One of the best survival horror games since Resident Evil 4.
The graphics in Dead Space are absolute top notch. Even by todays standards the game still looks amazing. Every detail from damaged walls to blown out floors to the grotesque looking Necro-mophs, it is all there and is meticulously crafted and detailed. The textures look amazing and all the intricate mechanical details are fantastic.
As stated before the game plays almost just like Resident Evil 4 in where you are looking over Issac's shoulder the whole time your playing. You use the right mouse button to aim and the left button to fire. Oh, and unlike RE4 you can actually move a shoot at the same time. It's a control system that works very well. The inventory system is average but not terrible. You will almost always fill it up pretty quickly though especially if you are a hoarder, but you can always sell off whatever you don't want for credits to buy suit upgrades, new weapons, medical kits, ect. You can also buy what are called "Power Nodes" which serve to upgrade your weapons themselves. Eventually if you can max one out that weapon will become incredibly powerful and you almost feel like no one can stop you when you have it.
As far as the scare factor goes in the game, the first time you ever play it, it is a pretty scary game. After about 5 hours or so though you eventually start to really get used to it and the game starts to lose its level of scariness. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it kinda feel like you are over-coming your fears. Never-the-less though I was quite terrified the very first time I played this game so just consider it a warning if you are considering playing it for the first time ever. In my opinion though it is quite worth it because the game is so amazing, so fun, and so addicting, that when you finally look past the scares in it, it just becomes an incredibly fun game to play. Did I also mention you have Kinesis abilities that allow to really mess around with the physics in the game? You can pick up many different objects and even the Necro-morphs dead corpses and throw them at other pursuing aliens. This of course leads to even more fun to be had. There's also a Stasis ability that allows you to slow objects down to an almost "frozen in time" state but you will really only be using this during times that the game requires you to do so. Such as to slow down a malfunctioning door so that you can get through it.
All in all though this game is absolutely great and I highly recommend it to anyone who is either a fan of action games or a fan of survival horror, or both. If you haven't picked this one up yet don't deny yourself the treat. Get it, play it, love it.