The Design of Dead Space - Part 1

In the mid-2000s, Electronic Arts had an image problem. This corporate gaming juggernaut was seen as stuffy and boring, and it seemed like it only ever made sequels, sports games, and crappy movie licenses. And so, at the end of the decade, it tried to shed that image by releasing a whole bunch of entirely original games. In the space of just three years we got games like the dystopian parkour platformer Mirror's Edge, kickflip simulator Skate, Nazi puncher The Saboteur, party-in-a-box Rock Band, PC Benchmarking app Crysis, heavy metal RTS Brutal Legend, and the epic space opera Mass Effect.

And EA's Redwood Shores studio in California, who had previously done movie tie-ins like The Godfather game and sequels like MySims, was able to make something of its very own creation: a science-fiction, survival horror shooter called Dead Space. And in this three part episode of Game Maker's Toolkit, I'm going to be looking closely at Dead Space, and then seeing how the design of the game changed for its two major sequels.

Let's find out how the series shifted and evolved from its debut in 2008, to its sequel in 2011, to its finale in 2013. To understand Dead Space, we first need to understand Resident Evil 4 - which was the main influence for EA's new horror game. So, Resident Evil 4 is a bonkers action game with absurd characters and wrestling moves - but it kept to the horror roots of the earlier Resident Evil games, by undercutting the player in a number of key ways.

Leon's funky movement controls, including the inability to move and aim at the same time, meant you never felt fully in control of the situation. A crappy camera meant zombies could sneak up behind you. Limited resources and a cramped inventory meant you rarely had enough stuff for the task at hand. And you faced a bunch of tough enemies who take loads of hits, and attack you from all angles. The early village scene, for example, showed how you can make a game feel intense and scary - despite the fact you're carrying a shotgun and a hand grenade.

Dead Space essentially lifted this concept entirely, but the team at Redwood Shores put a unique spin on it by, one, setting it in space. Pretty much the entire game takes place on a derelict spaceship called the Ishimura, which has been overrun by zombie-like creatures called necromorphs. Two, by making hero Isaac Clarke a bit more agile than Leon. You can move while aiming in Dead Space, for example, but to balance things out you don't have access to that handy quick-turn move from Resi 4.

And three, there's the "strategic dismemberment" system, where enemies are barely hurt by body or head shots - because their limbs are the weak spots. This is a really good system: you can choose to cut off an enemy's legs to slow them down, or lop off their arms to, uh, disarm them. And it means the developers can come up with interesting enemy designs where their limbs are smaller, or constantly moving, or periodically hidden.

In fact, Dead Space has a really impressive selection of enemies. You've got the basic slasher, the lurker which shoots barbs from its spindly tendrils, a stingray-like creature called the infector who can resurrect corpses, the exploder, who... a pregnant zombie who farts out babies if its stomach is torn, the creepy divider, and more. They're introduced throughout the first half of the game, with these effective, organic tutorials. And then, in the second half, the devs could throw together a bunch of different monsters in endless combinations, to create really dynamic combat encounters.

In each battle you'll need to pick priorities. Exploders and infectors should be taken out first, while lurkers can be ignored as you awkwardly dance around their projectiles. You'll need to think about crowd control, which might mean chopping off enemy legs or freezing some foes in place with your stasis power-up, before running off to a better vantage point. You'll need to pick the right weapon. The rotating plasma cutter is good for precision shots, but the line gun is better for crowd control. The contact rifle is great if you can charge up a shot - the pulse rifle is good if you need to chew through enemies fast.

You can only carry four guns, so you need a balanced selection on hand. You often need to consider the environment. That's both Isaac's current location, but also hazards. There are sticky floors that slow your movement, dark rooms where you need to constantly aim to see anything, zero-gravity areas where you (and enemies) can leap from wall to wall, and zero-oxygen areas where you need to consider your air supply, and look out for enemies who are completely silent.

And you need to manage your resources. Ammo and health is way less plentiful than your average shooter, meaning your ability to find and conserve resources will have a big impact on your success in the game. Same goes for your financial decisions when you reach the store: you can buy ammo and health, but the same money could be spent on new weapons, better suits, or power nodes, which are the game's upgrade currency.

In my experience, I had an abundance of ammo in the first half of the game, but regularly ran out in the second. I had to sell weapons, start really hunting for credits, and improvise in fights - either using the kinesis power to hurl physics objects at enemies, or dodge foes as I scouted for scraps of ammo mid-fight. Sometimes I just ran by enemies altogether, but soon learned that that's not the end of it. Each of Dead Space's chapters takes place in an interconnected space with optional rooms and backtracking - which is where you'll come back to those enemies you avoided earlier.

Now, the open level design is pretty pointless when you have this nifty compass system where you can press a button to highlight your path through the world. Which is weird, when the developers went to the hassle of putting signs on all the doors, and building this cute 3D map. But, still, the level design has some nice advantages like rewarding exploration, making the Ishimura feel more like a real space, and lulling you into a false sense of security as you run back through that area you've already explored - before hitting you with an unexpected jump scare.

That's just one way Dead Space seeks to scare you. It also has enemies who play dead and jump up when you get close. Shadows that dart along walls. Fake scares involving the lights tripping out. Pick-ups that lure you into a jump scare. And when an enemy jumps out in front of you, a quiet one is often spawned behind you. The game orchestrates these scares pretty well, building up long periods of tension, full of fake-outs and suspicious sights, before finally shocking you. And make fun of the fans all you want, which is where the necromorphs often pop out, but eventually you'll be nervous of every fan you see.

Of course, much of the work is done by the game's truly impressive sound design. The Ishimura is this creaking, moaning, whispering, clanking, noisy environment which can unsettle you, make you jump, or trick you into thinking that someone is in the room.

The audio design is also used to improve the feel of the guns: each weapon kicks like a mule. And sounds also help you triangulate enemies, especially the most important threats like the exploder, who sounds like this... So what does Isaac actually do aboard the Ishimura? Well, errands, mostly. The two other surviving human characters, Hammond and Kendra, boss Isaac about, sending him from job to job as they try to fix the ship.

HAMMOND: Isaac, get back to the Kellion and prep it for launch. HAMMOND: Get to the medical deck and find that RIG as fast as you can. KENDRA: Head to medical, it should have everything you need. HAMMOND: Get some thermite from medical storage, and a shockpad from Zero-G therapy. It does add to the workman feel of the game. Isaac is just an engineer after all - his weapons are largely just mining tools, for example. But it starts to grate after a while.

HAMMON: Will this never end?! Especially as the ship all starts to look very similar. This game has incredible atmosphere with dark corners, smoky hallways, and great use of light, which all add up to a claustrophobic feel. But each of the areas - from the satellite arrays to the medical bay to a botanical garden to another ship that tries to dock with the Ishimura - all look pretty similar. And these indistinguishable areas, repeated goals, and what is essentially an endless string of combat can really kill the game's pace.

But there are a few notable events scattered throughout the 12-or-so hours you spend with the game. There are bits where you walk on the outside of the ship, a handful of boss fights, a section where you blast away at asteroids, and a couple chapters devoted to this guy: the hunter. He's a regenerating necromorph, and flips the script on the game. Until then, enemies were triggered when Isaac hit an invisible trip wire, and once you had killed all the enemies in the room you were safe to explore.

This guy - who is borrowed directly from Resident Evil 4, I should note - will get back up, and chase you from room to room, sneaking through vents like an early prototype for Alien Isolation. When you finally kill him - twice! - there's a real sense of catharsis. And I think this speaks to something that is at the heart of Dead Space. Because this is a game that is battling between action - a genre known for empowering the player with powerful guns and melee kills - and survival horror - a genre known for disempowering the player with clunky movement and limited inventory space. It's not the most comfortable pairing imaginable.

And you can see the two sides battle as you play through the game. Like, the game doesn't pause when you check your inventory, which could be used to make you feel vulnerable as you fiddle with your ammo stash during a heated battle. But, like an action game, there are also dedicated buttons for applying health packs and selecting guns, which means you rarely need to visit your inventory during a fight. And the game has save points, just like Resident Evil's typewriters. These should make you feel tense as you realise it's been ages since you last saved. But, actually, Dead Space also has checkpoints that dump you back outside the room where you just died.

But, for me, I felt like Dead Space managed to carefully balance a feeling of dread, with the ability to fight back - provided you're smart with strategy and resource management. The game has plenty of moments where you feel powerful - but they act like a release valve after prolonged moments of tension, fake-outs, and the breathless worry over hunting for ammo while an unstoppable zombie threatens to sneak up behind you.

That being said, the battle between the two sides of Dead Space's soul, was not finished. Next time, I'll be looking at Dead Space 2.