Dead Space was definitely a fun rental, but it was flawed in a few substantial ways. On the face of things, it's 12 hour length seems short compared to other third-person-shooters like RE4, but that 12 hour length comes from stretching the setting (the Ishimura) as thin as possible.
I found it so unsatisfying that every single time I completed a mission, something else went immediately wrong. The story was interesting, but was also cliched, especially the ending. One huge gaffe was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.
In the end though, this game gets the basics of fun third-person shooting right, and it was definitely an immersive horror experience, with a great combination of quick boo scares and a constant tension helped by excellent sound design and visuals. I found myself looking all around whenever I thought I heard something moving. The weapons are varied and all feel great for the most part. Also, the animations as you're directly struggling with enemies are fantastic.
I found it so unsatisfying that every single time I completed a mission, something else went immediately wrong. The story was interesting, but was also cliched, especially the ending. One huge gaffe was the fact that you couldn't carry over your stats and weapons to a new difficulty after the first playthrough. As a result of this, if you beat the game on Medium originally, the second playthrough is a boring cakewalk and all sense of fear is lost.
In the end though, this game gets the basics of fun third-person shooting right, and it was definitely an immersive horror experience, with a great combination of quick boo scares and a constant tension helped by excellent sound design and visuals. I found myself looking all around whenever I thought I heard something moving. The weapons are varied and all feel great for the most part. Also, the animations as you're directly struggling with enemies are fantastic.