The game: Dead Space. Just came out last week, and it's the first game since Doom3 to truly, genuinely, both frighten and challenge me as a gamer.

This isn't intended to be a "review" of the game, just a quick blog to let people know about it. I came across the game whilst looking on EBGames.com for upcoming releases, and thought it looked pretty good. Even the teaser was scary, but then don't all the teasers look great, even if the game is horrid?

Well not the case with Dead Space. I've been impressed right out of the gate. I'd even venture to say that this game has the absolute best ambient sound effects and lighting effects to date. BioShock for the 360 takes a close second on audio effects, but the ambient visuals in Dead Space are just stunning, lifelike, and terrifying.

The game itself is a 3rd person shoot'em'up which I'm not usually a fan of, however the Stasis and Health bars are done in a very intuitive fashion. There's no HUD as with typical shooters, but rather the health bar is broken into segments that run up Isaacs spine (the protagonist), and he wears a suit that they refer to as a "Rig". Everyone has them... and everyone has the same health bars - they refer to it as "Synching the Rig" when using health packs to recover bars, which I find clever. Note that I have not seen a single place in this game apart from upgrading the health on the rig where your health is recovered for you; Not between levels, no "health" stations, nothing. You rely solely on finding, or buying, medkits and carrying them in your inventory.

There have definitely been a few times where I wished it was 1st person as the angles for shots can be a little difficult to get used to, but overall I think the 3rd person feel really creates profound connection with the surroundings as opposed to just a look-straight-and-shoot feel like most shooters. The environment is truly stunning and worth appreciating. The aiming and movement systems are also intuitive and simple, and the gameplay and AI are nothing short of next gen.

I've got about 16 hours into the game so far, and I think I'm nearing the final chapters, but it's been a long haul for me. I started the game on Hard because I find most games the "Normal" setting is just way too easy for my taste. This game may have been an exception because I find myself completely starved for ammo constantly, and having to find creative ways to dispatch hordes of baddies that jump out of wall vents, fall into rooms through suspended ceiling tiles, bust down doors and charge, and crawl up from underneath you through ventilation grates. They're everywhere, and nowhere. Truly a harrowing experience because they'll never come at you the same way twice! I think when i'm done I'll go back and play it again on easy or normal, since the game could be a fun "shooter" to just carve away hordes of aliens, but on Hard there just is not enough ammo to spare, and one mistake and you'll find yourself hacked up into little bits, or transformed into an alien yourself.

Bottom line? Very scary, very difficult, brilliantly detailed, well thought out story, and overall fantastic gameplay thus far. It's literally Event Horizon (space thriller) meets Aliens. What a combo.

I highly recommend this game.