Dead Space (Vidya)
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This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it. |
Dead Space is a video game series inspired by the 1982 cult classic horror/science-fiction movie "The Thing", Lovecraftian horror, and The Flood from Halo. It revolves around Isaac Clarke, a space engineer, and his mission to stop the Necromorphs, a type of mutant undead created by a xeno bacteria similar to the Cell-Kin, which are psychically controlled by Atropus-like organic planetoids composed of assimilated Necromorph-ified species. The series is composed of 3 main games, a few side games, and a reboot of the first game.
/tg/ relevance[edit | edit source]
Since grimdark sci-fi is a /tg/ favorite for obvious reasons, Dead Space overall is looked upon favorably by many fa/tg/uys. There's also been /tg/-relevant content made for the game, such as attempts to turn it into a TTRPG (either as homebrew in an existing system or an all-new one) by fans as well as the inevitable crossovers with 40k and other franchises. Sure, it might not usually be talked about on /tg/, but that's because the jannies are too anal to let /tg/ discuss interests that cross over with /v/.
Setting Lore[edit | edit source]
The Dead Space universe is set in a far-flung future where humanity has colonized the stars, but is also experiencing a population boom to the point that resource harvesting has become incredibly vital for its future survival. To the point that there now exists a category of ships called "Planet Crackers", who literally rip uninhabited worlds deemed unfit for colonization apart to break them down into the raw minerals needed to feed the ever-hungry civilization (can someone say Leagues of Votann?). No alien life has been discovered in the entire galaxy, and most religions have died out - the only thriving religion is a totally-not-Scientology cult called "Unitology", which claims legitimacy from a mysterious, alien-crafted "Marker" that was supposedly discovered on Earth by their prophet, Altman, and which preaches about the need to preserve the bodies of the dead for a coming Rapture-like event when the minds and souls of the living and the dead will be merged into a single harmonious whole.
Things are about to go horribly, horribly wrong.
 This article contains spoilers! You have been warned. |
It turns out there's a reason why there's a whole lot of "Dead Space" out there. Whenever a spacefaring civilization hits critical mass and goes off to try and colonize the stars, they would inevitably discover Markers. The series is coy on who exactly created the Markers to begin with, but the result is always the same: the species that discovers the markers succumb to a Necromorph infestation, and either die out to provide biomass to create a Brethren Moon, or worse, call existing Brethren Moons in the area to the unlucky species home world to accelerate the process.
List of Necromorph Forms[edit | edit source]
The base form of the Necromorph is a strange mixture of a mental wave-form and a microbe, which manifests in the real world by possessing the bodies of living creatures (driving them to murderous insanity and eventually suicide), and the dead. Unliving flesh is like clay to the necromorphs, who can mold and manipulate the stuff to serve their greater will. As a result, whilst you encounter individual necromorphs, they are more extensions of the greater organism than distinct beings, and "colonized" flesh and bone can be merged together to produce larger and more complicated necromorphs.
Because they're not really "alive" in the same way non-necromorph organics are, you can't precisely "kill" them through simple physical trauma. Bullets into organs don't do anything to them, not really. You instead need to RIP AND TEAR them into pieces so small they can't functionally move their mass anymore. They're still technically alive, they just... can't attack you. Chopping off limbs is the go-to means, but blowing them up doesn't do a bad job, either. Some necromorph varieties sport massive, faintly glowing, yellow sacs of gristle that almost act like brains; blowing these into chunks usually "kills" the necromorph.
Similar to how every Ork spore contains the entirety of the genetic information of the Orkoid Biosphere, the Marker contains every type of Necromorph's information, written as a symbol upon it. It forcibly but slowly reconstructs the flesh of those corpses within its sphere of psychic influence into a Necromorph, and Infectors can reanimate those outside of it much quicker by injecting the bacteria directly into a corpse. The end goal is to assimilate an entire civilization to form a Brethren Moon.
The most common form of the necromorph is the sessile entity known as The Corruption, which is basically the necromorph's repurposing of all the "spare" organic matter laying around as part of a terraforming effor. Picture a thick mat of fungus or moss spreading all over everything... only it's made out of meat. Squishy, oozing, seeping, meat.
Slashers are the most iconic of the necromorphs, because they tend to be the foot solders of the slaughter. They still look recognizably human, save for being flayed open and having their arms twist into bony claws, similar to Tyranids scything claws. Slashers created from the bodies of women are often able to explosively vomit acid slime or explosive pustules prey from afar, and are known as Spitters. Slashers usually die if you sever both arms.
Exploders are skinny, twisted individuals who hobble along with overly long arms, one of which is a massive, glowing knot of tumorous-looking meat. As their name suggests, these are kamikaze necromorphs, whose bloated arm is full of explosive and/or acid compounds. Shooting the arm will detonate the Exploder; a skilled fighter can cut it off without detonating it, then use Kinesis to turn it into a guided missile against more necromorphs.
Leapers are severed upper torsos twisted into a scorpion-like form. Despite only having their repurposed arms and a scorpion-like tail made of spinal column and intestines all knotted together, they can leap great distances and run surprisingly fast. Chop off the arms.
Lurkers are necromorphs made from zombified babies. They sprout barbed tentacles from their backs and use these to hurl bony projectiles from afar or viciously rip at anything in melee. Whilst it's safer to chop these tentacles off from a distance, if you go in close, they can be overpowered. Kick the baby! On the other hand, watch out for really fat Lurkers with glowing yellow bellies; these are Crawlers, and they're full of the same explosive goo as in an Exploder's arm. Don't kick the baby!
Guardians are one of the more horrific necromorphs, being a recognizably human upper torso literally welded into a large patch of Corruption. Tentacles protruding from their guts will rip apart anything that gets too close, and they also "birth" organic turrets called "Pods" to launch projectiles at anything that stays out of range. Cut off the tentacles when they're exposed to kill them.
Pregnants look like bigger, hulking Slashers with massively engorged stomaches. These stomachs are storage sacs for the smaller varieties of necromorph, up to and including Lurkers, so don't shoot them there! Cut off the arms and theyll go down. Luckily, that pregnancy weight makes them slow moving, but they're a lot tougher than regular Slashers.
Brutes are the elite of the "common" necromorphs; multiple bodies fused into an ape-like hulking form armored in thick bone. Stasis will be your friend here; you need to get around behind them to shoot them in their relatively soft and squishy backs.
Infectors are grotesque moth-like masses of skin and entrails that turn once-dormant corpses into new necromorphs by sticking a giant bloody bony needle into them, which is why the necromorphs re generally accepted as some kind of virus. Not very tough, but obviously a priority target.
Swarmers are tiny little necromorphs made by sticking together random bits. They're usually found hidden inside a Pregnant or just flopping along in a great carpet of critters.
Dividers look like an almost alien human, but are actually a collection of smaller, indepdently mobile necromorphed body parts that can either work on their own or come together to assume a humanoiid shape.
Pukers are midranged necromorphs, mutated to act like walking flamethrowers, only instead of fire, they vomit flesh-dissolving acid on things.
Stalkers are pack-hunting necromorphs that work to outflank their prey before bludgeoning them to death with brutal charges, thanks to their armored heads.
The Pack are what you get when the necromorphs infect kids who aren't babies. They're fragile but incredible fast, and they tend to hunt in large numbers.
The Hive Mind is a skyscraper-sized tower of meat formed as a nucleus on a world with a Necromorph infestation, a sort of proto-form of the head of a Brethren Moon.
Brethren Moons are the ultimate form of a necromorph infestation; a literal moon-sized spheroid of undead flesh and bone.