Well, I made it through a couple chapters yesterday and can't wait to continue tonight. The gameplay is really pretty solid. Still, with all these positive impressions, I do feel a touch of disappointment.
I didn't expect a scary game going in, but when you actually realize just how UN-scary it is, the disappointment begins to creep in. There are just a lot of odd decisions that I don't understand. Again, the musical cues employed during virtually every enemy encounter really cheapens them and ruins the atmopshere. The sound is technically well done, but it just lacks any kind of unique sound that you find in the best horror games. When you think back to System Shock 2, Silent Hill, Thief, and Siren 2 it was the sound design that really created the sense of dread.
Dead Space seems to suffer from the same type of problems as Doom 3. Like Dead Space, Doom 3 was developed to be a "scary" game, but despite the fact that I loved it, I didn't find it the least bit scary (even on a CRT monitor). What I came to realize was that the lack of fear was born from the way in which enemy encounters would unfold. The game relied very heavily on spawning monsters directly before the player. When a monster appeared, it was ALWAYS focused directly on kiling the player. Dead Space works in a similar fashion in that, if a monster is present on screen, it will always be aware of and trying to kill the player. I think Dead Space almost takes it even further in the wrong direction with the aforementioned musical cues to highlight the emergence of an enemy.
The games mentioned above used an entirely different and much scarier method. Enemies did not spawn, rather, they were already existing within the game world. They would simply move about the world on their own and only attack the player if the player was detected. Consider something like those maintenance robots in Shock 2 or The Children in Thief II. They would roam the map with very distinct noises but would remain unaware of the player unless the player allowed themselves to be discovered. In many cases, these enemies could be attacked, but the battles would be tough and the player was often best served by avoiding them altogether. That's not to say these games focused entirely upon avoidance, however, as Shock 2 featured some pretty intense and difficult combat at times (with limited resources available).
It's a seemingly subtle distinction that ends up making a HUGE difference in the context of the game. The idea of enemies inhabiting an area is much scarier than having them appear at predetermined locations. When coupled with good sound design, the roaming nature of the enemies in games like Shock 2 greatly elevate its fear factor. I should note that the actual visual design of the monsters ultimately makes little difference. The Many in Shock 2, for instance, were low poly, ugly abominations limited by the Dark Engine. Yet, due to the way in which they were presented, they became feared. The designs used in Dead Space aren't particularly unique or exciting, but a different approach in how they attack could have made them terrifying opponents rather than fodder.
Despite that small rant, I actually DO love the game just as I loved Doom 3 (actually, I'd say Dead Space plays quite a bit better). I just believe, like Doom 3, it could have been something greater and am disappointed that the developers failed to grasp what makes a scary game. Of course, we could discuss the subjective nature of "what makes something scary", but this is simply my opinion on the matter. Hopefully this type of fear works for some people.