4EVER's take on Dead Space Worlds

Since I was the one who introduced Terfle to the game, I figured I might as well make my own post about it. 


Dead Space Worlds is the only game in the series to take place on a handheld but it feels very much like the console versions. This is not a complaint at all, seeing as the handheld takes a fresh take on the over the shoulder 3rd person Dead Space horror games, featuring a new protagonist by the name of Vandal. As you go about slaying Necromorphs, you will hack, blast and cut your way just to survive the challenges the game throws at you.
Visually, the game is magnificent. It looks absolutely beautiful on the small iPod Touch with some very sharp looking environments. Vandal and the enemies are also visuals treats to look at. The only thing with the graphics I have to complain about would be the fact that you spend a lot of time in the same industrial  area,  and after a while, it just becomes underwhelming to look at the same metal environments over and over.
The story I find can be a bit uninspiring. I like the idea of the story as a whole though. Basically, Vandal is an engineer who is sent aboard this mining space station known as "The Sprawl" by the church of Unitology to sabotage several devices. You do this, but you then work out that you have been betrayed by the church and find yourself stuck on the sprawl with the Necromorphs that you helped release. You are then contacted by director Tideman and he says that if you are truly regretful of your actions, then you will go to the control room and seal off the doors to the Public Sector of the Sprawl so the Necromorphs can't reach the public. You are also aided by Tyler through the communication system. Tyler proves to be an...interesting ally in your fight to stop the Necromorphs. The trouble with the story is, that all you ever feel that you are doing is just working your way from one part of the Sprawl to the next and you soon lose that driving force of "You MUST stop the monsters" and I found myself forgetting why I was fighting. However, Vandal does have an interesting story as well. Vandal is a few peas short of a pie and begins to lose sanity. There are very cool moments to these insanity sections . For one, there is this a part when you will see a mirror image of yourself, doing exactly what you are doing, but when you go close enough to touch it, the image turns into a Necromorph. Another loss of sanity moment is clear when you walk Vandal down a long corridor and the faint picture of the face of a Necromorph slowly forces it's way into your sight. But my absolute favourite moment is when Vandal admits the sanity has left the poor engineer when the filtered voice comes out of the speakers with the words "I don't know what's real anymore..."

Vandal is the ultimate Shadow Protagonist. He could be anyone under that helmut, even you. The trouble with this though, is when I finished the game and found out who Vandal was, the illusion was broken for me a little when I played the game the second time round. 
Gameplay follows the Dead Space theme. You use the weapons available to you to kill all the enemies. The best way to do this is to cut off their limbs, as is hinted to you by words written in blood on the walls. There are also a lot of enemy types which is cool. You've got the standard Necromorph that will try and get as close to you as possible to slash you with the spikes on it's arms, the Crawlers, that have tentacles on their backs which fire stingers at you, Exploders which have exploding sacks on their arms and will swing them at you to self destruct, Pregnants, that (if you hit them in the stomach) will release tonnes of small creatures that latch onto you and you have to waste heaps ammo to rid the universe of them. And of course, the brutes...but you only fight two of them in the game. Each enemy has their own strengths and weaknesses, which you must exploit if you want to kill them. 
Fighting is done through engineering tools. What's neat about the weapons, is that they all feel in place for a mining station. You have the "Plasma Saw" which is...um, a plasma saw, a "Plasma Cutter", a "Ripper", a "Line Gun" and the "Corer". There's also a new weapon released, but I has no new weapon.  Each has a secondary function which is handy. The main focus of the game is having little ammo and little health to get by on, but I don't think that you can get the true thrill of Dead Space Worlds when playing on easy. When you play on normal, you die in three hits which is super stressful and ammo is scarce. Think being locked in a room with a bunch of killer beasts is scary? Try doing it with only three shots in the Plasma Cutter. 
Dead Space Worlds is actually my favourite iPod touch game and I do highly recommend it. Try playing on hard, at night, with headphones for the full experience.


SPOILERS BELOW. Do not look below if you have not completed the game!


There is also a boss fight in the game. After Tyler betrays you and tricks you into locking all the doors to the public sector open, Tideman informs you that something is suffocating the energy core. Once you get to it, you will see your worst nightmare. After destroying the beast, it grabs Vandal and pulls her into the depths. Vandal manages to climb out, but her helmut falls off, revealing that she is a girl. This is what made it hard for me to play the second time around, knowing who she was. She calls Tideman and says that she's hurt and needs help, but no-one is there to answer her call. She says her name is Kerry Norton, which probably has some place in Dead Space lore, but I'm not sure where. After the credits roll, you see a trail of blood from where Vandal used to be. Tyler's voice rings through and says: "Mission complete"
Terfle also said you see Vandal's dead body in Dead Space 2. I WANT TO SEEZ THE CLIP ON YOUTUBE. TELL MEZ THE URL!!