fletcherw928

I have gotten real nostalgic over this game lately, and when I mean nostalgic memories, I actually mean repressed trauma of just how revoltingly horrific this game is, but in a good way.

The game starts off with introducing you to Isaac Clarke a silent protagonist with no words but many grunts (though that will be fixed in the PS5/Series X remake which I haven't played yet since I don't have neither of those consoles)

Then it drops you into the dark, ominous, foreboding... and frankly quite unsettling USG Ishumaura, which is a place as dark and dead as it is filled with rusty and grease infested metallic walls and doors which will become Isaac's new home for the next 8 hours, where you will be dismembering the most terrifying and disgusting looking horror enemies in gaming history, the Necromorph.

Honestly, when it comes to enemy design in survival horror games, these guys have always stood out to me as being the most creatively designed, where instead of blasting more conventional type zombies with shotguns and sniper rifles like in Resident Evil, trying to get headshots, you will instead slice and dice these Necromorphs from limb to limb like a neo-futuristic serial killer with highly powered precision laser weapons which makes it the most hardcore sci-fi gorefest I have ever seen in a video game and feels like Aliens on crystal meth especially with that high power Pulse Rifle that you get a couple of hours in.

There have been several newer horror game franchises that have came out after Dead Space like The Last of Us in 2013, and even though the way Cordyseps is portrayed in humans in that game was really scary as well as creative. The Necromorph still stand out to me as an incredibly unique and inspired horror monster creation, and all their variants are all scary, dark and foreboding, and just so damn entertaining to kill. It really feels like you're experiencing the spread of an extraterrestrial virus that is beyond human comprehension at a frightening speed, with The Marker being the symbol of how all this madness started, which began as some morally perverted version of The Monolith from 2001 that instead of broadcasting a signal that helps creatures evolve, instead drives them towards schizophrenic psychosis and devolves humans into genetic abominations with an insatiable desire to kill anything that comes to their attention.

I also have to mention the terrifying cult that appears in this game called Unitology. It's basically your worst nightmare of what a religious cult could be, that instead of being focused on an earthly deity, is instead fixated on an alien artifact that humans actually have zero knowledge of how it works or what it's actual purpose is apart from driving anyone insane just by being exposed to it. Aswell as turning them into deformed space zombies.

The actual story of the game is actually really well executed and the game is actually pretty electrifying to blitz through when you begin to max out all your weapons and turning all Necromorphs in sight into soupy space-scum.

Overall if you're looking for a science fiction horror game that is scarier than Hell itself but is also a blast to play through with refreshing and entertaining gameplay and a chilling story, you can't go wrong with Dead Space. I still think it's a masterpiece and I do think the sequels and the remake are all worth checking out!