"Event Horizon, Aliens, The Thing and Systemshock" mixed in a blender. Truly Awesome.
Other games have come to try and challenge (Alone in the Dark, F.E.A.R, Silent Hill.to name a few). Even though some titles where great games all failed to really challenge the series.
So now it is the giant publisher that is EA turn to throw it's two cents worth in with a little title called "Dead Space".
The marketing plan for this game has to be commended, a clever mini comic strip have been shown on the PSN Network and Xbox live also a animated DVD has been released "Dead Space-Downfall" which gives you a rich backstory before you play the game.
So the game begins you play an engineer called Issac Clarke named after the two great sc-fi writers Arthur c clarke and Issac Asimov). You have been sent to try and get communications up and running when a mining ship called the "U.S.G Ishimura" has not reported for a lengthy period of time.
Issac has his own agenda for going to the Ishimura which will be revealed in the game.
Upon arrival Issac finds the problem to the non communication it's down to the fact that all the crew have been turned into hidieous cretures known as Necromorphs.
So you mission begins to try to restore power to the Ishimura as well as collect log's along the way. There are 3 types of log (Audio,Video and Text) all giving you more backstory to what happened on the Ishimura and also gives tips on how to progress through the game, all the time trying to stay alive from the attacks from the Necromorphs.
Now these Necromorphs will not go down easily, you shoot it's head off it will still come at you, so forget the Zombie trick this just won't work!
What we have instead is Strategic Dismemberment, which means only shooting there body parts off will completly stop them (ie. legs then arms finally head, any order just make sure the body is in many pieces).
This is made more fun when your suit is given 2 extra abilities(which you get very early on in the game).
These are "Stasis" and "Telekenisis", now using Stasis to freeze a Necromorph then blow it to bits watching the body bits and blood fly in slow motion is a visual delight, but even though there are many visual delights (walking on the outside of the Ishimura has to given a mention) the main highlight is in the Zero G sections.
The way the body parts,bloody and items act are highly realistic and the devlopment have to be applauded for achiving this as for the first time you witness this you do find yourself just staring at it all in marvel.
The weapons in this game all come in the form of mining tools(space age) but give a cool twist and brings a nice change to the normal standard gun layout.
You find stores slotted around the ship where you can purchase, ammo,weapons and upgrade your suit(which gives you more inventory slots, tougher armour etc).
Also you will find workbenches this is where you can uprade your weapons and strengthen your suit(give you more oxygen for example).
Oxygen will be required at certrain points in the game and this is where the fantastic audio of the game comes in.
The audio is great every,scratch,scream,clank,smash and splat is used to startling and nerving effect here, but the highlight of the audio is when you are outside of the ship in the envelope of space. The breathing of Issac hisses out of the speakers, then suddenly you get attacked firing your weapon gives you a deluded sound of the weapon and is highly effective and gives it that little bit of wow factor again.
The contorl system is very slick all weapons can be chosen with the touch of a D-pad, your Inventory,mission objectives,maps are shown as a holographic image infront of Issac. your helath bar can be seen as it is a part of your suit and weapons let you know how much ammo by having a small holographic image above each weapon when raised. This means no looking at corners for info on health and ammo, which means no distractions from the game. If you are getting attacked whilst look at your map just raise your weapon and the holographic image disappears.
This is a fantastic game, scary, bold, beautiful,exciting, immersive all rolled into one neat package.
Does it beat the mighty Capcom horror franchise, some ways yes and some ways no.
One thing for sure this is the best horror survival game on next generation consoles so far.
Dead Space has raised the bar, Resident Evil 5 it's down to you to reclaim the crown.