives you a free refill but of course you'll want to increase your health and air capacities so you don't stress as much and putting some nodes into your stasis will work wonders and give you more opportunities to bail out of a tough spot there's so many different paths to choose with all these weapons and gear and how the upgrade system works is one of the best parts of dead space because you feel like you're really getting stronger and there's not enough money and power nodes to upgrade absolutely everything so there's an element of replayability if you want to play through with different weapons nice thing is after beating the game you unlock new game plus some cool gear and an extra difficulty setting the gameplay in this video has been on hard I've beaten the game on impossible and let me tell you that is some serious [ __ ] right there I am proud of that so replayability is pretty high considering this in my fifth or sixth time completing the game and I'm still having fun so overall the gameplay of dead space is precisely tuned to perfection in my opinion they don't throw too many enemies at you that you get bored immediately and are no longer scared of the Necromorphs they throw just the right amount of stuff at the player the trick to an effective compelling and frightening horror experience is that the entire game needs to be built around the concept of provoking fear and tension from the player and when I say the entire game I mean the entire game we're talking music lighting sound effects visual aesthetic gameplay enemy design all of it the goal is not so much in creating horrific disgusting enemies that gross the player out but it's more so the way these enemies are presented and revealed it's not so much what's in the dark that scares you it's the fear of not knowing you know take the alien movies for example the first film the action parts are so impactful and memorable because there's been so much build-up and they're separated by these huge stretches of quiet moments so when the alien finally appears you're on the edge of your seat you take that loop implement it in a game have it happen every few minutes or longer and you've got a good horror experience dead space teaches you very quickly that the Necromorphs can come out from just about anywhere they can hop out events fly down in zero gravity pop out around corners sprint towards you out of the blue break glass or anything the game instills feelings of paranoia throughout this in turn makes the player very cautious during the quiet moments because you never know when something is gonna just from exploring bathrooms to wide open areas zero-g environments even the basketball courts man no area is completely safe because again you don't know what's out there and the game will constantly throw curve balls at you you know 95% of the time you're at the trance station it's safe but just that once that 5% they threw a Necromorph in there to keep you on your toes and you know you think you'll be safe shopping or upgrading your gear at the bench because you know why wouldn't you be when all of us what the [ __ ] [ __ ] how dare you tread bullet creepy right dead space has this extreme contrast when an enemy appears the game gets loud as [ __ ] but when there's nothing going on you could hear a pin drop and for some people this might be seen as a overemphasizing the horror or relying too much on jump scares but I think it's a nice contrast you've got the two extremes quiet and just loud as hell other parts of the issue mora have huge industrial sounds going on which can obscure the noises the Necromorphs make as a player you start to rely on these audio cues and sound effects so when there's other stuff going on it really amplifies the atmosphere and makes you even more scared the biggest mistake I see in sequels like Resident Evil 5 Bioshock 2 BioShock Infinite and even Dead Space 2 & 3 is for some reason the game started to phase out the horror elements in favor of more action it's like if they thought the way to make the sequel better than the original is to just throw more enemies at you and that doesn't really improve the game or make it any scarier in fact it makes it less scary because we see these enemies all the time I mean there's parts in Bioshock 2 where you set up a defense and you fight off like 25 splicers as opposed to you know that part in the first game where you pick up shotgun and you fight off like six if you have too much footage revealing the thing that's supposed to be scary it's not gonna be scary the key word here is build up and when it comes to video games I think build up is highly underrated sometimes you can go to three for five whole minutes without any combat fear is all psychological so long pauses like this go far in making the combat more memorable and intense in a horror game I'd rather fight four enemies after three minutes of build-up than 15 after one minute of buildup think about how memorable that journey to rapture was the dialogue at the beginning that ignited a mystery the plane crashing walking down the lighthouse getting into the bathysphere listening to Andrew Ryan's speech and getting that big reveal remember how impactful it was the way Bioshock slowly unraveled the insanity terror and horrific atrocities that incurred in rapture yeah you know it takes time to get good [ __ ] going is my point dead space and Bioshock utilized build up in a similar fashion but for different things Bioshock used it to give the story a greater impact and deadspace uses it to give the gameplay a greater impact while I think it's cheesy and dead space that within the first 5 minutes the enemy is revealed to you it's really after that point where the game starts getting good see it's not about throwing these monstrous creatures at the player at every turn there's a certain amount of build-up to the actual combat it's about mind games and we're being played by the developers one of the best examples is when you get on a tram and the fog obscures your view you're moving in super slow but as you get closer to the other side the horrors that lurk within are revealed and you've got a you're set into a panic for example there are areas where you enter a vacuum and you have a limited amount of time to breathe well in many scenarios the air you have is enough the fact that you are put on a time limit creates pressure and hearing Isaac's breathing get more and more sporadic raises the tension whenever you enter a new area most of the time you get a chance to take in the surroundings find items look at potential hazards or gimmicks before you cross an invisible line where the enemies spawn even after playing this game for the fifth time there's never been a moment in my playthroughs where I wasn't constantly on edge as I walked around all the rooms and in outer space you can tell how stressful in a good way dead space is with how relieved you feel when you arrive at the tram station or find a save station or a store other times an area might appear one way but then you push a button in the whole place transforms and you're like [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] now there's aliens oh [ __ ] oh god oh god what do i do before you die because the change in scenery and landscape messed with your mind and any preconceptions of strategy you might have had the game does have QuickTime events but they're more like the grapples from Resident Evil 4 so they aren't all that shitty when an enemy gets ahold of you you just mash a in there you go gameplay-wise they do slow things down but it opens the door for the incredibly awesome and gruesome executions they really went all out with some of these scenes and it's just like goddamn are some of them brutal that extra layer of effort really pays dividends because once you see a tiny alien ripoff Isaac's head and take control of him you're like well [ __ ] I don't want to see that again which makes you fear the enemies even more it's a very gory game but the gore is used as a means of conveying the desperation and horror of the situation it serves as a way to show up the horrifying capabilities of the Necromorphs it's all part of the overall storytelling in my book so because dead space is a survival horror game that means you've got an inventory to keep track of and countless important decisions along the way about what to keep the fear of being unprepared for what lies ahead plays a big role in the non-combat parts of dead space again build-up running out of ammo is scary but so is not picking up those superconductors to sell them and buy more ammo having no stasis to bail you out of a tough spot is a frightening thought but so is not carrying enough health packs to deal with that giant brute the ultimate goal of dead space is to survive well duh and so you often find yourself scrounging for ammo health and everything but when your inventory is full there's an extra level of management to it it's like I'll use this health pack even though I'm not that damaged so I can pick up this ammo or there was a lot of items I couldn't pick up in that one room so I'm gonna backtrack and get them now that my inventory cleared up after that huge battle dead space simply makes surviving fun whether you're shooting at asteroids headed for the hole or you're trying to outmaneuver a regenerating Necromorph the game is built around the concepts of fear intention and no matter where you look these elements surface in every corner of the game small moments such as walking down this corridor hearing a banging noise as you slowly approach expecting something to pop out only for it to be some guy slamming his head against the wall before you laughs is on the ground and dies these moments build up the tension even when there are no enemies that's all about toying with the player's mind making them think there's something there when there's really not which is the perfect segue to lead me into the story the narrative of dead space is pretty interesting if a bit generic the story takes place in 2508 the earth has hit a wall the planet no longer has enough resources to sustain the population so the concordance extraction corporation aka CEC created the planet crackers to gather resources from other worlds the issue Mora being the flagship planet cracker and the iconic symbol of mankind's will to survive so that's a Shara impressive the USG Ishimura biggest planet cracker in her class and it looks like they already popped the cork as it was mining the planet ages seven some [ __ ] happened and that's where isaac and friends hop in to check it out that's the back story now the objectives for each mission revolve around Isaac repairing various parts of the issue Maura such as getting the tram station on line so they can move around the ship or fixing the communications rate to send out an SOS re-establishing the asteroid defense systems you get the idea Hammond for the first nine chapters takes control and is intent on completing the job so you mostly take orders from him basically the earth government quarantined ages 7 and made it off-limits to everyone for 200 years this barren wasteland sat there before the Church of unit ology disregarded the quarantine and infiltrated the issue Maura before heading to Aegis 7 to recover their holy relic the marker and behold its glory it is truly magnificent the Church of unit ology is your typical group of religious fanatics who have to [ __ ] ruin everything because they're dumb and stupid except your part in the God's plan embrace your own extinction essentially their goals are the Necromorph transformation will cure all of humanity's problems our praise be this is mankind's next step on the path of evolution all along we've all seen this type of villainous organization before so they uncovered the red marker on the surface of ages seven and brought it aboard the ship soon afterwards everything went straight to hell crew members started hallucinating symptoms of schizophrenia were running rampant paranoia bloodlust murder torture all started to tear apart the crew of the issue Maura but just like retards they think this is all meant to be and their religious indoctrination further drives the ship into madness with the medical staff being unable to diagnose the cause of all this [ __ ] most of the crew turned into homicidal suicidal maniacs so much of the story is uncovered in data logs video recordings riding on the wall and through the level design I appreciate the indirect approach a storytime they took with dead space as you fight your way through the issue Maura I it's girlfriend Nicole consistently appears to help you out goddamn Isaac is gonna snuggle her good when all is said and done throughout the game this [ __ ] [ __ ] chalice Mercer tries to send his goons after you he kills people and tries to usher in this new age of Necromorph humans which for some reason he thinks is the right thing to do anyway the cast of characters are all servable they feel real dialogue is great and engaging I have no complaints really and the villains worked for the most part there's a lot of creepy dialogue and Nicole is the creep Lord in this respect her vague and constant requests to it just fills you with the G blues man what happened to board the issue Morra is shown to the player more so than it is told to you there's a big focus on environmental storytelling and just by exploring the place you kind of piece together what happened so near the end Isaac and dr. kind team up to put the marker back where it belongs and seal the nightmare off once and for all but Kendra Daniels has other plans oh [Music] [ __ ] you just shot that guy men aren't you a [ __ ] and then she reveals that this marker was made by the government reverse engineered from the original marker and put on ages 7 so the government could study its effects apparently the helix shape of the marker and the codes written on it is the DNA code for the Necromorph infection which is really freaking cool and this makes all those symbols and things you see throughout the game on the walls much more interesting as now there is an explained of reasons for all these symbols and Kendra is here to take it to her superiors but Isaac ain't about to let that happen because Nicole is here to help us get through this [ __ ] let's go baby finish the fight we're gonna finish this together make us whole so we head down to the colony fight through a bunch of Necromorphs before we finally bring the marker back to its resting place it's over I always believed in you I knew you'd return to me we are whole again Isaac we are whole it's all over wait no of course it isn't Kendra shows up locks us out and is taking it back to the ship before revealing the truth we all pretty much knew that Nichole is dead Isaac has an emotional moment and so do we it's pretty cool that if you line up the first letter of each chapter it spells this out for you neat little detail so we head back to the ship and oh god what's happening what what oh god it's the tentacles we saw them all over the issue Maura what's happening what hole the hive mind the grave mind 2.0 whatever you want to call it this is one of the most epic showdowns in videogame history the hive mind is an absolute beast just look at this thing and you're able to subdue it before the giant asteroid smashes into ages 7 but Isaac still needs to escape so he runs to the ship powers it up and gets the [ __ ] out of there I'm getting some serious combat Evolved vibes with the way this game ends in fireworks hey no it's finished no I think we're just getting started so it's finally over for real this time Isaac man you can rest easy a breath of relief as huh what is that wait and that's the story of dead space great [ __ ] ending with that Nicole jump-scare and perfectly sets up the plot of dead space - it's a thrilling ride from start to finish and there's never really a dull moment or parts with excessive dialogue or characters making stupid decisions none of those typical horror genre pitfalls dead space at its core is about conquering fear the fear of losing a loved one fear of the truth you know deep down the lesson is to beat the [ __ ] out of the things that scare you I always wondered what the make us whole again thing was all about until I finally realized that it's the markers way of trying to communicate with Isaac and the other people on the issue Mora to get itself placed back on the pedestal make us whole the marker has some sentience it can reach out and touch minds and so one of the villains in this game is a seemingly inanimate object with motivations we don't quite understand we have countless questions about it but we don't have all the answers and that's the way it should be you keep some mystery on the table and it keeps us engaged while the game takes roughly 8 to 15 hours to complete it feels just long enough to satisfy me the church of unit ology might be a bit generic but the overall world building and lore of this game are just so intriguing to me everything about dead space just got me invested in this universe because the gameplay setting presentation and story were so interesting and interwoven with all these elements at play dead space really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for gamers the combat is nailed to a tee with excellent build-up that raises the drama and tension aboard the Ishimura boss battles are fantastic the zero-g environments add some neat mechanics and locations to the game enemies all have their unique roles they're intimidating scary and fun to fight weapons have their own specializations and nothing is more fun than going to town on these undead bastards the universe of dead space is interesting it gives you just enough within the plot but builds upon it through audio logs data logs video recordings all that optional material the dialogue and characters service the plot and universe of the story without being too exaggerated or to bare-bones sound effects style light are all superb in nailing the tone of an isolated ship in space succumb to madness and murder and somehow somehow ten years later the game still looks great like it hasn't aged that day despite taking plenty of inspiration from Resident Evil 4 dead space was able to carve out its own niche in the third-person shooter and horror games genre it's an experience that once you've played you won't ever forget and it just might make you go a little crazy and that is why Dead Space 1 was so awesome [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Act Man

Views: 3,317,606

Keywords: Act Man, Dead Space, Dead Space 1, Isaac Clarke, Necromorph, USG Ishimura, Dead Space trailer, Dead Space 2, Dead Space 3, Dead Space 1 gameplay, Dead Space 1 difficulty, plasma cutter, the act man, Dead Space lore, the marker, dead space marker, aegis vii, dead space universe, dead space review, visceral games, visceral games shutdown, dead space 1 review, dead space retrospective

Id: Lu6kQtxQbqU

Length: 42min 20sec (2540 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 19 2018