Long before Dead Space was available, my few encounters with news regarding the game left me with the impression that this one stole its gameplay from Resident Evil, its look from Doom III and its backstory from Event Horizon (this film).

I wasn’t utterly wrong, of course, but that’s where Dead Space surprised me: for every inspiration source the game takes from, it will be the source of inspiration for games to come; Dead Space leverages on what’s good in other games in the genre, and innovates on so many other levels.

So let’s focus on the high points:

• There is some actual depth in the core gameplay (furious dismemberment…). I realized how much when I showed the 1st chapter to my coworkers as a demo; they were actually turned down, for it looked repetitive. That’s how I realized the first hour or so only touched the surface of the game mechanics: the zero-g and vacuum moments break the monotony. Especially with the fact that vacuum can come down on you at anytime (hull breaches, etc).

The use of stasis and kinesis is also a game-changer, whether it’s during pure combat moments or during puzzle ones. The use of a recurrent unkillable enemy is also used to great effect, as you are forced to run away, which changes the rules of the game.

What’s great about these points is that they are seamlessly integrated into the setting; Isaac Clark is an engineer/mechanic, and his abilities don’t appear like some kind of magic trick that conveniently showed up to explain the game mechanics,

• All the work that’s been put into interfaces wasn’t a lost cause: coupled with the fact that inventory browsing and log exploration doesn’t pause the game, it weights a great deal when it comes to immersion. Nothing is more stressing than running away from a couple of baddies, fumbling into your inventory to take this damn medkit. Throw in the air that’s hissing away from your oxygen tank and appreciate how stressed you can be,

• Additional points for the whole inventory management/shop system, as well as the equipment upgrading thing: there are entire moments during the game where your main concern isn’t to find the fastest, most efficient way to dismember enemies, but to make the best use of your inventory space and money. This offers a well-deserved pause.

A few random points:

• The little pathfinder thingy. It’s both useful and well integrated: given the context, it would be weird to be lost in the USG Ishimura, and this is a very elegant way to solve it,
• The way levels are set up. On almost each map, there’s some sort of basecamp where the player can save its game, shop for equipment and upgrade its weapons; some people found this boring, as you’d often come back to the same spot. I personnaly found that it would be a very natural way to react in real life: clean an entranched area and fall back to it regularily.

Finally, I’ll go with my one complain – because there should always be one: the distribution of ammo and equipment.

The distribution of ammo is entirely dynamic. What it means is, when you sell a weapon, you stop finding ammo for it. I think it undermines the economy/inventory side of things, as you find yourself juggling with ammo for only the weapons you have.

As for the distribution of weapons, I thought it lacked context: for instance, when you’re on the bridge or in the crew’s living quarters, there’s no reason to find mining tools or equipment, but it would be appropriate to find ammunition for the assault rifle for instance.
Additionally, having weapons depending on context would make some things harder: the assault rifle is pretty inefficient if you want to cut out limbs, but if that’s the only thing that’s around, you’ll have to make do. This could have given different flavors (weapon-wise) to different chapters.

Finally, you can get any weapon as soon as the 4rth chapter, which means that you won’t discover anything new during the rest of the game.