Finally, Dead Space is back. Motive Studio have brought back the beloved sci-fi survival horror series with a remake of the original game, and they’ve done damn good job of it. Fans of the series and newcomers alike will be diving into the game over the coming days- but when you’re preparing to take on the nightmarish horrors of the USG Ishimura, you’d best be prepared. To that end, here, we’ve compiled a few handy tips and tricks that you should keep in mind as you play the game, to make your journey through the crumbling ship just a little bit smoother.
DON’T GO FOR HEADSHOTS
This is Dead Space 101. If you have any experience with the series at all, you’ll know this by heart- though every fiber of your being might be telling you to aim for your enemies’ heads, here, that’s the least effective strategy. As the game tells you very early on, it’s best to always go for their limbs instead. Dead Space makes dismemberment a crucial aspect of its combat, which means that cutting off your enemies’ limb is much, much more effective than going for headshots.
CONSERVE AMMO
This is, of course, a fundamental rule in pretty much every survival horror game out there, and Dead Space is no different in that regard. It’s not as stringent with its ammo drops as some other games in the genre tend to be, but you still can’t go around blasting Necromorphs to your heart’s content. Thankfully, there’s a few ways to conserve your ammo. For instance, after you chop off an oncoming enemies’ legs and it stumbles to the ground, rather than using up more bullets to finish it off, it’s better to run up to it and stomp on it until it’s dead.
Oh, and speaking of stomping…
STOMP
Words to live by when you play Dead Space– stomp every single enemy you kill. Not only does that confirm the kill (which can be important in a game like this), stomping on dead enemies will also yield resources, from credits to ammo to health packs and more. And it’s not just dead Necromorphs you should be stomping on- should you ever come across dead humans, don’t make the mistake of thinking that that body was just put their by the developers as a prop. Though stomping on them won’t yield any resources, it will make sure that they don’t get infected and come back later.
ALT FIRE
You’ll get your hands on a number of different weapons as you play your way through Dead Space, and though they do offer plenty of variety as it is, they each also have alt fire modes to add in even more of it. And those alt fire modes can be pretty damn useful, too. For instance, the Pulse Rifle’s alt fire uses up 25 of your ammo to fire a proximity mine, while the flamethrower’s alt fire lets you unleash a literal wall of flame at enemies- both, as you can imagine, are incredibly effective in situations where you’re being swarmed by larger crowds. The lesson? Don’t ignore your weapons’ alt fire modes.
STASIS
Dead Space hands you the stasis ability pretty early on, and though it is, of course, a necessary tool to solve plenty of puzzles, it can also be very useful during combat. Necromorphs will often come at you quite aggressively, and lining up shots and dismembering foes is often easier said than done with their erratic and fast movements. Use stasis to freeze them up though, and you get plenty of time to do that. The ability can also be pretty handy when you’re taking on multiple enemies at once. Of course, you get limited uses of stasis before you have to recharge it, so don’t be too trigger happy with it.
ENVIRONMENTAL KILLS
Using your environment to your advantage can also be a pretty useful strategy in Dead Space’s combat, and the game lets you do that in a variety of ways. You can, for instance, launch stasis cells at enemies to freeze them in place without having to use up any of your own stasis charges, while picking up objects in the environment using kinesis and throwing them at enemies can also buy you precious seconds in tight situations. A well-placed shot to make an exploding cell go off can also help you take out multiple enemies at once, while things such as large fans and pipes can also be used to impale enemies or chop them into pieces.
KINESIS
Kinesis is another ability that you get your hands on in the early hours of Dead Space, and we’ve already spoken a bit about how it can be handy in combat. It has some neat uses outside of combat as well though. Specifically, kinesis is how you grab items that are out of reach. Every so often, you might spot an item that’s maybe sitting on top of a tall locker or some other place that you can’t reach unless you use kinesis to pull them towards you.
EXPLORE
Exploration tends to be a core pillar of the gameplay loop in mot survival horror games, and that’s true of Dead Space as well. There’s plenty of room for exploration aboard the USG Ishimura, and more often than not you’ll be rewarded for going off the beaten path. Not only will you find additional items and ammo and credits, you’ll also find audio logs and text logs to flesh out the world and backstory, and often even side quests, many of which were not present in the original game.
BACKTRACK
The Dead Space remake introduces the new Security Clearance system, which locks several rooms and lockers behind increasing levels of security clearance, which you’ll gain access to as progress further in the game. As you do, it’s recommended that you go back and unlock those previously unlocked doors, because the rewards are generally worth it. Given the fact that the remake’s Ishimura is a completely seamless environment with no loads whatsoever, backtracking and exploration is also much more enjoyable.
STORE WEAPONS
As you get deeper and deeper into Dead Space, your arsenal of weapons will continue to grow- though chances are there’ll be at least a couple of weapons that you’re not going to use a great deal. We all have our favourites, after all. If that is the case, make sure you put those unused weapons in storage. It will free up space in your inventory, of course, but that’s not the only reason to do so. Dead Space hands out ammo drops based on what weapons you have in your inventory, which means you’ll keep getting ammo for a weapon you don’t use too much as long as it’s in your inventory.
DON’T WASTE YOUR CREDITS
The shop in Dead Space allows you to buy a variety of items that can be useful in various circumstances, though we’d recommend not wasting your credits on purchasing some of them. Specifically, consumables like health packs and ammo should rarely ever be bought, seeing as the game isn’t too strict with handing those out during the course of gameplay. It’s much better to save your credits for weapon upgrades and suit upgrades- the latter in particular should take priority above all else.