In space, no one can hear Jared rant

I first heard of and saw Dead Space when my friend was showing us a video in class that involved the protagonist of the game, Isaac Clarke being chased by what seemed to be humans who had been simultaneously mutated and made crazy. As Isaac ran down the hall the sound of rapid footsteps and screams could be heard chasing from behind, until he had reached the elevator where all seemed to be safe – that is until the mutated human had managed to pry open the door. Isaac was trapped with no where to go, and for a moment I felt his fear and acceptance of the fact he was going to die – until the door shut and decapitated the monster in the process.

Yes quite scary, and quite an overwhelming experience from just watching footage of the game – although it was helped on by some 'woahs' and 'oohs' from my fellow classmates who had also been watching on too. In that instant my friends and I were convinced that this was going to be the best horror game in recent times. In the ensuing weeks, my friends were getting in on some Dead Space action, commenting that it was living up to the hype that we had created. I gave into hype and pressure to buy the game, and readied myself for a few sleepless nights and constant changing of underpants.

Playing through the first hour or so I had to admit I was pretty scared – necromorphs (the mutated humans) were menacing, jumping out at me from air vents or pretending to play dead till I closed in on them, and it stimulated some jumps and screams. The first hour didn't disappoint, but for the rest of the game, I started to feel underwhelmed.

You see, Dead Space isn't a game of subtly, from the opening scene I was presented with my space crew discussing the fact it wasn't normal for a spaceship to have a 'total communications blackout'. Upon entry, the hallways of the Ishimura are barely lit, and that the place is left in shambles. In fact the end of the first chapter spoiler alert has the space shuttle the crew entering in exploding – indicating that Isaac and the player are stuck in this hell hole with hellish creatures and there's no way out from it.

And attempts to scare the player start to get tired half way through, case in point: the fifth time I run in a room which is quite large but seemingly empty, I know some quarantine is going to off, locking all the doors with an ensemble cast of monsters in the room with me. It's just not that scary once it's done to death (I'd say done to dead to make a funny pun but that would be grammatically incorrect). If Dead Space was a person, it would be the equivalent of him popping out of the same cupboard every five minutes trying to scare me – yes I get it, you are trying to be freaky, just stop it and try something new.

I know it sounds like I'm hammering the game, but I actually thought the gameplay was pretty solid – the dismembering of necromorphs (who lacked variety) to kill them was pretty cool, it was a way of 'unlearning the headshot' that all gamers with an itchy trigger finger have mastered, going into zero gravity was pretty awesome and made for some pretty awesome action scenes, the story was pretty cool (if a bit tiresome at times) interweaving some crazy religious cult with some deep problems with Issac himself, and the design of the Ishimura was fantastic.

But for a game that advertised itself as being really scary (*cough floating arm in space for box art cough*) – Dead Space came off as a solid shooter with some horror tacked on, and that for me was the ultimate letdown. I like shooting monsters yes, but for majority of the game that feeling of fear and dread was not there. Did I let my expectations soar too high? From that first video I watched I thought the hype was justified, and most of everyone else from the gaming contingent thought so too. But the end game was that they were satisfied and I was left feeling deflated. Dead Space = solid shooter? Sure. Dead Space = survival horror? Not a chance.