The scariest video game That I have ever played.

The scariest game that I’ve ever played is the original Dead Space. No other game has made me creep around every single corner, anticipating sudden death.Dead Space takes place exactly where the title hints, in space. You play as Isaac Clarke, who has traveled to a mining ship that has sent out a distress signal for help. Once you reach the USG Ishimura it looks as though everyone has decided to abandon the ship for some odd reason.

Withing minutes, you being to realize that no one has left the ship and instead everyone on it has been killed by these strange zombie/alien hybrids called Necropmorphs.

What made Dead Space scary for me was the fact that it was a survival horror game. This means that ammo is very scarce and you must rely on finding health kits to replenish your health. But the thing about Dead Space is that they decided to amplify the ‘survival’ part by added a neat feature that held a lot of consequences if it wasn’t performed correctly.​

This feature is called dismemberment. With dismemberment, you couldn’t just fire shots at a Necromorph and expect it to die because quite frankly the things were too fast so you wouldn’t have a chance to fire enough bullets at it in order to kill it. Instead, you had to be smart about it and shoot off one of its legs to slow it down and then start gunning for the head. Take both legs off and next thing you know it’s slowly crawling towards you.

Because of dismemberment, you basically had to make each and every bullet count, especially since ammo was scarce. Miss a couple of shots and you’d find yourself running from a Necromporh searching the darkest corners of the ship to find a couple of bullets to finish the job.

What also gave me nightmares about Dead Space was the blood-thirsty Necromorphs themselves. They were creepy looking, fast, and damn were they smart. You’d think you were slick and run and hide inside of a room from a Necromorph, and next thing you know, the sucker would be crawling through the vents to get inside the room where you are. The first time I found this out I pretty much had to take a break from the game for an hour or so.​

All this being said, what truly makes a scary game ‘scary’ is the atmosphere along with pacing. You can have jumpscares all day long but if you don’t find the perfect atmosphere to represent the game then the game will fail in just about every way.

Dead Space, to me, epitomizes the horror genre atmosphere. I’ve never felt so alone and vulnerable in a game before. Something about knowing that you’re the only living person on the ship and you’re on a ship full of deranged creatures is what really sends the chills down my spine. This feeling along with the Necromorphs being able to hide and scare you from just about any direction will keep you at the edge of your seat.

Unfortunately, EA made two more Dead Space games that ended up being horror-action games that killed the atmosphere that the first gave. The original is a gold standard when it comes to survival horror games that I still try to get my friends that have never experienced it before to play it. Speaking of which, you should do the same.