Nowadays, horror games are mainly about running away from creepers who are chasing after players, but in 2008 shooting back was an important achievement, thanks to the immensely popular Resident Evil series. The boundary between third-person shooters and survivalhorrorgames faded mainly thanks to Resident Evil 4. Electronic Arts took this formula and moved it to space with Dead Space.
We do not want to insinuate that Dead Space is a weak extract of the Resident Evil series. Although Dead Space started as the third System Shock game, the release of Resident Evil 4 meant that developer Visceral Games (back then under the name EA Redwood Shores) went back to the drawing board. This is clearly noticeable in terms of gameplay technology, but Dead Space has more in common with classical space horror films such as Event Horizon and The Thing.
Necromorphs
This is mainly due to the dark atmosphere and the lurid creatures that are hiding on the spaceship USG Ishimura. These so-called Necromorphs originated from an extraterrestrial virus that made grotesque monsters of the crew of the mine ship. Lead character Isaac Clarke manages to survive and is assisted by computer specialist Kendra Daniels and commander Zach Hammond during his journey through the ship. Clarke has to do everything to make the ship so that he can stay alive, but he has a lot of work on that job thanks to the many monsters.
A unique aspect of these samples is that they move through all sorts of unnaturally interwoven legs and tentacles. Isaac's background as an engineer comes in handy. With work benches scattered around the Ishimura, he can use all kinds of tools to make deadly weapons to defend himself. Soon, players learn that monsters can be delayed or even killed by shooting certain parts of the body and legs, so that just shooting around or even performing a headshot is often not a logical tactic. Finding the right shooting tactic for the different beings is therefore essential. The fact that many of the Necromorphs can grow back limbs or adjust themselves after injury makes the challenge even greater, as well as the sometimes limited ammunition that can be found on the spaceship.
Super exciting
In addition to the impressively animated monsters and cool weapons to shoot them, the environment of Dead Space also makes a big impression. The UG Ishimura feels like a real existing game world where terrible things have happened. Although there are clearly different areas and the game offers a fairly linear experience, the game does everything to give players the feeling of being on a trek through the spaceship and to experience this exciting journey through the eyes of Isaac. In addition, the design ensures that it is clear that the Ishimura is not a high-tech, luxury ship, but a gigantic work vehicle with many machines, held together by various metal beams and plates. The immersion is praiseworthy.
Another striking achievement of Dead Space is the HUD. Without having to pause, players can see the most important details, such as the ammunition, oxygen and protection of Isaac's suit, the Resource Integration Gear (RIG), at a glance. Especially the protective meter on the suit is characteristic thanks to a luminous beam that runs over the backbone of the main character. View the map of the spaceship or select weapons in the menu is done via projections
come from the RIG. Here too, an element of tension plays a major role: when players are engaged in their inventory, the game simply continues and one can be attacked from all sides. And again the implementation of the HUD in the game world itself ensures that the immersion is never broken.
Rest in peace, Visceral
Dead Space was a big surprise for friend and foe and threw high praise at critics and gamers. The game was sold more than two million times and EA claimed that this was successful enough. A follow-up could therefore not be missed. In Dead Space 2, the environment was thrown open even further through the gigantic space station The Sprawl and all elements that made the original so good, including the HUD, the weapons and the monsters, were further elaborated. Even the Wii got a customized Dead Space game via the on-rail shooter Dead Space: Extraction.
After Dead Space 3, a game that focussed on co-op gameplay with a lot of criticism from fans, the cake seemed almost finished. Several rumors claimed that EA was not satisfied with recent sales figures and that the co-op gameplay of the third movement was a final attempt to reach a larger audience, which, however, had the opposite effect. Visceral Games was put on the Battlefield Hardline released in 2015. Various other projects, including a mysterious Star Wars game, were not enough to save the studio; Visceral closed its doors in 2017. It makes the chances of a Dead Space 4 or a 'soft reboot' for the franchise even smaller, even though EA claimed to see Dead Space as a major franchise a few years ago. And that's a shame, because certainly the first two games in the series excelled in quality, gameplay and atmosphere.
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