Dead Space = Half Life

2012-02-28T16:22:00.003-08:00

As some avid gamers might have already heard, Gamestop is having a new deal where you buy a used game and within a week after purchase if you don't like the game you can return it for a full refund, no questions asked. Capitalizing on this awesome opportunity for virtually free games, my brother bought Dead Space 2. Watching him tromp through the ruins of numerous futuristic space vessels, hacking down the limbs of countless zombie-like aliens, I can't help but notice some similarities between this game and another title I played in twelve years ago.

Dead Space and Half-Life are definitely 2 peas in a pod when you see small aliens latch onto people's heads and use them as hosts for a mutation into a walking alien - zombie with giant claws. Well, I think this is a recurring theme in alien flicks in general (like the movie Aliens). Except it's cooler in Dead Space because you get to chop their limbs off in whatever order using all sorts of weapons, including a floating buzzsaw. Taste that coagulating alien blood! Also, It has hanging "cysts" that shoot exploding pods at you when you walk by. And guess what. THEY LOOK JUST LIKE HALF-LIFE'S BARNACLES!! Observe:

The Barnacle

The Cyst

But yet again, Dead Space 2 Makes it twice as cool because you can catch the exploding pod with your telekinesis and throw it back. Sweet! Although, I am a bit nostalgic about wondering why the hell I was slowly being caught up into the air until finally looking up and seeing a giant array of teeth sucking at your face. More importantly, however, is the fact that numerous aspects of the plot itself resemble those of Half Life as well. For example, zombie-like aliens that use human hosts to multiply and evolve? Telekinesis powers a.k.a. Gravity Gun? A mysterious character that looms over the whole story and always appears at unexpected times and is quite creepy (G-Man in Half Life and Nicole Brennan, Isaac's dead girlfriend in Dead Space)? And is it just me, or does the final boss of Dead Space remind you of the Gene Worm at the end of Half Life: Opposing Force? Well I'm about to watch him beat the game before bringing it back unashamed to Gamestop and getting our full money back :D

Oh yeah and if anybody is having problems with the 3 red lights of death on their xbox, my brother and I used this to fix it and now it works like a charm. Didn't even have to wait for a month to get it back from microsoft!

The Gaming Informant

Dead Space = Half Life