If he is utterly focused on survival, then Dead Space is committed to enveloping you within its dank interiors before unleashing a cavalcade of shocks.

Fourteen years on, the game feels even fresher: a singular slice of sci-fi horror with tunnel vision to match that of its protagonist, the engineer Isaac Clarke. At the time of its 2008 release, the game scooped numerous industry prizes, including Action Game of the Year at the prestigious D.I.C.E. How can such an unashamedly derivative game-not only of sci-fi-horror movies Alien and Event Horizon, but also the action-horror video game Resident Evil 4-produce such a gnarly, unforgettable experience? The corridors of its abandoned spaceship are home to many terrors, riddled with groaning monsters called Necromorphs and the reanimated remains of hackneyed horror tropes, but such generic DNA did not hinder Dead Space. This is the paradox that lies at the bloodied heart of Dead Space. You look on as your colleagues are slaughtered by the abomination that has crawled out from the dark. You know how this goes indeed, you have seen this all before. Suddenly, you hear the metallic clanging of something in the vents. Within a few moments, you find yourself inside its sleek, retrofuturist lobby, unintentionally quarantined from your team behind reinforced glass.

All of the Ishimura’s lights are out, and the only sound that emanates across the galactic airwaves is garbled static. The skeletal silhouette of the USG Ishimura-a gigantic mining spacecraft referred to colloquially as a “planet cracker”-looms in the distance as your colleagues, a security officer and a technology specialist, prepare to dock the ship. Dead Space opens with a descent cribbed straight from the annals of Hollywood sci-fi history.

Dead space 1 story