Dead Space Review

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 04:32pm 31/10/08 | 61 Comments

As the year begins to close out, we've been slogging it out with the best publishers have to offer, and so far the pickings have been good. Far Cry 2, Fable 2, LEGO Batman and more (we're powering through what we have, there's more to come!), are all good reasons to forget about the dying Aussie dollar, but if you want a pure gaming experience, one that requires only, the lights out and gaming into the AM, Dead Space is it.

You can check out our in-depth thoughts on what we think is one of the most solid single-player gaming experiences in a long time right here, and as is usually the case, you'll find everything we have related to the title on our AusGamers game page

dead space review

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Latest Comments

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nF
Posted 04:38pm 31/10/08

Out of curiosity, how did you justify the 90% review for Far Cry 2?

The game was f*****g terrible.

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reso
Posted 04:38pm 31/10/08

I liked Far Cry 2?????? Liking this (Dead Space) as well!

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 04:41pm 31/10/08

I judged that based on replayability, user-generated content potential and I actually enjoyed the game. It looks great, feels pretty solid and has heaps of love injected into it. Equally it has given gamers a massive amount of freedom in the decisions they make.

Not everyone is always going to agree with our reviews...

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nF
Posted 04:51pm 31/10/08

Replayability?

It feels like you're replaying the same mission every time. Drive, shoot your way through a check point. Drive.

They tried to make it non-linear and made it completely unimmersive. The AI is terrible. Playing the game all the way to completion would be a challenge of endurance rather than skill. Its tedious.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 04:53pm 31/10/08

there's multiplayer, a map-editor and map sharing community and planned DLC - that's what I mean by replayability.

Agree to disagree

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Crakaveli
Posted 05:29pm 31/10/08

You tell him nf.

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Strik3r
Posted 05:32pm 31/10/08

im not enjoying the single player far cry 2 atm..... I'll give it a bit more time, but im pretty bored with it already. time will tell if the multi player is any good.

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 05:53pm 31/10/08

At any rate, this comments section is for dead space...

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 06:12pm 31/10/08

I've given up trying to play this on PC. Controls are s***, the camera angle is retarded and the guy moves like ass. Graphics were nice though.

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Spook
Posted 06:44pm 31/10/08

I've given up trying to play this on PC. Controls are s***, the camera angle is retarded and the guy moves like ass. Graphics were nice though.

dunno what you are talking about rev;

plays awesome:

old mate at work was complaining about the third person view, but didnt bother me any;

great visuals, great sound, controls work well (once you get used to em)

im loving it atm;

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 07:13pm 31/10/08

nf, actually I DID play multi, but given I had the game earlier than the public I was playing maps with one or two other people in them, who happened to be other journalists. And I didn't rate the review based on those factors alone. If you'd read the review, you'd know what I liked about it.

I said it way earlier, not everyone is going to agree with our reviews, so don't sit in here and flame my every response. Sorry you hate the game. I liked it for various reasons as many others do. Hope you find a game you like...

PS, I'm enjoying the multiplayer a lot since then...

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Boxhead
Posted 07:17pm 31/10/08

instead of looking for everything wrong with games maybe you should weigh up BOTH the pros and cons,instead of blasting all the negatives in them.

I think its fair to demand better...

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TicMan
Posted 07:19pm 31/10/08

Good review Steve, but more to the point - congrats on the avatar fixing (Y)

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 07:43pm 31/10/08

Boxhead, not sure why, but it just started working for some reason. Of course, I'm glad about that

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TicMan
Posted 07:44pm 31/10/08

Oh man - you called me Boxhead :(

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Boxhead
Posted 07:46pm 31/10/08

Prolly the highest honour you could possibly achieve... ever... :p

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Midda
Posted 07:46pm 31/10/08

Dead Space is rad. I'm enjoying it.

And I watched my mate play Far Cry 2 multiplayer last weekend. Holy s***, did it look f*****g lame.

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Saint
Posted 07:56pm 31/10/08

Dead space review thread, please keep it on topic :)

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Methz
Posted 08:07pm 31/10/08

Dead space review thread, please keep it on topic

True that. I found the game to be a tad close quarters for my taste,but all in all the atmosphere and innovative hud system made for a pretty spooky and enthralling game.
I'm hoping RE5 will come up with a similar approach.
and taking limbs off is so fun :D

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TicMan
Posted 08:12pm 31/10/08

I think Dead Space is better than FarCry 2 .. nF - what are your thoughts?

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 08:19pm 31/10/08

TicMan, apologies... I have teh drinkz in me

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Spook
Posted 08:33pm 31/10/08

dont we all?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 09:07pm 31/10/08

I really liked Dead Space. I found the controls and camera angle dodgy at first. It quickly proved to be functional and even required.

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Pharcyde
Posted 10:50pm 31/10/08

* N U K E D *

By Saint

I love it when when once every 3-4 weeks, an admin decides to moderate this forum. It usually ends up in 1-2 threads full of nukes, and then the forum just turns back into it's usual spam/flame-fest self.

This game is awesome so far. Creepy as f***.

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sLaps_Forehead
Posted 10:53pm 31/10/08

I like you better when you are drunk Steve. ;)

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Khel
Posted 11:53pm 31/10/08

I dunno, I don't find it all that creepy. Awesome atmosphere, don't get me wrong, and I love the game, but it doesn't really creep me out the way something like Silent Hill 2 did. I do love the atmosphere though, and I love the environments, they're so gritty and dirty and its not like some Star Trek spaceship where everything is clean and quiet and machines are sleek and move silently and smoothly. S*** is rough and beat up and doors grind open and its all function over form. Good s***.

Fantastic game if Steve's not gonna call it, I'm definitely saying contender for game of the year :P

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 01:07am 01/11/08

But I thought I did call it...

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DM
Posted 03:34am 01/11/08

I'm enjoying the game as I find the Event Horizon/Aliens/The Thing sorta deal really awesome and pretty well done. What REALLY f*****g s**** me though is when i'm trying to change a setting and you have the gay ass 1 second lag on the mouse. WHY? What jack-off thought this would be a good idea? That aside, it's like an orgy of games the past 2 weeks. Farcry 2, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Red Alert 3... and every f*****g game (cept Fallout 3) has the unskippable EA logo movie bulls***.

Random, totally unrelated info to thread: Red Alert 3 wins huge points for having Hell March for the 3rd time as the intro music. What would Red Alert be without that song? It would be like "The Unforgiven" songs by Metallica starting without that horn at the start... oh wait

last edited by DM at 03:34:50 01/Nov/08

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Spook
Posted 07:26am 01/11/08

i dont have any mouse button lag

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 08:40am 01/11/08

Same.

I'm pretty sure the mouse processing is tied to the CPU, so if your maxing your CPU your mouse will lag.

At least that is my thinking when games like Far Cry 2 give me mouse lag. I down the CPU intensive stuff a little and it fixes the mouse lag right up with only a slight increase in FPS (my Graphics card bottle necks my PC).

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Strik3r
Posted 08:43am 01/11/08

I'm enjoying the game as I find the Event Horizon/Aliens/The Thing sorta deal really awesome and pretty well done. What REALLY f*****g s**** me though is when i'm trying to change a setting and you have the gay ass 1 second lag on the mouse. WHY? What jack-off thought this would be a good idea? That aside, it's like an orgy of games the past 2 weeks. Farcry 2, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Red Alert 3... and every f*****g game (cept Fallout 3) has the unskippable EA logo movie bulls***.

I had this when I first launched the game. Massive mouse lag in the menu. As soon as I changed the resolution from the default crappy 765*512 or whatever crap it is, to 1280*960 it worked perfectly.

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Spook
Posted 08:56am 01/11/08

ah yer striker, thats right;

at the default res it was laggy, soon as i set it to 1680x1050, all good;

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groganus
Posted 10:34am 01/11/08

and I love the environments, they're so gritty and dirty and its not like some Star Trek spaceship where everything is clean and quiet and machines are sleek and move silently and smoothly. S*** is rough and beat up and doors grind open and its all function over form. Good s***.

old space ships due for retirement are the best setting for any sci fi game!

this game became a 10 for me when i watched the animated feature movie that tells the story of the events that occured on the ship before you arrived. it added another level of fear, each time i had to go to a new area id be like "OH F***, I KNOW WHAT HAPPEND THERE AND ITS NOT GOOOD!(@%&@(%&" cant say it ruined the games storyline.. infact they worked really really well together.

ive also gotta say holding your hand out over the floor and projecting a hologram of where you have to go is the coolest f*****g thing ever.

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DM
Posted 03:48pm 01/11/08

As it turns out, turning off vsync, which I didn't know was on, totaly got rid of the mouse lag I had. Awesome. I'm playing this in little installments at a time. 30 min here, an hour there. I'll get around to finishing it eventually

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Snakeman
Posted 09:57pm 01/11/08

It seems like a sweet storyline and the graphics are insane but the controls are just f***ed. I It wont even let me use my logitech gamepad ffs.

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Spook
Posted 09:59am 02/11/08

i think the problem there snakeman is the logitech pad;

ive thrown mine out, because it wouldnt work propperly with so many games

bought a $9 dualshock knock off that runs with whatever drivers (vista found them) and all games work perfectly

i was sick to death of weird s*** going on with my control pad, so its gawn

ps, ud wanna be playing this with mouse and keyboard anyway;

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Snakeman
Posted 12:26pm 02/11/08

^^^ Yeh dude, I only got the Logitech for Lego Batman and Indy. I'm just not enjoying this as much and any other game even though I know its an awsem game I'm just frustrated with the setup.

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Spook
Posted 12:44pm 02/11/08

persevere with mouse and keyboard, controls are a little weird at first, in no time at all they feel natural

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Steve Farrelly
Posted 12:59pm 02/11/08

works perfectly on 360 :P

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Spook
Posted 01:26pm 02/11/08

with a mouse and keyboard?

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orbitor
Posted 06:30pm 02/11/08

don't need mouse/kb for a 3rd person game.

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Bah
Posted 06:34pm 02/11/08

Yeah because there is a huge difference between first and third person...i mean in third person they draw your player character on your screen... and then there's .... err...

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Spook
Posted 07:02pm 02/11/08

don't need mouse/kb for a 3rd person game.

dont need em for a fps either

but i sure know which control method id prefer

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greazy
Posted 07:34pm 02/11/08

what do you guys do with the review games that get sent out to you? Return them?

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 07:58pm 02/11/08

They play them then lock them in the QGL Phat Lewts vault.

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groganus
Posted 12:39am 03/11/08

They play them then lock them in the QGL Phat Lewts vault.

imagine scrooge mcducks vault from ducktales!

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Nathan
Posted 09:26am 03/11/08

Definitely not game of the year contender for me, but I think its a solid 8/10. I played 360 version.

Initially I was constantly trying to move the camera to see past my guy in the way, but eventually I realised that when you have the trigger held down for aiming, your character is moved to the left so you can directly forwards which makes the third person thing fine.

I found it really creepy for first 5 or 6 chapters; I could only play one chapter at a time. As the game progresses and I learned the game's internal design mechanics it becomes less scary, although there's still the occasional "open a door to an area you were in previously to find a monster right in your face".

Personally I found some of the scripted sequences like that a bit creepier though, you'll open a door and see a monster walk off; sometimes he wouldnt re-appear. Or you hear scratching noises or whatever, and again there's no monster. Its things like that where they try change the audio/visual queues from "you WILL be attacked" to "you MIGHT be attacked" which keep you a bit on edge.

Dismembering is fun, enemy variety is probably a bit lacking. The mini-game 'shoot the asteroids' is tedious on a 360 controller. I think the general story is really quite interesting, but the mechanics of why you go to all the different places on the ship feel a little contrived.

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Hyperslide
Posted 01:33pm 06/11/08

For me this is the BEST game I have played this year. Scared me , Thrilled me, Visually Stunning, etc etc

I never saw a glitch , tear, Drop in framerate etc

and I LOVE the story, but then there is still a few months to go b4 the year is over and some BIG games coming

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ChocolateMuffin
Posted 06:47pm 23/11/08

Awesome game. But stuck on Chapter 4 objective to overide power system (have done 2 out of 3) cannot get into the elevator!

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Spook
Posted 08:35pm 23/11/08

um, i cant remember back that far, but there wasnt much too the earlier chapters

ive just been following the tracks on my map and its all been working out ok

im doing chapter 9 atm, still think this is one of the best put together games ive ever played, no bugs, no crashes, quality finish;

very impressed;

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Articuz
Posted 10:34am 24/11/08

sooo... how is everyone finding the 3rd person view?

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Spook
Posted 11:33am 23/12/08

finished this game this morning

EXCELLENT

probably the most professional pc game ive ever played, never saw a drop in frame rates, quality production values, great sound and atmosphere

half tempted to play it again!

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Thundercracker
Posted 11:36am 23/12/08

isaac make me some pasta isaac

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