How To Overcome Your Fears

I'm still doing my best to keep the USG Ishimura free of it's rather out of control infestation problem, so seeing as I've just passed the half way point, I believe it's time for a 'how things are going so far' semi-review.

Let's cover the old ground first, I'm truly enjoying the dismemberment physics, even through I'm a few hours in, I still find myself using the stomp attack to dismember the corpses of both the nasty aliens and the unfortunate crew members. There's just something about the delightful squelching! The atmosphere has maintained the feel that you are actually on board an abandoned space station where something terrible happened and the game has only relied on the lazy shock scares a hand full of times.

Now then, lets breach some new ground. Firstly, the suit, or Rig as it's called in the game, that Issac (the games protagonist) wears. I get genuinely excited by the prospect of finding the schematics for the next level of Rig, not just because of the fact that you become slightly stronger and resilient to enemy attack, but because you gain inventory slots in which to carry vital ammo, health, air and other items that you find on your travels. It's one of the rare yet infuriating moments in the game when you find a room filled with items where you have to decide what to take and what to leave behind. The result has been that I only carry two weapons with me and plenty of ammo for both, rather than waste my time filling my limited inventory slots with a variety of ammo for different weapons.

But there is another reason for my only carrying two weapons. In case you were wondering, I carry the Plasma Cutter (Cutter) and the Remote Control Disc Ripper (Ripper) because I find them to be the most effective. You start out with the Cutter and with it's ability to change the angle that you cut in by 90 degrees it's a very useful weapon when you consider that you deal the most damage when you remove enemies limbs. It's also the weapon that I recommend you spend time upgrading, as it becomes invaluable when fighting bigger and stronger enemies which require more firepower. The Ripper is an excellent second weapon as it allows you to deal with clustered enemies very easily by using its alternative fire mode in which it holds a spinning blade out in front of you for a brief period. It's messy but effective.

You also are armed with a stasis module that allows you to either slow the time around something or move certain objects. For some of the levels this tool is essential to even progress, and for some of the larger monsters, the ability to freeze them in place becomes a vital tool in your strategy. As well as the stasis module you carry an air tank for moments where decks become decompressed or you have to work outside of the Ishimura. Along with your suit and weapons, all of these can be upgraded using power nodes that you find are placed sparingly around the decks of the ship, by spending them at special upgrade benches. This adds another element of strategy to the game as you consider how to spend your power nodes, but trust me, spend them on your Plasma Cutter, you wont regret it.

I'm actually finding the story for the game to be quite engaging, even though it's looking to be very simple, and for those who hadn't guessed from the protagonists name (Issac Clarke), it borrows heavily from a variety of cherished science fiction. You get a great sense of isolation and subsequently there is a lack of dialogue, save for the occasional message from your fellow salvage crew, and the occasional word from some of the victims of the events you are investigating, but when these few do speak up, you do feel impressed by the quality of the voice and motion capture work that has gone into making this world believable.

As for the level of terror the game attempts to instill in the player, I so far have mixed feelings about this. I spent a whole chapter of the game terrified as the difficulty level made an obvious jump and the ammo and health started to become scarce, but I was only frightened because I couldn't use the skills I had already learned to defeat the monsters who had ideas about my life expectancy. This gave me more of an adrenaline rush than the tedious 'boo' moments of monsters appearing out of the dark or from behind closed doors. The game does try to be scary in a traditional atmospheric sense and does almost reach them with it's strong visual style and amazing sound effects. But it falls flat of hitting the scare levels achieved by it's film counterpoint, Event Horizon.

If you haven't noticed yet, I am genuinely loving this game, I'm amazed that a company like EA has put out an original game like this, amongst many other great original titles such as Mirror's Edge. I'm pushing through and doing my best to finish this game soon. When I do I will post the rest of my review, followed by a final score.

Hopefully the rest of the game will maintain the high standard set by the first half.