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When I was about 6 years old I had the scariest episode of my life. It was late in the evening and I was in the kitchen getting a spoon and looking forward to noshing in front of Young Talent Time. The lights were off and my folks were in the other room. The moonlight was enough to bathe the kitchen in an eerie glow and I swear for the life of me I saw two horns sprout out from behind my own shadow. Naturally, I bolted. I don’t remember if I physically browned my own pants as I’ve tended to forget about that experience, however the moment I played Dead Space it brought it all back. I would advise placing some well laid newspaper on your chair before inserting the disc in, and not just one or two sheets either. I’m talking the entire Sunday Herald Sun.

If you’ve watched “Event Horizon” or the “Alien” movies then you’ll have a fair idea of the setting and basic premise of the story. You know the game is going to be of cinematic quality when the opening credits sequence is done with the same polish as a Hollywood movie. A giant space mining ship, USG Ishimura, has sent out a distress call and you, as Isaac Clarke, an engineer as part of the reconnaissance team are sent to find out what went wrong and hopefully fix the ship. Isaac has a personal agenda as well, as his ex-girlfriend is on board the Ishimura. You soon find out that the ship is infested with alien creatures called Necromorphs and all matter of other disturbing things. You then proceed to gather clues through video and audio clips that are scattered around the hulk to piece together what happened to the 1000 crew members and find a way out of there. It’s a nerve wracking scenario and you’ll need your wits about you if you want to stay alive.

Isaac is an engineer though, so Marcus Fenix he ain’t. Isaac moves slowly, has to make do with engineering tools as weapons and punches like a drunken wharfie. Curiously though, he has a foot stomp that can crush skulls like they were party balloons. You soon find your first weapon, the Plasma Cutter, which will serve quite well against the creatures you encounter initially. It will slice through the limbs of those pesky Necromorphs as that’s the best way to kill them. This is drilled into you at the start of the game so head shots matter little here. Dismemberment is key. All weapons have a secondary fire function which can range from changing to a different projectile path or launching proximity mines. They can be upgraded at Upgrade Stations and ammo, health packs, suits (called RIGs) and other weapons can be bought at the various self-service Stores on the ship. The upgrade system is branched out like a tree where you can upgrade various properties of your weapon or RIG but you will need Power Nodes which are relatively hard to find and expensive to buy so the upgrade path needs to a calculated one. You also have the powers of Stasis and Kinesis which are picked up relatively early in the game. Stasis allows you to slow time down in a projected area, useful to slow down jamming doors or Necromorphs. You can’t spam this power however as you only get a limited supply which can be refilled at various stasis stations or with refill packs. Kinesis acts like a Gravity Gun and allows you to pick up and manoeuvre objects around for certain puzzles or for offensive purposes. This is unlimited in its use so it can be a life-saver when you’re out of ammo to launch projectiles. Your RIG is your all-purpose suit which protects you as well as determining how much inventory you can carry. Health, stasis and air levels are shown on the suit itself and ammo on the weapon so it removes the requirement for an in-game HUD. This immersion is carried throughout the game, and even when you bring up the inventory, video calls and map screens it is all projected in a virtual hologram HUD in front of your character, so you are never out of the action. EA have gone to great lengths to try and immerse you into the environment even though it’s played out in a third-person view.

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