An instant, brand new franchise made with surprising attention to detail and innovative ideas.
Dead Space borrows some of the best ideas from successful titles of the past. It borrows from titles such as Half-life (gravity gun), Bioshock (audio logs) and the movie 'Alien' (story) and even comes up with its own unique ideas such as zero-g mechanics. Actually, the plot is almost exactly that of the movie 'Alien' and the vibe and feel of the title is also the same deep space horror that propelled director Ridley Scott to fame Dom. Even though the story is nothing new, it's executed wonderfully. I related to the story and the characters so much and was sucked in by the scattered audio logs much more than Bioshock which I felt was slightly cold and distant. I felt that the actors were actually talking to me, which leads me to point out another point: The voice acting is amazing and adds that much more to the immersion of this game.
Gamespot commented that the game will take between 15 to 20 hours of gameplay. Sadly, this is not the case! I managed to complete Dead Space (while not rushing - actually taking my sweet ass time) in 11 hours! Even though this was the case I jumped right in and began a new game immediately whilst able to carry on with my suit and weapon upgrades (Ratchet and Clank anyone?) and was even awarded a new suit and 10 power nodes amongst other things.
Highly recommended