Dead Space

About Dead Space

Dead Space is the 2023 remake of the 2008 science-fiction survival horror game, rebuilt by EA's Motive studio for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Isaac Clarke, a ship systems engineer, answers a distress call from the USG Ishimura, a vast planet-cracking mining ship that has gone silent. His partner Nicole serves aboard. The repair crew's shuttle crashes into the hangar, and within minutes the team learns that the crew is dead and that something is using their bodies.

Those things are the Necromorphs: corpses reshaped into creatures with blades for arms, that crawl out of vents and play dead on the floor. Shooting them in the body does little. You have to cut off their limbs, which is what Isaac's mining tools, starting with the Plasma Cutter, are made for. Ammunition, medical packs and credits are scarce, the inventory fills fast, and upgrades come from rare power nodes, so every fight is a question of what you can afford to spend.

The game is played over the shoulder with no on-screen menus: Isaac's health is a bar on his spine and his inventory is a hologram in front of him. The Ishimura is one connected ship you ride a tram around, and the remake lets you walk back to earlier decks. It adds sections in zero gravity and vacuum, where sound goes dull and air runs out, and a system that varies the lighting, sounds and attacks so the ship never quite feels safe.

It is bloodier and more combat-heavy than hide-and-run horror like Amnesia, closer to Resident Evil. It suits players who want tense, gory science-fiction horror with weapons that run dry.

How to play Dead Space

1. Explore the Ishimura over Isaac's shoulder, following the locator line to your next objective.
2. Aim for the limbs: shoot off a Necromorph's arms and legs to bring it down.
3. Use Stasis to slow fast enemies and Kinesis to pick up and throw objects, including the blades of fallen enemies.
4. Pick up ammunition, health and credits, and spend power nodes at benches to upgrade your suit and weapons.
5. Use the store and save stations along the way, and manage the small inventory carefully.

Screenshots

Tips

• Stomp on bodies that look dead; some are not, and they drop items when stomped.
• Keep the Plasma Cutter upgraded: it stays useful for the whole game.
• Watch your air meter in vacuum and pick up oxygen canisters as you go.
• Sell spare items at the store rather than leaving them behind.

Questions