E3 '08: Dead Space
Thanks to an incredibly crowded EA showroom, replete with elbowing investors and invasive MTV film crews, my experience with Dead Space was very limited, but with a scrappy disregard for the suited-up frat boys blocking my way I managed to catch a few bits of information about this outer space survival horror blockbuster-in-the-making.
EA Redwood Shores has put together a 20-50hr single player game that occasionally looks like a shooter but is always true to its survival roots - play it like a shooter and you'll die.
Humanity has explored the stars and found no sign of intelligent life. Resources have dwindled and planets are being broken up wholesale to have their materials shipped back to good old Earth.
It's on one of these ships that we find our protagonist, engineer Isaac Clarke, on the fringes of known space inside a ship taken over by a necrotic, murderous alien life-form. Not a fighter, Isaac will have to pick up industrial equipment to use as weapons, but upgrading those weapons will be a big part of the gameplay: upgrade tokens will weaponize your tools with extra damage, range, reload speed, and so forth.
In true survival horror fashion, health is not regenerative and enemies will surprise you; thanks to an advanced AI, if you let one single reanimated, deformed former crewman slip past you, he'll slither along the air vents to surprise you sometime later when you least expect it.
Some areas of Isaac's ship, the Ishimura, lack gravity, and a combination of magnetic boots and jumping let Isaac tumble in zero-g or walk up and down walls - at which point the screen rotates a-la-iPhone. In one circular chamber we saw Isaac walk 360 degrees around the walls and ceiling panels, while the opposite end of the tub pulsed with some kind of evil Sarlaac-looking monstrosity that sent tentacles to snatch up poor Isaac.
While I left wanting to know much more, I'm seeing Dead Space as a kind of Silent Hill meets Event Horizon. And that looks to be a very good thing. Look for it on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 21.
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 18 July 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: dead space, e3, e3 2008, ea, ea redwood shores, pc, ps3, xbox 360
Name: Dave
This game is looking so sweet.
As a side note, anyone notice FruitBruit being interviewed wearing a gaygamer T-Shirt on InsideXbox?
"Isaac Clarke" is the protagonist's name? I love it! Double homage to two great sci-fi writers!