Just finished reading the additional backlogs you get after beating the game - some pretty interesting stuff in there - the big one being:

I guess I am the only one who couldn't get into this game...

I am going to wait a bit before it goes budget and give it another shot. It may have been my mood.

I found it pretty average and very repetitive myself. The graphics were nice and all, but the story/characters were uninteresting and forgettable, and the enemies were all basically the same. I have definitely played worse, but this needed a lot more depth to it.

I felt the same but by the sixth level, this game takes off.

Love the lauch trailer as well:

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I started my second playthrough to hunt down some achievements, then I am going to play on Impossible. I only used the plasma cutter for the first run, so I am having a blast using the more powerful weapons this time around. I did buy the Tank suit from the XBLM and it was worth a few bucks. Awesome suit that should come in handy on Impossible.

That is the SICKEST trailer ive ever seen for a game!

I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's cool to see the areas you just played in, as well as the familiar elements. But I hated the main heroine with a passion. The story is just okay... you do get to see how all hell broke loose, but there were a lot of wasted opportunities here.

My own review:

Dead Space is probably not worth your time. It is repetitive & frustrating, and suffers from a lack of imagination.

Let's hit repetitive first. The game feels unfinished, from a level design standpoint. Many of the levels are repeated several times and you are forced to replay the level. You are sent on a mission which will involve running through a single level of the ship to the goal at the end. Then you're forced to backtrack through the level back to where to started once your quest is over. I guess I can accept that for the sake of realism; after you slay the dragon you still have to get back to town with the loot. But then you're sent back to the level again, on a different quest. WTF? You couldn't design another level of the ship? The designs are not terribly complicated so I'm left puzzled by the decision to not have more variety. 'Asteroids' is another example of this. I guess after programming their super cool (NOT!) mass driver cannon they had to get another use out of it, hence the Space Slug.

The game is also increadibly frustrating. Some of this has to do with level design and some with difficulty. A cardinal sin is NOT placing a save point right before a boss battle. Generally there's a save point severl floors up and through 4 or 6 doors, and past several item boxes. Not Cool. This falls in to the category as "non-skippable cutscene before a boss battle." You're wasting my time, and that's the worst sin you can commit. The game will, sometimes, respawn you right outside the boss battle, or right at the start of it. You don't have to run through the ship, up & down elevators and through doors, but you do have to go recollect the objects/inventory items. The respawn just outside of the action is something I can live with, but NOT the recollection of objects. Finally, in at least once case, you are respawned right at the start of a battle with the boss bearing down you. Again, not cool, especially since there's at least one action you MUST take, from your inventory, before you fight the boss. The Asteroids boss is one of the most frustrating, which may me made more so since it comes right after the fun "hide from the meteor shower" mini-game, which I really enjoyed. The Asteroids mini-game requires a control schee found nowhere else in the game. It's short ad it's very very hard. I spent about 2 hours trying to clear it. Wait about 2 minutes for the load scene, listen/watch the cutscene, then play for about a minute before you die. This scene is actually what I consider to b the climax of the game. Up until that scene, at ethe end of Chapter 4 (of 12) everything seems fresh. After that the levels start repeating and the game becomes frustrating.

Let's talk level design, and how lame it is in Dead Space. The vast majority of the levels are VERY linear. They are linear dungeon corridors with lots of small rooms. Every once in awhile you run in to cargo-hold sized room with some stff in it (greenhouses, an actual cargo hold, etc.) Why is this kind of level design still acceptibale? There is absolutly no variety. Every once in awhile you encounter a small "second path" corridor but it serves almost no purpose at all since it's only about 10 feet. There's also the actual Quests to be considered. There's actually a 'Kill 8 monsters of a certain type' quest. Really? That's what passes for good level design? I know, how about multiple instances of "go do task A three times but first do task B, and to do that yu need to do tasks C & D." That, unfortunatly, is what the bulk of the quests in Dead Space are. After Chapter 2 I found myself wondering "Really? That's it? The whole thing is a bunch of stoopid multi-part fetch quests?" Really. That's it. Finally, this would seem to be the time to cover spawns. Essentially it comes to: Flip a switch and spawn some baddies. Really. Almost every time. If it's one of your quests then I can guarantee it: When you push a button for the quest mission then a group of monsters will spawn. Again, this is what passes for good level design? My favorite part s when they spawn a group of exploding baddies right on top of you. Massive spawns and cheapshots destory the pacing and feel of the game. This isn't Painkiller, is it?

Let's talk Survival Horror in general, since that's what this game is. It may be the best implemented survival horror game ever created. Those games are notorious for bad controls and camera angles and there is none of that in Dead Space. I am not a fan of the FPS on consoles since they require a degree of precision impossible wth a gamepad, but Dead Space doesn't suffer from that, much, and significant portion of the game involves precision in cutting off the arms & legs of baddies in combat. Much of this has to do with the pacing. The beginning of the game in particular is slower paced and you need that when aiming & straffing with a gamepad. It's also worth noting that the beginning of the game is the best part. The camera also works very well. I only noted one issue: on the zer0-g sections it can become difficult when looking above/behind you. There seems to be some kind of blind spot where the camera can't reach, but other than that minor issue there are no camera issues. Again, the level design kills the Survival Horror genre in this. Doors locking automatically and the lights turning out when the baddies show up. Doors locked during the monologes. At least once you are running out of air during a monologue, during a timed sequence. Doors open slowly.. What's the point of this? Pacing? The guy who write the sofware for the ship, in the game, was just as lazy as the level designers. No coincidence there, I'm sure. I shoud note that there's a backstory told through log files, the vast majority of which is TEXT log files. Of course, the text is so small that you have to struggle to read them, even when move up the screen. Needess to say, I ignored the entire text log backstory.

Dead Space is certainly a good game, from a technical standpoint, but from a gameplay standoint it's a bust. There's very little replay value in it. You could go collect trophies, or play the game on a more difficult mode, but the unimaginative level design limits any serious replay value.

I am increduous that this game received good reviews. Does the state of videogames suck so much that this is what passes for a game these days? At least once reviewer noted that the replay value was extremely high. What?!?! It's a linear survival horror game! It's pretty much the definition of limited replay value!


Dead Space is Not Worth Your Time. Go play another round of Civ

Hmm, while it may not be a 'perfect' game, it has definitely been the most entertaining game I've played in quite some time, perhaps more than it's underwater counterpart, Bioshock. I actually bought the linear design of the game, as I feel that it helps push the hopelessness/condemned setting. The levels are mapped out on a ship diagram to show where you will be in the ship for the level and the tram is the drop off point for each...what's wrong with that? Halo: CE was about the most linear game ever but it was still a great game, as is Dead Space.

I played through the game several times trying to snag some achievements but it never got old. I saved the 'impossible' one for last and finished with 975, barring the two turret ones and zero-g basketball.

Oh my.

Really...that's all I got.

I'm a busy person and I don't have time to waste on mediocre titles, and Dead Space falls in to that category. I can't even see why one pop in this in to waste some time; there are much better games with more replay value if one is just looking for some time to kill.

I enjoyed the 'cutting off limbs' aspect. The first four levels or so were ok, but then it all got old. The game seems to recognize that also by introducing mass enemy battles, unkillable monsters, and other cheap shots. Push a quest button, trigger a spawn. Lights go off, spawn coming. Elevator stops, doors lock, spawn. It gets old. Survival Horror games have to sustain the creep. It's not easy to do. The first part of Doom 3 was very creepy but it too could not sustain it.

I can forgive the backtrack at the end of each level. I can't forgive the lame-o quests, repeating decks, and myriad other schlock.

I salute your most eloquent rebuttal.

I started the thread and talked a ton about the game over the course of 10 pages. Am I suppossed to breakdown your review and tell you why your opinion is wrong? It's not. It's your thoughts. (I just don't share them.)

But, it's my guess that a statement of the game "suffering from a lack of imagination" is going to be found in a pretty small minority of folks that actually played the game.

Couple quick questions:

I downloaded the elite suit when it was free. What is it and how do I know if it’s even equipped? I keep upgrading my suit in the store. I think I’m a level 3 right now.

And where is this basketball game that everyone is talking about. I’m on level 4 or 5 now, and I don’t remember seeing it.

Chapter 9 or 10, I think.

cool, what about the suit?

If you go to the store it should be at the bottom of the list. Although you should note, once you put it on, you'll never be able to change to a lower level suit. In hindsight I wish I wouldn't have done it because I felt like I was cheating.

Oh, well that kind of sucks. But does it do anything special? Take more damage or let you hold more items or anything?

All of the above.

Cool, thanks

I guess since I'm almost half way through the game and already spent some money upgrading my suit, I'll just keep doing that

And if I play through it again on a harder difficulty I'll try the new suit then

I started playing this, then popped over the the marketplace to grab the free comics. It's supposed toe be a 6 part series, but only 5 are on there. WTF??!

It's no Gears, but it sure was a lot of fun!

I had a lot of fun with Dead Space, but I traded it in last night. I got all the achievements except Impossible Mode and the two cannon shooter ones. I know I could beat it on Impossible, but I have so many others to play, I just couldn't bring myself to invest that much more time.

If you have a PS3, they are also available in the PSN store. I kinda remember that too, that they weren't complete in Xbox Live, but they are in the PSN store. Maybe the missing part is "hidden" somewhere in the (Xbox) store.

hmm, ok - i'll check the psn for part 6 thanks for the tip.

I am playing thru this and just started Chapter 8. I was gonna trade it once I finished it but wanted to know if anyone has heard of any episodic DLC coming for this one before I get rid of it. I know they have the suit DLC but I was looking more for added gameplay. I thought I had read something about this awhile back being possible but couldn't find the article and haven't seen anything mentioned since. Just wanted to make sure.

I look forward to finishing this game and then checking out the digital comics and the BD movie. The story interests me so I am also looking forward to the prequel that is coming to the Wii eventually.