Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThis book barely salvaged the Dead Space name
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2011
Dead Space: Salvage is a graphic novel about a group of salvage pirates that encounter the USG Ishimura while scrapping for minerals to take back home. The ship crashes into one of their ships and they decide to board it in order to scrap it for more money. Meanwhile, EarthGov sends Defense Secretary David Chang out to find the red marker along with two Oracles, who take control of the operation themselves. The crew sets foot on the Ishimura and discovers pieces of the Unitologist religion's sacred red marker, and the Oracles set out to find it as well. The Oracles come across crew member Julia Copland and question her and, after gaining the information they need, kill her using a form of telepathy. Both the crew and Oracles discover the Necromorph outbreak and even a Hivemind still aboard the ship, as the crew is dwindling, Stefan Schneider must confront the Oracles and find a way off the ship to escape before certain death befalls him like the others!
So, this little graphic novel takes place after the Dead Space game (and even includes a few teaser pictures for Dead Space 2!) and the story revolves around some space pirates and the super-secret organization called the Oracles. I found the inclusion of the Oracles a really neat part of the story as they are a "ghost" organization and they have special, unknown powers that allow them to kill humans with mere thought and they utilize special beam weapons that obliterate the necromorphs in a single shot. Also, their ship is a stealth ship with technology Stefan has never seen before. It's a conspirator-type thing that goes well with the Dead Space story. The space pirate characters are a varied bunch but I could care less about them by the end of the story. The art is very dark and blurry but adds to the feel of the horror graphic novel. However, a lot of the pictures are re-used and it shows a sign of laziness to the artists. Also, there are no speech bubbles. It's just a poorly drawn line connecting dialogue to a character and some of the dialogue is in different colors to differentiate between characters. Also, the story gets a tad bit hard to follow at times but overall was an enjoyable read. Seeing a giant Hivemind was scary (if you've played the game especially) and the story really picks up in the end. Overall, it's a decent read after playing the game.
