What is dead space?
The story begins with a mining ship, the USG Ishimura. It was a Planet Cracker class vessel designed for extracting minerals and resources from planets that were too hostile for human colonization. However, something went wrong while the Ishimura was on a routine mission.
The ship came across a distress signal from a nearby planet and, against orders, decided to investigate. What they found was a strange alien artifact that unleashed a horrifying infection that turned the crew into ravenous monsters.
The survivors realized that the only way to survive was to evacuate the ship when it became clear that the ship was overrun by these creatures. However, as they were making their way off the ship, they quickly realized that the infection had not been confined to the Ishimura; it had spread to the planet below. There was no way off-world now.
The only hope for the crew was to go deeper into the ship, find out what caused this nightmare, and stop it before it destroyed them all.
The Setting
Dead Space’s story starts with the mining vessel USG Ishimura. It was sent to Aegis 7 to mine a mineral called “Unitologist Redeemer” or “Redeemer” for short. However, the Ishimura ran into some issues with its mining equipment and sent out a distress signal to the nearby colony on Aegis VII. The player controls Isaac Clarke, an engineer who is dispatched with a team of soldiers to answer Ishimura’s call for help.
The team arrives to find the ship infested with an alien life form known as “Necromorphs” – reanimated corpses that attack the living. The team is quickly killed, leaving Clarke as the only survivor. He soon meets up with another survivor, Ellie Langford, who helps him find a way off the ship. Together they discover that the Necromorphs are being controlled by an entity known as “The Marker”, which was responsible for the outbreak aboard the Ishimura.
With Ellie’s help, Clarke destroys The Marker and kills its creator, Nicole Brennan. With the Necromorph threat finally eliminated, Clarke and Ellie return to Aegis VII where they are celebrated as heroes.
The Characters
The characters are one of the most fascinating aspects of Dead Space. The game follows engineer Isaac Clarke as he becomes embroiled in a fight for survival against Necromorphs, aliens that are incredibly dangerous. He is joined by a group of survivors who all play a role in helping him stay alive. The story develops and you start to care about the characters and what will happen to them.
Isaac Clarke is the main character of the story. He’s an average guy who’s suddenly thrust into a horrific situation and must use all his ingenuity and courage to survive. He’s joined by other survivors, including the tough-as-nails sergeant John Carver, the resourceful Ellie Langford, and the eccentric biologist Warren Eckhardt. Together, they must face down the nightmarish Necromorphs and find a way to escape the doomed ship.
Dead Space is a horror story, but it has its moments of lightheartedness and humanity as well. The characters are believable and three-dimensional, so their challenges become relatable and scary. You’ll be rooting for them from start to finish while you’re on the edge of your seat.
The Plot
Isaac Clarke is investigating a distress signal sent from the Aegis VII colony on the USG Ishimura, a PlanetCracker-class star ship. His girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, is also on board. However, the Ishimura’s computer system has been corrupted by an unknown virus, causing the ship’s security systems to attack the crew. Nicole is killed in one of these attacks, and Isaac is left for dead.
Another survivor, Kendra Daniels, saves him, and together they attempt to find an escape from the ship. Major Laney Relliott of the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) joins them; she was also investigating the Aegis VII colony. The CEC is a mining company that had a contract to extract minerals from the planet.
Laney informs Isaac and Kendra that the planet was quarantined by the Church of Unitology before they could start mining. The Church of Unitology is a religious sect that believes in the power of an ancient artifact called the Marker. They believe that the Marker will give them immortality and salvation from death.
The Marker was created by an unknown alien race, and it has a strange effect on people who are exposed to it. It fills them with an irresistible urge to build more Markers, which spread like a virus throughout the galaxy. The Marker-infected people become zombies known as Necromorphs, which attack and kill anything living.
The Ishimura was investigating a distress signal sent from Aegis VII because there were rumors that the colonists had found something on the planet related to the Marker. When Isaac, Kendra, and Laney arrived at Aegis VII, they discovered that the entire colony had been overrun by Necromorphs. They also found Nicole alive, but she had been infected by the Marker and turned into a Necromorph herself.
Isaac and his team finally escape Aegis VII aboard another starship called the USG O’Neal.
The Conclusion
The Unitologists’ grip on power was loosened with the defeat of the Marker. EarthGov took control soon after, imposing martial law and quarantining the planet. Isaac and his team were celebrated as heroes, but it came at a great cost. Nicole was dead, as was Unitology.
Although the war had ended, the nightmare was just beginning.