Waste of Space
These days, it’s not uncommon for big games to spawn a host of cross-promotional media products when they debut, from movies and spin-offs to novelizations and comics. Visceral Games is no stranger to this—some of you may remember the Dead Space comics and straight-to-dvd animated feature Downfall, not to mention the infinitely forgettable anime that was released alongside Dante’s Inferno. Everyone knows that it’s good to be wary of spin-offs, because more often than not they’re not worth your time or offer little connection to what you like about the original game series.
So when I heard that Ignition was a motion-comic padded with three types of mini-games to somehow constitute gameplay, I naturally had to raise an eyebrow. The original Dead Space comics, which later appeared on both PSN and XBLA as well as in the Dead Space: Extraction’s bonus material, weren’t terribly thrilling, though it was somewhat interesting to see some of the events that landed the necromorphs on the Ishimura to begin with. The art wasn’t great and the writing was mostly expository horror-movie filler, but for what it was—which was free—it was an interesting little trip into the then-burgeoning Dead Space mythos, which still had some element of mystique to it. Ignition can make no such claim. Visceral’s various reveals concerning Dead Space 2 has lifted what little shroud of mystery still remain after the explorations of Unitology in Extraction; what’s could possibly be left to uncover in another motion comic?
The answer is nothing. Ignition’s main selling point—that it chronicles what happened on the Sprawl leading up to the events of Dead Space 2—is a joke, though playing it does unlock some items for Isaac to use when the DS2 comes out. Let’s not kid ourselves: when Ignition was announced, absolutely no one cared about Ignition’s aforementioned mini-games. If you cared at all, if was for the story connection to Dead Space 2 (unlikely) or the unlockable items (more likely). And with good reason. As a “game,” Ignition is Dead Space’s first absolute failure—one that’s comprised of flash-faithful, browser-style games whose connections to the series itself are tenuous at best. But you probably already knew that.
The joke of the concept aside, a lot of the Dead Space devoted will probably play this one anyway, if only out of morbid curiosity (though I would recommend just downloading the demo if you must). And those of you who were hoping Ignition would have a shade or two of the interactivity seen in Metal Gear’s digital graphic novel, think again. Ignition is less “interactive comic” and more “movie that just happens to have some derivative, interactive distractions thrown in to justify its status as an actual game.” That means you won’t be frantically tapping buttons at random intervals to avoid getting eviscerated by bloodthirsty necromorphs, which, while not amazing, could have been mildly interesting. Instead, Ignition’s narrative is as static as it is boring and Hollywood-horror generic, even with the slight deviations from the main path you can take. It may sound like I’m (maybe) being unnecessarily harsh on Ignition, which as we all know is a game that few expected anything from anyway. Honestly, though, I think it would have been better off if EA had knocked three bucks off the download price and just made it a motion comic that unlocked Dead Space 2 content as you watched it. Instead, they decided to subject us to the mini-games that comprise Ignition’s so-called gameplay.
Ignition’s mini-games, which involve hacking into computer systems and terminals in and around the Sprawl, fall into three basic gameplay designs: racing, puzzle, and tower offense (yes, it’s a reverse from normal tower defense). Trace Route has you “race” your hacking protocol through a maze of code, outrunning security protocols to the end of the system. System override has you sending waves of viruses through a hexagonal grid of code, using your units to destroy security nests embedded in the software of whatever you happen to be hacking.
Hardware crack, the most complex of the three, involves bouncing a series of colored lasers into power hubs using mirrors, the catch being that you have to have placed your mirrors in certain places to get unobstructed paths for the lasers to follow to their destinations, and your supplies are limited. All three games have simple controls, and you can use power-ups to, say, speed up, blow up security software installations, or split a laser beam four ways to create new paths to use. But these games are so simple you’ll grow tired of them after a few minutes (even the sometimes-tricky hardware crack puzzles). Worse, there’s nothing that screams “Dead Space” about them. The top-down “gameboard” graphics, ripped straight from countless generic sci-fi freeware games of the mid-nineties, is about as exciting as watching someone solder computer components together, and even when the difficulty ramps up and new moves are introduced, the lack of connection to the Dead Space universe coupled with the inanity of the gameplay will probably just make you roll your eyes and wish you could get through the section to see what will happen next in the story (which, by the way, isn’t even interesting).
Finally, adding a little more insult to injury, Ignition’s exploration of what happens on the Sprawl before Dead Space 2 is worthless. As much I enjoy Dead Space, EA, “backstory” does not entail introducing two throwaway characters, sending them on a series of routine jobs, and then capturing their inappropriately underwhelmed reactions to a sudden inexplicable bloodbath that’s occurring all over the space station. Spoiler alert: the necromorphs appear out of nowhere and lots of people panic and die!
Of course, fans of the series already know where the necromorphs come from, but if you’re going to just basically repeat the same scenario we’ve seen in every Dead Space property to date, there’s not really much reason to hire a New York Times bestselling comic book writer to pen the script. That’s called a waste of talent. The story is wildly inconsistent as well, with unexplained motivations all over the board and some laughably nonsensical reactions from the protagonists. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think suddenly being in a corpse-strewn room with ripped-off appendages and torn-in-two torso coating the floor where there were a group of people just moments ago would elicit a nonchalant response—it would result in a panic and then a serious case of PTSD. Toss in a lot of moments where your hacking mini-games are supposed to be occurring during the middle of an intense necromorph battle, and, well, you’ve got something pretty stupid on your hands.
Bottom line, unless you really, really want new gear for Isaac in Dead Space 2, don’t bother with this tired cash-in.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.0 Graphics
Ignition’s art is inconsistent (and often sketchy and incoherent) and the mini-games could be faithfully re-created in flash. Yawn. 2.5 Control
“Controls” are pretty basic for the mini-games. I don’t see how you could possibly either screw them up or make them anything revolutionary. 2.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Music seems to be taken from the original Dead Space and the voice acting is serviceable (though entirely forgettable). 0.5 Play Value
When your game makes you want to skip the egregiously tedious gameplay so you can see what happens in the utterly forgettable story, you know you’re doing something wrong. 1.7 Overall Rating – Avoid
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: