If you’re the kind of person who thinks that arms shouldn’t end in blades, that babies shouldn’t have tentacles, and that the lights in the corridor should always be on, then you’re probably not going to like Dead Space much. If, on the other hand, these typical aspects of the action-horror genre fascinate and delight you, then you’re in for quite a treat.
If you’re a fan of the franchise you should be happy to hear that Dead Space isn’t a half-hearted port — rest unassured, your $7 is buying you a pocket full of screams and a unique storlyine that includes, but is not limited to: dead bodies jumping up and mauling you, corpses falling suddenly from ceiling vents, and your character going batshit crazy.
You’ll start the game off in the shoes of Vandal, an engineer who is tasked by the church of Unitology (which is eerily like Scientology mixed with Buddhism) to make a couple of covert changes to a giant space station, aptly named The Sprawl. To make a short story shorter: within 20 minutes of booting the game up, you’ll have unleashed a horde of bladed zombies (Necromorphs) on the Sprawl and will spend the rest of the three-hour adventure trying to undo your work…one dismembered limb at a time.
See, the thing about these Necromorphs is that they don’t die after your typical shot to the chest, or even your typical shot to the head. The key to killing this particular brand of undead menace is to literally tear it limb from limb. So while you could, fire five or six chest shots to take a Necromorph down, it’s a lot faster and more efficient to shoot both legs out from under your enemy and then chop its arms off.
As a VIP member of the dismemberment club, Vandal will have access to a set of cleverly repurposed mining tools to use as weapons. Most of these weapons, such as the Plasma Cutter and Ripper, should be familiar to Dead Space fans, but you’ll also be treated to a couple of iOS-exclusive weapons (the Corer and laser saw) that work just as well for disarming, dislegging, and disheading the bad guys. All of the ranged weapons you’ll use feature both primary and secondary firing modes, and all of them can be upgraded whenever you reach an in-game Bench.
Switching between all of these weapons and firing modes on-the-fly is pretty easy, thanks to the control setup. You’ll move Vandal around by swiping along the left side of the screen and re-orient the camera using the right, switch weapons with the menu button, and switch firing modes by shaking the device. Your HP and energy bars are displayed on the back of your engineering suit, and ammo counters are displayed right on the weapons themselves. Dead Space has always been a fairly minimal when it comes to in-game interfaces, and I think the iOS version has only benefitted from this established trend.
The only part of the Dead Space experience that doesn’t quite live up to its console and PC counterparts is the sense of atmosphere. Don’t get me wrong: Dead Space is a pretty amazing looking mobile game and bloody corpses and bloodcurdling screams are in bountiful supply, but it’s just hard to feel truly gripping terror when the screen is only 3.5″ big and scares can be interrupted by text messages.
However, if you can settle for mild discomfort and goosebumps instead of experiencing console-level scares, then Dead Space offers plenty of quality action without costing an arm and a leg (although you’ll have severed plenty of those by the end of a single playthrough).
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