We've been looking forward to Dead Space for quite a long time now, and I had the entirely terrible task of spending most of last night and today playing the game. While I won't talk much about specifics until we run our feature review, I will say one thing: the game is scary.

Last night I took the game over to a friend's house and we killed the lights, put the volume at a comfortable level and then turned it up a few notches, and got to playing. It sneaks up on you, the atmosphere and the level of immersion are both very well done, mostly through some clever design with the user interface. You're having a good time, and then BAM! Something happens and you jump out of your seat.

This happened multiple times. It's a thing of beauty. In one instance I was carrying the flame thrower, and when I jumped my finger slipped and hit the trigger, causing a very weak spurt of flame to shoot out somewhat impotently. We both got a giggle out of that.

Do yourself a favor when you get the game: make the room as dark as possible. Turn the sound system up. Allow yourself to be swept away in it. So far Dead Space has been a great experience, just for the horror. It's so refreshing to have a scary game that doesn't have the words "Silent" or "Resident" in the title.