Electronic Arts' 'Dead Space' : Will it Be Enough to Scare Gamers like 'Silent Hill'

'Dead Space', the so-called next 'new leader' in the genre of survival horror games, has been predicted to be coming out at the 4th Quarter of next year (between October and December for those that are not familiar with fiscal years) and the creators are already giving predictions that the game will be the game to compete with for any future survival horror games that may come out in the future. But, this kind of thinking will remain to be seen until the game actually releases. I am here to give an overview, a prediction, and more of what a person will expect from this new franchise that is coming from the same people that create such games as the popular 'Madden' franchise, 'Def Jam', and countless others.

This month's 'GameInformer' gave the whole scoop on the upcoming title, but after I had read the article, it was still leaving me skeptical that it was truly a new inovation that will be coming forth in this limited, yet popular theme in video games. Being a person who has played such games that they refer to as being the 'reason' for creating 'Dead Space',(meaning 'Resident Evil' and 'Silent Hill', as well as a smattering of horror DVD's), I read a great flurry of blistering comments from the creators of the game, EA's Glenn Schofield and Bret Robbins, where they were already stating that this game will surpass all others that have come before it, making this program the king of all survival horror games. Now, if this is so, why am I not convinced? I know quite a bit from the survival horror genre from my earlier days of the PSOne, and they were pretty intent on scaring the dickens out of me when I heard the first creak of a door to an old shack or the groan of a zombie approaching me. If that was not enough to scare, it would take something pretty spectacular to do that again.

'Silent Hill' was not merely just a survival horror game, but also was a mystery game, as it had a story of a man who was trying to discover what had happened to his family in the small town of the same name. It had its creaks and groans, along with the tension as you never knew what was going to attack you once you started walking down the street on your own. In 'Resident Evil', it also had a storyline, but not as much as 'Silent Hill', where in this series , it focused more on surviving what was coming at you...meaning a global zombie invasion. In 'Dead Space', it has been revealed that the character you are playing, (an engineer by the name of Isaac Clark), will be aboard a mining ship that has stopped producing and the crew has mysteriously disappeared. As the character, it is your job to find out what happened, and you may not exactly like what you find.

The main theater of carnage in any survival game is the monsters. In 'Dead Space', you will be encountering what are called 'Necromorphs', who are an alien race that take over dead corpses and turn them into ugly and disfigured creatures, (Can anyone say 'House Of The Dead' or 'Resident Evil'?), and it is your job as Clarke to make it through the ship and battle these creatures in order to find out what heppened to the crew and ship and make it out alive safely once you have defeated everything around you. The only weapon you are given in a cutting laser, which can operate horizontally and vertically, but watch where you cut. It may not work the same on all creatures, and they may still end up killing you anyway. You will gain other powers later, such as Stasis and Kinesis, which allow you to slow time or turn a dead monster's body into weapons like grenades. There has also been talk of zero-gravity levels, which is supposed to change gameplay drastically. But, they are still calling it the next step in 'survival games'. I am not sure if the reader can make some conclusions of their own as to how original this is or not, but I see some similarities of my own as to where Electronic Arts may have taken some liberties at borrowing ideas from other games.

For instance, 'Duke Nukem' (when it was out), had a lot of levels within the game that were somewhat simliar in the regard to the concept, such as water levels. In these levels, it almost felt like zero-g, where you were slowing down with your battles as you shot underwater at whatever was coming at you. Now, in regards to the aliens, the creators and producers have admitted that the 'Aliens' films may have helped them make a basis for creating the Necromorphs (as well as other sources for plot and play content), but that is not the only source where such creatures can be cited. In the 'Doom' series, (*most especially 'Doom 3'), aliens that they have described are very apparent within the titles also, with fearsome and gruesome creatures. Where the alien-taking-over-body scheme comes in, though, does not come directly from the game, but from the movie that was made after the success of the games of the same title, starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Karl Urban, where the creatures did take over the body after they were bitten by another creature. In 'Dead Space', the take-over happens in the same way. Can anyone see a pattern here?

Now, as far as calling it a 'survival horror game' and not a 'shooter': are they not all the same classification? 'F.E.A.R' is a shooter, but yet it also has a supernatural storyline that is connected to it as well. It is a game where you shoot supernatural creatures in order to stay alive in an underground military complex. Now, in any survival horror game, it is made so that the player has to do exactly that...survive! How do they survive: by killing anything in your path! So, that requires a weapon of some kind, such as a rifle or a knife. (Heck, maybe even a rock!) But, the mechanics still apply, as the survival horror game requires that the elements of a shooter be implemented just so the person can play the game.

Now, where it has been said that 'Dead Space' will differ also is in the ways of melee combat, they again have made not-exactly-true statements when they explain how it works. In the game, they give you the ability to take severed limbs from a creature and use them as weapons like a club or knife. After seeing this, I could immediately cite them from any typical shooter, where the minute you run out of bullets you have to improvise and hope that you make it by beating the foul thing to smithereens with whatever is at hand, even your fists, if necessary. Again, not very original. Also, in the combat system, they talk of certain areas on the aliens' bodies that may be more vulnerable than others. This concept has already been thought of in the upcoming title, 'Fallout 3', which has yet to be released. In this game, they give percentages before you go into battle of where the creature is the most vulnerable, and you go for those areas. Again, where is the originality?

Lastly, I must comment on the story itself. Science fiction, when it takes a leaning into the paranormal with it, always has key elements that are easy to spot. There's the wrecked ship, the monsters, and then there's the unsung hero, who may or may not make it out alive. While this is superiorily formulaic in films, it can also become formulaic in video games. It would be the same as making the movie, and then basing a game around it (like 'Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer' or Spiderman 3', as examples). It can work in some cases, but not in all.

In truth, I feel that the production of this game was to see if it could compete with the new favorite kid on the block, 'Bioshock', and see if it can overtake it next year for the Best Game Award. While it may have a running chance, until it reaches the shelves it is a moot point. If it wants to be the newest and the best, it needs to go where the horror genre has never been before. While space may be new as far as location, they need to do something different with the game's mechanics as well as the story. Aliens invading human bodies has been done several times before, as we have seen, and science fiction is meant to expand to other levels of creativity, whether it be in games or not.

But, even as a gamer, I am still curious as to how well 'Dead Space' will do when it does arrive next year. There is already a sci-fi game that is coming to store shelves next year, 'Earth No More', that is in the beginning stages that also delves around survival, but in a different way. So, will 'Dead Space' define the genre? In my opinion, I would have to say no. But, it may be a more different experience than even I realize. I will just have to wait and see.

If you would like to see the game and judge for yourself, go to :

http://www.gameinformer.com