Dead Space isn’t quite horror, and it isn’t quite survival, either. In an obvious attempt to revive the genre, it hits a bizarre middle ground; too many clichés and too much ammo make it difficult to be truly terrified. Yet, EA’s new third-person shooter has its occasional scares, its occasional ‘oh shits’ and it’s occasional ‘what the fucks’ – it’s just too bad that you’ll probably find these in your usual daily soap-drama as well.

Dead Space’s play by the rulebook approach soon wears thin. With it being established that foes appear from particularly distinct air vents early-on, every entry into every room ultimately becomes a scouting mission; it becomes ‘find the vents, you know, just in case’. Thankfully, as progression through the Ishimaru becomes gradually more complex, combat becomes more intense and resources more scarce. But this is quickly unbalanced by the inclusion of an onboard equivalent to your local corner shop — it conveniently provides everything an engineer traversing a necromorph infested spacecraft could ever need. And I mean everything. Although the amount of ammunition and health then becomes somewhat limited to the number of credits Isaac can acquire, it still deadens the element of survival.

At points, it became possible to predict almost every enemy encounter with pin-point accuracy. Granted, the developers opted-out of some all-too-obvious scares, but Dead Space falls within familiarity far too quickly for a game supposedly belonging to the survival horror genre. It can undoubtedly tense, but its crescendo, or lack of, will leave you wanting more. And when you eventually learn that the stress induced by the foreboding and darkly-lit environment comes to a lacking climax, the atmosphere dies, leaving it to be just another third-person shooter with no shortage of grizzly and gruesome moments.

Dismemberment by whatever means necessary is the crux of the game’s combat. Aiming for head is pointless, too. Almost any breed of necromorph to lose its head usually continues towards you at a relenting pace, and more often than not, you’ll find yourself backed into a corner or wall frantically trying to cut an arm, leg or head from the incoming beastie. This is perhaps the greatest source of tension in the entirety of Dead Space. Moreover, this repetitive cycle is surprisingly addictive, and especially difficult when tasked with taking down more than one necro. It’s for this reason that Dead Space is well-executed and compelling game, in spite of the lacking atmosphere.

But where did the atmosphere go? Well, the solid visuals, clichéd but well-done setting, and phenomenal sound should have left me wetting the bed at night. Yet, it didn’t. Whilst at the time it wasn’t obvious as to why, retrospect suggests that the “game” part got in the way. Happenings onboard the planet cracker demonstrated themselves to be calculated all-too-quickly; it never felt random or spontaneous. I could virtually see the “spawn enemy here” marker on the air-vent or sidewalk. The only benefit here being that if you managed to miss-calculate where a necromorph might appear, you’d be all the more startled for finding one when you’d least expect it.

Due to the core mechanics of both this and Resident Evil 5 being largely similar, it invites a comparison, even if it is an unfair one. The name of Capcom’s survival-horror turned action series is perhaps its most frightening aspect. But that’s fine, because it seems to be a deliberate and intentional move on the part of the developer. However, Dead Space follows all the rules and regulations that a survival-horror should.

And when the game attempted to be a little more adventurous, it worked. The presence of giant tentacle – or two – was never a surprise to me, yet when one grabbed Isaac by the legs I was caught off guard, shocked and impressed. These moments are perhaps the most thrilling in Dead Space; when it breaks its own conventions to show me something different. Sure, a game can’t be populated entirely by such moments, but a little less mundane and a lot more insane could go a long way to restoring the style of horror that keeps gamers on the edge of their seats, and stops many from playing due to the sheer terror of the experience.

If anything, the desire to still play Dead Space is a testament to its design and mechanics. Again, it looks good, sounds good and plays good – it’s just not scary. It also can’t be said that it doesn’t try to induce fear, because it does. If EA ever decides to release a sequel, separating itself from its inspirations wouldn’t hurt. With enemies resembling the monsters of ‘Doom’ and ‘The Thing’, and a setting seeming ripped from the film ‘Event Horizon’, this sense of familiarity has an obvious source. For now, the only tangible way to ramp-up the experience is to increase the difficulty. Naturally, tougher foes and a lack of essentials aboard the USG Ishimaru only add to the stress of staying alive. And regardless of if you actually find Dead Space terrifying, you can’t deny it’s a shooter worth playing, even if it is only for the “what the fuck!?” moments.