14 DAY TRIAL // EA Redwood is developing what could prove to be the Bioshock of 2008, a game called Dead Space, that puts the player in the gravity boots of one scared and alone deep space miner and engineer that needs to solve a mystery concerning aliens, evolution, a cult and his own weird past.
The game is set on a mining ship on a deep space mission. Earth is desperately low on minerals and intrepid miners must venture farther and farther into space to strip mine whole planets and get the minerals back to Earth, where they are now so scarce. One of the mining vessels comes across a mysterious structure, which some call a Market. And then all contact is lost. And your character gets to investigate the Ishimura.
As the game is set on a space ship that looks pretty beat up and with a lot of its core systems down, there will be a lot of places where you'll face one of two issues: a lack of gravitation, because of structural breakdown or malfunctions, or a lack of air, because of the holes in the structure. There are situations when you must face both these hazards at once.
Ian Milham and Glen Schoefield, who are involved in the production of the game, have described the no gravity and no air areas as being some of the most challenging in the whole game. They usually contain puzzles and it takes a bit of on-the-spot orientation and some understanding of physics to complete most of them.
Ian Milham, who describes his job as making sure than "nobody ever feels safe," says these areas are sometimes the areas where the most vicious creatures in the game world congregate, so there's a real chance that the player will come under attack and will have to worry about his survival too, and not only about the lack of gravitation.
While waiting for the release of Dead Space, you can also watch out for the comic book detailing the backstory of the game and for the animated feature that will be released just prior to the game.