Most things work well for Dead Space, however I wish they set up the story a little better.
Dead Space works the way a game should work, there is nothing too special in it but for what it does do in this game, it's done right. First of all The way they set up the horror in this game is outstanding, they play a scary part of music and you know whats coming, and another thing that scares the crap out of me in this game is when the Necromorphs come out of the ducts in the ceiling, you never see it coming and you will jump out of your seat when it does happen. Another thing that they make really scary is when the Necromorphs start running after you, something about this just scares the crap out of me. They just got the Horror right in this game scary music, dark corridors, scary monsters, and scary moments when Necromorphs jump out at you and they don't do it too much so it dosen't get to the point where it becomes typical. So all and all they got the horror right.
While Dead Space is a great game in its own way it does draw some comparisons to Resident Evil 4, some of the concepts are just like RE4. You got the store, and an upgrade system, kind of like the setup they have in RE4 except in the store you can just buy the upgrades in the store. but instead of buying upgrades you must either buy something called a Node, which is kind of expensive so you are better off finding them and they are not too hard to find. Another big comparison in this game too Resident Evil 4 is when you upgrade your suit too be able to put more things in it, a lot like when you buy a bigger inventory in RE4. Sure Dead Space can feel very similar to RE4 but that dosen't mean its a complete copy to Re4 in fact they are very different for the most part, and just because a game copy's a little bit dosen't make it a bad thing too do in fact most games do it, but Dead space did it right, they didn't copy too much and the stuff they made by themselves they did right.
The only thing I can really say that I was really dissapointed with Dead Space was the story, now don't get me wrong the story itself was not bad but I didn't care for the game telling the story, as in yes the game literally has no cut scenes. the characters talk from another room and act out their emotions, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, but I just honestly don't care for it this way, sure it gave off a little more fear and emotion from it on some points but honestly I just prefer cut scenes, then actually watching it throughout the game. The ending is pretty good unfortunately I knew what was going to happen so I wasn't too shocked but it still was pretty good for me.
The Navigation in this game was awesome, if you are expecting to get lost in Dead Space, then no worry's cause you will not, all you have to do is click the bottom joystick down and there you go a line that tells you where to go so simple yet so perfect I wish Developers would do this more often makes it so easy to navigate. Whats so rare about this game to me is that this game in my opinion had better gameplay then story, which doesn't happen often, most game are the other way around and I'm not saying this was a good thing but I am not saying this is a bad thing either, because the reason I really did like this game is because of the gameplay and sometimes it's hard to convey that through some of these games because some can be just too repettitve but Dead Space isn't, or at least it wasn't for me their was something that just wanted me to keep playing, now that's not to say that the story was great but the gameplay made this game for me and is why I think it is a really good game.
Overall Dead Space may not be the deepest game you play in terms that there isn't a whole lot of depth to it's gameplay but for what it is, it is a very enjoyable Survival Horror game that is worth a play.