My Top 10 Games of '08 - #7

There's just something about Dead Space that puts me in an odd place. I find it difficult to properly put a proper title on it. "Amazing" is a good word, but it just doesn't seem to mesh well with how I fell about the game. And while "Competent" sounds good in my head, when I write it down (or type, preferably), it seems to give the game less credit than it deserves."Scary" is also not the word I'd use. Dead Space isn't scary, but I am certainly afraid of getting killed. Is that being scared? If it is, then I guess Dead Space really is scary.

Regardless of what title I eventually end up giving it, the game plays perfectly. I never had a problem with the game in gameplay sense; Isaac is wearing a heavy-as-hell suit, and he fittingly does not jump around like say, Señor Ninja. He hauls his weight around as he should, really. The monsters are a bit on the generic side, but I never noticed that because I was too busy worrying about the fastest way to chop them up, so that never really bothered me.

If you want the rest of my thoughts on the game, you can go ahead and read the review, so I won't spend too much time regurgitating material here, but in the end the game ended up being something I didn't know I want. EA sticking their neck out for once (twice, actually) is a welcome change of pace, and puts a damper on their "evil empire that has nothing left to contribute" persona. It's just a bottom-to-top good game, all around. It isn't the best game out this year (I'll get to that one later), but you know, that doesn't keep it from being totally awesome in any way.

Oh, and I found the title I was looking for: Awesomely solid.