It's so repetitive! The entire game is:
 
"Fix the air lines"  
*goes off and fixes it*
"Good there fixed...oh no the engines died! Go and fix it"
*Goes and fixes the engines*
"Phew that was lucky...oh no the turrets are dead! The asteroids will kill us!"
*goes off and fixes turrets*
"Good job...oh no another 456 areas of the ship are broken!"
 
Holy shit. Theres no change in the game so far and I'm 4 hours in. At the start it was ok but after the tenth time of fixing something just to be told I have to go off and fix yet another thing that just broke, it grinds on you. I don't think I can make it to the end. Does anyone else feel this way?
 

It can be pretty repetitive, but it comes with the territory.  Most games in the survival horror genre involve going here, getting an item, going back to where you were, and so on. 

Yes, the repetitive mission type of "go and do this, you're the only one who can" bugged me 
 
but what i hated more was the game itself. the movement is fucked up (supposed to be cool) the camera is hanging behind u swaying left in right in such an unsatisfying way. 
If you fuck up and miss one of the monsters attacking you, and you prolly will cuz the gun is so heavy to move and the three-light-bullet thing is so lame and feels like it shoots blanks, so if you DO fuck up, they blast u and drop your health like a motherfucker....

Funny, I felt the same. I just didn't get into the game, and I tried my hardest. Turned my lights out and played it at night, I didn't get scared, didn't get into the atmosphere, and thought it got boring fast. It wasn't bad, it was just a tad boring.

Wow guys.  I loved this game.  Sure, saying "go fix this" may be repetitive but the actual act of fixing each thing is different.  I'm going to have to agree with turtlefuzz.  It's the journey to each objective that makes thing interesting.   You've got to love the atmosphere too.  The characters too.  Stick with it.  Eventually the fixing ends.  The finale is great.

well thats what he would be doing if there were no monsters

That was just the one level in the beginning of the game.  However, when you're aboard a gigantic spaceship with zombies, there's not much to do other than do your best to make it so you can get the fuck out of there.

I didn't really notice the repetetiveness, I guess I was having too much fun on the way to the various objectives :).

I felt exactly the same way. I couldn't stand the tension and constant secludedness and thought I was going to go crazy playing it.

I really liked the game. It was my favorite game from last year in fact. But you shouldn't force yourself to like a game because it is popular with other people. The repetitiveness is there for sure and if it is going to bug you thats a valid point but I guess the people like me who enjoyed it were able to look past that. If you are a fair way into the game I would suggest sticking it out to see the ending. But if not it might be better to move on to something you would actually enjoy playing.

The tasks were of the same "fix this" category and "fetch quest " type but it didn't bother me so much as the environment was so fun to explore. Of course, if the environment and the ship itself hasn't grabbed your interest by now then this game is definitely not for you.

I thought the movement was fine. Yea, it's not Left 4 Dead, but it also isn't some horrible nightmare like Resident Evil 5.

Yes, I also hate not having enough ammo on my first play though. I didn't mind it was repetitive though, however the game is overated.

Yeah, it startet to bug me around the middle of the game, mainly because I used the "casual gamers suck ass at finding stuff so there" button too often which makes the "connect the dots" structure blatantly obvious.

All the backtracking and repetitiveness comes with the survival horror genre.  Walk to point X, on the way there nothing is scary.  Walking back from point X, scary shit happens. 
 
Dead Space for me was more about story and atmosphere.  The intertwining story lines with Nicole and Kendra and the plot twist, second to none.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go play Dead Space again. 
 
I won't say it since it's a big spoiler, but anyone else notice if you take the first letter of each chapter what it spells out?

Just about every game involves some sort of point A....point B....point C.. progression.  Dead space's progression style just makes it easier to notice that repetition.  
 
That may have been a problem, but Dead Space's gameplay is just so awesome It doesn't matter where they want Isaac to go as far as I'm concerned.

same thing could be said for any game that relies on core gameplay mechanics based on a specific genre (FPS, TPS for example). As long as a game narrows it's potential into a specific genre and its gameplay conventions, you will eventually run into repetition. Obviously theres better or worse. Speaking of better, Batman for example is an excellent game but it's technically full of repetition. 

The game is an absolute grind from start to finish. I feel like i'm sounding like a broken record but there really did just seem like there was nothing to particularly enjoy about playing Dead Space.

" @systech said:

" I felt exactly the same way. I couldn't stand the tension and constant secludedness and thought I was going to go crazy playing it. "

I'd say EA did a job well done then. "

You know he's an engineer right?

I liked Dead Space... it was fine... although I was horribly ill whenever I played through it and for some reason every time I try to go back to it those feelings of sickness seem to return!

I played the demo (and generally enjoy horror games), but somehow I was just never interested enough to buy it. I didn't really like the demo, either. The controls felt too clumsy to handle the amount of enemies they threw at you!

" @caesius6 said:

" @systech said:

" I felt exactly the same way. I couldn't stand the tension and constant secludedness and thought I was going to go crazy playing it. "

I'd say EA did a job well done then. "

Hehe yeah, I'd think that thats the whole point whit a horror game, If you fell like that systech then your playing the wrong game. "

Dead Space was not good. 
 
Like... everyone disagrees with me but I didn't find it fun at all.

I actually didn't even realize how repetitive it was until I read this thread. Then again I was so into my surroundings and trying to kill everything that wanted to kill me to even realize I was just walking back and forth from point A to point B. Guess it's all about whether or not you can take in your surroundings in the game.

I'm convinced it was the best game of 2008 and I haven't played anything better this year.  Everything about Dead Space, from its atmosphere to its UI kept me totally engaged in the game world and created a sense that once I began playing I would only be able to detach myself from the game world by  turning the system off.  That said, I played on the hard difficulty my first time through and cannot imagine playing the game in any other way.  Dead Space's hard difficulty evokes the original Resident Evil in that your character is physically unable to survive unless you're willing to run away from battles.  And frankly, if I wanted a game where I had to shoot everything in sight I'd play Halo or Killzone; if I want to play a game where I really have to put myself in the shoes of the protagonist and make decisions based on what I would do in their situation, Dead Space is second to none.
 
Also the ending kicks an enormous amount of ass.

Also most of the great games are repetitive in one way or another:
 
Zelda - get pendant (or equivalent, I'm thinking of Link to the Past), repeat 3 times, walk into forest get master sword,  get 3-7 of  whatever the later stage's equivalent of a pendant is, fight Gannon
KOTOR - land on planet, help whoever is being mistreated, they point you in the right direction, fight sith, repeat until end 
Doom - get keys open doors end the level
Halo and Gears - shoot everything until the end of the level, repeat
 
Those are a few examples and I could probably come up with some more (tetris), but the point I'm driving at here is that repetition doesn't make a bad if the thing you are repeating is awesome.

I thought it was a good game, in fact more than just good and yet I was still disappointed. The backtracking didn't put me off at all as I enjoy playing games like Metroid etc. I suppose it was the hype that ruined it for me a bit, I was told the game had a terrifying atmosphere and even with as little fright as I'd found in the survival horror genre in the past I thought with the way they were describing this game it had to at least be a bit scary. The game got me a few times with jump scares and had quite an immersive atmosphere but I still don't think I can describe it as a scary game. Also the strategic dismemberment mechanic was cool but not the amazing revolution in gameplay I was promised and if anything the enemies just felt kinda repetitive. While the environments were atmospheric, the ridiculous amount of brown used can also not be ignored and this did little for me to help add to the variety of places you visit in the game. Also with the third person perspective often being used in enclosed spaces I found Isaac's movements seemed stiff and clunky. The game was fun but I definitely wouldn't give it the average 8.9/10 the critics have.