Dead Space details

Dead Space is an upcoming survival horror title from EA that is set in space (thus the name). We think this title looks really cool, but it’s a major shame there’s no female playable protagonist – though the ‘hero’ Isaac Clarke is clad in mining armor, so one might have a flight of fancy it’s a cool chick.

EA Redwood Shores (developers of Dead Space) look like they’ve put a lot of love into this game and we’re hoping us gamers will reap the rewards of that come Halloween when it launches on X360, PS3 and PC. The game also got us thinking about some other geeky things revolving around female protagonists in space, which we’ll look at after the jump.

Every now and again a female science fiction hero hits the screen and it works a treat (Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor being the most prevalent). Sadly for Dead Space it seems like it’s just another science fiction genre story where the hero is a guy and the woman is once more given the role of disembodied voice and used as a tool for storyline advancement (shocker!).

The Dead Space Comic

The female character in Dead Space is Kendra Daniels. As if wishing to rub salt into the wounds of female gamers everywhere Kendra Daniels is the ‘tech specialist’, the other storyline character is ‘security’ Zach Hammond. Now I don’t want to be the one to point out the obvious, but sometimes it’s cooler to take the road less traveled. Wouldn’t it have been nice to see Kendra as the hero or security dude and Zachy boy as the tech geek… just sayin!

 

We’ve seen some really cool sci-fi chicks over the years, another Kendra we covered recently in the form of Battlestar Galactica’s Kendra Shaw. Then there is – of course – the other women of the Battlestar universe. There’s also Ellen Ripley and the other women of the Aliens universe (most notably Jenette Vasquez and Collette Ferro – marine and marine dropship pilot). How about Captain Kathryn Janeway, Tasha Yar, Kira Nerys and other women of the Trek universe. We won’t list them all, you probably know who are the good ones and who are there for more dubious reasons.

Most strong women in science fiction are used as a tool for story advancement or male lead enhancement, especially in video games and that’s kind of annoying. We briefly covered the issues of placing real world social norming into a futuristic environment and it just feels wrong. It’s such a shame game developers continue to follow this same stringent path, rather than making two playable characters from the offset, one male, one female.

 

On the upside Dead Space is being made into an animated movie also and the ships “crewmembers find themselves locked in a frantic struggle to survive”, hopefully one of the "crewmembers" will be a chick and she wont just be the medic, a diplomatic assistant, technical assistant or work in the ships mess.

The animated feature is slated to premiere at the same time as the game is launched – though strangely we checked at the IMDB and the only Dead Space was slated for a 2010 release.

3 Responses to “Dead Space details”

1. Thefremen says:

   May 20, 2008 at 5:29 pm

   The character design for the main character looks awful. I hope somewhere in the game he finds a way to replace his helmet because it is HORRIBLE.
   Either way, YEAH Janeway. I hated the Q episodes because she should always have a handle on things, always be in control of the situation. Kind of like Adama.
   BTW, I just caught up with BSG and OMG what is with the slaughter of innocent Cylons on that show?! ;_;
2. Angela says:

   May 20, 2008 at 8:18 pm

   lol
   I JUST literally finished watching that BSG episode and I must say I was deeply shocked and saddened by “the slaughter of innocent cylons”, that model particularly since it’s my favorite ;o)
   As for Dead Space.. man are you right about that stupid uniform.
3. Zefbot says:

   May 20, 2008 at 9:56 pm

   Yeah, no one is safe in BSG at the moment, and if I were any of them (cylon or otherwise) I wouldn’t be trusting anyone but myself.
   Back on topic…not really into horror whether it’s set in space or not and with the lack of female protaganists this title just doesn’t catch my attention at all.