when i write a review, i usually don't like to compare the game that's being reviewed to others. but whenever i try to talk about Dead Space, Resident Evil 4 ends up being the elephant in the room. although RE4 is the mother of the modern third-person shooter, i can't think of any game that wears a RE4 influence on its sleeve as much as Dead Space does. having played both games, it's impossible to keep myself from drawing parallels between them and setting expectations based on what i had already experienced with capcom's genre-defining action horror title.

however, even though DS is built on the foundation laid out by RE, it still goes for very different things. yes, it is a horror shooter about managing ammo through precise aiming while controlling a heavy, slow guy, but its gameplay focuses so much more on claustrophobia, individual encounters, somewhat organic jumpscares and knee-jerk reactions. a lot of that comes through thanks to the sci-fi setting: a completely unfamiliar spaceship full of small rooms and narrow hallways. the atmosphere is claustrophobic by nature, but that sentiment is amplified when your path gets blocked by a necromorph.

the devs also exploited the setting pretty well while developing the mechanics. the plasma cutter, the stasis pack and the zero gravity jump all make sense in-universe and are clever and can be really fun to use. they are kind of a product of their time as well, since all of them experiment with physics to varying degrees, much like everyone else was doing back in the 7th gen.

but even with its innovative approach to this formula, what made Dead Space fall apart for me was how it overstayed its welcome, despite being a relatively short game. after putting 7 hours in, i kept noticing how it kept repeating itself. there is so much repetition. all your objectives feel the same, the simplistic encounters feel the same, the puzzles are extremely similar, the zero gravity sections are extremely similar, and i cannot tell most of the environments apart.

due to all of that, the game becomes a big, unmemorable mush and everything that was initially exciting and unique becomes utterly mundane; from using the plasma cutter (to shoot a zombie in the leg again) to flying around in zero gravity (to solve a braindead puzzle again).

considering the length of the game, it feels like there's a lot of untapped potential here and the ideas weren't fleshed out all that much. one of the prime examples is the kinesis module: this is a really cool mechanic but it's rarely ever useful for combat. it ends up being a little gimmick that you turn to when the game requires you to move some obstacles or carry a key item from one point to another. it is such a waste.

and to really, really add insult to injury, Dead Space is poorly paced with a bizarrely roundabout plot. once again, the plot itself is repetitive. you fix something, something else breaks, so on and so forth. it feels like you always take one step forward and two steps backwards, never making concrete progress. the story that is told here also happens to be very unengaging, full of nothing characters that only exist to advance the plot. coupled with my other qualms with this game, this made me question why i should even try to put up with all the repetition; after all, there was nothing i wanted to see anymore, not even narratively. so i just dropped the game.

when you compare Dead Space to RE4, it becomes evident that its gameplay loop is very simple. it doesn't have the ingenious level design and active micromanagement that its mom has. however, at a fundamental level, it is a solid game. the core gameplay can be exciting, oppressive, even a bit terrifying, to the point where i'd recommend this game to anyone that may be interested in it (despite the negativity of this review). they may end up loving the formula enough and have a blast for 15 hours or whatever. me, i just wish that a bit more was done with said formula.. or that the game was simply cut in half.