Okay, so I've been eyeballing this game for a long time now, ammirite? Well, today I got my chance. My grandparents had sent me Takanuva for my birthday- too bad I already got him from my parents. So as much as I didn't want to return it *seeing as how my Grandad went to the trouble of thinking about which one I might find the most enjoyable* , we decided I would consider the one I already got as their present and that my parents still owed me one. So we dropped by Wal-Mart and returned it. So mom said I could either get the Rockoh T3 set or pick out 30$ worth of stuff. I stuck with Rockoh.

BUT

As I was passing by videyah gamez section to snag a sneak peek at upcoming games *I got a nice glimpse of C&C Red Alert III, dude, the Soviets get attack bears! IN MOTHER RUSSIA, BEAR HUNTS YOU*, I spotted none other then Dead Space for PS3. Glimpsing over to the usually worthless 360 section, I spotted a copy. I felt my excitement was in vain, though- I didn't want to spend all my money.

But then it clicked.

My buddeh Tyler had given me a 25$ Wal-Mart gift certificate! That, and my mom owed me 3 weeks of allowance- 33$ right there! Total, 58$ and I only need to cough up 2 solid dollar bills! I quickly told mom about this, and while she didn't envy the idea of Dead Space, I managed to convince her that I wouldn't play it around Baby Xar.

I came home with Rockoh T3 AND Dead Space. Out of all my birthday certificates from my friends, I only spent a total of 12$ on Crysis:Warhead *too bad the mouse is retarded, I've came to call it "Mousehole" because it frequently gets me killed in the game* AND Dead Space which I thought I might never get less then a few days ago! Everybody smiles!

But you didn't come hear to listen to that, did you? Well then, let me begin. Instead of having to wait while Baby Xar was at school tommorow, I got lucky when he uncovered his PSP and decided to watch Harry Potter: Here We Go Again *I believe that is the fith movie, amirite?* upstairs in his room because y'know, he's a total HP Nazi. I snagged my precious game in it's unopened green box and flew down the stairs.

It was time to get the game on.

*puts on "Clubbed To Death" by Rob Dougan*

The game sucked me in from the begining. Your group has been called in to repair a planet-mining vessel in the outer reaches of space. It starts off bad enough when your ship crashes into theirs and strands you. But not 5 minutes into the game, you end up getting cut-off from your teammates and find yourself being chased down a labyrinth of corridors by this hideous abomination that vageuly seems human.

And just like that, you, Isaace, find yourself swept up in a claustrophobic nightmare- worst part is your captian doesn't intend on leaving until he gets his original job done. If you and your comrades ever live long enough to do so, you'll finally be able to focus on actually fleeing the terrifying ghost ship.

I can say right off the bat, this is not a "Shoot-em-up" shooter game. This is a "shoot them so you can get a headstart in your race to escape" shooter. With your gun only having 10 shots per ammo *and ammo has proven scarce so far* , this game is about running away as fast as you can, not heroically pulling off some TTGL crud and clearing a room full of Necromorphs.

The game isn't too horrible while you have shots in your plasma cutter, but as soon as you run out, you're in trouble. Take ti from me:

My task is simple, get the key to overhaul a tram station regulation. I walk onto a catwalk and notice a squabbling Necromorph stumbling towards me a few good meters away. After a second of checking my stats, I realize I can't kill it off- so I turn to take the other direction just to see a shrieking Necromorph that wasn't there a moment ago chugging at me. So I bolt between the two monstrosities and run down the central catwalk, just to be greeted by another two who scramble up the side-railing. Immediately one jumps onto me and starts to tear into my neck- after a moment of hammering the A button, I knock the creature off me and dart for the elevator and scramble in.

When the door opens, the cost is clear and I run past a corpse- which quickly jumps up and attacks me. I fight back, punching until I down the thing and crush it's head in- I turn to run for the card just to see 3 more Necromorphs come out from the darkness.

Simply put: I die. Very painfully. This game gets bloody, especially when since you can curb-stop your enemies and get in fist fights with them. But when you die, they don't give a flying fungus about your dignity-you get to watch them tear you up while you wait for the game to load.

Three tries later, I finally have it down. Zip through the first two, fire a stasis-round at the second two on the catwalk so I can get past them without injury. Get up the elevator, run past the first one, snag the card and don't even LOOK at the approaching Necromorphs, then backtrack while firing every stasis round I got at them. Then hit the office, get the override codes, run back out, through, and past the horde of shrieking nightmares and finally board the elevator, fighting to keep them out and hope the elevator door guillotines one or two.

I survive!

Now onto whatever horrors surely await me further on.

I will safely say that this game is scary. Throw in the fact that I turned all the lights off and pulled the curtains up for fun, and I had a terrifying roller coaster of screaming things like "Get off me you freak!", "Give that thing the one-two-punch! Now!, "Open already you bloody elevator! Okay now clos-CLOSE ALREADY DANGIT!" and nervous laughs afterwards.

60 bucks is a steep price- I almost never buy a game out when it's first released. While part of me wishes I took it like a man and spat all my money out at Gamestop to pre-order the game a day before it was released so I could get the additional artbook, I'm happy with my choice. I took advantage of the many oppurtunities I found in that store and came out with Dead Space at the cost of just 2 actual dollars, and I can safely say it was worth it.

If you love horror, TPS violence, and a game full of close encounters or even just a good scare, then this game is for you. It's like Alien and Dawn of the Dead got thrown into a blender and given a story of it's own. I haven't even beaten the first level/chapter whatever and I already can say it's one of my favorite games.