While LittleBigPlanet has shown that a unique and innovative approach to videogame development can successfully launch a new intellectual property, Dead Space has provided irrefutable proof that a new IP can be launched on the back of well crafted, unhurried development and the desire to produce a thoroughly polished final product - and that is what really sums up Dead Space: polished. It may not provide genre-altering innovation and it's far from being unique, but when a game is this well put together, and this much fun, it really doesn't matter.

From the get go, Dead Space wears its influences on its sleeve; imagine if you will a hybrid of Resident Evil 4 and BioShock and you're half way there. It could be viewed as a negative you can immediately draw comparisons with other games; however, the stature of the company it keeps and the distinction with which it holds this position should be a clear indication of the quality of Dead Space. Resident Evil 4 and BioShock are two modern day masterpieces - arguably two of the greatest videogames ever made - so the fact that Dead Space can be held in comparison so favorably speaks wonders for EA's development team and is certainly testament to title's overall level of quality. From the moment you enter the world of Dead Space, you are engulfed by the expertly crafted sense of dread that runs through every inch of its design; from the exceptional visual quality and outstanding art design to its simply phenomenal audio, Dead Space grabs your attention like a hammer blow to the head and rarely relinquishes its grip on your senses for the duration of its ample running time.

In the workman-like boots of engineer Isaac Clarke, you are sent on what should be a routine mission to fix the communications array on the mining ship USG Ishimura, after the Concordance Extraction Corporation loses contact with the ship and its crew. However, as you've probably guessed, things aren't going to be that simple; before you even set foot on the ill-fated Ishimura, you are inundated with cryptic messages from crew member Nicole Brennan, which serve to build the mood nicely before you even begin to discover the dark secrets that the Ishimura and its, shall we say, 'troubled' crew have in store for you.

As much as Dead Space takes its gameplay cues from other titles, so it takes its visual cues from well established movies, the most obvious being Event Horizon and The Thing. Again though, while Dead Space is visually and artistically very similar to the space horror clichés that have seeped into the public consciousness thanks to movies such as the aforementioned Event Horizon, Sunshine and, most famously, the Alien saga, EA has taken these obvious influences and applied them to Dead Space with such care and attention to detail that it's hard to fault them for failing to strive for greater originality.

From the moment you arrive on the Ishimura, the shit seems insistent on hitting the proverbial at every possible turn. You are separated from your team almost immediately, left alone to fight a very isolated battle against the remnants of the Ishimura's former crew, who have been transformed into disturbing creatures known as Necromorphs. They're an unpleasant bunch to say the least; each one seemingly more eager than the last to tear you to pieces. If this wasn't bad enough, it seems the ship is as eager as the Necromorphs to give you as hard a time as possible; while it successfully drags you along from one event to the next in the name of progression, these inter-related objectives do tend to distract from the game's central story arc of escaping the ship and rescuing the mysterious Nicole. Dead Space's core narrative is certainly well realiaed, but thanks to the game's insistence on the aversion of one catastrophe leading inevitably to the creation of another, it's hard to feel fully connected to the central plot.

While this lack of connection between objectives and story is disappointing, the connection between yourself and your environment never fails to provide anything less than complete immersion. The sense of isolation is palpable and the collection of enemies you face and the weapons at your disposal to deal with their threat constantly keeps you on your toes. Although Dead Space often feels like a successful compilation of greatest hits, that's not to say it's devoid of innovation. The first thing that strikes you is the lack of a heads up display. Your life energy is displayed on the back of your RIG uniform and combined successfully with Isaac's visual prompts, ammo is seen solely from the display on your chosen weapon as you bring it into an attack position, while routes to objectives are mapped out via a beam of light traced onto the floor from a component of your versatile body suit. Best of all is the use of a real time hologram to bring up the in-game menu, a simple addition that adds layers of tension to many encounters as you are subsequently open to attack while scrolling through the list of options and items - no Resi style pausing to administer health at the last second here!

The lack of HUD proves to be the most obvious innovation in Dead Space's canon, but it is in the combat that the game makes its most successful strides towards greatness. In a move away from the obvious aim for the head technique that underlies nearly every survival horror title - or first or third person shooter for that matter - the 'strategic dismemberment' technique is all but essential to your survival, bringing a whole new dimension to the combat. With each class of Necromorph also providing a noticeably different challenge to the last, the often excessive levels of combat are never in danger of monotony. In fact, three quarters through the game, about the only time when the possibility of oncoming boredom arises, the game suddenly kicks up a gear, apparently wary of its potentially repetitive gameplay mechanics as it pulls you along at breakneck pace towards its thrilling finale.

The combination of horrific enemies and their surprising levels of intelligence really does keep the gameplay fresh for the duration. Necromorphs that would surely be dead by any other standard seem to keep plugging away at you until they're completely dismembered. And believe me; you will be doing a lot of 'dismembering' throughout your time with Dead Space. Don't let the fact that these creatures used to be the crew of the Ishimura fool you into expecting zombie like enemies though; their resemblance to their previous human form is often minimal at best - we are talking tentacles and severely misplaced appendages here, transformations straight out of the John Carpenter Big Book of Nasty. Remember that scene in The Thing where the dismembered head decides to grow legs and run off? Well that is the kind of weird you're dealing with in Dead Space. While there are a few AI hiccups that see these enemies reluctant to move from one room to the next, their general level of teamwork and unpleasant cunning - the crafty beggars love to play dead - really does help to keep you immersed in your surroundings and glued to the action onscreen.

The weapons with which you despatch these unusual foes are equally as fresh, too; rather than the usual array of assault rifles and shotguns, Isaac has to make do with the mining equipment that he finds scattered around the mining ship, incluidng such ingenious items as plasma welding guns and the always enjoyable buzzsaws. In fact, there is only one traditional weapon in the entire game - a plasma rifle found in the form of one of the many schematics that are scattered around the Ishimura's dark and dreary decks.

These schematics can be taken to automated stores and turned into weapons and items that can be purchased with the credits you pick up from fully dismembered enemies. Credits? On Necromorphs you say? Well yes, and it does kind of make sense. Remember, these horrible beasties used to be the human crew of the Ishimura; is it unthinkable that they would still have some loose change rolling around in their now fully mutated pockets? Maybe, but hey, it works. These automated stores also allow for upgrades to your RIG body suit, additional ammo and health pack purchases, along with the aforementioned new weapons. Much like the majority of survival horror titles, this means that inventory management becomes a large part of your playing experience as you balance ammunition with new weapons and health packs within the limited space afforded to you. This, as you can imagine, adds another tactical layer to the proceedings; ammo is far from abundant and enemies are troublesome enough to warrant the carrying of extra health packs. So, what do you do? Load up on firearms and go in Schwarzenegger style or conserve your ammo and pick your battles a little more carefully - believe me, sometimes it's just better to run.

Beyond credits and schematics, nodes are something else that you will want to keep an eye out for on your trip around the Ishimura, as they can be used on the many nanotech workbenches found throughout Dead Space to upgrade weapon efficiency and improve the abilities of your RIG suit via skill trees that can target specific skills in each item's repertoire. You won't want to go overboard though, as many areas are only unlockable via the use of nodes, so if you want to find some of those hidden schematics that are scattered around the ship, it's best if you keep a few on you at all times.

Although weapons often prove the obvious choice to deal with enemy attacks - especially early on in the game - as you progress, you will find your RIG suit skills for stasis and kinesis of continually growing importance. Stasis allows you to slow down fast moving objects and enemies; very useful for some of the trickier and speedier enemies you will face as you progress through the bowels of the Ishimura. This skill depletes as you use it and needs to be replenished via booster packs and recharging stations. The other skill, kinesis can be used as much as you see fit and is used to lift and move items and objects, essential for the game's few puzzles and also useful as an alternative to traditional weapons fire, as you launch items and even severed limbs at your enemies.

Items aren't the only thing floating around in Dead Space though, as at certain points in your adventure you will find yourself battling it out zero gravity. This could have easily turned into a gimmick on the part of EA to shoehorn in a way to differentiate this title from other games in the genre, but in their defense, they really have nailed these segments, bringing a whole new dimension to combat. Having full 360 control of motion is disorientating at first, but getting to grips with the skill of releasing and reapplying your magnetic boots to float from one surface to another as you lay waste to the hapless Necromorphs truly becomes one of Dead Space's greatest joys. It's not just the mechanics that have been nailed for these sections either; the tension is successfully ramped up due to limited oxygen supplies and, as for the audio, well, the numbed sound of enemies and increased volume of your own actions and breathing take these sections into the realm of classic gameplay moments.

Speaking of which, the boss battles in Dead Space prove to be some of the finest ever assembled, many accompanied with the kind of sick visual artistry that would make Clive Barker proud. While many fall into the realm of strafe, shoot and repeat, the terrifying and disturbing nature of many of these battles will often leave you too scared to care.

Dead Space is one of the most atmospheric games around and is certainly helped along by its disturbing cast of enemies and NPCs, each of which seemingly going more and more insane by the moment. To get a taste for what the crew and the surroundings were like before these terrible events took place, there is a collection of logs to collect, successfully giving you a taste of the events that contributed to the position that the ship and its crew end up in. These logs prove not only invaluable to the story in a similar way to the recordings found in BioShock but they also provide another brilliant way to make your skin crawl as each log collected proves more disturbing than the last.

The visual quality and design of Dead Space proves another feather in the cap for EA; the attention to detail throughout, from the fine points of Isaac's suit and weapons and the incremental details that are added with each new upgrade to the brilliantly designed Ishimura interior and the horrific collection of Necromorph enemies that roam its decks; Dead Space is a visual success from top to bottom. It is also worth mentioning just how gory the visuals are in Dead Space; this really is one of the more gruesome games ever created with blood dripping from every surface and mutilated corpses found at nearly every turn. Beyond the gruesome details though, EA has done a fine job of differentiating the decks of the ship, giving each a unique and lived in look; while it may prove to be another largely 'brown' game in its use of palette, the little details bring each new deck to life - from the living quarters and medical bay to the mining locales and engineering decks, each section of the ship has its own distinctive look.

The visuals are outstanding, the combat gripping and the enemies are as memorable as they are disturbing, but the real star of the show in Dead Space has to go to its top notch sound design. Although isolation is a key part of the Dead Space experience, thanks to ambient noise, the sound of unseen Necromorphs seemingly surrounding you and the crazed screams of insane or assaulted crew members in the distance, the feeling of being completely alone is a rare one at best - if only you were alone! With each creak, step and scream, the overriding sense that something truly horrible is just around the corner is something that never lets up for the entirety of Dead Space's running time - and if the increasingly insane survivors and the brutal shrieks of the Necromorphs weren't enough, the sense that the Ishimura itself is doing everything in itspowers to scare that bejesus out of you with its hissing steam pipes and creaking hull serves to crank up the tension that extra notch.

Dead Space is a triumph in nearly every department; it may be a bereft of unique ideas in its core mechanics but this really is a brilliantly crafted slice of survival horror that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the finest that the genre, and in many cases, even the industry has to offer. The host of innovative details add enough original spin to a tried and tested genre, combining with stellar production values and game design throughout, making Dead Space the most gruesomely pleasant surprise this side of Christmas. With so many triple-A titles coming out at the moment it was going to take something special for a new series to get noticed and, fortunately, that is exactly what EA has created.

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).

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