Redwood Shores

Dead Space came from EA's push to make original games. Electronic Arts wanted to shed its image of only making sequels, sports games and movie licenses, and Redwood Shores, known for The Godfather and MySims, made Dead Space as part of that push.

Mirror's Edge, Skate, Rock Band and Mass Effect all arrived within three years, alongside Crysis, The Saboteur and Brutal Legend.

Redwood Shores took Resident Evil 4's recipe and changed three things. Resident Evil 4 builds fear by withholding control: no move-and-aim, a bad camera, limited resources and enemies attacking from all angles. Dead Space added a derelict-spaceship setting, a more agile Isaac who can move while aiming, and strategic dismemberment.

Isaac's extra agility costs him Resident Evil 4's quick-turn. Nearly the whole game takes place on the Ishimura, overrun by zombie-like necromorphs.

Moments of power work as a release valve after long tension. Resident Evil 4's village shows fear does not need weak weapons, and Dead Space likewise gives the player plenty of powerful moments, but only after long stretches of fake-outs and ammo worry, which is what makes the scares land.

Checkpoints and dedicated health and gun buttons soften the horror. Action empowers and survival horror disempowers, so the pairing is uneasy, and the best moments come where they meet.

Making limbs the weak spot turns every shot into a decision. Body and head shots barely hurt enemies, so players cut off legs to slow a foe or arms to disarm it.

Limbs that are small, moving or hidden make enemy designs trickier to fight.

Teach each enemy alone, then mix them into combinations. The first half introduces the slasher, lurker, infector, exploder and divider through organic tutorials; the second half mixes them so players must prioritize, such as exploders and infectors first, and pick one of four carried guns for the threat.

The plasma cutter suits precision, the line gun crowds, the contact rifle charged shots and the pulse rifle fast chewing. Sticky floors, dark rooms, zero-gravity and zero-oxygen areas with silent enemies add their own rules.

Scarce ammo and one shared currency force trade-offs and improvisation. Ammo was plentiful in the first half but ran out in the second, pushing players to sell weapons, hunt credits, hurl objects with kinesis and scavenge ammo mid-fight.

The same money buys ammo and health or new weapons, suits and power nodes. Running past enemies only works for a while because chapters are interconnected with backtracking, so skipped enemies return.

Staged fake-outs build tension before the shock. Enemies play dead, lights fake a failure, and when one enemy leaps out in front, a quiet one is often spawned behind you.

Necromorphs often pop out at fans, so players grow nervous of every fan. Shadows dart along walls and pick-ups lure players into jump scares.

Backtracking through cleared areas lulls players before a jump scare. Interconnected chapters with optional rooms make the Ishimura feel like a real space, and running back through explored areas sets up unexpected scares.

A button highlights your path even though doors have signs and there is a 3D map.

Sound design does much of the scaring and guides combat. The ship creaks, moans, whispers and clanks, making players jump or think someone is in the room, while sound also helps locate threats, especially the exploder.

Each weapon "kicks like a mule."

Repeated errands and look-alike areas wear down a 12-hour game. Hammond and Kendra keep sending Isaac from job to job, such as prepping the Kellion and fetching thermite and a shockpad, and the satellite arrays, medical bay and botanical garden all look alike.

The errands suit an engineer wielding mining tools, but grate over time; Hammond himself asks, "Will this never end?!" Even the docking ship looks like the rest.

A regenerating pursuer removes the safety of cleared rooms. Before the hunter, enemies sprang from trip wires and a cleared room was safe; he gets back up and chases you from room to room, and killing him twice brings real catharsis.

He is borrowed from Resident Evil 4 and anticipates Alien: Isolation. Spacewalks, a few boss fights and an asteroid-shooting section also break up the combat.