Each week in October, feeble-hearted staff writer Andy Brown will square off against the scariest horror games imaginable. This week, Andy plays Dead Space: a game he actually…likes?
It takes three shots from a Plasma Cutter to kill a Necromorph. In EA‘s sci-fi horror Dead Space, that’s one of the first lessons I was taught – straight after learning never to trust a single piece of machinery on the USG Ishimura to do its job.
My first meeting with a Necromorph wasn’t really a meeting – through plate glass, I saw one of the mutated horrors slip down from a vent and into a docking bay with my infuriatingly useless crew. Within seconds, it was twitching between its victims and eviscerating them with its bladed arms. Dead Space gives you a front-row seat to the carnage, and I spent the entirety of the slaughter like any good horror film – watching through my hands.
After that, the real fear began. Another Necromorph burst into the room I was in, kicking off a terrifying chase sequence that culminated in being backed into an elevator. Whatever sigh of relief I felt at the doors gliding shut choked in my throat, as the Necromorph received a second wind in its pitched fight against heavy industrial doors. Eventually, the Necromorph loses its fight and gets splattered all over your poor player character, Isaac – but when the rickety elevator gets moving, a piece of my heart was left several floors back.
