Nightmare Fuel / Dead Space (Remake)

WARNING: Spoilers Off applies to Nightmare Fuel pages. You Have Been Warned!

"This transformation... It's... Remarkable!"

The original game is still considered to be among the scariest games of all time. The remake makes it a hundred times worse.

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Pre-Release

• Our first glimpse at a Necromorph is just a silhouette, but even this brief glimpse gives the idea of something much, much more detailed. Not to mention the sounds it makes...
• The infamous rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star returns. It's still chilling.
• The final shot of the reveal trailer is of the Ishimura floating in space, with Aegis VII in the background, absolutely dwarfing it. That sense of pure isolation and loneliness that the original game captured so well is shown in just one shot, and it is horrifying.
• The latest stream showcasing audio revealed that they've reworked the ambient audio system to have true 3D travelling thanks to occlusion, which means sound now appropriately travels... which can be all the more horrifying when entering a room and only hearing the faintest of sounds echoing far down a corridor unable to tell what it is until it's too late.

General

• The original game was known for its excellent use of environmental storytelling, and the remake holds up to the original game's legacy in this regard and then some.
  • An examination table in the medical wing is absolutely coated in blood, and said blood trails off somewhere...
  • The bathrooms near the tram maintenance room have mutilated bodies in them, alongside some disturbing graffiti written in blood.
  I found a man in the vents.
  They told me to bring my friends.
• Just the lighting and sound design are enough to give nightmares. The hallways of the Ishimura are decrepit, covered in blood, and ill-maintained with clanging, screaming, and echoed metallic bangs ringing out.
• Play the game with headphones on. In multiple parts of the ship, especially Engineering and the Mining Deck, you can hear ominous whispering. It's incoherent and largely incomprehensible, but it's chilling.
• The Peeling system. It allows for layers of skin, muscle, and fat to be peeled away, exposing the bones beneath. That sounds horrific enough, but actually seeing the mutilation the tools that Isaac wields are capable of is genuinely terrifying.
  • The Flamethrower in particular has benefitted from the implementation of the Peeling system. When using it, you can see the skin literally melting away before being charred to a crisp, still smoking afterward. Damn.
  • Hitting enemies with Stasis blasts after acquiring the prototype module also tends to strip the flesh off necromorphs alarmingly quickly.
• The Intensity Director. Essentially, it is a system that makes so that you can never see what the game will pull next coming. It's a system that dictates everything from enemy spawns to light levels and audio cues. What this means in practice is that everything is able to be changed on a whim, leaving you constantly unaware of what could happen next. The next room you enter could be filled with a thick fog, leaving you unable to see the necromorphs inside, or it could be pitch-black as a nearby vent explodes just to fake you out. Essentially, you can never feel completely sure of yourself, because nowhere, not even previously cleared rooms, is safe.
• In the new third chapter, Isaac at one point has to shimmy his way through a enclosed hallway of growing Necromorph flesh that has various dead crew members embedded in it. There's a huge amount of tension in this scene considering how claustrophobic it suddenly gets. To make matters worse, it's very obvious that the Necromorphs are actively stalking you as you get a brief glimpse of one in a exposed vent. After squeezing his way through the necrotic flesh, Isaac accidentally stumbles right into an Immature Guardian.
• The disembodied SCREAMING in the distant background on certain levels. Whoever is left alive probably wishes they weren't. Brr....
  • If you head to whatever room the screaming is coming from, sometimes it will just stop as soon as you enter it, or suddenly start somewhere else. Either The Marker is fucking with you or the screaming is coming from an unlucky survivor that is trapped and being murdered by necromorphs somewhere else in the ship and their death screams are just echoing. Either which way it's really creepy.
• The new heartbeat audio system can lead to some intense moments. If Isaac is ever exerting himself (such as by running a lot or fighting a tough enemy), the game will play a loud hearbeat sound effect in the backing audio. The heartbeat will scale with intensity from then on, and it can be quite unnerving to defeat an encounter and be left with nothing but Isaac's heartbeat ringing in your ears. Notably, Isaac's heartbeat will also be triggered in moments of extreme terror for him, such as the first time he gets to the Crew Deck and comes face to face with the end result of a mass suicide.
• Most of the Ishimura is now pitch-black, with your only source of light sometimes being the flashlight on Isaac's weapon. And as the game goes on, parts of the ship start to lose power, plunging areas into near-total darkness. Which means you often might not see a necromorph coming until it's right on top of you.

Necromorphs

• The sheer number of grisly details that come with the increased graphical fidelity of the remake means that Necromorphs look even more disgusting and mangled than ever, with melted skin and cartilage visible amidst the exposed intestines and other internal organs, including an entire larynx.
• The new screams of the standard Slasher necromorphs. In the original games they were always inhuman roars of rage. In the remake the Slashers sound far more human and will scream in pain like one when you're fighting them. It serves to highlight that these monsters used to be normal everyday human beings that bodies were twisted beyond recognition by the Red Marker.
  • Due the fact that the Slashers sound far more human, this has the knock off effect of them sometimes being far quieter. It's not unusual for a Slasher to quietly sneak up behind you during a fight to freak you out and get a free hit in. If a vent is already open, they sometimes make no noise when traveling through it.
• Speaking of the Necromorphs, the morgue scene showcases an Adaptational Expansion of the famous moment of the Captain's corpse being turned into a Necromorph... but rather than watching on for a brief bit of security behind some glass as the transformation progresses (with an obvious model swap), Isaac is instead forced to get hands-on with the Captain's body to remove its rig component, only for an Infector to drop above him and start infecting Mathius's corpse midst his operation barely a foot away from him, forcing Isaac to the ground with the now monstrous Captain transforming gruesomely in real time on top of him before Isaac has a chance to fight back. It practically serves as a chilling Call-Forward to the first moments of Dead Space 2 with Isaac watching Franco Delille turn into a Necromorph right in front of him.
• The Corruption in general is intensely more disgusting here, owing to the increased graphical fidelity. Consisting of reanimated dead biological matter like skin cells and dead crew members, it spreads rapidly and is quickly engulfing entire areas of the ship, specifically the Crew, Engineering and Hydroponics Decks. In areas where it's really taken hold the air is thick and foggy, the ground is wet and warm and slow to move through. It's not unusual to spot skeletons, half consumed corpses and body parts sticking out of certain areas of the Corruption, especially on the Aegis VII colony; the place is so overrun with the alien biomass that it looks nightmarish.
• Drag Tentacles are one of the scariest things to deal with in Dead Space... In the Remake? Take a look at the maw of the Tentacle that grabbed you once you're free and you might notice there's human faces inside that maw. Makes one wonder if the fate of those captured by a Drag Tentacle is to have their face added to those maws.
• One side quest has you follow Nicole's trail to see what became of her. In one holo-diary, you see Nicole perform an autopsy on an armless Necromorph that was once an engineer. Suddenly, the body twitches, shocking her. She dismisses it as postmortem spasms, but this brings a scary thought to mind: dismemberment doesn't kill the Necromorphs, it just stops them from moving.
• The destruction of the Kellion, which causes the death of one of your workmates, Hailey Johnson, qualifies because it demonstrates how intelligent the necromorphs are. When Isaac comes to try to help Johnson with the Kellion and make sure she's okay after Chen was killed by the Necromorphs, she seems to be okay, if horrified at Isaac coming back bloody and alone. In a span of thirty seconds after meeting back up with Johnson, some Leapers sneak onto the ship and damage the singularity core. While that's building up to an explosion, a Slasher appears out of nowhere to attack Johnson, ensuring that she'll be occupied just long enough to get caught in the blast. Isaac was only lucky enough that the force of the exploding instruments hurled him out of the ship and onto the landing deck. Johnson had no chance to run either, as her ankle was broken by the initial crash-landing onto the Ishimura.
• The Hunter's backstory is expanded upon to a horrifying degree:
  • To start with, audio diaries and notes can be found which confirm what was only implied in the original game: that the Hunter is all that's left of Brant Harris from the old Dead Space comics and one of the tie-in games. Brant Harris was a miner on Aegis VII who murdered a nurse that he hallucinated as a monster due to Marker dementia. Even before the Necromorphs, the Marker's influence was making things worse.
  • Harris was detained for his crimes and brought onto the Ishimura, where he was put into Nicole's care. With her help and some Zero-G therapy, it's stated that he was showing signs of mental improvement, and Nicole hoped that she could use the methods she used on Harris to help the others who were suffering from Marker dementia. Unfortunately, Harris was abruptly transferred over to Dr. Mercer (much to Nicole's frustration), and it's all downhill from there.
  • After being transferred to Dr. Mercer's care, the already-insane doctor asks him about what the Marker is telling him. From there, Dr. Mercer began working to corrupt Harris, preying upon his history of being belittled and looked down upon by his peers to ensure his assistance with Mercer's plan to unlock the mysteries of the Marker... and, from there, to achieve Convergence. It culminates with Dr. Mercer injecting Harris with a substance that's implied to be Necromorph tissue. Brant's explanation of what he sees after the injection is a bone-chilling Call-Forward.
  Brant Harris: Oh god, I can see the Marker's codes! It's been trying to show me... They are hungry. They are coming. They will make us whole.
  • Afterwards, Harris is sent to Ore Storage to get some osmium for Dr. Mercer. He manages to subdue a miner who doesn't buy his explanation on why he needs the osmium; what he does next isn't shown on-screen since it's an audio log, but the gruesome sounds alone are explanation enough. For those not faint of heart, it's implied by the audio cues that Harris murdered the miner by jamming him into the suit kiosk that is seen at Store Terminals in such a way that — judging by the sound of cracking bones and agonized screaming — the machine crushed him to death. It's clear by this point that Harris has lost his mind.
  • There's also an underlying sense of tragedy here, as Harris mentions in his deranged ramblings with the miner that his co-workers on Aegis VII did something similar to him — among their instances of bullying, they shoved him into a suit kiosk so it injured him badly and laughed at his cries of pain. At other times, they stole the power nodes that he needed for his work, and left him alone in the dark when he was mining. Things like stealing a co-worker's equipment and leaving them alone in a dangerous environment aren't just awful things, but also believable because they can happen to a person in real life. Harris drives it home when he mentions that he won't laugh like they did to the miner, right before he makes the kiosk crush him.
  • In one of Nicole's video logs, found on the bridge, it's confirmed that the miner did indeed die from what happened in the previous log. Nicole angrily calls Captain Mathius out for not only transferring Harris over to Dr. Mercer, but then having to gall to blame her over what happened with Harris. However, Mathius — who isn't just a devout Unitologist like Dr. Mercer, but likely suffering from Marker insanity by this point — dismisses Nicole's concerns as being supposedly driven by anti-Unitologist bigotry and a dislike for Dr. Mercer. Captain Mathius was so obsessed with getting the Marker back home that he willingly let Dr. Mercer's actions go unchecked.
  • The last audio log is mostly just a conversation between Dr. Mercer and Harris. In this call, it's very obvious that Harris is starting to transform into the Hunter, and that on some level, he's aware of what's happening. He's lucid enough to still talk, but his sentences are getting shorter, and his voice is getting deeper. This also might be a Call-Forward to how Feeders transform from consumption of Necromorph tissue, and how they too are somewhat aware of their transformation into a Necromorph and how their mentality changes.
  Challus Mercer: And how do you feel now?
  Brant Harris: Dead. Awake. Whole.
  • A small detail that may not be noticed in a first playthrough during Dr. Mercer's second talk with Isaac. Once Dr. Mercer kills Jacob Temple and gives his deranged Motive Rant, he proceeds to leave... and then the Hunter smashes into the room in such a way that it's clear that Dr. Mercer would have had to walk right by it... and despite being in the same room as him, the Necromorph didn't attack him. This either suggests that the Red Marker is keeping Dr. Mercer alive until he isn't useful anymore, that Mercer himself is somehow controlling the Hunter, or that whatever's left of Brant Harris is still aware enough to do Mercer's bidding, even as a Necromorph. Regardless of which explanation is closest to the truth, the implications are terrifying.
    • On one hand, after killing the Hunter using the engines of the nearby escape shuttle, a Necromorph Tentacle grabs both the Red Marker and constricts Dr. Mercer to death, who was screaming for Isaac to be killed at the time, making it quite likely that the former part of that theory is true. On the other, it’s also implied that the Marker was actually helping Clarke, Kyne and Daniels return it to the planet, and the Tentacle that kills Mercer also ends up dragging the Marker right down to the cargo bay, right where it needs to be in order to be loaded onto the shuttle, lending credence to the theories pointing to the Hunter either being controlled by Mercer or following him and his plans for Convergence out of genuine personal loyalty. In fact, considering that both of them were going out of their way to kill Isaac and keep the Red Marker on the ship, it’s definitely within the realm of plausibility that it finally got fed up of Mercer interfering in its plans to return home and offed him.
    • There's another layer of implied horror: even if Isaac had managed to get in the room to try to save Jacob, the Hunter would likely have burst in early to finish the job by killing him anyway.
• Something that’s easily overlooked is that the Necromorphs seem to not only have a collective intelligence, but also significant individual ones as well. Even before this we were aware that those reanimated by the Markers possessed a surprising level of strategy and self-awareness deceptively hidden behind their acts of wanton violence, which is only compounded with the hapless situation of the Guardians and the manipulative genius of the sapient Brethren Moons. But here, we see that they possess enough tech-savviness to destroy the Kellion by directly targeting its singularity core, along with sending one of their number to distract Johnston and Clarke so that they’ll be caught in the blast. But that’s not all. There also appears to be evidence that the infected possess at least some memory of who they once were. Chen seems to go out of his way to target Hammond whenever he can, indicating that he still recognizes his former brother in arms even in his current state, and then there’s the dynamic between Challus Mercer and the undead Brant Harris. If such behaviour is linked to the Marker as well, then combined with the fact that the Markers have always manifested apparitions of the dead, never of the living, and it almost makes you wonder, despite all the madness and the horror, if the Unitologists might actually be onto something after all...
  • It gets even worse when you consider the behaviour of the other infected along with the context of the Marker's mission. The most obvious example has got to be what the Hive Mind did after the Marker was removed from its pedestal by Kendra. Not only does it display an unprecedented degree of sadism with intercepting and killing her, almost looking like it's toying with Kendra as it does so, but it also shows a degree of ego and perhaps even showmanship by challenging Isaac to a Duel to the Death instead of splatting him outright. Now with that in mind, please consider the following. First, the Hive Mind Necromorph form was established in 3 to be little more than a mouthpiece for the Markers (and the Brethren Moons by extension), created specifically and solely to relay their orders to the rank and file infected. Second, this is after the Marker imprints its codes into Isaac's brain, so its whole plan counts on him getting off Aegis 7 alive. And last but not least, the Marker and it's signal is the only thing keeping this thing up and about, take that away and the beast turns to mush until another marker's signal breathes unlife into it again, meaning it's supposed to be little more than than a puppet on strings, bereft of any self will of any kind. Yet somehow, this thing is not only intelligent enough to possess just that, but also to a high enough degree to defy the Marker's wishes despite being completely dependent on it to "live", which should be downright impossible.

Story

• Just like in the original game, your first trip to the Medical Deck has you coming across what seems to be a survivor... But he's just standing at a wall, bashing his head against it over and over and over again, the sound of his skull cracking with each hit getting louder and louder as you approach. When you get too close, he leans back, smashes his head in one last time, and slides to the floor, dead. Upon examining his corpse, you'll notice that his face has been eviscerated.
• Dr. Mercer's introduction. Instead of taunting you over the holo, the mad doctor stuns you with a Stasis Module, then indulges in a Circling Monologue while Isaac remains utterly helpless. Even for those unfamiliar with the original game, it's plain to tell that Mercer could murder you at any second; the only reason you walk away alive is because Dr. Mercer would rather let his Hunter do the job for him.
• Dr. Mercer's murder of Jacob Temple is presented in a much more disturbing manner here. Instead of Jacob dying via getting stabbed in the head, he is hit with Stasis as he tries to stop Mercer. Mercer then delivers a deranged Motive Rant to Isaac behind a window that he can't break. When Isaac tells Dr. Mercer that he and his Marker can go to hell, he shoots the still-in-Stasis Jacob, with the killing shot boring through Jacob's head in visceral detail.
  • It gets worse. After killing Jacob, Dr. Mercer tells Isaac (in a disturbingly calm tone) that dying in Stasis is a slow death, implying that Jacob was still aware while frozen — and thus felt every millisecond of getting shot in head in slow motion. This is a side of Stasis that we have never seen before, and the implications are extremely disturbing.
  • Mercer in general is way worse here than in the original game. While in the other game, Mercer was kind of a background character that would pop up every once in a while and threaten/monologue at Isaac from behind a glass wall, and the implication was that he was just a regular who went a bit crazier than the others. In here though? It's almost directly stated that he's had a lot of direct influence over a lot of chaos on the Ishimura. Pushing along the Markers influence by informing people it was a religious upbringing, to hampering Nicole's attempts to help the various people suffering from Marker exposure, to the downright evil he did to Brant Harris. Mercer is a lot more hands-on in this game and it just goes to show how absolutely dangerous and evil he really is.
  • Mercer in the original would just kill his fellow crewmates by opening holes in their heads for the Necromorphs to have an easier time to convert. Here? He mutilates them, leaves them alive, and keeps them tightly bound in Medical to be converted to necromorphs. They are actively aware and trying to get out of their restraints as the necromorphs appear in the room and try to attack you. Once you thwart his plans with the Hunter he decides to gas the whole deck, killing any of the trapped crewmates on it before you could've even done anything to save them. Elizabeth Cross later mentions that she sent her team to Medical for nitrogen and they never came back.
  • It gets even worse with Mercer, as the Prototype Stasis module—that you can acquire after finishing the side-quest concerning his creation of the Hunter—that he designed using an Osmium component (apparently, all of the remaining reserve of Osmium on the Ishimura, so an improvement to the system couldn't be made) is horrific as it produces an electric current on the individual it's slowing down that is so strong that it literally peels all the skin clean off while they are suspended in stasis, and remembering how agonizing Temple's death is to have his brains blown out while suspended in stasis... the horror of having your entire body ripped apart in slow-motion while you are consciously aware is unimaginable.
• On the Mining Deck, Isaac has to get Supervisor Dallas's RIG in order to get access to more of the Ishimura. When you find his body, it's had three of its limbs sliced off, with a weapon in his only remaining hand. Nearby, there's an audio log of his final moments, in which he one by one, agonizingly slowly, shoots his own limbs off to avoid killing others post-infection. And, in stark contrast to the original game's somewhat reserved audio log, Dallas's log this time is painful to listen to, as he screams in pure agony after each limb is severed.
  Dallas: (gunshot) GAAAAH, GOD!!! FUUUUCK! FUCK! Agh... Come on... Come on, man, one more...! (gunshot) GAAAAAAHHHH!!!
• The Crew Deck. For a while, the Crew Deck is built up as a dangerous place, but not because of the Necromorphs, but instead because the surviving Unitologists are holed up there. Hammond gets views of them sacrificing one another, worshipping the Marker, and smiling all the while even as the ship goes to hell around them. So, when you actually go to the Crew Deck, you might be expecting to come across some of those Unitologists... Except, no. It is an absolute slaughterhouse. It is filled to the brim with the corpses of the surviving Unitologists, almost all of which are guaranteed to have committed suicide, and eagerly at that. Some are hung from the ceiling, others have shot themselves, some have stabbed themselves in the face, there are scrawlings in blood, dim lighting by candles, and to top it all off, just like in the original game, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star can be faintly heard in the background. Fittingly, Isaac's heart rate spikes when he steps into the Crew Deck for the first time.
  • While on the Crew Deck, Isaac can come across a woman who's Laughing Mad. She just sits there, part of her body having been torn to shreds, and she just... laughs. Until you get too close, that is. When you do, she pulls a gun and blows her head off.
• Basically any encounter with "Nicole" during the events of the game. Even newcomers who've never played previous installations of the series can quickly pick up that there's something very off about Nicole. Her awkward and sometimes ominous way of speaking and her eerie false-looking smile can very easily give away the twist that this is simply a marker hallucination, as eagle-eyed players can quickly notice the Nicole you encounter in the main story is almost nothing like the spunky and sarcastic woman you see in the multiple holograms during her sidequest. Just seeing the Marker's almost half-assed attempt at pretending to be a human to trick people into doing its bidding is quite chilling.
  • The Hallucination Nicole becomes much more disturbing when confronted with the truth about Nicole committing suicide. Pay attention to "Nicole" (aka Elizabeth Cross) as she's being held at gunpoint by Kendra and throughout the full version of her message to Isaac: She's just smiling. She keeps that same false smile through the entire scene. It really hits home that this isn't the woman you tried to save, but a creepy false imitation that's been playing you like a fiddle the entire game.
• The secret alternate ending is this in its entirety. Unlike the original ending, where Isaac is suddenly attacked by a hallucination of a dead Nicole, this new alternate ending has Isaac seemingly talking happily to that same hallucination. On its own, this is already unsettling enough (considering that she's dead)... but then you notice small and disturbing details, like how Isaac's cheerful smile seems a little off, or how his eyes are fixed in a Thousand-Yard Stare. He might seem calm and cheerful, but something's not right up there, anymore.
  • And then there's the fact that you never actually see Nicole's face directly, despite her being right behind him as they talk... except for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, where there seems to be streaks of blood running down her face. It's as if Isaac's deliberately blinding himself to the more disturbing aspects of this situation.
  • The entirety of the shuttle is just covered in Marker script, with the seats, walls, and even the floor having it scribbled across it—just how long had Isaac been scrawling that across the floor and walls?
  • And the kicker? Isaac says that he's going to build something for Nicole as the music hits a disturbing chord and it pans over to his helmet on the floor. He may have torn through countless necromorphs, defeated the Hive Mind, and survived both the Ishimura and Aegis VII... but in the end, Isaac Clark was broken by the tragedies he suffered, compounded by the Red Marker's influence. Now he's all set to go completely insane and turn against humanity by making more Markers... a tragic and terrifying notion all at once.
    • The only comfort, if one can call it that, is that this ending could just as well tie into Dead Space 2, where Isaac helped build the Gold Marker on the Titan Colony while insane. And even then, while Isaac will ultimately destroy it, this doesn't change the fact that his actions, while not entirely of his own will, will lead to countless deaths and horrors yet to come.
• If you seek to obtain the secret ending, after a point of collecting the fragments, the story begins to go Off the Rails somewhat and the Perception Filter of the first-person narrative is lifted as you begin to see externally how others start to see Isaac the more he remains exposed to the Marker's influence. Whereas Isaac seems rational in the first playthrough all the way up to even The Reveal, it is clear to everyone on the outside that Isaac is not The Immune and has completely lost his marbles by the time of Kendra's betrayal, which reframes a lot of the narrative beforehand in a different perspective. By the time he's confronting the Hive Mind, Isaac's mind is so far gone that he isn't seeing it as an obstacle for his survival but a hindrance to his "divine mission".
  Isaac: It showed me what I have to do. You can't stop me!
• There is some Fridge Horror in the fact that Brant Harris repeats the Brother Moons madness mantra of We are hungry, we are coming from Dead Space 3 Awakened after being injected with necromorph tissue. This implies that all of the Brother Moons were already aware of humanity and were watching them the entire time throughout the original games. Humanity may likely of been doomed from the start as the Brother Moons collectively were already coming for us, the Blood Moon of Tau Volantis dying only hastened their timetable.
  • Another possible implication of this new knowledge is that Brother Moons were watching patiently and were presuming that the Blood Moon would eventually achieve its goal of completing itself on its own as the Brother Moons could be exceedingly patient in their subversions. After getting the sign that their sibling died they decided to collectively destroy this new uppity species trying to fight them in force in order to ensure none of their kind died again. It's very possible they may of done this in the past to previous alien civilizations that succeeded in killing one of them.