Dead Space

What do you think of when you hear the word "scary"?

Zombies? Aliens? Creepy music? ...Toast?

Toast is exactly what comes to mind when I think of Dead Space; why? That's the only type of scare that Dead Space can muster, and it’s what I like to call "The Toast Effect", where the game attempts to scare you with Aliens or other objects popping out of nowhere trying to make you jump, and this isn't something I look in a game. With a game like dead space you would think they would try to create an atmosphere that was actually frightening, but it turned out to be an empty void of intertwining corridors, all gun metal grey.

That is my major problem with this game, its not scary for a game that should be.

The rest of the game is fairly well done, the controls are almost prefect (although way too similar to Resident Evil 4), the music is non-existent, which helps to create an atmosphere of loneliness (where the atmosphere should have been scary) with some great sound effects - the best way to describe the game is "Metroid Prime crossed with Resident evil 4".

A feature that I’m really not sure about is the "find-a-path" option, where the game literally shows you exactly where to go with a press of a button, which, in theory is a good idea, but takes away a lot of the exploration of the game - but without using it can get you lost and lose track of where your meant to be going, so its really up to you how you find this feature, I’m fairly indifferent on it.

Parts of the game your able to go into anti-gravity rooms and which gives you the ability to space jump, which is fantastic and well done - its fun to play around with and to kill things while like this (although enemies can become a pain)

The last thing I want to comment on is the amputation element of the game, and I have to say that it was used and implemented extremely well, although once the enemy is dead the rag-doll (or parts of the rag doll) move around just.. oddly.. as if they have no weight at all, and with that boxes and objects move across the floor as if on ice. Now, you might be thinking "well, it is in space you idiot" but it’s inside, nothing else seems to have less weight then it should while inside.

Although a great game at its core, I was sorely disappointed when I found out how lame of an attempt was made to make it scary, and when you go to play a game that you've heard is scary, its a real let down when it comes down to the scare being the equivalent of somebody yelling "boo" in the dark.