We got our hands on an early copy of EA’s upcoming survival horror Dead Space, and were immediately impressed by what we saw. From the opening segments of seeing the damaged USG Ishimura to our arrival on the ship, our first impressions of the beautiful visuals of space had us wanting to discover more.

It was back in September of 2007 when we first learned about Dead Space, it was described as “brilliant, bold and often-bloody.” We couldn’t agree more. As you start to get acquainted with the game, it is obvious that EA is going to not only deliver a great game, but a very chilling storyline that leaves gamers wanting more from the very intro. Some people may quickly be thinking that this is Bioshock in space. We ask, would that be a bad thing?

Don’t worry, your next!

EA is able to take aspects of Bioshock and couple them with a compelling Dead Space storyline, to successfully create a new sci-fi horror experience. Sure, it’s great to see blood, shattered glass, and alien remains as you progress through the early levels, but strategic usage of holographic images, such as a video diary, tremendously enhance the depth of the storyline. The entire game seems to follow this “pop-up holographic” style, which makes us feel like we are really part of the game, as we assume the role of Isaac Clarke.

The game has a very simple to use save feature (along with automatic checkpoints which we guarantee you’ll need), stores which are positioned throughout the game to buy medicine, air supply, guns, and of course ammo. You’ll need to make sure you have enough ammo, as one of the very few flaws of the game is the difficulty of progressing using melee attacks alone. In fact, don’t even bother attempting to melee your opponent to death as it typically leads to decapitation. Yet, it is all the little things that make this game so very enjoyable, from the horrifyingly gruesome death sequences to the unforgettable visuals of space.  Every new animation of Isaac’s demise has us stunned to some degree, the most memorable being the dismemberment of his arms and legs followed by watching the bloody corpse float through zero gravity.

Now what do we have here?

We purposely are going to avoid delving into the story as we don’t want to take away from the effect that EA is trying to deliver. The storyline is but one of the elements that EA has used to create a unique and well delivered game. EA has improved on things that we have seen in the past, like stasis and kinesis, and introduced new concepts such as the Zero-G Gravity physics.

The music and sound effects are pretty much the icing on the cake for the game. Appropriate changes in sound effects and dramatic background music add greatly to the thrilling environment created in Dead Space.

I know you ain’t sneaking up on me!

Our final opinion of the game is, “Dead Space is scarily good, proving that EA can handle a horror game and then some.” If you aren’t a fan of the horror genre, we suggest that you may want to stay away from this, yet if you can deal with some scary elements, this game is great, and we loved every minute of it.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to comment here, or to post on the forums!