In the latest third-person survival horror game, Dead Space, you play as Isaac Clark, a space engineer, who goes in an infested space ship to find his girlfriend, Nicole.  You’re with your crew that resembles the Nebuchadnezzar crew from the Matrix, heading to the Ishimura ship to find out what went wrong.  Isaac and crew lands inside the ship, only to find the ship infested with mutated creatures.  Sounds clichéd, yes I know.  Aliens, Sunshine, and Bioshock come into mind.  And especially Prey, a game about a Native-American who has to save his girlfriend and the world from aliens.

You’re in the Ishimura traveling from one section to the next by way of a train system.  Each chapter takes place in a different section of the ship.  It can get repetitive because you’re following a set formula for the different chapters/sections.  Each chapter starts off with the same looking docking bay, then as you proceed, you’re in the main room, a safe spot, with a save point and store for buying and selling.  Each level has their own safe spot, and you’ll be going into this room a bit throughout the game buying/selling and saving.

I like the fact that the main character is a space engineer, so it makes sense that he gets to wear a cool suit, while not being a military soldier, but he’s still able to kick some ass and stomp them too.  Kind of like Gordon Freeman, but less on the machoness and more on pure space suit effectiveness.

You get plenty of cool weapons, but my weapon of choice is the Plasma Cutter, a laser type gun with horizontal and vertical aim.  It’s all that you need when facing these space creatures.  You also get stasis powers, which can slow down objects and enemies.  The last power is the jedi-like power that enables you to lift objects and hurl them at enemies.

The actual gameplay is your typical first-person shooter fair.  You see an enemy, you kill it.  But the thing that makes this game different is that it encourages you to dismember them by shooting off their limbs, which kills them faster.  It’s a nice change compared to other shooters where you shoot them in the head or chest.

Aside from the routine killing and solving some puzzles here and there, what makes the game really shine is the presentation.

The graphics are beautiful.  The intro scene with the crew in space heading into the Ishimura is pure eye candy.  The monsters look terrifying and creepy.  The character models are good and distinct.  The overall lighting of the game is top-notch.

The HUD screen is very clever.  Instead of displaying it on the screen, it is implemented into Isaac’s suit.  His life bar is indicated on the back of his suit where the spinal columns are.  The ammo for the weapons are holograms indicated on top of the weapon.  The actual map and inventory system is a hologram system that’s part of Isaac’s suit.  Because of the integrated HUD, you feel less like you’re playing a video game, but actually on a journey with Isaac in deep space.

I also have to talk about the cool on-screen navigation line.  With a click of the right analog stick, the line shows you where you need to go.  So you don’t have to check out the map display back and forth.  It makes it less tedious; besides, the 3d map is really terrible in terms of readability.

Crank up your surround sound system and turn off the light to be truly scared.  The sound is very haunting and can raise your adrenaline from the haunting sounds of a woman singing in the distant to crashing tentacles grabbing your legs.

This game at its core doesn’t bring anything new to the table and can get repetitive with the action and settings. What it does bring is the different ways to kill your enemies with different type of weapons.  The visuals astound you and the audio surrounds you, bringing you one step closer to the deep space.

Grade: B

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