Man, what a let down.

I started this with lukewarm expectations - not helped by the fact I had just completed the amazing Dead Space Remake the day before starting this playthrough - and yet I somehow came out even more disappointed.

This has SO much potential to be a titan of survival horror, but it desperately wants to be Dead Space, and I think it's only worse for that.

Visually, the game looks absolutely phenomenal. I played without any of the RT effects and there were times I couldn't believe this is an almost purely rasterized game. Geometric complexity, shading quality, post-processing, human faces and animations- everything visually is polished to a state of near-perfection. The actual acting is rock solid too, carries what is usually really weak dialogue.

That's pretty much everything good I have to say about it.

For a game so dead set on being scary, it isn't almost ever. It has a heavy reliance on jumpscares and loud noises to catch the player off-guard, but even those lack the impact to be surprising enough to make you jump a little.
There were a few times that the atmosphere was genuinely chilling and had me on edge, but those were few and far between, and some of them even ended with an ineffective jumpscare.

Combat is... really boring. I see potential in this being a really fun brawler-kind of style, and it is kinda entertaining for the first couple times you encounter combat. But then it just ends up becoming the exact same thing over and over again. Bob, weave, hit a few times, shoot the spot the game tells you to, repeat. This actually can end up becoming kind of frustrating later on, since the game loves to drop you into almost completely pitch-black areas that are super cramped, with like 3 or 4 monsters at a time. The flashlight on Jacob is extremely dim with minimal range, so you can hardly see in front of you unless something is right in your face.

Tentacles will also start crawling out of monsters after bashing them a couple times, and if you don't shoot the centre of mass in time, they'll evolve into a stronger monster that has even more health and hits harder. On paper, this sounds like a decent way to keep combat tense and focused, but combined with everything I had just mentioned above, the execution is very frustrating and can get you killed if you actively go out of your way to shoot the tentacles in the middle of a brawl against more than a single monster.
It doesn't help too that the quick-fire mechanic always aims for the head instead the actual problem area you need to take care of, and it refuses to let you drag your aim away most of the time, which gives the monster enough time to evolve and creates yet another problem while you're getting the crap kicked out of you by at least 2 other monsters.

All this combined makes the combat painfully dull at best, and frustratingly difficult at worst. It just never manages to find a balance without feeling the need to totally screw you over in the name of "difficulty".

I haven't even mentioned that rooms and even supply boxes will randomly have unavoidable monsters that latch onto you and force you to lose health while attempt to kick them off via quick-time event. I don't think I need to emphasize how dumb and aggravating this decision this is.

I did say the visuals were gorgeous, and that still holds true. The art direction though is another story. There's not a lot that's particularly special about it. It's your run-of-the-mill generic sci-fi look with a lot of grime and blood, and it makes barely any of the areas in the game memorable outside of pure visual fidelity.

Oh yeah, there's a story. It's not interesting. It wants to be Dead Space, but seems to miss a lot about what made that game so memorable. Dialogue is incredibly bland, and you never feel connected to any of the characters because of it. It also ends on a cliffhanger ending that gets "resolved" in a DLC you have to buy. I would've rather a full-length sequel, but seeing as this game didn't make anywhere near its sales target, I don't expect that to ever happen.

Score is also forgettable. It sounds like every sci-fi survival horror score you've ever heard in your life, mashed up into one big mass of whiny violins and big thumpy bass when a dramatic thing happens.

I don't have much more to say. It's technically extremely competent and I'm sure there was a lot of time, effort and money put into this, but it ultimately ends up as just another forgettable survival horror game that attempts to imitate Dead Space, while in the process forgetting everything that made that game such a hit.

Play this if you're a fan of Dead Space, but on heavy discount. You may get something out of it. Otherwise, avoid and please go play something more worth your time.