Dead Space - hands-on

The second phase of the demo threw us into the jaws of some multi-limbed monstrosity. Evading the spindly creature was tough due to lack of proper evasion techniques, so the melee smash and run button came into use quite often. When we did finally turn to face the beast, we were presented with all kinds of choices - pump it full of lead and hope it drops, take careful aim and try to sever its limbs or maybe just freeze it in place with Isaac's Stasis charge?

Turns out we needed to do a little of each. See, the enemies are all converted organisms of some kind, so what looks like a human chest really isn't; a head might not actually contain anything of importance to the blood-hungry thing now chomping on your knees. So, for this spindly baddy we pulled out the machine gun equivalent (probably a nail gun of some kind, as most of your weapons are construction equipment or improvised) and blasted its knees off. It fell, only to continue crawling our way, smearing blood along the floor as we peppered more shots out, with muzzle flashes illuminating the dark hallway just enough so we could see something else creeping around the corner.

This one was a lot smaller and low to the ground. More blood and glop lined the walls and tables, clear evidence of something gone wrong, but surely this little thing couldn't have caused such a ruckus? Well, that's when it sprouted three lengthy tentacles and began slapping the crap out of us. This time we fired up the Stasis blast and froze the critter in its tracks with what appeared to be an electric current. While dazed, its three tentacles shot straight out, as if they were saying "oh please shoot us off."

Rather than plow away with the same gun, we switched to a wide-angle weapon that fired one blast down the hall that ripped all three tentacles off in one shot. With no way to fight back, the monster turned tail and ran off. Sounds quite empowering, being able to screw up enemies in so many ways, but we quickly died after two or three more showed up. With no ammo left and not much health to go on, Isaac was a goner in no time.

The setting is perfect for creep-out scares, the monsters are a great mix of sorta-human yet disastrously twisted into barely recognizable shapes and the puzzle solving, so far, is simple without any Resident Evil-style "place the crest in the wall" weirdness slowing things down. Not saying those moments don't exist, we just didn't see any. The ominous sound and accurate aiming wrapped it all nicely, so we really don't have much to complain about at this point. There's a chance the monster-specific takedowns could get old after a while, and the frequent deaths we suffered could also be a sign of too little health scattered about, but odds are it'll all build towards a polished product. It's hard to judge an entire survival horror game based on one monster-heavy section.

Our hopes are high, but we obviously must reserve final judgment for the end result due around Halloween - same time as Silent Hill: Homecoming.

May 17, 2008