Dead Space turns 10 today - so let's remember why it's great
Disrememberment.
Dead Space is 10-years-old today.
EA Redwood Shores' (later known as Visceral Games) sci-fi horror came out on 13th October 2008 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and was praised for its stunning visuals, tense atmosphere and alien design.
In Dead Space you played Isaac Clarke, an engineer who found himself fighting for survival on the Ishimura, a spaceship infested with horrible aliens called Necromorphs.
Apart from the fantastic visuals, Dead Space impressed me with its smart alien encounter design. Strategic dismemberment, as it was called, meant you could cut off bits of the Necromorphs and they'd react accordingly. You'd often have to slice off limbs to get the things to slow down in tight corridors, which was always an intense experience.
I also loved the vibe of the game. The developers at Visceral did wonderful things with lighting to make the Ishimura, the true star of the show, feel like a real place. As a big fan of the movie Event Horizon, Dead Space scratched that itch for a Resident Evil 4 in space experience.
Senior development director Michael Condrey and executive producer Glen Schofield both went on to co-found Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer at Activision. We haven't heard of the series since the ill-fated Dead Space 3 came out in 2013 (although Visceral had some cool ideas for Dead Space 4). Visceral closed down in late 2017.
What are your memories of Dead Space?