In space, no one can hear you die…

Visceral Games released Dead Space in 2008, following Isaac Clarke’s terrifying adventure to [basically] save his girlfriend from a derelict spacecraft, the USG Ishimura. Dead Space 2 includes a nifty “Previously on” video that recaps the events that have transpired thus far, which boil down to the following:

Spoilers, obviously

The captain of the Ishimura turned out to be under orders from the Church of Unitology to retrieve an alien artifact called the Marker from a planet called Aegis VII. Apparently its ability to induce psychosis in humans made it very valuable to the religious cult, but it wreaked havoc on the Ishimura’s populace and caused them all to kill each other. As if that weren’t enough, the Marker was acting to suppress the hive mind of a parasitic alien organism that transforms dead bodies into grotesque monstrosities, so after it was removed, the infestation spread to the nearby colony and spaceship full of corpses.

Needless to say, Isaac and the rest of the crew responding to a distress signal were in way over their heads when their own ship crash-landed on the Ishimura. Ultimately, members of the rescue crew were revealed to also be part of a conspiracy to control the Marker and its power. With a hefty dose of improvisation, Isaac was able to put his engineering skills to work in surviving the ordeal and destroying the Marker along with the alien hive mind, but his exposure to the relic was already starting to manifest itself in ways he could have never imagined…


Three years later, Isaac finds himself in a mental hospital on what remains of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. The psychosis from the Marker was kept in check with heavy doses of drugs that suppressed his memories, but as he remembers, it begins to consume him. Hallucinations and disembodied voices serve to take the horror to a new level (think F.E.A.R.) as he is shocked into the realization that the Necromorphs have followed him to the Milky Way galaxy and he must find a way to escape with his life, again.