Dead Space

Overview

Dead Space is a 2008 survival horror game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows. It is the first game in the Dead Space series. It is set on a mining spaceship overrun by monsters called Necromorphs after the discovery of an artifact called the Marker. You play engineer Isaac Clarke as he works through the ship and fights the Necromorphs while struggling with growing psychosis.

You play from a third-person view, moving through the sections of the USG Ishimura, finishing story missions, solving physics puzzles and fighting. In the vacuum Isaac has a limited air supply, and some areas are zero-G, where Isaac and certain enemies can jump between surfaces. Along the way you find ammunition, health and Nodes that open special doors and upgrade weapons and the suit, and you can buy supplies at in-game stores.

The game is set in the year 2508. Humanity has spread out through space and uses huge ships called Planetcrackers to strip resources from barren planets. The Ishimura is mining the planet Aegis VII illegally. A copy of the alien Marker there causes the colonists and crew to suffer hallucinations and then severe mental illness, and the Necromorphs emerge. Isaac arrives on the Kellion to look for his girlfriend Nicole Brennan, the Ishimura's senior medical officer.

Dead Space was pitched in early 2006, with an early prototype on Xbox. Creator Glen Schofield wanted the most frightening horror game he could imagine, taking cues from Resident Evil 4 and from films such as Event Horizon and Solaris. The team put effort into procedural enemy placement, removing HUD elements and sound design, and Jason Graves wrote a score meant to build tension.

In North America the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions came out on October 13, 2008, with the PC version a week later. Australia followed on October 23 and Europe on October 24. People who bought the game in the first two weeks could download a free exclusive suit, the Obsidian Suit on PS3 and the Elite Suit on Xbox 360. Electronic Arts also made an Ultra Limited Edition of only 1,000 copies.

Reviews were generally favourable and the game was praised for its atmosphere, gameplay and sound. It sold slowly at first but passed one million copies worldwide, and it is often named as one of the best games of its generation. It led to Dead Space 2 in 2011, Dead Space 3 in 2013, spin-offs, a comic prequel and an animated film. A remake came out in 2023 for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Survival horror

Developer

EA Redwood Shores

Publisher

Electronic Arts

Series

Dead Space

Composers

Jason Graves

Designers

Paul Mathus

Writers

Warren Ellis, Rick Remender, Antony Johnston

Producers

Chuck Beaver, Steve Papoutsis

Directors

Michael Condrey, Bret Robbins

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Release dates

Editions

Check out the store

Subscription history

Achievements

Achievements48 (1,000G)

Total

48

Gamerscore

1000

• Dead On Arrival Complete Chapter 1 on any difficulty setting 20G 90.13% of players
• Lab Rat Complete Chapter 2 on any difficulty setting 20G 78.84% of players
• All Systems Go Complete Chapter 3 on any difficulty setting 20G 71.78% of players
• Cannon Fodder Complete Chapter 4 on any difficulty setting 20G 66.93% of players
• True Believer Complete Chapter 5 on any difficulty setting 20G 62.11% of players
• Greenhouse Effect Complete Chapter 6 on any difficulty setting 20G 59.11% of players
• S.O.S. Complete Chapter 7 on any difficulty setting 20G 55.89% of players
• Strange Transmissions Complete Chapter 8 on any difficulty setting 20G 54.73% of players
• Wreckage Complete Chapter 9 on any difficulty setting 20G 53.43% of players
• Keeper of the Faith Complete Chapter 10 on any difficulty setting 20G 51.9% of players
• Betrayed Complete Chapter 11 on any difficulty setting 20G 51.52% of players
• Exodus Complete Chapter 12 on any difficulty setting 20G 51.06% of players
• Epic Tier 3 Engineer Complete the game on the hardest difficulty setting 150G 10.55% of players
• Survivor Complete the game on any difficulty setting 50G 51.05% of players
• Brute Force Kill a Brute 15G 70.7% of players
• Get off my ship! Kill the Slug Boss 15G 54.81% of players
• Mindless Prey Kill the Hive Mind 30G 51.05% of players
• Pack Rat Store 25 Items in the Safe 10G 39.07% of players
• Story Teller Collect 75 Logs 20G 62.66% of players
• Legend Teller Collect 150 Logs 40G 50.51% of players
• Full Arsenal Own every Weapon in the game 30G 35.06% of players
• Z-Baller Complete Level 6 in Zero-G Basketball 5G 27.66% of players
• Merchant Collect 8 schematics 10G 66.95% of players
• Armstrong Shoot 50 objects using Kinesis 10G 51.55% of players
• Playing Catch Catch a Brute or Leviathan Pod using Kinesis 10G 37.58% of players
• Kickin it Escape from a Lurker's grab attack 10 times 10G 19.43% of players
• Marksman Dismember 20 Limbs 5G 99.94% of players
• Surgeon Dismember 500 Limbs 20G 59.65% of players
• Butcher Dismember 1000 Limbs 40G 44.89% of players
• Freeze Use Stasis on 50 enemies 15G 44.42% of players
• Crackshot Achieve a perfect score in the Shooting Gallery 5G 35.6% of players
• Don't get cocky, kid Survive the ADS Cannon with over 50% shield strength remaining 10G 16.03% of players
• Air Alert Zero-G Jump over 100 times 10G 48.83% of players
• One Gun Beat the game using only the Plasma Cutter 40G 19.5% of players
• Brawler Kill at least 30 enemies with a melee attack 10G 27.12% of players
• Maxed Out Upgrade all weapons and equipment 75G 15.86% of players
• Ragdoll Check Force an enemy into a Gravity Panel 5 times 5G 28.87% of players
• Big Spender Spend 300,000 credits at the store 10G 55.73% of players
• Slugger Kill the Slug Boss with more than 50% shield strength remaining 10G 28.5% of players
• Full Contact Kill 30 enemies with the Contact Beam 10G 23.77% of players
• A Cut Above Kill 30 enemies with the Ripper 10G 36.36% of players
• Tool Time Kill 30 enemies with the Plasma Cutter 10G 84.5% of players
• Pusher Kill 30 enemies with the Force Gun 10G 28.92% of players
• Live With The Hot Ones Kill 30 enemies with the Flamethrower 10G 24.02% of players
• Autofire Kill 30 enemies with the Pulse Rifle 10G 51.91% of players
• Eviscerator Kill 30 enemies with the Line Gun 10G 44.74% of players
• There's Always Peng! Find the Peng Treasure 15G 26.02% of players
• Exterminator Kill the Leviathan 15G 59.14% of players

DLC

Early buyers could download a free exclusive suit, and more suits and weapons were sold afterwards as paid downloads. They are still sold on the Xbox store for the backward compatible version on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

Items

Name	Adds	Obtainable today	Price
Elite Suit (Xbox 360)	Exclusive suit, free for people who bought the game in the first two weeks	yes	US$2.49

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single-player only, with no online features.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Dead Space has no online mode, so nothing depends on servers.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	Xbox 360	89	100
Metacritic	PS3	88	100
Metacritic	PC	86	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
Game Informer	9.25	10
GameSpot	9	10
IGN	8.7	10
Eurogamer	7	10
Computer and Video Games	9.1	10
GamePro	5	5
GameTrailers	8.8	10
PALGN	9	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Michael Condrey
Director	Bret Robbins
Producer	Chuck Beaver
Producer	Steve Papoutsis
Designer	Paul Mathus
Programmer	Steve Timson
Artist	Ian Milham
Writer	Warren Ellis
Writer	Rick Remender
Writer	Antony Johnston
Composer	Jason Graves

Notes for collectors

• Before release, the community manager said Germany, China and Japan had banned the game. It was a marketing stunt and no country banned it.
• The Ultra Limited Edition was capped at 1,000 copies.
• Xbox 360 buyers in the first two weeks got the Elite Suit, while PS3 buyers got the Obsidian Suit.
• The hardest difficulty achievement, Epic Tier 3 Engineer, is worth 150 gamerscore, the biggest single award in the list.
• The list has 48 achievements worth 1,000 gamerscore. Twelve of them are just for finishing each chapter.
• One Gun asks you to beat the game using only the Plasma Cutter.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 11 hours