Dead Space: First Impressions

I picked up Dead Space the other day and have had a few hours to mess around with it. It's the first big title of the fall AAA game onslaught that I was interested enough in to buy. So far it has not disappointed. My girlfriend even had to leave the room while I was playing it, which has to be a good sign for a horror themed shooter.

Dead Space looks fantastic, no doubt about it, which is to say that it looks absolutely disgusting. I am proud that this was the first new game I've had a chance to break in on my new 61" TV. The first thing you'll notice is probably the grossly deformed enemies which persistently lumber at you even after losing both legs (the headshot is no longer king here, it's all about removing their limbs), and they are a sight to behold. Once you get a quiet moment to look around though, you also notice how good the environment looks, in this case a huge "planet cracker" ship named the Ishimura.

The gameplay so far is a little bit Gears of War, and a little bit Resident Evil. No cover system that seems to be all the rage these days, but it just wouldn't make sense in a game where the enemies are popping out from dark scary corners most of the time. The weapon variety I've found so far is a ton of fun. Since chopping limbs is the order of the day, the weapons tend towards the slicing and dicing variety. EA attempted to make all the weapons seem realistic, mostly with construction and engineering slant to them, but I still fail to see where one would use a flamethrower in a giant space ship.

Overall I'm having a grand time mowing down these icky creatures. I'll hopefully post a little more once I wrap things up. If you have the chance, definitely check it out.

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