dismember the good times

I have a soft spot in my heart for horror games. And horror movies. And horror books. Ok, I like horror anything. So it goes without saying that Halloween might be high on my list of favorite holidays. This year, Halloween will be your favorite holiday too! (Sorry, Flag Day! Better luck next year.) That’s because Dead Space releases about two weeks before all hallow’s eve. By that time you’ll have plenty of play time with EA’s fantastically fearsome survival space horror title.

I often find it very difficult to talk about a game and not ruin the plot. Especially if the plot is very engaging. So instead of walking down that potentially disastrous road (disastrous for you, not me), I’ll instead prime you with a few tips and tricks so that you’re ready on release date. That way, you can get the most out of your experience in space, and still have a few minutes to trick-or-treat.

Tip #1: Dismember to kill! The necromorphs in Dead Space are tough. In fact, you won’t often be able to kill them by conventional methods. Headshots don’t do much and blasts to the torso do even less. Instead, take careful aim at their limbs and blast away. I like to start at their legs to slow them down, then work my way up to their arms or other limbs.

Tip #2: Combine your abilities. As you progress through the game, you get some pretty nifty abilities. I won’t go into them here, but suffice it to say that the best way to survive is to get creative. Combine your abilities to make enemies easier targets, or even turn certain baddies into weapons themselves!

Tip #3: Spend your Power Nodes wisely. Power Nodes are used to upgrade your RIG (your suit) and your weapons. However, there’s an art to upgrading your weapons. There are two kinds of slots in the upgrade menu– empty “bridging” slots, and enhancement slots that upgrade the weapon’s abilities (like damage). In order to reach some of the enhancement slots, you must first fill the empty “bridge” slots. Ya dig? Don’t use Power Nodes on empty “bridge” slots unless you have enough Power Nodes for the “enhancement” slots as well.

Tip #4: This one is my favorite. Pay close attention to the walls. Scrawled on the walls are special messages that can only be deciphered using a special “key”. I’m not talking about a door key, I’m talking about a special “codebreaker” key.  All I can tell you is this… the key is on a wall in Chapter 6. *gasp* The messages on the walls explain a lot about Unitology and what happened on the Ishimura prior to your arrival, so I highly suggest you play Sherlock Holmes and get to decodin’!

Comic fans should also know that the events leading to your experience in Dead Space are covered in a six issue series of comics published by Image Comics. Check them out and you’ll have everything you need to get your through Dead Space alive.