Dead space

Dead Space is a third-person survival horror action video game, developed by EA Redwood Shores (now known as Visceral Games) for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. It was released on October 14, 2008 on the consoles and October 20 for Windows. The player takes on the role of an engineer named Isaac Clarke, who battles the polymorphic undead species called the 'Necromorphs' on board a stricken interstellar mining ship named The USG Ishimura.

Backstory and Setting
Dead Space is set in 2507. Earth had been through an extinction-level event, caused by rapacious and unsustainable use of resources. The remaining humans realized that the only way to get new resources was from the stars: with Earth's resources used up, the only way to gain the resources to survive would be to search new planets for resources. That's where the Concordance Extraction Corporation comes in. At a time of near-desperation, CEC invented the ship that would eventually save all of humanity: The USG Ishimura.

The USG Ishimura was a ship designed for the new resource-gathering practice: Planetcracking. The Ishimura ' s job was to mine other planets for their most rare and most valuable resources to take back to earth. Even though there have been subsequent Planetcrackers (a small fleet now exists), the Ishimura remains the iconic symbol of mankind's will to survive, even after all these decades. Thanks to Planetcracking, mankind is now thriving again, and resources are plentiful. By the time of the game, the Ishimura has performed 34 successful planetcracks, and is now in the process of beginning its 35th. However, the events that take place during this planet crack are events that threaten the very survival of mankind.



Plot Summary
The USG Ishimura, during the process of mining the planet of Aegis VII, sends out a distress signal to the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC); the CEC dispatches the USG Kellion to investigate. As the Kellion attempts to dock with the Ishimura, a malfunction occurs with the automatic docking and the Kellion is badly damaged; however the crew lands safely and sets off to find the Ishimura's crew. It quickly becomes apparent that the Ishimura has been abandoned.

As they enter the flight lounge, Isaac Clarke, the crew's engineer, enters a separate room to assess the Ishimura's damage reports. As he does so, the flight lounge locks down in quarantine and grotesque humanoids break into the lounge and attack the crew. CPLs. Johnston and Chen are killed, while the two survivors of the attack, Zach Hammond and Kendra Daniels, flee and tell Isaac to run. Isaac, defenseless, is forced to run for his life through a hallway before escaping his pursuers through an elevator. Isaac manages to get a weapon and make contact through a window with Hammond and Kendra once again. Hammond recognizes that many of the ship's systems are failing, including the ships anti-asteroid defense system. The loss of this threatens the integrity of the ship due to a nearby asteroid belt. Hammond sends Clarke around the ship to fix the core systems in order to keep them alive. Hammond also promises he will help Isaac to find his girlfriend Nicole Brennan, a medical worker on the Ishimura, who sent Isaac a strange video (viewed by the player at the game's beginning), which was Isaac's sole motive for taking the mission: to visit her. After restoring USG Ishimura's tram system, Clarke returns to the flight lounge to repair the Kellion, but creatures attack the ship before he can even begin, and it explodes to the bottom of the hangar bay.

During these treks, Clarke discovers various text and audio logs scattered throughout the ship and pieces together the events that transpired before his arrival. The ship's captain was actually an agent of the "Church of Unitology" — a large and influential religious cult — assigned to retrieve one of his religion's most deified relics, known as the "Red Marker", from Aegis 7, under the guise of an illegal mining operation (the planet itself had already been deemed by the Earth Government as off-limits). The Marker was discovered by the colonists by accident; only the captain and a handful of others were aware that The Marker was already there (but they all feign amazement at finding it so as to not give them away). Soon after the Marker was extracted and brought to the Ishimura, a large portion of the civilians — first on the planet-side colony, then on the ship — suffered from mass hysteria brought on by violent hallucinations, before subsequently killing each other. These phenomena were believed to be caused by the Marker somehow.

Despite this, the hysteria was kept under control, and planetcrack commenced a week later. Immediately after planetcrack, the colony's power went out and an alien organism began ravaging the colony, infecting the bodies of the dead and turning them into "Necromorphs" - abominations that kill and infect dead bodies in order to make new creatures to spread the infestation. Captain Matthius then cuts off traffic and communications between the Ishimura and the colony to prevent the infection from reaching the ship. Dr. Terrence Kyne, the Chief Science Officer, comes to believe that Captain Matthius is behaving irrationally. Under maritime law, Kyne relieves the captain of his duty, though Matthius refuses to comply, spouting angry fanatical comments of heresy. Appearing to be somewhat insane Dr. Kyne attempts to inject the captain with a sedative. Benjamin Matthius is killed by Dr. Kyne in the ensuing scuffle as the needle is rammed through his eye socket, supposedly by accident. The infection then spreads to the Ishimura via a colony shuttle piloted by a survivor, who was unaware that Necromorphs had entered his shuttle prior to take off. The shuttle crashes into the docking bay, allowing the aliens aboard the shuttle to escape into the Ishimura ' s ventilation system and begin killing and infecting the Ishimura's inhabitants. The Kellion had arrived after the Ishimura had completely fallen to the Necromorphs.

Though Hammond states that he is unaware of what the Marker's role in everything is, Daniels confides to Clarke that she believes Hammond is lying. Clarke would later encounter his girlfriend Nicole, though they are unable to meet directly. Nicole is seen to be behaving strangely.

With the critical systems repaired, the three are able to launch a beacon for rescue, attracting a nearby military ship, the USM Valor. However, the Valor, having picked up an escape pod launched by Hammond containing a Necromorph, becomes overrun with the creatures and crashes into the ship. Hammond then deduces — from the heavy military equipment he finds on board — that the Valor was actually assigned to destroy the Ishimura, suggesting that someone outside of Aegis VII knew of the alien threat.

The group thus decides that they must find a shuttle and escape while they can. Clarke and Hammond then retrieve the Valor's power core in order to repair an available shuttle, but Hammond is killed by a Necromorph in the process. The surviving Dr. Kyne later contacts Clarke and urges him to return the Marker to Aegis VII. He reveals in a video what the planetcrack caused: a large creature known as The Hive Mind, the creature that controls all of the Necromorphs, was allowed to escape the instant the planet was cracked, and began infecting the colony. He believes that the Marker actually acted as an inhibitor, rendering the Hive Mind dormant as long as the Marker remained on the planet; the Hive Mind's dormancy would also cause all other Necromorphs to enter a dormant state. He concludes that the only way to stop the creatures for good is to return The Marker to the planet.

After being assisted by Clarke in loading the Marker onto the shuttle, Kyne is murdered by Daniels, who reveals the truth behind everything: she is a government operative ordered to retrieve the Marker for her superiors. She further reveals that the Marker is a reverse-engineered copy of another Marker found on Earth, and was placed on Aegis VII by the government hundreds of years ago to have scientists study its effects. These scientists discovered the pattern covering the surface of the Marker is, in fact, the DNA code for Necromorph infection. The newly created infection escaped and began to kill the doctors and transform them, and it wasn't long before the original colony fell, but the doctors were successful in editing the Marker into an inhibitor of the infection, and activating this new feature. With the doctors dead and the infection locked away, the government marked Aegis VII as off-limits and abandoned the planet. The planetcracking operation was in fact a mission by CEC and the government to retrieve the valuable marker, which led up to the present events. She then leaves on the shuttle without Clarke, but Nicole arrives and is able to help him recall it, prompting Daniels to flee via an escape pod.

Clarke takes the shuttle with the Marker to the colony, and replaces it there; this pacifies the Hive Mind briefly, but also disrupts the gravity tethers holding a large portion of the planet several miles off the surface, threatening to destroy the colony. As Clarke attempts to escape, Daniels appears and takes the Marker back to the shuttle, once again removing the "dead space"-field pacifying the Hive Mind, and shows Clarke (through a fully recovered distress transmission) that Nicole actually committed suicide before they arrived on the Ishimura, and Clarke's visions of her had been the Marker's way of attempting to bring itself back to the planet, revealing that it is sentient in some way. Before she can leave, Daniels is killed by the gigantic Hive Mind, but Clarke is able to defeat it. Leaving the Marker behind, Clarke flies off in the shuttle just before rock crashes into the planet, possibly destroying the Ishimura and ravaging the surface of Aegis VII.

As he sets course away from Aegis 7, Nicole's suicide video plays, but is stopped by Clarke, who then simply stares off into space. He is suddenly attacked by what appears to be Nicole in Necromorph form. The screen is suddenly covered with strange runes and Nicole screaming, which then cuts to black and static.

Enemies
Over the course of Dead Space, Isaac Clarke encounters many variants of the Necromorph threat.

Isaac also encounters three much larger forms of Necromorph, which serve as bosses.
 * Slasher : The most common form of Necromorph, it attacks using two large blades sprouted from the victim's hands. It has an enhanced form which is encountered later in the game.
 * Leaper : A Necromorph more commonly found in Zero Gravity areas, it attacks with its large tail, a fusion of the victim's legs and intestines. It also has an enhanced form encountered later in the game.
 * Lurker : Reanimated infants that prowl the corridors and are usually found in Zero Gravity. They attack with three barbed tentacles that fire quills. It also has an enhanced form encountered later in the game.
 * Swarmer : Tiny Necromorphs, which appear to be reanimated flesh, that travel in large groups and can jump at victims and rip away at their flesh.
 * Infector : A bat-like Necromorph with the sole-purpose of infecting corpses with a proboscis and turning them into new Necromorphs. The Infector can create enhanced forms of the Slashers and Leapers.
 * Drag Tentacle : A long and thick tentacle with a glowing yellow pustule. Drag Tentacles drag victims to their deaths, usually into holes in walls.
 * Pregnant : A large hulking Necromorph that carries a payload of Swarmers along with two large scythe-like blades.
 * Brute : A very large and powerful Necromorph that can charge with great bursts of speed, using its weight and strength to crush its victims.
 * Guardian : A stationary Necromorph plastered to a wall with six deadly tentacles. It can fire out Pods as a form of self- defense and hindrance.
 * Pods : Small embryo-like Necromorphs that sprout tentacles and fire quills at anything alive. They are usually 'born' out of Guardians but are sometimes found alone.
 * The Hunter : A slasher-like Necromorph able to regenerate lost limbs after dismemberment. It was biologically engineered by Doctor Challus Mercer. The Hunter stalks Isaac in Chapter 5 and Chapter 10.
 * Wheezer : The only Necromorph that cannot attack directly. With the host's lungs expanded and relocated to the back, it can render the surrounding environment toxic. They are only found on the Hydroponics Deck contaminating the air.
 * Exploder : A small, thin Necromorph with an appendage containing a highly explosive organic compound which rivals its own size.
 * Divider : A tall and thin Necromorph with the ability to divide itself into multiple segments. It emits haunting sounds similar to that of whales.
 * Twitcher : A spastic and remarkably fast Necromorph formed by marines with Stasis units built into their suits.
 * The Leviathan : A massive, amorphous Necromorph found in the USG Ishimura's food storage facility, in Chapter 6. It has a gaping mouth concealing a bulbous orb, surrounded by three orifices out of which tentacles sprout.
 * The Slug : A large Necromorph found on the hull of the USG Ishimura in Chapter 8. It has five tentacles sprouting from its body which it uses to hurl objects at the tower, where Isaac uses the anti-asteroid cannons to defeat it.
 * The Hive Mind : A gigantic Necromorph which rests within a crater on Aegis VII, and is fought at the end of Chapter 12. It was the appearance of a segmented worm, with multiple tentacles, and several yellow sacs located in the mouth and chest. It spits out explosive projectiles and Pregnants at Isaac.

Gameplay
The players must fight their way through various levels of a stricken mining ship, which has been infested with an alien species known as the "Necromorphs". The game features an 'over the shoulder' third-person perspective, similar to games such as Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War. The interface does not feature a traditional head-up display. Instead, information is relayed to the player via lights and translucent screens which hover over Isaac's weapons and armor. There are weightless and decompressed environments, which Isaac can navigate using a pressurized suit equipped with gravity boots. Some levels will even lead out onto the surface of the ship's hull. Floating debris will present a hazard, and Isaac can lose his footing and simply float off into space, also risking to run out of oxygen when in vacuum. In keeping with Isaac's profession as an engineer rather than a soldier, weapons in the game are mostly improvised, and consist of an array of bolt cutters, stasis fields and rudimentary energy weapons.

Combat in the game is complicated by the fact that most Necromorphs are not simply rendered 'dead' after a certain number of rounds have been fired at them. Rather, they must be dismembered a certain way to be dead, but they can adopt new stances and tactics, and even sprout new limbs, based upon where they have been wounded. The game's Executive Producer, Glen Schofield, has said that 'the primary theme of Dead Space is dismemberment', and early previews of the game have noted the high levels of gore.

Viral Campaigns
No Known Survivors is a viral campaign made by Electronic Arts that provides an opportunity for visitors to explore the narrative world of Dead Space. The site employs interactive components, 3D animations, voice acting, original video and "Papervision 3D" technology to tell two equally tragic four-chapter stories.

Dead Space Original Soundtrack
The Dead Space Original Soundtrack was composed by Jason Graves and was released on November 11, 2008. It features editing montages of a portion of the music heard in-game. The soundtrack is sixty minutes long while the in-game score is over two hours long.

Achievements and Trophies
There are 48 in total (8 of them secret) and an additional Platinum Trophy on the PS3 version when all others are awarded. The method for obtaining each one is the same in both versions of the game (minus the PS3 platinum).

Trivia

 * When you take the first letter from each chapter they form the words "N.I.C.O.L.E. I.S. D.E.A.D."
 * At the end of each 'word' is a boss fight. The Leviathan at the E of Nicole, the Slug at the S of Is, and the Hive Mind at the D of Dead.
 * Many of the main characters die in the chapters that make D.E.A.D., Hammond in Dead on Arrival, Challus Mercer in End of Days, Dr. Terrence Kyne in Alternate Solutions and Kendra in Dead Space.
 * Electronic Arts is working with director D.J.master Caruso to make a live-action film based on the game. EA will produce the film with Temple Hill partners Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen.
 * The animated movie and the game depict the death of Captain Benjamin Matthius in slightly different ways. In the movie, the captain breaks free from being restrained and attacks the doctor, his death a tragic accident in the ensuing struggle. However in the game, the events between the captain being restrained and Dr. Terrance Kyne stabbing Captain Benjamin Matthius in the eye with a syringe are lost to video interference.
 * The title "Dead Space" is a play on words, taken from the "dead space" field generated by the Markers and the gratuitous amount of death that takes place in space in the franchise, as well as being away from everyone, not being able to get help, because in space. no one can hear you scream
 * The events of Dead Space took place from April 11, 2507 (arrival to the USG Ishimura) to April 13, 2507 (the destruction of Aegis VII)
 * Dead Space is listed as #12 in IGN.com's "Top 25 PlayStation 3 games".
 * There are more death scenes ending with Isaac's decapitation than any other variation of death in the game.
 * The main menu is interactive; you can move around the menu with the right thumbstick. (confirmed on PC using an Xbox 360 controller, 360 and PS3)
 * There are a number of phrases written in Unitology script in different areas of the main menu which foreshadow various revelations in the game. The phrases are: "Red Marker is man made", "Trust no one" and "There's always Peng!" The last being a reference to the hidden Peng trophy in Chapter 11.
 * How shuttles were launched during the game contradicts with Dead Space: Downfall due to the fact that during the movie (in a scene on the bridge), one of the officers confirms of the launch of all shuttles.