Players quickly learn that Necromorphs cannot be killed by conventional means, and must be put down for good with surgical precision to sever their limbs. Necromorphs inhabit the bodies of their victims and turn them into walking nightmares reminiscent of the horrific creatures in John Carpenter’s The Thing. The pacing of the Dead Space games became more action oriented with Dead Space 2, though it still retained the aesthetics and horror precedent set by the original, something that Dead Space 3 would completely ignore.įor the unfamiliar, Dead Space’s story revolves around engineer Isaac Clarke’s discovery of extra-terrestrially-infection known as Necromorphs.

To this day, many developers fail to replicate the sense of dread, urgency, claustrophobia and sheer carnage that was crucial to developer Visceral Games’ Dead Space experience. The first two Dead Space games hold a special place in my heart for their visceral (ED: ha) and pulse-pounding survival horror gameplay. This week I take a look back at the sickeningly satisfying limb dismemberment gameplay of the Dead Space series. Memorable Mechanics is a bi-weekly column highlighting memorable gameplay mechanics and level design of both past and present video games.

Dead space 3 helmet mechanics