Overview
I played Dead Space on the PC and PS3. Overall I thought the game kicked ass and it's the first FPS style game I have played all the way through recently.

It's an atmospheric FPS with a heavy dose of violence. On the PS3 it's in 720P and looks fantastic, on the PC it looks good also but PC gamers may find the forced perspective and lack of zoom, view options frustrating. It is also available on the Xbox 360 but I haven't played it.

Review
OK so Dead Space was the second game I got for my PS3 - it came highly recommended from friends as well as my favourite game review site Game Revolution. If you're an old fart gamer like me there's no better review site out there.

I also played Dead Space at a friends place on the PC - the game is essentially the same on the PC except you can save anywhere at any time - as a result they had to jack up the difficulty to make the game challenging, I find this a frustrating trend in PC games but that's another story!

Firstly this game is all about atmosphere - it's VERY atmospheric - even the opening screen is in surround, Voices coming from your side and rear speakers, echoes, etc. Surely if you bought a PS3 you have at least a 5.1 system right?

I don't want to spoil the plot but the idea that "things" in the game can mess with your mind is brilliantly played out visually and aurally. The plot itself is fairly standard and some of the creepiness and "make you jump" moments are fairly cheap - but we're NOT talking about Doom 3 "monsters live in cupboards" here by any stretch. Some elements of the plot were clever and there are twists to keep you interested.

Gameplay uses a behind the shoulder perspective which you can't change to true first person - and that will be an issue for some PC gamers, especially as you can't modify the zoom settings either. I personally found it claustrophobic and panic inducing at times which all added to the atmosphere (yes I WILL use that word a lot, get over it, no I won't buy a thesaurus, yes I know you don't have to buy them any more they are on the web).

Another important point here is that this game is VIOLENT. The rating should tell you this on it's own but I am warning you that if you're squeamish don't get or play this game. Any game that reminds you three times in it's early stages that dismembering your attackers is the best way to kill them deserves it's reputation for gore.

One issue I found a little bit annoying was inventory management, early on you can't carry much and sometimes if you want to get maximum money you have to fetch and carry stuff to the shop to sell it - in a game whose major features are exploration, atmosphere and violence walking back and forth doesn't really add much! I am well aware that not having infinite carrying capacity is more realistic but as the game goes on you get new suits (which are the same size) with more inventory slots so don't play the realism card with me!

You can upgrade weapons and various aspects of your suit throughout the game, I enjoyed this but it does complicates matters when there are quite a few weapons available - you can only equip four at a time and if you own them all you won't have enough money to get through the game, inventory slots to carry them in or enough power cores to upgrade everything - so you do have to restrict yourself in which weapons you want to use. However this does add replay value to the game, you can play it through again with different weapon combinations which will require you to use different strategies. My favourite weapon was the ripper, it's close range and once upgraded it's a slicing dicing machine - enough said.

This is another game without a HUD, and it's been done cleverly: your ammo counter, your health and your current weapon can all easily be seen by glancing at your character. Also the RIG system of managing inventory, maps, ammo, objectives, etc just looks really cool and is very easy to use. My wife has been walking past me playing games for a long time and she usually barely notices anything - in the case though she said "hey that looks really cool" when she saw me examining the RIG whilst moving.

Score
I struggled with how to rate games (this is my first review) for a while and then I just decided to shamelessly rip of my favourite site (Game Revolution).

Rating: A

Good
- Dismembering otherworldly zombie aliens, what's not to like?
- Clever lack of HUD and RIG system.
- Atmospheric audio.

Good&Bad
- Forced perspective will annoy some, others will love it.
- Number of weapons and upgrades available will require trial and error but also adds replay value.
- Initially formulaic but ultimately interesting plot.

Bad
- Occasionally frustrating inventory capacity.

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