User reviews

I'm going to come right out and say this is the most terrifying game I have ever played or even heard of. The game play was a little sluggish, but then again it was the first game in the series. I'm going to state some of the experiences you will have in this game, as well as my opinions.

The Game: I own this game for the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PC. The PC version was the weakest experience, the controls in this game are much more suited to a console. The game play is in it's early stages, but it is playable, just not as refined as the later games. The graphics are great and enhance the atmosphere. The main weapon of choice is the plasma cutter, it really is the only gun you need, except the flamethrower which I use to kill the brutes. You want a tip, shoot the brute in the face with the plasma cutter, it will shield itself in a ball so you go up behind it and barbecue it with the flamethrower. It's the most effective way I have killing the brutes, I don't think i've ever heard anyone mention that tactic. The atmosphere is dark and disturbing, it is accompanied by the creaking of the ship and the odd noise in the background. You always have to stay on constant alert, you aren't safe any where. This game is very terrifying, it will make you want to quit, but I was so in to it I couldn't stop playing it, I had to see what was going to happen next. To sum it up, if you want a heart-attack play this game, some parts of the game had me screaming in excitement and terror. Movies mostly rely on jump scares, same with some games, those are cheap attempts at being scary, but here you will be scared throughout the duration. This game also features an immense amount of disturbing moments, some are gruesome and others more subtle. Here is one example, the beginning of chapter ten starts off with you entering this lobby area with only the glow of candles to light the room, there are many dead bodies with their faces wrapped up, there is also a lullaby playing in the back ground. If you just stop and take it in for a second it quite a gruesome scene. The Necromorphs are very grotesque, the screeches they make are chilling enough, especially when you hear that they are in the same area as you and you have to find them quick. This game is incredibly graphic, some of the ways the Necromorphs kill you are disgusting, one of them literally knocks your head off and attach's itself in your neck stump and takes control of your body. This game is not for the faint of heart.

This game is the pure essence of horror, it is terrifying, thrilling, and shocking, it is better than most horror movies, and is easily the scariest horror game ever made. Highly recommended if you can handle the gruelling moments this game has to offer.

Taking the good parts from various different movies and games this survival horror/action game really managed to surprise me. I expected a game with gore and some cheap scares. I got that. But I also got a game so filled with atmosphere, I don't think there were many of last years games that can compare. The derelict ship, automated voices, flickering lights, the audio logs, the necromorphs and the few, crazed survivors really draws you in. And there is also the sense of despair, the sense that you are fighting with less and less chance of survival. All in all, the game doesn't do anything new, but it does it really well making it a pleasurable experience.

This game is very good on atmosphere and gore. Two things I love in a horror movie, throw into that an interesting story. Granted it does borrow heavily from science fiction horror classics like Alien and The Thing. It also borrows from not quite a classic Event Horizon and the really bad Ghosts of Mars. And for even more similarities watch the Japanese anime Lilycat as the monster in that movie reminded me a lot of some of the monsters here. The story starts out with you and other crew members on a ship headed for a repair job on some sort of mining vessel. Upon arrival you can tell something is wrong as there is no crew to greet you, and pretty soon you see your first necromorph creature and you are in for the fight of your life. You get separated from two crew members who will periodically try to help you and them get off this ship of death, but for the most part you are on your own in the nightmare space cruiser. You will learn, through audio tapes of the fate of this ship as you try to battle your way off. You have a variety of weapons at your disposal, though for my money the rail gun and default plasma cutter are the best. Other weapons just do not pack enough pop, others are overly complicated, still others just run out of ammo way to fast. You can update your armor and collect health packs as in any game of this type. You have levels where you must go through zero gravity and still others where there is no air. The monsters attack sometimes in such a flurry you can not aim well and you end up panic firing a lot. The weapons though are at their most effective when aiming for the creatures appendages. The game is not without its faults which kept me from giving it a ten as aspects of the story did not add up for me and sometimes the missions get a bit to long in areas. However, there are no real complicated puzzles to endure. The ending is kind of shocking however the credits are uninspired which was surprising considering the detail and effort put into the rest of the game. Still, all in all a great horror game set in space, and from the looks of it a movie version is going to be made which I am betting will not be as good as they will needlessly add to many characters or something and just make the movie less scary and I am betting the monsters do not look as good.

I haven't felt this level of stress and fear from playing a game since I played Resident Evil at 8 years old and this game captured that same feeling as an 18 year old.

Feeling safe is the last thing that is conceded to the player. Run from the darkness of a cold, and, although, cruel place becomes the main goal. The disease of the story has the same core that groomes within the brutality of the gameplay. If you're not afraid of facing fear, this game will reveal how deep the pain of living a terror can be, in any aspect of experiencing the dread.

Dead Space is a recommended game for all lovers of survival horror and sci-fi. It has a very inventive campaign featuring extraterrestrial infections called Necromorphs and your job in the game is to wipe the out from ships in space.

Good - Well, Dead Space gives me the creeps sometimes; it's not only the dark environment or the suspensive music that grips me, it's just the knowledge that behind every door or across every corner there can be a monstrous beast ready to maul you to death. The very idea of an alien source transforming humans into these Necromorphs is quite a classic but interesting one. I think the suspense and horror action of Dead Space is just what gives it the 9/10 stars it deserves.

Bad - Not enough action in my point of view. Not that I'd like more action in a survival game such as Dead Space, but the Necromorphs encounters are scarce compared to the amount of time scouring each section of the ship. There's also no Multiplayer, no matches to decide the better player, and no co-op to comfort each player with the fact that a trusty teammate is beside them. Dead Space is a stand-alone, after all.

9/10 stars: Very good campaign, no multiplayer

By HowlingRabbit334

I'm not the most interested person in the whole story or universe but it's a pretty good game to play. I mean, it's, what I personally like to call these types of games, yet another highly modified Quake 2, where some big bad alien race seeks to simply kill and consume everything in the universe. Numerous other games have done this. The aforementioned Quake 2(and 4), and then also franchises like Mass Effect, Resistance and the list goes on. Gaming's favorite sci-fi tale and this is yet another version of it.

However, the whole situation in the game is still interesting to follow. The sense of desperation, and the atmosphere it creates, is well done. The gameplay is mostly great too. It feels challenging enough to be fun, but it doesn't become trial and error most of the time. And most importantly, you make steady progress. While never feeling like the game is too easy. And you could play this game for hours without getting tired if it.

The game isn't perfect, though. Later on, the game can become pretty stressful. You may forget to enjoy the game. In fact, the last chapters drain out most of the enjoyment and absolutely stress me out. I kept wondering why I wasn't enjoying the game as much as I did earlier. Early in the game, I was excited to meet enemies and blow them apart. And, like I said, I never felt like it was too easy. But late in the game, I always felt negative and stressed out when I heard the music and sounds of enemies approaching. The whole experience gets turned on its head. There are a few stupid moments too, like the game locking you into small places with lots of enemies and no breathing room. It's a shame that you can't change the difficulty anytime in the game, like in Dead Space 2. It's good for when you want to say "**** it" and just relieve some stress. One-shotting and ragdolling enemies on easy difficulty in Dead Space 2 is rather funny and satisfying. Helps you stay balanced and remain feeling positive about the game. I swear the last parts of the game are even worse in Dead Space 2. I haven't been able to finish 2 without lowering the difficulty. I always pick hard difficulty for these games. And in this game, you better pick hard because you can't increase the difficulty for new game plus, which is lame.

One more little thing is the elevator glitches that happen sometimes. You simply die a few moments after an elevator starts moving. Or you can clip through the floor and then die.

Engineer Isaac Clarke(yes, named after the two amazing authors) and his small crew respond to its SOS, and get stranded on a large, abandoned mining ship, the Ishimura. A planet-cracker. It's mostly broken. Warranty's out, so it's up to you to fix it. Along the way, you piece together what on ...well, not Earth, happened. And your girlfriend was stationed there! Will she be in a refrigerator by the time you find her? Is the story ever going to get interesting or surprise you? And did EA forget who they were when they made this? No bugs, new IP, taking risks... I guess there really is a first time for everything.

Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, this also manages to add to them. If you had told me this took Event Horizon's floating orb, jumped mediums, and made it several times bigger, *then* had you *walk on its surface*, I could have told you that would make it infinitely more compelling. The attention to detail and scope are breathtaking. Watching an intricate machine so vast it could crush you and not pause for a second run from what is clearly an unsafe distance because it's the only way to proceed never fails to send a chill down your spine. In spite of samey corridors, areas in this tend to have deeply memorable, even creative, level design. They look distinct and each have a theme their own. The medical section with its OR full of failed attempts to save those attacked. Engineering with a huge centrifuge you have to activate then avoid being smooshed by... of course. Cargo with sharp, mechanical designs.

Unfortunately that's about it for the positives, and in spite of their value, it is often obscured by the rest. The single most important aspect must always be gameplay. Because if you took that one element away, it's not a VG. And this fails in that aspect, on account of a series of misguided, albeit clearly well-meaning decisions. The developers studied horror films and went out of their way to recreate what works. But it's so action-driven, more gory than terrifying, it feels not unlike watching The Thing by fast-forwarding through anything that doesn't have violence. There's no contrasting, no soothing periods inbetween. It's all at cranked volume. It's almost exclusively jump-scares. Where they come out gets to be predictable.

The way you move, and orient yourself, are the most immediate way you interact with the world, including one built from the ground up. And that's where they made their biggest mistake. The controls are awkward and never get to feel like second nature. And this is probably the worst TPP angle I've encountered. He takes up half the screen. At best, it's a struggle. When you're swarmed by creatures, trying to find your way, and/or unsure of what to do to proceed, it's more than enough to talk you out of sticking with this. I would never have gotten far in this if not for my stubborn refusal to give up on these.

Enemies are all Necromorphs. Reanimated human corpses. Forget targeting the body. They can take a ton of punishment there. You have to cut them apart. One limb at a time. And even when you do that, some will simply split off into smaller beings. There's tremendous variety in size, movement, speed, how they assault you, etc. If this didn't end up as one of the gimmicks, if it didn't end up rote, and especially if fending them all off didn't get frustrating and boring, this would be an amazing aspect.

The weapons are rather unique and, as a nice touch: they're improvised from mining tools. Energy, "cutting", sawing. But some are not that useful, such as due to being good for pumping lead into what you point it at, which, as stated before, does not get you very far. Others are overpowered, and are part of why the difficulty in this jumps back and forth between too easy and more irritating than, technically speaking, challenging. The melee is stilted and rarely useful. Except for when you're forced to mash Use, taking you completely out of it, culminating in it smashing what was trying to tear through you. You end up watching as if someone else, waiting for it to let you continue. This is true of a lot of deaths, as well. This, along with the prevalence of "go to the tram", breaks how this "doesn't pause".

There is no traditional HUD in this. It's all holographic projections, and displays on the back of your suit. It goes a long way in making you forget this isn't real life. But then it takes a full second to check things. The 3D map is a mess on account of handling long hallways, elevator shafts and the like, "to scale". It baffles me that they did this. Certain things have no hotkey. And you'll sound like you're dying long before that is the case. TK leads to several cool, fun actions. It and the Stasis letting you slow down objects are wasted on basic and repetitive puzzles.

Zero Gravity is used well. In these portions, you can walk on, as well as jump to and from, nearly any surface that isn't outright dangerous to step on. Some rooms have you going completely from right side up, through up the side, to on the ceiling. And this all happens in complete, limitless silence. Except for your mandatory humming of The Blue Danube. The camera being slow and reluctant to "follow", correct for your new angle, mars this. Why it doesn't indicate it, I don't know. Aliens Versus Predator 2 does, and is over half a decade prior to this.

There is a lot of disturbing content and some strong language in this in this. I recommend this only to the very forgiving, who find the mix of these elements otherwise largely not original, that have been done better elsewhere. 4/10

The best SCARY space game ever. This tops most of the horror titles in gaming. Not that I'm saying the other games are bad, I'm just saying this is different and unique. This game has horror, story, characters, and gore. I have not felt so attracted to a space game, but man...this is awesome! The characters are solid, Issac Clarke is just an engineer, just one man that just fixes freaking ships goes against a thousand aliens...(badass). I like the other characters too, the facial and mouth moving are great. The story is epic, I mean epic to the bone! Don't want to spoil anything. Graphics are superb, even in the void of space! The aliens were great, they did their job to scare the sh!t out of me. This is one of the games that you can describe with one word: Unforgettable! 10/10

The best game i ever played, pure essens of horror, highest quality in every level.

Simply amazing! I haven't played any other horror game that is this immersive til this day!

Dead Space is the quintessential survival horror experience. The level of care and passion in this project is unrivalled, and, in the 14 years since its release, no game has ever come close to touching the sheer terror that is Visceral Games' (RIP) terrifying masterpiece.

Dead Space is, basically, in my own humble and pointless opinion, a horror masterpiece that's aged tremendously well.

EA and Motive Studio have huge shoes to fill, but from the snippets I've allowed myself to see, the mix of faithful remake and modern mechanics oozes passion, and I am beyond excited to experience the long overdue return to Dead Space's universe.

The mark of a good game is that you can go back and play it again with the same or even more enjoyment. This is one of those games. My review is a little late as DS has been out for quite some time but I just played it again and found it better second time around. I do not think DS was made specifically for 3D but it plays OK except for some shadow effects that tend to make you go cross-eyed! Apart from that it is quite good with nice depth of field. In favour of DS is the fact that it is not short and you have a definite final objective in finding your girlfriend. I like a game that does not totally bamboozle you to the point where you are stuck and give up in frustration. Once you master various "Powers" the fights with the Necromorphs are very satisfying. I would really like to know how big the USG Ishimura is in height as the elevator rides suggest it could be over 40 stories!! you can take a Tram on this outer Space Behemoth believe it or not but then again it is set waaaaaay into the future, Great Game. Ratcat.

It was probably a mistake for me to play this series out of order. I began with Dead Space 2, then went on to Dead Space 3 before completing the first game. I maintain the opinion that Dead Space as stolen Resident Evil's crown and defined itself as THE survival horror game that sets the bar. It's an anxiety-ridden, hardcore experience where you'll be holding your breath and leaping out of your seat at every shudder of aching steel, whisper, and unexplained noise in the far background. If you have your PS3 hooked up to a home theatre your hair may well turn white.

You play as the mostly mute Isaac Clarke, a simple engineer on the the USG Kellion who, along with the rest of his crew, is required to investigate the distress call of the USG Ishimura, an immense "planet-cracker" mining ship that is seemingly abandoned and adrift in space. Docking with the Ishimura is the biggest mistake of his life. If the entire crew are not already dead then they'll wish that they were. Something on board the Ishimura, a mysterious artefact called "The Marker", has driven the crew mad and reanimates their corpses into twisted monsters of deformed flesh and bone called Necromorphs, truly the most disgusting enemies ever seen in a video game.

As Isaac, you must push through the bowels of the ship making repairs and trying to figure out just what is going on while bouncing around in zero-G, hurrying through vacuums, while visions of your ex- girlfriend haunt you, and disembodied voices whisper in the external speakers. It's very, very dark and grim and not for the faint of heart. Dead Space can be a very punishing experience but it's a cold, agonizing universe that I can't help but love.

The Platinum is attainable if you are a sucker for tension, but it's not easy. Dead Space is an absolute MUST for all gamers, horror fans or not.

If this game wasn't so hard I would of enjoyed it more, the beginning is brilliant as it's so scary but isn't as open and exciting as the second one

I was genuinely shocked at how well this game stood up to the test of time. It's 14 years after it came out and this game actually had me on the edge of my seat.

It's a fantastic horror game which allows for players to actually play their own style, not forcing you to HAVE to focus on one weapon over another.

I had been wanting to play it for years as everyone talks about how great it is. I was worried that maybe it had aged too much but NOPE. This was more fun to play than most games I've tried recently which are far newer.

If you are considering having a fun space adventure where limbs go flying, look no further.

Issues do exist with getting this to work on PC and on console there are two parts which become difficult to complete due to controller input.

I'd advise getting it on PC myself as you can swap to Keyboard for those two moments and go back to controller afterwards.

Depending on what platform you get it on PC, will change the fixes you need to do. I got mine working with Steam, the GOG version just didn't want to play ball.

I have not minused my score because of these issues as I don't think it reflects on the game from 14 years ago and comes down to technological advances which we can't expect the past to have known about.