[size=9]Having beaten Dead Space over the course of five months I can't say that I went at any speed that was particularly fast. But! I enjoyed the hell out of it. Not one moment in the game ever seemed dull or out of place and despite the constant criticism for mundane tasks, I actually liked doing something in a video-game that actually made sense.

See that computer console covered in a wonderfully disgusting organic growth? Well, that lovingly rendered yuck has managed to break something inside. Go fix it. You're an engineer. THAT TOTALLY MAKES SENSE.
It's refreshing to lose the blue colored key card and just act like things are normal and fit within the context of reality as opposed to the surreal security systems of game development.

And that's what makes Dead Space such an amazing game, to me at the least. Everything is so thoroughly grounded in context and the world it's created that it actually breathes and doesn't lose itself to cliche' conclusions about what you're supposed to do. Wandering the darkened halls of the U.S.G. Ishimura has legitimate creepiness because it feels like what you would do if you were there. You would look for that piece of whatever you needed. You would be alone and you wouldn't have amazing guns or training. You would just use what you knew and hope for the best.

The scares found in the game manage to mean something because main character Isaac feels real and so does the tension. Obviously, there is something to be said about the viability of a sentient virus that manages to create a massive hive mind within a planet due to some reverse-engineered artifact but the rest of the game is so well realized that it doesn't feel as hokey as it sound on paper.

EA Redwood (now Visceral Games) was so thorough in their creation process that the solid, in depth backstories and audio logs littered throughout the world feel professional in their "fakeness." A science article found late in the game could be passed off in real life to anyone who didn't listen closely, without question.

Of course, the final touch are the games graphics, which are also designed to immerse you in a world that has further streamlined our current technology. Menus and the HUD itself are holograms coming from either panels in the world or your own characters suit, taking Apple's touch-screen mentality even further and coming off as totally possible in the process. Even more important to moving the immersion process along is the dismemberment factor present in the game, which is to say the entire point of the combat.

Pretty much every encounter involves some sort of bloody "how much of you can I take off in one go" fiesta, which is actually more fun then it sounds since the varied enemy types and overall fucked up nature of things make each fight interesting and alluringly intense. Each shot is neatly followed by a particle effect of some sort, be it a spark or explosion or the ever popular [color=darkred]blood spray[/color]. More often then not (with good aim) a limb will spin off into the air and land spurting on one unclean surface or another. If you're in zero-g, it'll careen through the air, probably spinning, jetting out that mortal spray into open space. Yet again, the consistency of action and consequence with technology and monsters that actually make sense (again, except perhaps for that massive, titanic Hive Mind . . .) give this game horror with a purpose.

It has it's Doom 3 monster closet scares, but it also has creepiness that just gets under your skin. What I'm saying is, at $30 brand new or the stupid, stupid price of $27 for used at your local GameStop, it is more than worth the purchase. Add in unlockable content for beating the thing and you have a game that perfectly blends new and old school conventions while making a name for itself in it's own right.

Highly recommended.

The no nonsense brutality also helps.
Can't dislike a game that makes the players death a spectacle in itself.[/size]