The first thing that comes to mind is the reaction to the two games from our opinionated fast-talker, Yahtzee. That is, a humorous reviewer with the sense to cut through the bullshit pretty much complimented RE4 as being decent while Dead Space was shoved out an airlock to go through the wibbly-wobbly motions death before he made it explode.
That's his opinion, probably worth mentioning. Here's mine.
RE4 has personality, you could say, because we can all relate to Leon, whom we've seen before (and notice he ain't some stupid kid anymore), now going through the middle of nowhere to deal with an ever-expanding weird encounter with villagers and the freakish monsters growing out of their heads.
Dead Space is every sci-fi movie about a derelict spaceship I've ever seen. Okay, not EVERY one of them, but you see what I'm getting at, right?