Dead Space is a Horror/3rd person shooter. I think it should be stated first that this is by no means a survival/horror game. Throughtout the game you are armed to the teeth, even with ammo being limited it just means you have to be strategic with engagements, rather than avoiding encounters as you would in a game like Amnesia: Descent to darkness.
Dead Space takes place in a city-sized space ship where something has gone horribly wrong. The ship has gone dark after sending out a distress signal and our hero Issac Clark along with a small security detail is sent to investigate.
The main focus of this game can be summed up in 3 words "Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere". The tone in this game is set wonderfully, and executed masterfully. Distant screams, jumping shadows, and dark hallways give a sense of impending doom throughout the campaign. Dispite my enthusiasm I have to admit this game can only give you proper chills if you allow it to-- it requires you to give it the proper horror game treatment. By that I mean it must be played no earlier than 1am, in a dark room, all alone, headphones on. You kind of have to immerse yourself. But if you let it, this game will wisk you away to a sci-fi world of terror and desperation on par with any other horror juggernaut. Now I'm done heaping praise.
Like I said, since you have plenty of guns the only real urgency you feel stems from ammo and supplies. It reminds me more of games like Resident Evil: Outbreak, where you have to choose to fight or run, rather than Doom 3 where youre supposed to annhilate everything in your way. As you progress, in order to increase difficulty the game kind of shifts it's focus from horror and atmosphere to gunning and being a 3rd person shooter. Though it never forgets the emphasis on atmosphere, it gets put on the backburner near the end.
The Gameply is solid, though takes a little bit of getting used to. This game plays very well on both mouse/keyboard as well as a gamepad. Wether you use an xbox controller or a PS3 controller the game doesnt miss a beat and you get a great control scheme either way. As is customary with any good PC game the layout is completely customizable. Things like hit detection I feel are good but can be sketchy under pressure. There are time where I wasnt sure if it was hit detection or my desperate spray of fire at an encroaching enemy, but i felt like some shots missed that should have hit. It could just mean I'm a terrible shot when im panicking.
As far as performace goes, this game runs wonderfully on my laptop which suprised me, seeing as how my laptop barely meets system requirements. Though, on both my laptop and my PC I opted for using v-sync because of the many flashing lights. And Rather than using the game's v-sync which killed my framerate, I found that if I used v-sync directly though Catalyst(radeon card) my frames stayed locked solid at 30fps.
If you like games where you have to run rather than fight, this game probably isnt for you. If you the kind of game where youre forced to make decisions based on ammo and supplies then this may be right for you.

Dead Space is a Horror/3rd person shooter. I think it should be stated first that this is by no means a survival/horror game. Throughtout the game you are armed to the teeth, even with ammo being limited it just means you have to be strategic with engagements, rather than avoiding encounters as you would in a game like Amnesia: Descent to darkness. Dead Space takes place in a city-sized space ship where something has gone horribly wrong. The ship has gone dark after sending out a distress signal and our hero Issac Clark along with a small security detail is sent to investigate. The main focus of this game can be summed up in 3 words "Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere". The tone in this game is set wonderfully, and executed masterfully. Distant screams, jumping shadows, and dark hallways give a sense of impending doom throughout the campaign. Dispite my enthusiasm I have to admit this game can only give you proper chills if you allow it to-- it requires you to give it the proper horror game treatment. By that I mean it must be played no earlier than 1am, in a dark room, all alone, headphones on. You kind of have to immerse yourself. But if you let it, this game will wisk you away to a sci-fi world of terror and desperation on par with any other horror juggernaut. Now I'm done heaping praise. Like I said, since you have plenty of guns the only real urgency you feel stems from ammo and supplies. It reminds me more of games like Resident Evil: Outbreak, where you have to choose to fight or run, rather than Doom 3 where youre supposed to annhilate everything in your way. As you progress, in order to increase difficulty the game kind of shifts it's focus from horror and atmosphere to gunning and being a 3rd person shooter. Though it never forgets the emphasis on atmosphere, it gets put on the backburner near the end. The Gameply is solid, though takes a little bit of getting used to. This game plays very well on both mouse/keyboard as well as a gamepad. Wether you use an xbox controller or a PS3 controller the game doesnt miss a beat and you get a great control scheme either way. As is customary with any good PC game the layout is completely customizable. Things like hit detection I feel are good but can be sketchy under pressure. There are time where I wasnt sure if it was hit detection or my desperate spray of fire at an encroaching enemy, but i felt like some shots missed that should have hit. It could just mean I'm a terrible shot when im panicking. As far as performace goes, this game runs wonderfully on my laptop which suprised me, seeing as how my laptop barely meets system requirements. Though, on both my laptop and my PC I opted for using v-sync because of the many flashing lights. And Rather than using the game's v-sync which killed my framerate, I found that if I used v-sync directly though Catalyst(radeon card) my frames stayed locked solid at 30fps. If you like games where you have to run rather than fight, this game probably isnt for you. If you the kind of game where youre forced to make decisions based on ammo and supplies then this may be right for you.