Dead Space Series Review (Xbox, PlayStation & PC)

Dead Space fills a void that the likes of Mass Effect and other sci-fi icons wouldn’t dare touch with a ten-foot barge pole. Without hesitation, it essentially abandons the mystical marshes of the solar system and the wonders of outer space, and it knuckles in on blood and bone fragments, limbs and nightmarish creatures that you wouldn’t often associate with an intergalactic thriller. It leaves you there, in a world that feels awfully lonely and worryingly distant from civilization, without an accomplice to keep you from harm’s reach, and with little more than a few rounds of ammunition and a star-crossed stasis kit to help scoot you further into the darkness. It doesn’t care if the odds are against you — it just wants you to carve deeper and face your fears, even if it means losing a few limbs along the way.

Dead Space is one of the select few sci-fi horrors that has the natural ability to remove the barriers between atmospheric exploration and bone-shattering combat-driven storytelling. Minced with a disturbingly hollow soundscape that tugs on all of the right heartstrings, the series does a remarkable job of capturing an aura that feels both worryingly intimate yet unsettling in all the right places. It’s a claustrophobic’s nightmare—a sharp finger pressing deeply into your neck while you desperately tiptoe between corridors and dread the next crossroad. It is, unapologetically, Dead Space — and it knows how to make you feel uncomfortable.

While the series didn’t spearhead the physics-based limb removal tool, it did finesse the formula and make it into its own unique facet. It didn’t care to be slick and graceful, but it did want to be dull and grotesque, almost as if to illustrate the point that, adept engineer or not, Dead Space wasn’t about a hero; it was about a desperate protagonist who just wanted to survive at all costs. And the combat was a plausible way to view that desperation, truly. It wasn’t clean and calculated; it was chaotic and sluggish, disgusting and authentic. It didn’t matter if you had no bullets in the chamber, so long as you had a weighty footprint with a knack for stomping and severing limbs. That, really, was what made Dead Space the unnerving bloodbath that it was when it first launched on consoles and PC. And to be honest, it was, in spite of its lack of breathing room and hand-holding techniques, perfectly suited for the tone that it wanted to convey.

Although sci-fi horror has become a go-to staple in recent years, it was, of course, Dead Space that helped to pivot it into an entirely different spectrum, with its brutal melee combat, linear progression, and scarce resources forming a masterclass in its own right. It didn’t deliver a perfect storyline, though it did go above and beyond to make each section of the journey feel immersive and scarily satisfying. And that formidable blueprint, thankfully, went on to blaze the trail for a trolley of sequels, all of which went on to finesse the formula and chalk up some truly powerful scares and memorable scenes. In the wake of the third installment, Dead Space found universal acclaim as a true contender in the realm of third-person horrors, effectively cementing its reputation as a standout IP among sci-fi sagas.

Above all, Dead Space has been an advocate for stellar audiovisual storytelling since its inception, with facets that spread throughout its intense audio cues and harrowingly detailed visuals. What I mean to say here is that, at no point has it ever needed to say much to convey its message, as it has always been etched into the world and the subtle yet powerful effects that radiate from its knitted quarters. From the grotesque battle screams to the botched waterworks, the faint creaking sounds from a vessel on the brink of collapse to the squelching sounds of a limb being separated from the carcass. Suffice it to say that, Dead Space has always been capable of being able to lock in and effectively illustrate that bleak atmosphere with its components.

While Dead Space isn’t the easiest sci-fi horror series on the block, it is one that supplies you with a lot of progression-based perks and hidden secrets, most of which reward you for taking a stroll on the beaten path. And believe it or not, there are dozens of details here that, if you fail to look closely enough, you can easily miss during each romp through outer space. It can be anything you want it to be—a combat-oriented adventure, an emotional thriller of woes and wonders, or even a stealth-based survival horror with scarce resources and ammunition. The latter part is, sadly, annoyingly unavoidable, given its lack of hand-holding and crafting materials — but you get the point.

Verdict

Dead Space gravitates towards the podium of stellar sci-fi horrors as a formidable masterclass in the art of audiovisual storytelling and morbidly apt gameplay, with its unique physics-based combat mechanics and nightmarish atmosphere fortifying its reputation as the supernova of intergalactic thrillers. The series, at least at the time of publication, might be dead in the water, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s on the cusp of vanishing into the black hole of forgotten IPs. Frankly, Dead Space will more than likely outlive most modern sci-fi horror franchises — and I say that with confidence, not as a die-hard fan of the series, but on behalf of an entire generation that earmarked it as one of the best series of its time.

To state the obvious, if it’s a casual romp through an enchanting intergalactic universe that you’re looking for, then you might want to seek an alternate way to scratch that itch of yours. If, however, you’re hell-bent on gravitating towards a truly terrifying world where dismal occurrences and harrowing audiovisual cues are commonplace, then you should definitely consider filling in for Isaac Clarke and commandeering the dank corridors of Ishimura. Be warned, though — Dead Space isn’t one for taking prisoners.