Dead Spaced

Dead Space is a game about production values. It's biggest strength is it's production values, its graphics and audio, that makes what would otherwise just be

The sheer technical prowess of this game is what’s really noteworthy. It has the best graphics I’ve ever seen on the 360, and great art design. The character you control, Isaac Clark, wears an awesome looking suit, and he’s a great example of character design done right. The environments consistently look terrific, with fantastic lighting and sound design to make really atmospheric levels. A little more variety in the way levels looked would’ve been awesome (you’re in the same spaceship the entire game), but who

Dead Space is polished to a shine, and I didn’t see a single bug or glitch while playing it. It’s a pretty much flawless product, but

Dead Space is a game about production values. It's biggest strength is it's production values, its graphics and audio, that makes what would otherwise just be

The sheer technical prowess of this game is what’s really noteworthy. It has the best graphics I’ve ever seen on the 360, and great art design. The character you control, Isaac Clark, wears an awesome looking suit, and he’s a great example of character design done right. The environments consistently look terrific, with fantastic lighting and sound design to make really atmospheric levels. A little more variety in the way levels looked would’ve been awesome (you’re in the same spaceship the entire game), but who

Dead Space is polished to a shine, and I didn’t see a single bug or glitch while playing it. It’s a pretty much flawless product, but

I agree with every word. It's a game I admired for its technical achievements, but just didn't love all that much.

I have to say, I LOVED Dead Space.  Yes, it has incredible production values.  It also has something that most games lack, polish.  I don't mean graphical polish.  The controls feel amazing, even though it is essentially a RE4 clone.  Games that feel good to play win a lot of points with me, even if the underlying formula is a bit stale.  Let's face it, there are only so many possible ways to design a game where you run around and shoot things.  But if the closed loop is tight (visual input -> cognitive processing of input -> motor output -> game reacts to controls ->visual input), then this causes me much happiness.  The designers of Dead Space obviously spent a LOT of time tightening and cleaning up the control scheme, and it pays off immensely. 

Dead Space was so great.  Great length, action, graphics, story.  It had it all but a survival mode.  I would also say that Dead Space was probably the most polished game last year.

Most polished game of last year, for sure.