This game is like Bioshock. I mean it has these stupid vending machines that you can buy stuff like ammo and such.
...Which were featured in survival horrors far preceding Bioshock. Durr. They're not vending machines, either, actually. They're just supply depos for the workers on the ship
Okay what's that doing on Mining Ship? Straight out of Bioshock, at least Bioshock had a good reason for it being there (the civil war between Andrew Ryan and the riches, and atlas the socialist),
If you actually would play the game, you'd know this. Dead Space is set on a planet cracker, a mining ship that's used to harvest foreign worlds so the earth can stockpile further resources to fuel the growing populace. Also, Atlas really wasn't a socialist. Uhhh, at all. He was more of a capitalist. Ryan was straight up objectivist though, ripped right from Atlas Shrugged.
and it has that same Bioshock-esqe look to it. YOu see I'm not the only one who thinks this. Multiple other reviwers have mentioned how it "BORROWS" alot of elements from various games (ie: REV4 Behind the shoulder combat, DOOM 3 monster theme, Bioshocks vending machines)
So RE4 was the first game to use over the shoulder? Doom was the first to feature monsters? Bioshock was the first to have shops? Dead Space borrows a lot of ideas from movies and games, but the sum is greater than the parts and the final result is fantastic. And if we're gonna talk about taking ideas, let's discuss how much Bioshock 'steals' from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, shall we?
But anyways, while I do prefer Bioshock over Dead Space, the latter does quite a few things better than the former, namely the horror aspect. While Bioshock is eerie and occasionally frightening, Dead Space is constantly horrifying. After walking out into a void, for example, your sound will cut out (no sound in space, of course). I dare you to not shit bricks when out in one of these voids you turn around to find a necromorph, screaming in total silence directly behind you. Fucking horrifying mang :C Oh, and you're not gonna find any fag cloning tubes to bring you back to life every ten feet and you're sure as shit not gonna be able to pause to change up your guns. Once your start the game, you really don't get a break. Ever.
I also find Dead Space to be a more immersive experience, just from the number of ways you can approach the game. Aside from the game itself, there's the online viral marketing game (which is brilliant, by the way), the comics, the animated prequel or whatever, and all of them work together to form an unbelievably cohesive, intriguing story. There's no angle of the assault on the Ishimura that's left unexplored. You fell more like you're on the ship more than you ever felt you were down in Rapture.
While Bioshock was a more cinematic experience and undoubtedly featured a better story overall, Dead Space is still definitely worthy of plenty of attention and praise. Shit is tight, and definitely worth at least a rent.