Dead Space (2008)

Dead Space was a revelation when it landed in 2008. It had outstanding visual design, brilliantly working protagonist Isaac Clarke’s health meter into the spine of his suit (or RIG). The way you use repurposed mining tools to slice the deadly appendages off of the horrifying necromorphs who want nothing more than to slice you open set its combat apart from that in other survival horror games of the era. Yet at the same time, it smartly took some cues from games like Resident Evil 4, hitting that sweet spot of making your weapons and attacks feel satisfyingly powerful in certain contexts, while also making you feel constantly threatened. In other words, it took familiar concepts and mechanics but put just enough of a twist on them to establish itself as a true original.

However, when I think about what really made the first Dead Space so exceptional, I think that, more than anything else, it was its incredible setting. The USG Ishimura feels in many ways like a real, functional ship, a space in which people lived and worked before all hell broke loose, not just a series of linked video game environments. Though the Ishimura is a very different ship from the Nostromo of Alien, it shares a believable functionality with that space, which is essential to making the horrors lurking in its dark and derelict corridors that much more grounded and unsettling. Thankfully, the 2023 remake leaves everything that works best about Dead Space mostly untouched, so you can still experience its brilliance today, with visuals that are more up to modern standards. — CP