Prior to the release of Dead Space, EA put 100 of the best sci-fi and horror movies up for grabs in an online competition. A word of caution to the winner, though: if the game is anything to go by, each DVD has been watched 100 times already. Taking Event Horizon and Resident Evil 4 as its starting points, this survival horror reverse engineers its entire genre before rebuilding it so its parts fit better. And if misdirection is the heart of a good scare, this one comes from an unlikely place – Redwood Shores, the nebulous outfit behind The Godfather and The Simpsons Game.

That its story is a complete rip-off is mitigated somewhat by its honesty – its hero’s name is Isaac Clarke, after all. Marooned with the surviving members of his investigation team aboard the mining ship Ishimura, he quickly discovers that, while the lights are all off, everyone’s still home. Many are spread across the walls and ceiling, though, and most others have become screeching mash-ups of regurgitated flesh and bone. Luckily, being a technician, Clarke’s a dab hand with laser cutting tools and broken fuseboxes, which is just as well.

Exotic locations such as the mining deck, engine room and medical bay await – but stay with us here, because Dead Space is a surprisingly dynamic, luxuriously expensive game. Not in dollars, perhaps, and certainly not in living quarters, but in sheer creative oomph. Its production values are out of this world, creating one of the most dramatic environments a game has ever seen. And what it takes from Resident Evil 4 – and it takes covetously – is the clever stuff, the enemies built entirely around your weapon set, the combat full of upset rhythms and immoral thrills, the unrepentant game-isms, and the vital ability to wrong-foot players at all the right moments.



Like most survival horrors, the key to its combat is the management of panic – which is easier said than done when a giant pile of guts and knives comes bombing around the corner. A gleefully explicit amputation system chops up enemies with Crysis-like precision, replacing the headshot as the most cost-effective kill. But there are no guarantees. Littered with ammo, money and chances to waste them both, it takes you to the limit of your resources and often beyond, at times even forcing you to sell your precious weapons for just a handful of the right bullets. Its inventory system, manageable even as you’re fleeing through tight corridors, is either ingeniously balanced or a complete fluke. It deserves the benefit of the doubt.