In the future all natural resources have been depleted and deep space mining is a lucrative business. Entire planets are ripped apart and refined by mining ships called “planet crackers”. The largest is the USG Ishimura. On the latest planet a strange artifact has been found. But soon colonists go mad and contact with the ship is lost shortly after planet crack.
In response the USG Kellion is dispatched to locate the Ishimura and restore communications. You play as Isaac Clark, engineering and ship system specialist. He volunteered to go on the mission after receiving a garbled message from his girlfriend on the Ishimura. Things go down hill quickly as their ship crash lands and Isaac is separated from the two surviving crew by gruesome monsters. Guess that reunion is going to have to wait ^_^
It will be up to Isaac to fix the ship, find his girlfriend, and unravel the mystery of the artifact. Objectives are basically the usual fetch quests, but they at least make more sense then collecting arbitrary crests. For example in order to keep the ship from crashing into the planet you need to restart the engines. But this new course leads through a debris field so you must activate the defense turrets. There is some backtracking between the eight decks but a tram system and nav marker make getting to the next objective easy.
Dead Space's hook is the aptly named strategic dismemberment. These enemies aren't you're run of the mill zombies. They take a full clip to the body and still keep coming. Cutting off the head will just make them wildly slash at you. Take out their legs and they'll just keep crawling. The only way to put them down permanently is to cut off their limbs.
Luckily Isaac has plenty of tools at his disposal. That's right, tools. Nearly every weapon is a mining tool. Such as the plasma cutter and ripper sever limbs with gruesome efficiency. Every weapon also has a secondary function like firing mines. There is also a stasis module that can slow down enemies for a short time and kinesis module to pick up and throw heavy objects. Weapons, modules, and your suit can be upgraded at workbenches with power nodes found or bought at the stores scattered around the ship.
The streamlined interface really helps to keep you immersed in the game. Instead of a HUD everything is shown on the character. Health and stasis energy are shown on back of his suit. Ammo counters displayed on the guns. And inventory and messages are shown through holographic projections. These projections do not pause the game and you can even rotate the camera around them.
Dead Space is stunning visually. The art direction depicts the Ishimura as a gothic and utilitarian mining vessel instead of the sleek, sterile look in most stock sci-fi ships. The view from outside the ship is just spectacular. Sound is also impressive, whether it's the muted sound in a vacuum or the clank of a pipe behind you. Animation is simply amazing as the wide variety of death animations show the enemies aren't the only ones who can be dismembered.
There are a few rough spots such as camera trouble in tight spaces. There is a turret mini-game that's really annoying but luckily only shows up twice. And melee attacks are practically worthless in a fight. But these issues are small nitpicks to what is an amazing experience. So turn down the lights, crank up the speakers, and hang onto on seat with the scariest game of the year.