Currently playing: Dead Space

Dead Space is a third-person survival horror-action game.  Set in the distant future, Dead Space revolves around Isaac Clarke, a space engineer who works for the Concordance Extraction Corporation (C.E.C.), a company that operates giant mining ships throughout the galaxy.  When the C.E.C. receives a distress call from the USG Ishimura, a "Planet Cracker"-class ship that destroys planets in order to extract valuable ore, Isaac and four other C.E.C. employees set out to rendezvous with the Ishimura in orbit, all the while assuming that a mechanical failure is the only problem.  At the same time, Isaac repeatedly watches a video sent to him by his girlfriend who is currently onboard the Ishimura, along with about one thousand other residents/workers. What Isaac and his crew find instead is a stricken mining ship infested with Necromorphs, a hostile virus with the ability to reanimate the bodies of the dead, turning them into grotesque monstrosities.   Source: Wikipedia

What I love about this game is how atmospheric it is.  I've played scary games before: Doom 3, the Resident Evil 4 and even BioShock had it's fair share of scare moments.  Dead Space has them all beat in the tense department. Being a fan of horror movies growing up, you would think that I wouldn't find a video game scary.  But what a game does better than a movie is that you're put in the situation where your every action (and reaction) is the determining factor in your survival.  I can watch a movie and get scared but mostly it's of the cheap variety.  In a game like Dead Space, I'm not watching as this character makes his way through the unknown but controlling him. I ask myself how many times I've watched a horror movie and said "I wouldn't go there if it was me" so when playing these games, you can actually choose to not take certain paths until you feel more readily capable of handling whatever situation may rise.  

This game is unique in that the character you play, Isaac Clarke, is not this super soldier with all the necessary firepower to handle the extreme conditions he's about to be thrown in.  No, Isaac Clarke is only an engineer assigned with task of repairing a mining ship.  So, guess what, all he has to defend himself with are mining repair tools.  Mind you, they get the job done but they're not your typical shotgun/rifle/rocket launcher variety.  

Another thing that is unique about this game is the combat.  Where most shooters are basically about getting the most powerful weapon and getting that "headshot" to take the enemy down.  In Dead Space, getting a headshot is about the worse thing you can do as all it will do is piss off the creatures.  "Strategic dismemberment" is the method used to achieve success in battling the Necromorphs.  Trying the conventional method will only have them adopt new stances and tactics, eventually sprouting new limbs and even giving birth to more creatures in the process.  The limbs need to be individually severed in order to have a chance at defeating them.  

I'm currently sitting in chapter 7, half way through the game and have had numerous "creep out" moments.  Playing late at night with the lights out and the 5.1 surround turned up is the only way to play this game.  

There are more games coming out between now and the end of the year but Dead Space, although not through with it yet, already has Game of the Year written all over it.

Available for the X-Box 360, Playstation 3 and PC, I can't recommend this game enough.