The next-gen remake of the survival horror classic arrives with updated graphics and features bound to generate nerve-shredding scares in fans, old and new. Dead Space follows engineer Isaac Clarke and his fellow crew as they're met with a terrible incident aboard an interstellar planet cracking ship called the USG Ishimura, where totally nothing bad has transpired, honest.
Well, that statement couldn't be further from the truth since things go awry from the get-go. Just minutes into your arrival, reanimated alien monsters known as Necromorphs await you at every corner, and death isn't very far away either. These moments showcase the Ishimura for the house of horrors that it truly is.
Some material contains mentions of self-harm and gore.
10 The Leviathan Boss Battle
The tentacles of the Leviathan may have grabbed and dragged you to your doom, even jump-scaring you at times throughout the gameplay, but facing its natural form is where the real terror kicks in. The redesigned boss arena, lighting, and changes to the visual design of this gigantic beast make it one mortifying challenge.
You approach the boss in the pitch dark of a zero gravity chamber, as bodies of fallen Ishimura crewmates are floating everywhere around you. The beams ominously light up to reveal the monstrous Necromorphian Sarlacc Pit before you, and its enlarged tendrils instantly begin swiping at you mid-air from all angles without hesitation.
9 The First Brute's Entrance
Though nowhere near as massive as the Leviathan, the Brute remains among the more giant Necromorph enemies you'll encounter throughout. It likewise received a redesign from the original game, with the increased body horror and gore of its wide jaw and a sac that shoots out the same explosive material as the Leviathan.
The first Brute will make its sudden introduction when you attempt to exit the Bridge as soon as Hammond gives you the security clearance. What typically should be a brief pause for the door to unlock switches to a series of slams, and the door starts forming dents. And when the mountainous figure of the Brute bursts through, imminent panic automatically sets in.
8 The ICU Murder-Suicide
Aside from the bloody messages on the walls, audio logs, and text documents around the Ishimura, Dead Space's environmental storytelling also incorporates chilling NPC interactions. There's a particularly gruesome one in the ICU section of the map, where a nurse commits a disturbing act.
The moment you walk into the room, your attention immediately shifts to a nurse in green scrubs. She takes a large surgical knife and carves into a patient from top to bottom, still alive and groaning in agony. She then quietly faces you and takes her own life by slitting her throat. The eerie music also helps build the terrifying gravity of the situation.
7 The Head Basher
Another harrowing encounter with an Ishimura crew member, whose mind is hijacked by the influence of the Marker, starts from a distance this time. As you turn the corner into a long, dimly lit hallway, you hear a thudding noise and see a shadow moving back and forth.
The thudding intensifies as you get closer, and you start to see a person whose uniform is drenched in blood brutally smashing their head into a reinforced glass wall. When you're behind the head basher, you're unsure what to anticipate next. Perhaps he can jump-scare you and turn into a Necromorph, which surprisingly doesn't end up happening.
6 Isaac Trapped In Stasis With A Hunter Behind Him
Your first time meeting the evil Dr. Mercer in the remake's fifth chapter has quite a significant change from the original game. Mercer renders you immobile by placing you under stasis, leaving you in uncharted territory where you're now stuck and left powerless. It imbues a lot more tension and fear in the scene.
As the camera pans around Isaac in this frozen state, you see a more imposing variation of Necromorph sealed behind a glass door. And it's none other than a regenerating Hunter, which moves around slightly as Dr. Mercer's monologue continues. The Hunter jumps out of containment right as Mercer leaves, and the stasis wears off just as it's right beside you.
5 Hazardous Anomaly Detected
Confined spaces and unpredictable waves of Necromorphs are a winning recipe when it comes to the dread and suspense of Dead Space. The tram car repair section from the first chapter introduces those kinds of sticky situations, but surviving the Main Lab in the latter half of the next chapter truly ups the ante.
Once entering the room and reading a prompt that tells you to use Kinesis to pick up objects that can impale enemies, quarantine is initiated. A voice announces there's a "hazardous anomaly detected," and the room lighting turns dark and orange. Biohazard symbols display on every screen, and harsh strings mixed with the piercing alarm system fill the background sound. And then the Necromorph horde is unleashed upon you.
4 First Encounter With A Twitcher
Leviathans, Brutes, and Hunters are still no match for the incredibly haunting and erratic design of the Twitcher Necromorph. Twitchers are a unique class of Necromorphs encompassing those struck by the infection with stasis modules equipped on them like Isaac. That's why they can sometimes appear outlined in blue as they move.
And boy, can they move. The revamped Twitchers are daunting to face, as their movement is not only super fast but gives the effect that it's uncontrollable. They rapidly phase from side to side in a way that can often appear as a blur. The first encounter with one of these is especially anxiety-inducing, as one drops down from an air vent and dashes its way to you across a very tight space.
3 Opening Elevator Chase Sequence
The scene where Isaac and his team have their first experience with Necromorphs soon after their arrival on the Ishimura certainly has a more frightening impact. This time around, a Necromorph emerges from behind Chen to impale him and slam his body against the window facing you.
As nightmarish as that may all seem, what follows proves even more intense and suspenseful. In the aftermath, you run down a hallway defenseless with flashing orange lighting, blaring sounds, and Slasher Necromorphs jumping out at you from air vents left and right. And when you finally make it to the elevator, a jump scare awaits you.
2 The Captain's Necromorph Transformation
Where Motive and EA truly hit it out of the park in terms of a heightened terrifying update from the original game is the transformation scene for Captain Mathius. The second chapter's objective for you to recover the RIG unit from the captain in the morgue is now much more up close and personal.
The original had you witness the flying Infector Necromorph turning the captain from behind the glass. Here the sequence is done in a cutscene. As Isaac attempts to rip out the device from the captain's back, an Infector swoops out of nowhere and implants its stinger into his dead body. The captain undergoes the grotesque transformation on top of Isaac, and you even see the clothing shred apart.
1 Isaac Becoming A Necromorph
But the most horrifying thing of all aboard the Ishimura is you turning into the very creature you set out to destroy. There's a particular breed of Necromorph known as a Divider. Their body is made of detachable parts that snake away toward you on the ground via their tentacle appendages.
If you don't eliminate each one and end up taking enough damage, the slithering head will latch onto your neck and have you in a stranglehold. Succumbing to the stranglehold triggers an animation where it tears your head clean off and inserts its tentacles into the gaping hole of your neck. The head eerily hangs upside down until Isaac's hand repositions it in place.
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