The underlining gameplay elements in Dead Space are pretty simple. It's in essence a third-person shooter in the vein of Resident Evil 4 or Gears of War, and the controls feel just as smooth and streamlined as any other third-person shooter. The missions are pretty straightforward as well as you are moving from one point to another and thanks to a nifty in-game guidance system, you'll never be uncertain of where you need to go. What sets Dead Space apart from many other games however is that there is no HUD to speak of, at least not in the traditional sense. Your health, ammo, inventory, map, etc. are all show in real time either on your character, or holographically projected in front of you via Isaac's RIG (which is basically his armored suit). Thus accessing the inventory, checking the map or your objectives, etc is down in real time. In fact the only time that you taken out of real-time is when saving your game at any of the numerous save stations.
Being a "survival horror" game, Dead Space has all of the familiar trappings that such games entail: dark corridors, grotesque enemies, surprise encounters, eery music, etc. However, the setting, atmosphere and the necromorphs themselves are handled so well and executed so well that it doesn't at feel derivative or cliched. Or rather, the game immerses you so well that it's hard to care. Even it's concept of "strategic dismemberment" which at face value sounds like a stupid marketing phrase, works out surprisingly well and is handled in a subtle way. But it would be selling the game short to say it didn't contains innovation as the zero gravity sequences,for instance, are some of the best gameplay flourishes I've ever played.
There's a wide array of weapons from a basic Plasma Cutter (aking to a pistol) to a mighty Contact Beam (akin to a sniper rifle) to a very useful Force Gun. Each weapon also has a secondary fire mode, which definitely comes in handy in many combat situations. You're also able to learn two special abilities, kinesis and stasis. Stasis allows you slow down enemies and objects wheras kinesis allows you to grab, manipulate and throw objects. Both of these abilities can be useful in combat but you will have to rely on your guns if you want to survive. And while the guns don't feel particularly powerful in the beginning, after they are fully upgraded even the Plasma Cutter becomes pretty powerful, even against the tougher enemies.
The necromorphs themselves come in a variety of forms, from your basic Lurkers (a melee attacker) to Infectors (small ranged attackers) to Brutes (large lumbering monstrosities) to huge boss-level enemies. The necromorphs put put a pretty good fight and will often attempt to attack you from all sides. Most of the tougher necromorphs can take a lot of damage, and even when using "strategic dismemberment" it can take a lot of firepower to bring them down, especially on the harder difficulties. The boss fights, though sparse are also quite fun, especially the end battle (though the boss fights remind me of some of the boss fights from Lost Planet).
Both the visual and sound design are fantastic. The game just looks great with some impressive lighting and particle effects. The texture work could use some improvement but at least the game runs at a relatively consistent frame rate (though there can be some slowdown when there are a lot of enemies on screen). The sound is even more impressive with superb ambience and a score that can be both eery and energetic-at the same time.
Yet Dead Space is far from perfect. The missions can be repetitive as you're often called to get X from location A and then bring it to location B or fix Y so you can then activate Z. Sure the mission progressive feels natural and not at all contrived, but there isn't much variation in your objectives throughout the game. And while the game never feels cheap (like Doom III for instance), it's mechanic of trying to surprise you on a constant basis can get a little tiring (though after a few hours into the game you can tell when a enemy will appear simply by the change in the background music). The clear save issues have already been discussed ad nauseum so I won't mention it here but it would have been nice to have more then 20 save slots available. I still don't understand why games these days have to limit the number of saves you are allowed, especially when most people have plenty of hard drive space for it.
Comparing the PC and 360 versions, there isn't much difference between them. The PC version definitely runs a lot smoother if you have a good system (I'm running it on a Core 2 Quad system with a 4870X2). However, the visual quality isn't noticeably better in the PC version, and aside from being able to run the game at a higher resolution, the PC looks very similar to the 360 version. The mouse and keyboard controls aren't quite so well realized, partly because aiming with the mouse is much slower then it should have been and the fact that you can't use kinesis or stasis unless you use the right mouse button, which just doesn't feel natural with a mouse and keyboard setup. As a result, I played most of the game with a 360 controller, only using the mouse and keyboard during a few situations where precision aiming was required.
There was so much talk about Dead Space being "scary" and while I admit, there were a few moments during the beginning of the game that was a little unnerving, Dead Space is not at all a scary game. However, it's still an exhilarating ride from start to finish, with hardly a boring moment in sight. There were times during the game that I wanted to stop playing (for a number of reasons) but I just couldn't set my controller down. Not many games in recent memory has so thoroughly engrossed me in the game world.
