Dead scary

by ERIK LEIJON

As I type this with all the lights on, I’m clutching my teddy bear, my eyes darting to the dark corners in the room. Dead Space (PS3, X360, Multi/EA, EA Redwood Shores) is like an Outer Limits episode with no constraints. Even the most frightening of Outer Limits episodes contained a few B-actors or some cheesy alien costumes to break the tension, but Dead Space takes the barren spaceship locale to new, pant-defiling levels.

The story is traditional by science fiction standards: a small ship and her crew answer a distress call from a huge asteroid mining ship, only to find the vessel overrun by lightning quick aliens. A claustrophobic space ship will always be frightening—the ominous quiet coupled with the finite amount of oxygen might have something to do with it—yet the developers have managed to make these fears all the more immediate. Like the inventive folks who put together the Outer Limits episodes on shoestring budgets, a few easy tricks are used to keep players immersed.

BFRIGHT FEST: Dead Space

For instance, the aliens themselves are tough to kill. Called Necromorphs, the only effective means of killing them is to shoot their limbs, tentacles or whatever appendages they might have. Cap one in the head and they’ll keep chasing you as blood gushes from the severed area. Shooting one leg could result in the Necromorph adjusting his stance (such as using his arms for legs) and continuing the fight. Seemingly dead aliens will abruptly spring back to life, climb the walls, even attack in zero-gravity.

Observe the excellent use of lighting as well. The spaceship is mostly dark except for the various neon-lit screens. Since there’s a lot of backtracking, the lighting and shadows are constantly changing based on camera perspective, so re-entering a room feels like a new, potentially dangerous situation every time.

Accumulating items and info on the ship’s fate also keeps the player in the action, as any story-advancing dialogues are done through a small holoscreen that materializes right in front of our character. It’s quick, effective, and it means the aliens will still move in real-time even as you communicate with one of your crewmates or play back an audio tape. Anyone looking for an engrossing, single-player cinematic fright fest, pick up Dead Space and keep the lights on.

Killer kombination

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (X360, PS3/Midway, Midway) is a satisfying mash-up for both fighting game fans and comic book geeks. A brawler that plays like a better realized version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, MK vs. DC features the best characters from both fictional worlds. The likes of Batman, Liu Kang, Superman, Scorpion and Joker fight in one-on-one 3D battles with recognizable moves and styles.

In some ways, this is the most authentic Mortal Kombat experience since the series’ heyday in the ’90s. The violence has sadly been toned down to the point where not even Joe Lieberman’s blood would boil upon viewing some of the modest fatalities, but the fighting system that emphasizes knowing a few combinations perfectly instead of a laundry list of techniques is back.

Even the near-perfect MK2 had irregularly timed moves and funky hit detection that required practice and repetition to figure out, a system that returns here. The fatalities still take a lot of practice and head-scratching to learn, but it’s rewarding when the skill is mastered.

Although the artistic direction that made Mortal Kombat such a revolutionary title in video game violence isn’t what it used to be, this comeback game does a great job capturing the spirit of the series while adding a new collection of famous fighters to the mix.