Line #32 Franchise/DeadSpace


1	[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead_space_01.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:235:[-Isaac Clarke is ''[[{{Understatement}} not]]'' having a good day.-]]]
3
4	''Dead Space'' is a {{Third\|PersonShooter}}-Person ScienceFiction SurvivalHorror video game series developed by Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) and published by Creator/ElectronicArts.
5
6	The series takes place in the future, where humanity has become technologically advanced and colonized space. However, all this progress comes with a cost: Earth is an ecological ruin, and humanity has turned into a race of PlanetLooters, smashing apart entire planets for their raw materials, and conducting as much research as possible into new sources of renewable energy.
7
8	The ''good'' news is: they found such a source in the Marker, a [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum giant double-helix alien monolith]] discovered in the ashes of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. It produces a seemingly-endless electromagnetic field that scientists hope to harness. The ''bad'' news is: it's an ArtifactOfAttraction and an ArtifactOfDeath that causes everyone nearby to go violently insane, and reanimates its surrounding corpses into horrifically mutated [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Necromorphs]], which seek out and kill everyone nearby in [[{{Gorn}} gruesome ways]].
9
10	The players play as Isaac Clarke, a humble engineer who becomes entangled in the deadly world of Markers and Necromorphs when his maintenance team attempted to relieve the distress signal of USG Ishimura, only to discover that it has been infested with Necromorphs and that they're now knee-deep in government conspiracies on the Marker.
11
12	Every story in the franchise involves a [[ZombieApocalypse Necromorph outbreak]] in a closed environment, and the characters who try to survive it. Either the survivors are there during the outbreak or [[LateToTheTragedy show up after the place has gone to Hell]].
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14	Other important points of the series include the [[ChurchOfHappyology Church of Unitology]], a major human religion that worships the Marker as the path to human "[[AssimilationPlot Convergence]]"; the [[ImprovisedWeaponUser re-purposing of power tools as weapons]]; the necessity of shooting AnArmAndALeg off the Necromorphs in order to kill them; each type of Necromorph [[TheManyDeathsOfYou having a unique "killing Isaac" animation]]; and a DiegeticInterface in which people wear {{Life Meter}}s on their backs.
15
16	Core gameplay is about precision targeting and strategic rationing. Necromorphs are ''immune'' to headshots, as their neural tissue is evenly spread across the entire nervous system - especially the limbs. In order to traumatize a necromorph into losing total control of their body, you'll need to perform disgusting levels of accurately violent damage to various parts of the necromorphs, ''especially'' the limbs; each limb severed deals a massive chunk of damage to the necromorph, and most necromorphs can't handle losing at least three neural clusters. Most. Your arsenal is a hybrid of futuristic industrial power tools meant for maintaining gigantic spaceships, standard military hardware, and two technology-powered magic powers known as [[TimeMaster Stasis]] and [[MindOverMatter Kinesis]], all of which have their own limits to ammunition and/or cooldown speed. Every mission is a challenge to balance dwindling supplies against an increasing slew of necromorph waves.
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19	!! Works in the Series
20
21	[[folder:Main Games]]
22	[[index]]
23	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' (2008) - The first game in the series, released for the PC, Platform/PlayStation3, and Platform/XBox360. Engineer Isaac Clarke is part of a team responding to a distress signal from the ''USG Ishimura'', a giant ship designed to "crack" planets for resources. When the Ishimura crew doesn't receive their ship, Isaac's team is forced to crash land inside and, after leaving their damaged shuttle, the crew finds the Ishimura in severe disrepair and swarming with Necromorphs. When Isaac then ends up separated, the team splits up to co-ordinate repairing several ship areas and reunite to escape. Isaac also has a personal stake in fixing the Ishimura; his entire reason for volunteering was to visit his girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, [[DamselInDistress who is also trapped aboard.]]
24	** ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'' (2023) - A VideoGameRemake of the original game, developed by EA Motive for [[Platform/XboxSeriesX Xbox Series X\|S]], Platform/PlayStation5, and PC. The game follows the same general storyline and structure of the original game, but with tweaks and improvements to the presentation and gameplay to bring the game up to modern standards, as well as build upon the foundation laid by the original game.
25	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' (2011) - The second game in the series, released for the PC, Platform/PlayStation3, and Platform/XBox360. Three years after ''Dead Space'', Isaac Clarke awakens in a hospital aboard Titan Station, a massive mining station (nicknamed The Sprawl) located on Saturn's moon. With [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of how he got there]] and suffering severe hallucinations, Isaac soon finds himself in the middle of another Necromorph outbreak, forcing him to find the source of the Necromorphs and stop them. However, Isaac soon finds himself impeded by Sprawl head Hans Tiedemann, as well as a collective of Unitologist radicals, meaning [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Necromorphs aren't his only worry this time.]]
26	** ''Dead Space 2: Severed'' - A DLC midquel released in March 2011 that follows Gabe Weller. Acting as a follow-up for one of the main characters of ''Dead Space: Extraction'', the story provides [[SwitchingPOV an alternate perspective]] on events: one of the last surviving security officer in the mines, Gabe has to fight through the outbreak to rescue his wife, Lexine, and get to safety.
27	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' (2013) - The third game in the series. Three years after ''Dead Space 2'', Isaac is a fugitive wanted by both [=EarthGov=] and the Unitologists. Approached by Earth Defense Force soldiers, Clarke is [[RefusalOfTheCall reluctantly dragged]] into a plot to destroy several Markers. Escaping a Unitologist attack, Clarke's team follows a lead to Tau Volantis, a frozen planet believed to be "[[DeathWorld Marker Central]]". ''Dead Space 3'' is especially notable as the in the series to see co-op; whilst the plot remains the same on the whole, a second player can assist Isaac as Sergeant John Carver, an otherwise secondary character who suggests they should stick together. Said co-op can be played online with a friend, or via drop-in/drop-out with strangers.
28	** ''Dead Space 3: Awakened'' - A DLC sequel released March 2013, ''Awakened'' acts as a PlayableEpilogue to the open ending to the main game. Picking up not long after the main story, the plot continues Isaac and Carver's perspective, and (somewhat infamously) resolved the main game's {{cliffhanger}} only to end on [[SequelHook an even bigger one]].
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Spin-Off Games]]
32	[[index]]
33	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' (2009) - A RailShooter released for the Platform/{{Wii}} and packaged with the Platform/PlayStation3 version of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2''. The game follows Nathan [=McNeill=], Gabe Weller, Lexine Murdoch, and Warren Eckhardt as they try to escape from Aegis VII to the Ishimura as Necromorphs infest the colony, only to find the Ishimura is not better off. It is a {{Prequel}} to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1''.
34	* ''VideoGame/{{Dead Space\|Mobile}}'' (2011) - (Also known as ''Dead Space: iOS'' and ''Dead Space: Mobile'') A {{Prequel}} to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' released for [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS systems]], this game follow a Unitologist agent named Vandal who first sabotages Titan Station, then tries to escape when the Necromorphs start to appear.
35	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceIgnition'' (2010) - A downloadable game for Platform/PlayStationNetwork and Platform/XboxLiveArcade. It is a {{Prequel}} to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2''. A police officer named Sarah and and an engineer named Franco Delile are on the Sprawl when the Necromorphs attack. Sarah wants to escape, but Franco has his own agenda. The story is told in a motion comic format with {{Gamebook\|s}} options, though the ending is always the same. The actual game is three [[HackingMinigame Hacking Minigames]] that represent Franco hacking various parts of the Sprawl.
36	[[/index]]
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Other Spin-Off Media]]
40	* ''Literature/DeadSpaceMartyr'' (2010) - A {{Prequel}} novel, chronologically it is the earliest story in the ''Dead Space'' universe. The book focuses on Michael Altman, the head figure of Unitology, and his discovery of the Black Marker in the Gulf of Mexico. As he and other scientists try to figure what the Marker is, everyone starts going insane, and eventually Necromorphs appear and attack the laboratory they are working out of.
41	* ''Dead Space'' (2008) - A ComicBook that takes place before the events of ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1''. On Aegis VII, a Red Marker is discovered during a mining operation. As a duplicate of Unitologists' sacred Black Marker, plans are made to move the Marker on-board the Ishimura. But as the Red Marker is moved on-board the Ishimura, everyone starts going insane, and eventually Necromorphs appear and attack the colony. The comics focuses primarily on Abraham Neumann, who is anti-Unitologist, and Marla Jansenn, who is a Unitologist, as they try to escape Aegis VII. The comic was released retail, and can be unlocked on the Platform/NintendoWii version of ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction''.
42	* ''WesternAnimation/DeadSpaceDownfall'' (2008) - A Direct-to-Video {{Prequel}}, taking place before ''Extraction'' and ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1''. The Red Marker is brought on the Ishimura, causing a stir; Unitologists want to worship it while scientists want to study it. Tensions start to mount and soon [[StrictlyFormula everyone starts going insane, and eventually Necromorphs appear and attack everyone on-board]]. The second half of the movie is about security officer Alissa Vincent and her FiveManBand as they try to escape the Ishimura. [[spoiler:They don't. Big surprise.]]
43	* ''Dead Space: Extraction'' (2009) - A comic based in the video game of the same name.
44	* ''WesternAnimation/DeadSpaceAftermath'' (2011) - A second Direct-to-Video movie, this time an {{Interquel}} between ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' and ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2''. The survivors of the USG O'Bannon are brought on-board USM Abraxis and interrogated about what happened on their ship. Most of the movie is told in flashback, as the surviving crewmembers relate how their ship was assigned the mission of bringing back [[spoiler:a shard of the Red Marker Isaac Clarke blew up in the first game]]. Even before [[spoiler:the shard]] is moved to the O'Bannon, [[OverlyLongGag everyone starts going insane, and Necromorphs appear and kill everyone on the O'Bannon]], and the rest of the movie is how the survivors: Nickolas Kuttner, Alejandro Borges, Nolan Stross, and Isabella Cho, lasted long enough to get out.
45	* ''Dead Space: Salvage'' (2010) - A {{Sequel}} ComicBook to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1''. Miners discover the remains of the Ishimura out in space and decide to sell it, but get in trouble when they discover [[spoiler:shards of the Red Marker]], and have to deal with new Necromorphs and government agents that also want the ship.
46	* ''Dead Space Liberation'' (2013) - A {{Prequel}} ComicBook to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3''. When Unitologists attack the research base on planet Uxor and release its Marker, [[OverlyLongGag Necromorphs appear and start killing everyone]]. One of the few survivors of the initial attack is [=EarthGov=] Sergeant [[CoOpMultiplayer John Carter]] who struggles to save his wife and child from the attack. [[spoiler:[[DeathByOriginStory He fails.]]]] During the outbreak he encounters [[VideoGame/DeadSpace2 Ellie Langford]] and joins her and the crew of the Eudora in their mission to find the source of the Marker's power before the outbreak spreads to the rest of human space.
47	* ''Literature/DeadSpaceCatalyst'' (2012) - A novel that takes place before ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'', but has little connection to any story in the series. Mentally ill Istvan Sato is sent to a prison on the planet Aspera which also has a secret research facility that is building its own Marker. Due to his mental illness Istvan has an unusual reaction to the Marker, and the local Unitologist nutcase puts him as the same room as the Marker, which causes [[OverlyLongGag Necromorphs to appear and slaughter everyone in the research facility and prison]]. Istvan's brother and lifelong caretaker Jensi travels to Aspera when the outbreak occurs, and tries to locate Istvan.
48	[[/index]]
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	Plans for ''Dead Space 4'' were placed in DevelopmentHell after ''3'' didn't sell as well as Electronic Arts had hoped. Visceral Games was then tagged to develop a brand new ''Franchise/StarWars'' single-player video game. In October 2017, EA shut down Visceral Games, which left the future of the ''Dead Space'' franchise in serious doubt. Those doubts continued until July 2021 when EA announced a [[VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake remake]] of the first Dead Space for PC, Platform/PlayStation5 and Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS developed by [[VideoGame/StarWarsSquadrons Motive Studios]], which will utilize the Frostbite engine.
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53	During the 2020 Game Awards, however, a SpiritualSuccessor developed by Striking Distance Studios, which has the original creator of the series Glen Schofield at its helm [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjLkhFSWfaU was teased,]] called ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol''. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Platform/PlayStation4, Platform/PlayStation5 and Platform/XboxSeriesXAndS in 2022.
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55	Additionally, Isaac appears as a playable DLC character in ''VideoGame/PlayStationAllStarsBattleRoyale'', and is based primarily on his ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' incarnation.
56	----
57	!!Series-Wide Tropes:
58	* AbortedArc:
59	** Isaac's profile in the first game mentions that his father died while doing work for the government, and his file is classified. This never comes up again. {{Subverted\|Trope}} in the remake where he was revealed to return after doing his mission [[spoiler:and ended up being killed by his Unitologist wife Octavia in a MurderSuicide after Nicole caused her to have a crisis of faith.]]
60	** Anything to do with Lexine and her immunity to the Markers. ''Extraction'' and ''2's'' DLC ''Severed'' built it up, with ''Severed'' even having her escape from [=EarthGov=] thanks to Gabe, but ''3'' doesn't continue this plot point, or even mention Lexine.
61	* AbsentAliens: Despite having colonized much of the galaxy, humans haven't found any life besides themselves. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' explains why this is: [[spoiler:the Necromorphs (or rather, the moon-sized, [[Franchise/MassEffect Reaper-esque]] {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that are the Necromorph phenomena's "true form") ate them all.]]
62	* AmbiguouslyBrown: In the Dead Space 'verse, we have Indian/Asian/Middle-Eastern looking people with names like Gabe Weller or John Carver. It's been over 500 years since present times, and given the presumed social progress, it's not hard to believe that everyone has a little bit of every race in them.
63	* AnArmAndALeg:
64	** Headshots will only get you so far, as Necromorphs can and ''will'' adapt to compensate for their lost cranium. Severing their limbs is the most effective and enforced method.
65	** Issac losing a limb means he's already dead. Luckily this only applies to messing up an event like escaping a necromorph's grasp.
66	* ArcWords: "Make us whole again."
67	* ArtifactMook: The babies. You first encounter them in a prosthetics lab with babies growing in tubes all over the walls. Nice and creepy. But even though this lab is only a single room with maybe 50 baby tubes total, from that point on zombie babies are ubiquitous all over the ship and you fight at least a hundred of them in the game.
68	* ArtifactOfDoom: The Markers, all of them. They are sentient and cause people to hallucinate their loved ones, hurt themselves, write strange writing on the walls in ''anything they can'', kill themselves, and somehow make Necromorphs appear.
69	** Note that the Red and Black markers only show horrific visions [[StarfishLanguage as a form of communication]], and mostly ''try'' to prevent Necromorph outbreaks; it's stated a few times that one needs a high level of intelligence to properly interpret the visions and ''not'' go insane. The Golden Marker, on the other hand, seems to be actively malevolent. The visions of Nicole that it shows Isaac taunt, lie to, and manipulate him, and want him to [[spoiler:kill himself]] in the end. The Golden Marker seems ''built'' to [[spoiler:begin Necromorph outbreaks and trigger Convergence events]], unlike the others, which work to prevent them.
70	** Played completely straight in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' [[spoiler:where it revealed that all of the Markers are built to trigger Convergence events and summon the Brother Moons. The earlier seeming "helpful" advice of the Red and Black Markers was due to people's misinterpretation of their messages.]]
71	*** ''Dead Space 3'' reveals that [[spoiler:in their early stages, the Markers nudge sentient races into becoming technologically advanced civilizations...to ''encourage overpopulation'', at which point they switch into their final stages of inducing a necromorph outbreak, harvesting the civilization for its biomass]].
72	*** [[spoiler:Even the "original" Black Marker probably wasn't directly made by the necromorphs: Marker visions make less intelligent beings go violently insane, but compels more intelligent ones to make copies of the Marker, to spread the infection. Some unaffected people even copy it for the false promise of a limited energy source. This spread of Marker-copies probably isn't just intended for the target race, but how the necromorphs spread to new star systems and new species (i.e. the Black Marker could have come from the Tau Volantis aliens, who were just another species that fell to the necromorphs). No explanation is given for what started the necromorph cycle in the first place.]]
73	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Necromorphs have a blatantly impossible body structure, lacking any kind of vital or digestive organs or central nervous system, and what they have left over is either converted into muscles or CombatTentacles. In-universe this is explained as the Marker's control over dead biological matter, and when a Marker is destroyed all Necromorphs in the area end up dissolving.
74	* BittersweetEnding: How some stories end if the protagonists are lucky. Usually, they will accomplish some goal before getting ripped to shreds.
75	* BlatantItemPlacement: Enemies will often drop health when the main character is about to die, and often drop the right ammo needed for whatever weapons are being carried.
76	* BodyHorror: And ''how!'' Horrifically mutilated and contorted corpses trying to tear you to pieces? Yep. Horrific death scenes? Yep. [[EasterEgg Peng]]? Yep.
77	* BookEnds:
78	** The series [[VideoGame/DeadSpace1 begins]] with [[spoiler:Isaac Clarke looking at a recording of Nicole, his girlfriend. [[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 The third game]] ends with him looking at a photograph of Ellie, whom he had entered into a relationship with after he had gotten over his guilt over Nicole's death.]]
79	** The first game begins with the ''Kellion'' shocking into the orbit of Aegis VII and attempting to open communications with the ''Ishimura''; [[ItsQuietTooQuiet the failure of which is the first hint that something isn't right]]. [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 Dead Space 3: Awakening]] ends with Isaac and Carver shocking into Earth's orbit and trying to raise communications with [=EarthGov=] on several channels, getting silence on almost all of them... only for the last channel to finally erupt into bloodcurdling screams, revealing that the Brethren Moons have already reached the planet.]] Both of these sequences also end with crash-landings.
80	* BoomHeadshot: Averted with a vengeance: Oh sure, feel free to ''ignore'' the ''multiple'' warnings of "Cut off their limbs" written in blood across the walls of the ghost ship Ishimura; watch as your delight turns to horror as the now ''headless'' space zombie ''continues'' charging at you to claw you into iddy biddy little pieces.
81	* BoringButPractical: The Plasma Cutter is a very basic weapon that fires a single energy blast and it’s secondary fire merely changes the orientation of the projectile. However it’s very good at severing limbs, very accurate, and moderately ammo efficient, making it a nearly essential part of any loadout.
82	* CaptainCrash: Almost every vehicle Isaac gets into ends up broken.
83	* CaptainErsatz: The church of Unitology bears [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial absolutely, positively no resemblance to the church of Scientology.]]
84	* ChurchOfHappyology: Unitology, obviously. WordOfGod is that they were designed to evoke a generic religious cult rather than Scientology specifically, so presumably the name was to make sure the joke didn't go over your head. By the time the second game rolled around they realized they had just created "Scientology in space" after all, so they rolled with it, creating a recruitment center with audio logs discussing which poor suckers they could sell the most books to.
85	* ComputerVoice: Used frequently, both male and female, the Ishimura's is a female voice, but some military ships have a male voice.
86	* CosmicHorrorStory: [[spoiler:The series has a universe filled with omnicidal PlanetEater [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that have [[AbsentAliens consumed every other species up until mankind]], [[OurZombiesAreDifferent undead alien zombies]] created by esoteric alien technology, and to cap it off, the series seemingly ends with the said eldritch abominations finding and consuming all life on earth.]]
87	* CrapsackWorld: Even without the Necromorphs, mankind in the ''Dead Space''-verse is pretty banged up: Unitology is the dominant religion of dubious moral values, bureaucrats tend to use employees as tools in far worse ways than in RealLife, and [[NoOSHACompliance safety regulations are lacking]]. The sad story of [[spoiler:Howard, the caretaker of the Sprawl's solar arrays]] is example enough.
88	** There is evidence that ''humanity itself'' is circling the drain. Planetcracking came as a saving grace at a time when economic collapse and subsequent extinction due to resource starvation were ''very'' close at hand. Furthermore, that solution isn't sustainable, and humanity is still limping on its way to disaster. In many ways, the horrifically unethical experiments that [=EarthGov=] has ''repeatedly'' performed on [[spoiler:the Markers]] are [[WellIntentionedExtremist the only hope]] humanity has of long-term survival.
89	** The third game reveals that [[spoiler:the reason space is 'dead' is because every other sentient species that preceded humanity fell into the same downward spiral and succumbed to the Markers' temptation in an attempt to save themselves.]]
90	* CriticalExistenceFailure: Mostly averted. The Necromorphs can dismember, and thereby kill, Isaac even if his RIG's LifeMeter is halfway full.
91	* DarknessEqualsDeath: Averted half the time. While Necromorphs do attack in the dark, and it is scary, they also attack in the light, which is also scary.
92	* DialogDuringGameplay: Thanks to the RIG, Isaac can maintain conversations with his MissionControl, either on video or audio.
93	* DiegeticInterface: Isaac's RIG. It's visible to other characters and has a holographic display that faces him; it's even possible to move the camera so that the player can't see it.
94	* DownerEnding: Most stories in this series end this way.
95	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Uh... NO! "Happy" is NOT the word! When you are around a Necromorph outbreak, the best kind of ending you can hope for is "Bittersweet". And even then, you gotta WORK for it!
96	** Despite the dark ending of Dead Space, ''[=DS2=]'' leads up to ''[=DS3=]'' by featuring the somewhat happy result of [[spoiler:Isaac on a ship with trained pilot Ellie, and safely getting back to civilization.]] You could almost consider this a straight up EarnYourHappyEnding. Then you remember the thousands of men, women, children, and babies you had to dismember after they were horribly killed and turned into monsters. Even if Isaac never sees a Necromorph again, he'll probably never have another good night's sleep without heavy medication.
97	** The second game ends on a slightly brighter note, with Isaac [[spoiler:being able to confide in Ellie when he needs to and having recovered to a reasonable extent from Nicole's suicide. However, he is now officially a government fugitive, as is she. Also, even though Tiedemann is dead and the Marker is destroyed, TheStinger implies that the Marker of this game was only one of ''several'' created by [=EarthGov=] and are still a threat to Earth, along with the Church of Unitology still being a growing problem.]]
98	** ''[=DS2's=]'' {{DLC}} Pack ''Severed'' [[spoiler:is incredibly bittersweet. Lexine escapes with her baby, but is the only remaining survivor of ''Extraction'', not to mention Gabe (her partner and child's father) is dead ''and'' she is a fugitive from [=EarthGov=].]]
99	** Dead Space 3 couldn't be more bittersweet. '''Sweet:''' [[spoiler:Ellie didn't die and manages to escape, Isaac and Carver fight and kill the Brother Moon, and the Markers/Necromorphs have been stopped, at least for now.]] '''Bitter:''' [[spoiler:Ellie loses Isaac after confessing her love, the Unitologists are probably still a threat, there may be more Markers/Necromorphs, and Isaac and Carver are either a) dead or b) alive and stranded on Tau Volantis.]]
100	*** Outright averted with the Dead Space 3 DLC "Awakened." Turns out there is no sweet ending in the Dead Space universe in the foreseeable future. [[spoiler:There are many other moons like the one over Tau Volantis that finished convergence and at the end you find out they are already at Earth, liberating its inhabitants of its sweet, delicious biomass. ]] No longer circling the drain, humanity is now being chopped up in the garbage disposal.
101	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Dead Space'' is the only one where the Locator can't be set to find the nearest SavePoint and Bench. It's also the only one with canned air and non-regenerating Stasis. The RIG health bar only features square segments in ''1'' as well, as opposed to interlocking triangles everywhere else.
102	** Story-wise, the Markers seem to want to stop the necromorphs in ''1'' and ''Martyr,'' influencing Issac and Kyne into placing it back onto the broadcast station for its PowerNullifier and telling the scientists at the facility to stop their experiments, but in ''2'' and ''3,'' the Markers relay the Brother Moon's telepathic emanations, releasing limitless energy as they do so, acting like anglerfish lures to any sapient races who find them (humans, volantians, and countless others.)
103	* EyeScream: ''Every'' numbered entry into the franchise features bad things happening to eyeballs. In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'', Kyne accidentally kills Captain Mathius by stabbing him in the eye with a sedative. In ''2'', Ellie gets one of her eyes gouged out, and Isaac later has to undergo do-it-yourself eye surgery. [[spoiler:And in ''3'', the FinalBoss gets twenty-foot tall markers ''launched through its eyes'']].
104	* EvilTaintedThePlace: Anywhere a Necromorph outbreak has taken place can likely never be truly declared fully safe, even after the outbreak has ended. The Ishimura quickly garners a reputation of being haunted even after the events of the first game, with the janitors and technicians on the sprawl charged with fixing her up reporting strange noises and odd occurrences. And this was before the Site 12 Marker started waking the dead.
105	* FantasticFirearms:
106	** Several Necromorphs (Spitters, Brutes, several boss monsters) have the ability to launch pods of explosive bile (while it's referred to as "[[SuperSpit spitting]]", they usually have a specialized organ dedicated to lobbing them), acting as grenadiers for the undead horde.
107	** Others (Lurkers, Guardian Pods) have a whipping tendril that can cock back and fling sharp shards of bone so fast the air burns.
108	** Lastly, some others (Nests, Medusae) can launch organic heat-seeking missiles through some unknown means.
109	** On Team Human, the pulse rifle uses gravity manipulation to fire, and some models (the one in Dead Space 2) can shoot 50 shots at once to act as a Grenade Launcher.
110	* FantasticSlurs: Unitologists are derisively called Marker-heads.
111	* FasterThanLightTravel: The Shockpoint drive. The specifics are kinda glossed over, but we see a diagram of the ''Kellion'' going through a Wormhole (although the Dead Space Wiki states that it's likely an AlcubierreDrive based on how spacetime goes wide in back and narrow upfront, but the in-game diagram shows a tube), and the ExpandedUniverse shows that it uses a PortalNetwork.
112	* {{Flatline}}: Whenever someone wearing a RIG dies (most notably, Isaac), a flatline plays from their suit.
113	* FleshGolem: [[ExaggeratedTrope Taken to its logical extreme]] with the [[spoiler:Brethren Moons, enormous Necromorphs make up from the entire converted biosphere of a planet]].
114	* FunWithAcronyms: RIG stands for Resource Integration Gear.
115	* GaiasLament: By the 23rd century, Earth was not doing well. The Global Warming Epidemic has lead to sea levels rising, allowing for the formation of "trinity hurricanes" and drowning cities like New York, Venice and Hong Kong. Billions of refugees were pushed inland, leading to a massive surge of migration to inland cities and furthering pollution levels. In addition, the planet's non-renewable resources were largely used up and her colonies weren't providing enough to meet humanity's needs, leading to [[NoBloodForPhlebotinum the Resource Wars]], a conflict that also stretched to other planets. It wasn't until the invention of planet cracking in the 25th century that these conflicts came to an end.
116	** And even without the Resource Wars, things weren't exactly rosy off-world. A few years before the events on Aegis VII, Mars underwent a series of [[TheWarOfEarthlyAggression violent pro-Martian independence riots]], which were brutally put down by [=EarthGov=] with the deaths hundreds, possibly thousands, of protestors.
117	* GridInventory: Present in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'', ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', and ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3''.
118	* {{Gorn}}: Oh my yes. Necromorphs don't just claw or bite their victims, they stab them through the abdomen, or rip their heads off, etc. Also, to kill a Necromorph, you generally have to dismember it.
119	* HolographicTerminal: Both regular ones for starships, and personal ones for backpacks.
120	* HumanityIsInsane: Considering the amount of horrifying and traumatizing shit Isaac is forced to go through, he's arguably a lot safer fighting the hideous undead Necromorphs than he is deciding which humans he should trust as they are likely to be (1) unlucky people driven insane by the Marker, (2) [[LawfulEvil EarthGov]] like [[TeamKiller Kendra Daniels]], or (3) deluded or conniving [[ChurchOfHappyology Unitologists]] in the form of [[SmugSnake Daina]] or [[AxCrazy Challus Mercer]]. What few good, sane people out there are few and far between, with a good half of them either horribly killed or driven bonkers by the Marker.
121	* IconicOutfit: The Level 3 Rig was featured in all promotional media for ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' (including the image for this very page), and appeared under the name Engineering Suit as the first suit found in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' and as a game completion unlockable for ''[[VideoGame/DeadSpace3 3]]''. If Isaac has a cameo in some other EA game, chances are he will be wearing that suit.
122	* InkSuitActor: Many of the unique characters' faces are modeled after their voice actors and actresses.
123	* InterfaceSpoiler: The subtitles in all three main games are very poorly timed, though ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'' is possibly the worst offender. Often, there will be several sentences of text on the screen which the voice actor might not finish reading for up to 30 seconds for dramatic effect. The subtitles can cancel out the drama by spoiling the revelations contained in the dialogue before the actor can get to it.
124	* ImprovisedWeapon: While there are a few military grade weapons available, most of Issac's arsenal is made up of modified tools intended for AsteroidMining.
125	* JackOfAllStats: The Plasma Cutter doesn’t have the damage output of the Contact Beam, the coverage of the Line Gun, or the stunning capabilities of the Pulse Rifle or Ripper but it has a good balance of each and will perform very well in any scenario. The only thing it lacks is crowd control so Swarmers in particular can be difficult to take out with only a cutter.
126	* JustifiedSavePoint: The save points are represented as photo booths that synch a user's RIG with the main computer, telling it who and where they are, their health status, and what they have on them (not for nothing is it called "Resource Intergration Gear," and yes, it's used to check for stolen goods and contraband).
127	* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: 3 is the only game in the series that uses resource scavenging and ItemCrafting instead of power nodes and shops, and IkeaWeaponry instead of prefab guns. It is also the only installment to have CoOpMultiplayer. There are even segments where the player faces off with living human enemies with guns, complete with a [[TakeCover cover mechanic]] to protect yourself from enemy fire.
128	* LatexSpaceSuit: Not typical of Isaac's suits, which usually are bulky as befitting his position as an engineer, but casual ones are shown to be skin-tight. The Advanced Suit from ''2'' is an example.
129	* LifeMeter: The R.I.G. has a spine-mounted life meter, which is actually in-universe and not just a convenience for the player. All adults wear them.
130	* LudicrousGibs: The game actually requires you to dismember the necromorphs in creative ways, since simply shooting them in the head isn't enough to kill them. On the flipside, many of Isaac's death animations involve him getting graphically dismembered.
131	* MadeOfPlasticine: Due to the gore-friendly engines of the games, Necromorphs can sometimes sever your limbs (or head) with a casual swipe at your body if you only have one hit point left. Not to be outdone though, Necromorph and human corpses alike can be chopped up into little bits by simply ''stomping'' on them.
132	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Fail to escape a Necromorph's grasp in time, or take too much damage, and you'll see Issac get torn apart, eaten, and beheaded. With so many ways to die, it can be a combination of that and more, and often not necessarily in that order. Misteps in certain non-combat segments add to that list.
133	* MeaningfulName: The title of the series itself. "Dead space" refers to the fact that [[spoiler:the Necromorphs have already completely decimated and consumed countless planets and species between their original home and humanity's solar system, leaving a large vacuum of "dead space" between them; humans are alone with the necromorphs, and no other species are coming to help]]. In the first game however, the title originally had a very different meaning, as it referred to [[spoiler: the space surrounding the activated red marker that rendered all Necromorph biomass inactive. When the series dropped the idea of the markers being used as a tool for containing a Necromorph outbreak, the original meaning of the title changed with it.]]
134	** Brilliant engineer turned [[TheHero Necromorph killer]] Isaac Clarke's name is also significant, taken from science fiction authors "Isaac" Asimov and Arthur C. "Clarke".
135	** Michael Altman is almost certainly named after B. K. Evenson's first published book, an anthology entitled Altmann's Tongue, where a consistent theme is that of corrupted religions and people doing abhorrent things for their faiths.
136	* MenuTimeLockout: Completely averted in all three games. Accessing your inventory, buying items out of vending machines, and even upgrading your rig does ''not'' pause the game around you. A careless player can easily get killed by a necromorph sneak attack this way, so it's best to make sure no enemies are around before you use one. Though there are a few pre-scripted jump scares at item stores and work benches. The only action that plays this straight is saving the game at a save station.
137	* MundaneUtility: The Dead Space universe uses high-tech plasma cutters as the equivalent of a pickaxe, as well as all the other incredibly powerful (by modern standards) tools and tech being used in a casual manner. Kinesis is constantly used in places where moving things by hand would work just as well.
138	* MoneyIsExperiencePoints: Credits are generally used for both upgrades and buying med packs and ammo.
139	* NoHeroDiscount: While the stores are all automated, this doesn't answer the question of why Isaac doesn't just hack all the stores to get items for free. Given that Isaac is shown to be capable of some very impressive rewiring tricks, and how vital items are to your success (items that have no limit for purchase at a single store, and the game's RPGElements come in the form of Power Nodes that can be bought in stores), there's no reason why Isaac never even tries to go for the five fingered discount.
140	** Then again, the shop is possibly the most complex device you see, capable of dispensing ammo, health, even changing out power armor on command. It probably has some pretty bad-ass defenses protecting it; again, it can cut off and replace power armor so it can be assumed it has at least as strong a laser as the plasma cutter, which we've all seen is powerful enough to rip people to shredded ribbons of flesh.
141	* NoOSHACompliance: OSHA might as well have stayed back on earth, for all the good it does in the future. Tanks on ships to regrow lost limbs in accidents as well as easily shattered expansion windows that can decompress an entire area are just two of the more common violations.
142	* NoProductSafetyStandards: A good thing, as doors and weapons would be ''far'' less deadly otherwise, though one has to wonder about the social consequences. Apparently, the tools were modified by the Ishimura crew to be used as weapons, but doesn't explain why the modified tools are in the store (or why the Corporals' pulse rifles disappeared).
143	** [[WildMassGuessing Presumably]], the stores use 3D-printing to provide merchandise, which is why you have to find schematics in order to gain access to new goods. Selling one of your guns at the store simply means the printer gets to scan and duplicate it at will.
144	* NotUsingTheZWord: The correct term is "necromorph."
145	* OncePerEpisode: Having Creator/KeithSzarabajka voice a plot important character. In ''1'', he voices Dr. Kyne, in ''2'' it's implied Kyne is providing the expository intro, and in ''3'' he voices General Mahad.
146	* OneWayVisor: Most helmets.
147	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: Not actual ghosts, but Markers are capable of making people hallucinate dead loved ones, with no live ones shown.
148	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The Necromorphs and their methods of initiating the ZombieApocalypse are very... unique. They're created when a "marker" (which is basically an alien statue with electromagnetic properties) is activated; a high frequency signal is sent out that transforms the flesh of any dead organism it comes into contact with into a Necromorph; a reanimated corpse that's had its body twisted into stronger (not to mention grotesque) forms with the sole purpose being to kill and infect as many creatures as possible. Only corpses can be transformed into Necromorphs and only certain types of Necromorphs can transform them (appropriately named Infectors); to this end, most Necromorph types simply kill as many people as they can so the Infectors can get to work on the bodies. Individual Necromorphs can only be stopped by either dismembering their limbs or destroying their bodies completely, and unlike the typical zombie, even one is far too fast and strong for an unarmored or unarmed human to stop.
149	** Once enough Necromorph tissue is created on one planet, a nearby marker will begin "convergence"; the Necromorphs all morph into one and literally transform the entire ''planet'' into a massive and sentient Necromorph refered to as a "Brother Moon". It doesn't stop there though; the original marker signal that created the first necromorphs has a secondary function to cause insanity and catatonia in beings of average intelligence (which typically causes them to kill each other or become too shell shocked to defend themselves, respectively) while intelligent creatures are implanted with an obsessive desire to create more markers. As a result, there will always be plenty of markers emitting signals and while the Brother Moons go on to destroy planets near them, the new marker signal starts another Necromorph outbreak millions of miles away at the same time.
150	* PlanetLooters: Humanity. We need natural resources, having depleted all of Earth's, and go out breaking down random planets in space to get them; only a matter of time before we pick up an unexpected guest along with our resources.
151	** And the first crack is one of Saturn's moons, which is where the sequel takes place.
152	** The background logs state that planet cracking is actually believed by some to destabilize entire star systems because of the gravity imbalance of one planet going missing all of a sudden. The [[MegaCorp CEC]] denies this, though, and states that the planets are always carefully chosen. (Not to mention that it's a bit of a silly objection in the first place; [[ArtisticLicensePhysics breaking one big mass into many small ones doesn't make it less massive, and shattering a planet doesn't mean its pieces will suddenly halt in their tracks rather than continuing along the same orbit]]. If CEC were towing whole planets away, the argument would make some sense, but they're not, so it doesn't.)
153	* RealityIsUnrealistic: Some complain that the chance of almost all of Isaac's weapons being re-purposed tools strains credibility. For example, why would a tool called the "Plasma ''Cutter''" shoot out a single, non-continuous burst? Then you remember that Dynamite was originally intended for peaceful purposes by inventor Alfred Nobel, and was used for war. Not to mention the real life section of ImprobableWeaponUser.
154	** It's mentioned that a lot of what you pick up, is modified to more effectively fight the Necromorphs, the prequel movie provides a possible unmodified version of the Plasma Cutter, which was something more like a Plasma chainsaw.
155	* RedShirtArmy:
156	** Kinda necessary to increase the Necromorph bunch.
157	** Special mention has to be given to the army platoon in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' (who, it should be noted, were ''explicitly advised'' about dangerous biological threats being present and were fully combat-ready upon entering the system) that is taken out by a single Necromorph. It was best said on the page for ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'': "Oh Dead Space army, you fail so hard. Maybe you should send the troops into mining engineering classes."
158	* ReligionIsRight: Unitology, strictly speaking, is completely honest in its claims. They just happen to be a little vague about/ignorant of the specifics.
159	* RetroactiveIdiotBall: The first game's Red Marker, and the Black Marker from ''Martyr'', were trying to ''stop'' the Necromorphs, but ''Dead Space 2'' retcons the Markers' motivations as them wanting make the event Convergence happen, and for that they want the Necromorphs to spread. This created a massive PlotHole with the first game and ''Martyr'', and in-universe it made both Markers unwilling to do the one thing they were created for with no explanation given. The first game's remake fixes this; in ''Dead Space 2'' it's established that the Marker's makers need to be absorved to start Convergence, so the remake's fix was rather simple, by establishing that since the Red Marker's maker is long dead, it changed its priority into spreading blueprints onto someone else and [[PragmaticVillainy it wants to stop the Necromorphs so Isaac can survive and make his own Marker to start Convergence]].
160	* RunningGag:
161	** [[InfinityPlusOneSword The Hand Cannon]], a foam finger that kills everything in one hit, has infinite ammo, and causes Isaac to [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud say “Bang” or “Pew”]] each time it’s used. It’s usually awarded for beating the games on the highest difficulty.
162	** There's always Peng!
163	* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale:
164	** It’s stated that planet cracking is unsustainable even though they’re mining an entire planet of its resources and there are estimated to be 100 billion planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone.
165	** The entire point that the process of planet cracking is necessary for the continued prosperity of humans is suspect. This implies that humankind in the setting somehow uses up within a few years several thousand times more metal than we have through the entirety of human history. This is before we even get to things like the logistics of transporting a significant percentage of the entire volume of a planet.
166	* SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil: While you can hear necromorphs in most situations, if they're sneaking up on you (especially in a vacuum), you won't be able to hear them, ''and'' there won't be [[MusicalSpoiler a scare chord]] until you actually look at them. Paranoia-inducing the first time you discover this.
167	* SimpleYetAwesome: The Plasma Cutter doesn’t have any gimmicks. It’s merely a weapon that fires a cutting blast of energy and can have it’s orientation switched between horizontal and vertical with it’s secondary fire. Those traits alone make it possibly the best weapon in the series.
168	* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:Unless there's a sequel, the ''Awakened'' DLC for ''3'' turns the franchise into one of these; everything Isaac and every other protagonist struggled for falls apart, and the Brethren Moons are in the process of consuming Earth.]]
169	* ShoutOut: There is no way that the name Creator/{{Isaac\|Asimov}} [[Creator/ArthurCClarke Clarke]] is just a coincidence.
170	* SpaceIsNoisy: Averted throughout the franchise. Space is very, very silent, and you only hear things when they make direct physical contact with your character. Even the music gets muted. This is also pushed into the NothingIsScarier territory, where a great majority of boss fights and scripted scenes are fought in near-total silence with ''epic'' setpieces. Finally, [[WorldOfPun this is a pun on "dead"]].
171	* StarfishAliens: The necromorph. Some can pass for human (at a distance, in the dark), while others have huge claws and vestigial arms, and still others are nothing more than a blob of meat sprouting CombatTentacles. [[spoiler:''3'' showed Necromorph Aliens, although no living version of the species.]]
172	* StarfishLanguage: The Markers communicate by showing you visions of your dead loved ones [[BodyHorror in various conditions]].
173	* SoundtrackDissonance: The series loves using this in trailers. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' featured "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in its trailers, and it plays faintly in a later level of the game. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' uses a distorted version of "Ring Around the Rosie". ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', rather than using a lullaby, goes with a cover of Phil Collin's "In the Air Tonight".
174	* SpiritualSuccessor: The Dead Space series seems to be this to the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' series, sharing the same quasi-CyberPunk universe, ParasiteZombie monsters, and survival horror gameplay. The only real difference is that it's a ThirdPersonShooter series instead of a FPS RPG mash-up.
175	* SuccessThroughInsanity: Isaac Clarke has [[spoiler:the blueprints of the Marker]] in his head. This makes him the perfect guy to go about killing the source(s) of the Necromorphs, and allows him to read and decipher Marker texts. It also makes him paranoid, schizophrenic, and he often hallucinates dead people talking to him. Which is pretty par for the course for anyone who's survived close contact with a Marker, to be fair.
176	* SuperpoweredMooks: Mysterious covert operatives referred to as Oracles appear in ''Salvage'' and ''Dead Space 2: Severed''. It's unclear whether they work for the Unitologists or [=EarthGov=], but they exhibit Jedi powers and imply that they're top-level spec ops agents sent to deal with the highest-level covert incidents, such as Necromorph outbreaks.
177	* TheRemnant: By the time of Dead Space 3, the once powerful [=EarthGov=] has been totally wiped out by the Unitologists uprising, with the platoon that you work with being the last remnants of their military.
178	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: A common problem the Marker causes is to make people think they see their dead loved ones and think they are real.
179	* UsedFuture: The Ishimura is old by the start of the story. It is stated that, after another year, it was going to be decommissioned.
180	* WallCrawl: Leapers and Lurkers in all three main games are quite fond of doing this, often using it to attack from unexpected angles, leaving you spinning around pointing your weapon at just about every wall and ceiling in sight. ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' adds [[ActionBomb Crawlers]] to the roster.
181	* YourHeartsDesire: This is partially how the Markers sucker their victims into coveting them, giving those of a religious bent a divine power to follow, while baiting in their more science-focused pawns with the promise of unlimited electromagnetic energy. Regardless of what it offers, the outcome is the same: madness and devastation under a tide of living death.

Context Franchise / DeadSpace