The horror and suspense of this game built a franchise.

P.S. 100x scarier when you share the main characters name.

You should do these two things before playing the game on PC with mouse and keyboard:
1) Don't use the game's vsync feature and use vsync via your graphics driver. The game's own vsync caps the fps to 30 and makes it very unpleasant.
2) Download the Dead Space mouse fix fan patch. The mouse aiming is normally dreadfully bad and this patch makes it perfect.

Those two easily fixable issues aside, this game is so fantastic. I'm not all that familiar with horror games, and I don't think this game is scary in the slightest, but every other aspect of it is top notch.

First, the gameplay. It's absolutely perfect. You have to shoot the Necromorphs' limbs to kill them, then stomp on them to make sure they are dead. The shooting is impactful, satisfying, requires precision and the gore is really good too. There's a lot of weapons that can be bought from the store, though I only used the Plasma Cutter and the Pulse Rifle, both of which were enough.

You have some tools like Stasis and Kinesis, though they are used more often for puzzles than combat. Stasis is used to slow down fast object/enemies, and Kinesis allows you to move objects and throw smaller ones at enemies. These tools make the puzzle sections fun, and though I didn't use them much in combat they were useful in that regard too.

There's a lot of Necromorph types with distinct behaviors. Slashers are the most common ones and are easy to kill, Swarmers constantly leap at you and can be annoying to deal with, Pregnants spawn more enemies if you shoot their belly, and the Exploders might be my favourite type of Necromorph. You can shoot down the explosive they carry to kill them and other enemies around them, and the explosion is glorious. Every now and then there's also the Brute, a miniboss that is very dangerous and makes you want to use Stasis on it to make it more easily manageable.

The presentation of the game is really good too. The graphics on a basic standpoint look good, and the ship has a lot of dark areas and areas filled with fleshy walls that are kinda gross. The most interesting part of the game is the HUD. Instead of it being a typical HUD, it's very different. The player's health and stasis are shown on the back of the suit, video screens are shown in front of Isaac and move with him as he moves etc. It's very innovative.

There's the Zero-Gravity areas which are creative, with you being able to jump from one distant location to another, and enemies like Leapers attack from every direction in those areas. I find them to be some of the most fun parts of the game.

Levels also have parts where you are outside the ship and need oxygen to survive, which gives a sense of tension. Enemies often appear and you want to kill them quickly so you can leave the areas before your oxygen becomes dangerously low. Isaac's exhausted breathing and a lot of things being quiet makes it quite tense.

Enemies and ammo crates give you resources you need, like ammo and weapons, and you can also buy said resources from the shop. There's items that have the sole purpose of giving you more money when you sell them, making you want to look for them. The most important things to buy in the shop are suit upgrades and power nodes. Suit upgrades allow you to carry much more resources, and you can use power nodes for things like increasing your health, making weapons deal more damage and take less time to reload etc. Power nodes also appear in many locations, so it's good to look for them.

The story is... alright. Isaac tries to find his girlfriend over the course of the game, and the other few survivors like Hammond help him. I didn't find any of the characters all that interesting, and Isaac has Gordon Freeman personality. The twist at the end of the game was cool though, and the ending... had something sudden happen out of nowhere.

Boss fights are fun, but they are on the easier side. All of the bosses require you to shoot at yellow parts of their bodies to kill dismember them, and they all can be killed without much trouble. I'd say the hardest boss was the Slug, and that was mainly due to the bad turret controls.

As I said, I find the game to be very lacking in the horror department. It's atmospheric, but not really scary. The game sometimes uses jumpscares that aren't even shocking, and I also didn't find the violent death scenes to be that disturbing.

Dead Space 1 might be one of the best games I have played in a long time. Lackluster horror and kinda bad story aside, the game is amazing in every aspect. Combat is great, graphics are great and level design is great. The game is outright a masterpiece in my eyes and I recommend it.

it's like I'm dead in space er somethin'