The USG Ishimura floats listlessly in the ever-reaching vacuum of space, sunlight glinting off of it's dark hull. Looking from afar your un-named character watches as the repair shuttle closes in and then you see the huge chunk of planet beyond, ripped from the ground upon which it had been joined, the Planetcracker class mining vessel immediatly inspires awe. But this the only moment of peacefull tranquility you are likely going to get as a repair mission soon turns into the nightmare that only kids could have after playing Doom back in the mid-ninties. Welcome to Dead Space. The opening scenes for Dead Space were filled with intense and hostillic atmosphere reaching fevel pitched as your ship crash lands in the hanger bay due to a guidance error. You play Isacc, an Engineer wearing a full body RIG (some kind of amour suit, with holo interfaces) who has volenteered for the mission, he has a girlfriend onboard the Ishimura hence the reason he joined the repair team. Upon arrival, they soon find that the ship is apparently desserted, and Isacc is soon cut off from the others when they are attacked by a... thing... a thing that was once a living breathing human being. It's mangled face all the humanity that remains. Soon you find yourself armed with a Plasma Cutter, which fires a straight horizontal or vertical waves of energy to slice through the limbs of the "Necromorphs" as we learn what they are called later. Creeping through the dark tight confines of the ship, the sound ambiance is excellently chilling as you hear Isacc's metallic breathing, his heart thumping with increasing vigour when he is freightened, the sounds of clanging and reverbrating metal as the creatures move about the air-filtration system; the occasional scream. And the gruesome sound of squishing, blistering and tearing flesh is captured wonderfully. Just pump up the volume, turn off the in-game music and close your eyes and listen. An amazing experiance alone. The story in total comprises of many twists you don't expect. And the end is shocking. The gameplay is some of the best I've played in years, having to shoot off the Creatures limbs to take them down is a great mechanic and forces you to be more tactfull in your approach. While the Obsidian Suit I downloaded made me look a lot cooler while Necro-smashing having all black armour, purple eye sensors, meleeing the Necro's is satisfyingly hefty and pleasent. I soon found myself checking every corner and shadow as I proceeded along the corridors. It is a good puzzler, presenting you with obstacles to rival Tomb Raider. I had, unlike Bobfish's controller speed issue, no problems with the controls, finding they bore simularities to Resident Evil 5 and Call of Duty in the shooting department, though while aiming, turning is much slower than the PC version according to Bobfish, I can say; with my outing of the game on PS3 that whilst aiming, your character turns at a realistic pace for a man in a heavy Hazard suit and holding a hefty Line Gun (indeed one of the most devestating in the game) though my favorite was always being able to fall back onto the Pulse Rifle which is baically a machine gun. Whilst not aiming I found Isacc to be quite responsive having been swarmed by many of the creatures having often to fend off my own body with a tap of R1 to swing my fists about untill I could select another weapon. The pause screen, and general in-game interfaces are all 3D holograms that are emitted by your RIG. So much innovation in one game, and the zero-g battles, and vacuum runs are chilling and tense. And the collecting of funds to spend on your weapons and finding power nodes to upgrade your equipment is a joy. I know I must play the game again on one of the higher difficulty settings and I'm sure the fight through the Ishimura will go from challenging to damn near impossible. All in all a must play. And top form for EA. Score: Graphics: 8.5 Gameplay: 9 Sound Design: 10 Plot/Story: 9 Replayability: 8 (its chillingly addictive) Overall Score: 8.9 Personal Score: 9 (Silver Award) Verdict: If you haven't played Dead Space yet, then you had better have a good bloody excuse for letting this little gem slip by. One of the best games in years from EA. Great game.
