Decent games from EA cause their economy to drop like flies.

When I got Dead Space from an unsuspecting grandparent this holiday, I interpreted it as a "SURVIVAL HORROR ACTION OVER THE SHOULDER GAME FROM EA WITH SOME GORE" So this is how I'm going to layout this review.

Survival: You do a quite a bit of it. Storing ammo, preserving health kits and stasis packs. By only giving you about 8 spaces and then unlockable spaces in the inventory, you have to think out strategies before you go out into the dark halls of the USG ISHUMURA, as, there isn't a single moment of rest. As you have probably heard, there is no HUD in the game. No health bars or ammo screens around your character, Issac. (ITS ZACK! Little in joke there...) Your suit is the hud as your health bar and stasis circle is situated on the back of the suit, the store and bench are also completely in game. I found myself murdered while buying health packs from the store; now that was annoying. The ammunition is shown as a hologram on the gun. The major gripe with this, is while surfing the inventory, I couldn't tell how many rounds I had left for my Plasma Cutter, which turned out to an 8 instead of 10. I think it could be better on a giant screen, but my standard TV couldn't display the rounds clear enough.

Horror: Where? I don't see any... Well, this game is panicky and gives you a little jump once and again, but the whole thing is completely obvious. The lights go out after pressing the button and a monster jumps through the window, causing you to take aim and fire. YOu also know this before any monsters are visible due to the ship flashing orange lights to alert you. This isn't scary. The first time maybe. No the next few hundred times a dead body pops up and gives you a hug.

Action: This game is more a Survival Action game. You've got you're standard quick time events when a monster starts to rip you to pieces, the whole explosions and the lot. The shooting etc appears. But it never takes over. Ever. Survival takes place more.

Over the Shoulder: Erm. Maybe I can speak about the controls? Yeah. They work. That's all I can ask for. They work and I can rest easy while tearing the monsters a new one. Left stick moves, right stick controls camera and aiming. LT redies your gun for aiming and RT does the firing. X applies a health pack and Y accesses your inventory. LB creates the run that is vital to escape and RB activates secondary weapon, EG: Mines. LT + A reloads and the best thing in this is the Zero G controls. LT + Y jumps. Thats it. LT + B Activates keninis and LT + X is your stasis. Stasis, slows stuff down making it easier to kill or pass through broken doors. As you can tell, LT is your main button. But, it might get confusing at times. Oh and RB and RT by themselves are stomp and punch respectively.

Game From EA: To be honest. This is one hell of a great game in years from the company. Seeing as Mercs and Mirror's Edge were massive flops and Far Cry 2 sort of fizzled out after a week over here in Britain, Dead Space is one of the top 5 games from the company. Yes, I am actually complimenting EA. They just nailed it right in the center of a enjoyable game. May I dare say, it matches up to Resident Evil 4? No. Don't be daft. Resident Evil 4 was the best game of the last generation.

Gore: The case has a dismembered arm. The game makes you kill the enemies by dismembering their limbs and you die in some pretty gruesome ways. How about a little bug ripping the head of and replacing it with it's own body? A giant propeller smashing you into pieces? That's just a few. You have a stomp which will just about finish off anything and slice the head off a dead body. It's just a gory ride from start to finish. Even fetuses want a bit of gore!

So, this disturbing masterpiece for the next months is given an 8/10. It's just go to point A to B and do something at B return to A and head to C. That is the basics of a mission in this game. The voice acting was decent for a horror game, but this isn't a horror game as such. Ah well, it's fun.