Dead Space

Reviewed by:
Gerasimos Manolatos

Price: $59.99

The Skinny: Engineer Isaac Clarke goes on a routine mission to fix a communications system in a deep space mining ship when his shuttle is grounded by a mysterious alien breed. It's up to him to beat back the evil throngs and fight his way off the ship before he is turned into alien fart dust.

The Good: In what we describe as a mix between Mass Effect and Half-Life, Dead Space is one scary-as-shit action adventure game that'll stay in your head long after you fight through to the end. You'll want to go back and piece together the story, which begins with you only knowing that aliens with scissorhands have eaten your fellow crewmembers, and you'll want to try out the harder levels (see below) for an even greater challenge. The bosses are big, bad, and ugly and you'll have a hell of a fun time trying to figure out how to take them out. We especially liked the navigation mechanism, activated by pushing down the right thumbstick, which shows you where you need to go for your next objective.

The Bad: The game is generally pretty easy on the medium setting. We got through the whole game with only minimal resistance and do-overs, especially against level bosses. There isn't any multiplayer component, which may warrant a rental for anyone who's looking for something more long term—it took us about 10 hours to get through the whole thing.

Did You Know? Protagonist Isaac Clarke is named after famed science fiction writers Arthur C. Clark and Isaac Asimov.

Buy, Rent, or Disembowel? Buy it.