If these tendrils kill you, they rip off your head and take over your body. My favorite is the lanky Divider necromorphs, who are easy to defeat but drop terrifying heads with tendrils attached. The first grunt type enemy that you encounter is one that you’ll also be fighting 10 hours in, but by that time, they’re just one part of a tasty necromorph menu, each with their own unique style and gimmick. The enemy variety in Dead Space takes a while to expand but does so at a reasonable rate. If you haven’t played Dead Space yet then I recommend going in with as little story knowledge as possible.

It’s a strong example of environmental storytelling, and I found myself checking through any door I could access, in hopes that I could find these logs, or even a scrawled message on the wall. The answers to these mysteries are mostly uncovered through text, audio logs and holograms found throughout the ship. Unsurprisingly, things go horribly wrong and you’re forced to try to survive while uncovering the ship’s mysteries. You are “Engineer of the Year” Isaac Clarke, who together with your ragtag group of repair folks are tasked with providing maintenance to flagship mining vessel the USG Ishimura. If there’s one important aspect that makes horror games appealing to me, it’s tension, and Dead Space brings it almost right off the bat. Thankfully, it turns out Dead Space is just as, if not better than, Mario Super Sluggers, thanks to its rich array of tense moments, exciting gunplay and gorgeous visuals.

The 2023 remake of Dead Space is my first experience with this supposed crown jewel of the survivor horror genre. For me though, 2008 was all about assembling my ragtag group of Nintendo mascots to win as many games as I could in Mario Super Sluggers for the Nintendo Wii. It has been 15 years since the original Dead Space came out and since that day in 2008, it gained a reputation as a standout survival horror title.

Dead space series review out of 10