What really works in Dead Space is its incredible sense of place – the endless passageways and unfathomable technology capture a convincingly oppressive atmosphere. Ridley Scott was heavily inspired by his own upbringing amid the dying industries of north-east England when he visualised both Blade Runner and Alien, and Dead Space plays on the same tensions between the wonders of the future and the everyday boredom and dirt of working with heavy machines. These are not the sterile, high-specification interiors envisaged in 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Trek these are working spaces and working people – drab, battered, rusty and downbeat. In choosing a lowly engineer – the world-weary Isaac Clarke – as its protagonist, and a mining ship as a location, Dead Space also echoes Ridley Scott’s explorations of class and galactic industrialisation. Real tensions … Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in Alien (1979). Like Ripley and co, the rescue team discovers the ship has been invaded by a hideous alien species, and that its shadowy corporate owner may know more about the infestation than anyone is letting on. Like Alien’s vessel the Nostromo, this is a labyrinthine mining vessel, a multilayered nightmare of interconnected corridors, labs and living spaces built from metallic walls and lit by strobing neon. Released in 2008 and created by Californian studio Visceral Games, Dead Space remains a heady, often terrifying thrill ride and if you’ve never played it before, it’s worth taking this chance – especially if you’re a fan of the Alien movies.Īlthough there have been numerous attempts to bring Alien directly to video games – most successfully, Creative Assembly’s incredibly tense Alien: Isolation – it’s Dead Space that has got closest to replicating the look, feel and atmosphere of Ridley Scott’s original film.ĭead Space is about a small crew travelling out into space to investigate a research ship, the USG Ishimura, with which all contact has been lost.

T his week, Electronic Arts has made one of the most interesting and atmospheric narrative games of the 2000s available for free to users of its Origin gaming service.

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