Dead Space is a game developed by EA Games, and released mid-October 2008 for both the PS3 and XBOX 360.

You play Isaac Clarke, an Engineer, sent to the USG Ishimura in order to repair the ship after a distress call was issued from it. After crash landing on board, you are violently separated from the rest of the landing party and thrown into a sadistic due or die situation. You have to survive continual onslaughts against horrible monsters called Necromorphs, while repairing the ship and searching for your girlfriend, Nicole.

One of the first things you notice when playing is the controls. The game gives you massive freedom with respect to camera angles, allowing you to swing the camera about and view Isaac in a full three sixty. The controls for firing are the only (small) beef I have with the game. All the weapons in the game have two fire modes, and the button for “switch mode” and “fire” are easy to transpose, leading to many, many ruined shots. Other then that minor flaw, the controls are spot on: easy to remember, quick to learn, and responsive to the touch.

The graphics and music are amazing. The game really shows off the power of the PS3, with lots of polygons, smooth textures, and powerful lighting. Both the creatures and the background are beautifully rendered, with smooth creature animations, an interactive environment, and an attention to detail not found in many games. The lighting is dynamic and full, with everything from soft ambient light in meeting rooms and hallways, to harsh industrial lighting in workrooms, and even the occasional burnt out or destroyed light. Much like the lighting, the music is sublime when it needs to be, and useful when it must be. When enemies are on alert, the game increases the sound, and plays special music to let you know Issac’s marked for death. The music has saved my bacon more then once in dimly lit rooms.

The story is also nice, with a fresh narrative, a superb plot, and great plot twists. You start out on a routine repair mission, but end up fighting giant tentacle monsters in a bid to protect the galaxy from horrid alien scum, bent on killing everyone and nibbling on their innards! I won’t give much away, but I will say there is a enigmatic acrostic scattered throughout the game.

Another thing you notice very quickly is fighting. Even though this game is not a straight up shooter, it does have a lot of fighting, usually three-on-one, five-on-one, whatever. Head shots are completely useless, as the enemies are just fine without a functioning head, much like Republicans. To destroy enemies, you must remove all their limbs, a sometimes daunting task when you are surrounded and taking damage from all directions. The systematic destruction of enemies by limb removal is impressive, and shows a great deal of attention from the programmers about the story.

Alongside the fighting aspect of the game is weapons and item management. I played through the entire game with only using the default weapon, thus I always had ammo for other weapons I could sell to buy ammo for my own weapon. If I had used common sense, and gone with multiple weapons, ammo would have almost always been a problem. The game balances ammo drops with enemies quite well, so going pell-mell full auto on one particularly frustrating enemy would drain your resources, and leave you vulnerable to the guy right behind him. However, the game is somewhat forgiving, so you are not always scrounging for resources, trying to live on one life point, while bringing down six enemies with only three shots left in your gun.

Health items are fairly rare, though, so playing smart involves lots of perfect shots, or lots of running away to avoid getting torn to shreds. Health upgrades are almost always perfectly positioned in the game, right after you fight a boss, or mini-boss whom has just torn poor little Isaac a new orifice.

With such a great balance of fighting to puzzle solving, almost perfect controls, wonderful graphics and sound effects, and all around awesome game play, I would say Dead Space is one game worth buying, and playing multiple times. Dead Space is a definite must have for the PS3.