Dead Space Completed

On Sunday night, after much tribulation, I hurled my broken body across the finish line of “Dead Space.” Though I had been on the brink of exhaustion, the sweet relief of the closing cinematic put steam back in my stride. I crowned myself “Lord of the Living Room” and strutted merrily about, wondering what tales the bards would tell of my victories.

No matter how much I know otherwise, I always secretly believe that game developers don’t actually want me to beat their game, that I’ve somehow snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and spited their wishes. My mind pictures them as Wile E. Coyote, flummoxed as I blow past them going “meep meep.” In reality, they’re winking at each other knowingly, because the illusion of overcoming some massive obstacle is exactly what good game creators long to achieve. They don’t want you to focus on the fact that they’ve been there the whole way, gently nudging you towards the end, picking you up when you make mistakes. And when you get to the end and declare your greatness to all the world, they are content to sit in the background and ironically congratulate you on your “victory.” 

A quick appraisal of the “Dead Space” dust jacket (so to speak) would suggest that the following things are contained within:

1. The fighting of monsters

2. Scary hallways with blinking lights that you must walk down

3. Acquisition of large, futuristic weapons

4. Lots of gore

5. Some more hallways

All of these assertions are completely true. “Dead Space” is a straight-shooter: it tells you what it’s going to be from the get-go, and it delivers on that promise. At the same time, however, there is a little more to this experience than they let on. If you choose to place their tiny piece of shiny plastic in your 360′s mouth, you will also discover:

1. Way, way too much gore

2. Satisfyingly easy puzzles that make you feel smart

3. Zero gravity combat

4. An alarming lack of oxygen for your character to breathe

5. Large, futuristic weapons…that you never use

Three of those five things are good. The puzzles in “Dead Space” are perfect for an action game: they’re fairly simple, but they feel complex, and you’ll be proud of yourself for no reason when you inevitably solve them. It’s also great that you spend a lot of time in zero-gravity, stomping around on the ceiling with magnetic boots. These sections of the game are fun, and they really cleanse the palette of too much trudging through hallways while lights flicker. And last but not least, “Dead Space” routinely leaves you with no air to breathe, both inside the ship and out in space, and these sections of the game are harrowing. The sound washes out, and a timer on your shoulder ticks away furiously at the amount of oxygen you have left while the game designers mischievously toss a few undead monsters in your way. Do you have time to shoot them and get to the airlock? It’s always too close to call. 

But the game is too gory. Way too gory. It’s a horror story, and I appreciate that eliciting some of that titular emotion isn’t unwarranted, but they slap the stuff all over the place for no reason. Particularly annoying are the drawn-out death sequences of your character, who is eviscerated any number of ways for over ten seconds while you sit there, hammering your A button, hollering “I get it! I get it!” By about halfway through the story, they just can’t shock you anymore, and that’s nobody’s fault but theirs for getting too trigger happy with the “blood all over the walls” gags.

I also think this misstep contributed to the game not being as scary as it could have been. “Dead Space” is unbearably tense, to be sure, but it’s only really frightening about half the time, and that other half brings their successes down. Somewhere near the tenth time I watched somebody get ripped to shreds, I came to the frustrating conclusion that they had played their hand too soon. Let’s face it: gore diminishes fear and increases disgust, and very few people, whether making games or playing them, actually want that trade-off to happen.

I’m sure they did it because they consider explicit bloodletting to be a “genre element;” some kind of archaic ritual they can perform for the faithful to make their game feel more like other games, and thus “better.” If they had thought about it, though, it probably would have occurred to them that they were following a precedent set largely by “Mortal Kombat,” and that name is closer to “infamous” than anything else in our world. Geysers of internal body fluids may seem like some proud, hallowed tradition, but it’s surprising how little gamers really care. I’ve never heard of anyone saying, “I love Call of Duty 4. The gameplay is satisfying, the multiplayer is deep, but I refuse to buy it until I see some more decapitations.”

As for the last thing on that list, I won’t call it “good” or “bad,” I simply submit it to you for your opinion. The way this game works, the weapons you procure aren’t progressively better, they’re just very different. The ones that appear later on are bigger and flashier, which makes finding them kind of enjoyable, but my guess is that the average gamer will learn their rhythm and stick to it. After all, you only get a split-second to choose your armament as a dozen monsters come pouring down on you, and in that heated moment, the brutal truth comes out. Yes, you bought that big expensive flamethrower, but when your life is on the line, you dance with the girl who drove you here. 

I think it’s awesome. Throughout the entire game, I stuck with the first two weapons given to me, and I never needed anything else. Sure, I upgraded them heavily, but the core dynamics of the Line Gun and the Plasma Cutter were just the most effective, and the ammunition was reliably cheap. I don’t think this was because the other guns were poorly designed, I just think I liked these two and “Dead Space” was cool with that. To me, that’s superior game design.

Some of you may be disheartened by this, since you prefer to find some variation on Doom’s “BFG” waiting in the hallways; some kind of apocalyptic, doomsday device with a trigger. If that’s your cup of tea, you may want to look elsewhere. 

All told, “Dead Space” is a triumph, and I’m happy I had the experience. Real pluck and commitment went into the making of this game, and while it falls short of the greatness of “Bioshock” or “Resident Evil,” it’s important to remember that these guys are just warming up. If “Dead Space” sells well, and all signs indicate that it will, they may be back for more, and that would be fine with me.