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Dead Space is about serious, mutated crap hitting the fan, in space.  There are no shortage of things gone wrong, and the entire demo level we saw (about halfway through the game) was varying tones of brown. Granted, the textures are alright, and a propriety engine built at Redwood Shores and Havok physics are at use – but man, drowning in brown is getting harder on the eyes with every shooter.

In Dead Space, you play a repair team headed by Isaac Clarke, sent to space to investigate an emergency beacon.  Sticking with the industry’s newest trend, the developer claims that there’s no HUD, but rather a health bar on the character’s back and an inventory system that’s projected in the environment.  In our eyes, it’s still a display, and whether the health bar is obnoxiously glowing blue on his spine or tucked into a corner, it is what it is.  The inventory system, however, takes the place of pausing (think Alone in the Dark); you can still be attacked while using it.  There is no regenerating health – only medkits (health) and stasis (ammo) pickups, and an on board “store,” where things can be purchased with credits dropped by downed enemies.

We witnessed some zero gravity segments in action during a guided tour and found them to be highly disorienting.  Staying in these situations too long can kill you if you don’t have air canisters in your inventory to replenish the oxygen supply.  The concepts at play are blatantly derivative: walk on walls and ceilings (Prey says hi), pickup objects with your telekinesis module and launch them (gravity gun from Half Life 2 says hi), shooting bloated enemies causes them to burst and unleash smaller versions (The Flood from Halo says hi), and there’s more brown to be had than even the brownest of shooters.

With so many quality games competing for your dollars this season, Dead Space will be a tough sell when it comes to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this fall.