Not All That Scary

Dead Space is generally a fun game, but it's not really all that scary in my opinion.

The story is great overall, but it does get annoying when the characters encounter one problem after another and have you specifically head over to the area. In real life, people would not be up for this shit as the game constantly forces you to take the most dangerous and life-threatening route. Like the usual Horror/Survival game tradition, you end up being the only one alive in the end.

If you get scared easily, never played a "horror" game before, or are simply a little kid, then I could see this game scaring the shit out of you. As for me, however, I'm not sure if this game should be labeled as "horror." Yes, there are a LOT of creepy scenes put in purely for fun and there's even a monster you encounter late in the game that you end up being entirely unable to kill until managing to vaporize it by shuttle-launch fire. However, the main reason why I find this game hardly scary at all, is because of the guns. A lot of situations call for them, but the fear also lessens until it's virtually non-existent when you're actually able to defend yourself. The horror/survival games I find most scary are when you're defenseless; forced to run away, hide, or use the environment to defeat the enemy while they aren't looking. The tension of being afraid to be seen or get caught pouring adrenaline into your veins and causing your heart to beat faster and faster with fear. Another thing that lessens the horror is that the monsters are rather easy to kill. All you really need to do is slow them down with Stasis, pull out the Plasma Cutter, aim for any of their limbs, and fire. They'll usually die immediately when at least two of their limbs are severed. Overall, horror is zilch in my opinion due to easy-to-kill enemies and weapons possession, though I have to give 2-point props to the game for at least trying with the dimly-lit hallways and creepy 5-second scenes.

Graphics are...almost lifelike, as with most next-gen games. Graphics for this game deserve praise as the limbs for the creatures seem to slice off at the exact same spot where you shot them and the enemies you kill will NEVER magically fade away like they do in most games...with the exception of the occasional giant tentacles that grab you in really dirty hallways. In fact, you can even push their corpses out of the way as you walk/run into them.

Replay value for this is a little iffy. While you get to keep your weapons from the previous playthrough and even get what could be considered to be the coolest-looking armor available in the game, it's not enough to make things any better for a second time around. By the time you finish Chapter 2 again, you'll actually feel like you've done it all before and look forward to returning it to the place you rented it from. Were it not for Trophies/Achievements, there'd be very little point in having another round.