I just spent the last two weeks pretty much playing this game non-stop. I finally beat it last night, andit's amazing.
Basically, the game is a survival horror game set in space. It play's very similiiar to Resident Evil 4 in that it's a 3rd person, over-the-shoulder shooting game. You play an engineer named Isaac who, along with two other people, are responding to a distress call when they land aboard a massively large mining ship called the Ishimura. However, once they're aboard things go to hell. Their shuttle is destroyed and they suddenly find themselves trapped on a derelict ship with a ton of horrific mutated creatures that are trying to kill them.
It's a great sci-fi horror game, which is something you really don't see much. The story is well written and the cutscenes are enjoyable to watch. And the game's dark and bloody design is downright outstanding. Every room or hallway you enter has been designed to creep the player out. Blood smears along the walls tell of incredibly violent acts that have taken place there in the recent past, bodies of the Ishimura's former crew are strewn about in various forms of mutilation, and the lighting has a tendency to flicker on and off occasionally as the ship's power core is on the fritz. Add all of that up with some very spooky sound design and you have yourself one hell of a frightening game.
The easiest way I can explain the game is to compare it to the movie Event Horizon. There were a number of points in the game where I felt like I was playing through portions of that movie. The dark and brooding ship, the twisted monsters, it's all there.
Some of the real highlights of the game take place when your character is forced to go into areas of the ship where they've lost gravity. Free floating through the zero G and fighting as you go was amazingly fun. Also of note was the moments in the game when you have to go out into the Vaccum of Space to either fight the monsterd or repair the ship or both at the same time. With only a limited amount of air, you're under a serious time crunch, and since it's a vaccum sound doesn't carry so you can't hear the monsters sneaking up on you. That's what I call some scary good times.
Just watch this trailer and tell me this doesn't look like an awesome movie:
- Patrick Roach
