Dead Space, electronic arts, exclusive, games, horror, top, videogames

What If You Ripped a Planet Apart and Something Was Inside?

Electronic Arts has a new game coming out for Halloween called Dead Space whose backstory sounds as good as any scifi book. On an Earth with scant natural resources, mining companies go to remote planets, and rip them apart for any and all natural resources. The problem is that one mission has discovered that something isn't too happy about its planet being ripped apart. We've got exclusive video, below, of some of Dead Space's developers talking about creating the backstory for the game.

Here's another view of the mining station on the planet.

And here's what you'll find when you start exploring. Uh oh, blood.

Serious uh oh — some kind of morphing yucko monster. As you can see in the video, there are some great robo-spider looking monsters too.

Plus, there is a comic book based on the game illustrated by the fucking awesome Ben Templesmith.

Look out for Dead Space this Halloween. And you can see a lot more cool artwork and video on the Dead Space site.

Dead Space [Official Site]

11:52 AM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Annalee Newitz
6,532 views
40 comments

Comments

goldfarb at 12:04 PM on 04/30/08
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derivative + character backstory = derivative
Priam at 12:10 PM on 04/30/08
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ehh...wasn't this a Doctor Who christmas special?
antimatty at 12:10 PM on 04/30/08
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its DOOM 4
Plague at 12:11 PM on 04/30/08
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@antimatty:
pretty much
tetracycloide at 12:23 PM on 04/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 114

@antimatty: it's the mines of moria
it's cluthu
it's final fantasy: the spirits within

i could go on for days...
Wes Siler at 12:27 PM on 04/30/08
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Half life anyone?
jamescole at 12:42 PM on 04/30/08
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The Simpsons did it.
ripfire at 12:51 PM on 04/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 37

It sounds to me like how Doom's story should've been.
DSTRYA at 12:52 PM on 04/30/08
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it's resident evil...IN SPACE!
Nudemanatee at 12:52 PM on 04/30/08
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Last time I ripped apart a planet, I was pleasantly surprised to find a chewy caramel center.
AlfaCharger at 12:54 PM on 04/30/08
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Can anyone say Horta!
ManchuCandidate at 12:54 PM on 04/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 519

Those miners died because they violated Brannigan's law which is much more difficult than Brannigan's Love.
Git Em SteveDave has a... at 12:56 PM on 04/30/08
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Connectedness Index: 177

Futurama did it. That's how we got Nibbler, and how Zapp got Leela.
Git Em SteveDave has a... at 12:57 PM on 04/30/08
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@Nudemanatee: Mine was kind of like a jaw breaker. Just remember, like a jaw breaker, don't go ripping it apart if it's been left in the sun too long or been in a microwave.
daegon at 01:01 PM on 04/30/08
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Vaguely reminds me of The Dig.
Nebbish at 01:04 PM on 04/30/08
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Sure it looks like Doom, but somethings different. Oh! I know. There's a frakin flashlight on his weapon. Because in the Doom universe duct tape doesn't exist.
DocGratis at 01:12 PM on 04/30/08
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@tetracycloide: no.. worse...

IT IS A GRUE!!!

You have been eat by a Grue.
OhDaesu80 at 01:13 PM on 04/30/08
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The story definitely takes a lot from various influences, but I think for a game its pretty good (most console games don't have very deep stories outside of Silent Hill and a few others . It's all about the nuances they bring in to create the world like any good sci-fi... but the game looks hella tight!
jamescole at 01:27 PM on 04/30/08
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Major plot point in Babylon 5 too.
radio1 at 01:40 PM on 04/30/08
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@Nebbish: So true. It could better than Doom 3 for just that reason.
Log1c at 01:40 PM on 04/30/08
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@Nebbish: I never played Doom3 for almost that reason alone.

I didn't realize how cool this game was until now...
Tannhauser23 at 01:48 PM on 04/30/08
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I don't know why people hate on this game so much. Sure, the story is derivative - but so what? I'm not going to play this game for the story. I'll be playing it for the atmosphere, thrill, and the overall horror experience. Sure, it's Cthulhu in space. But guess what? That's awesome!
tetracycloide at 02:08 PM on 04/30/08
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@DocGratis: it's a game entity that artifically forces me to solve any light based puzzels in the area instead of just searching around through the dark?

wait, why do i even care my PC clearly has a flashlight on his gun.
russdanger at 02:14 PM on 04/30/08
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I was hoping for subterrainian wombat samurai. Why can't somebody make a game with subterrainian wombat samurai???

Isn't saying that this is derivative a little like complaining about a Western having guys with big hats and six-shooters?...
frndlybnny at 02:42 PM on 04/30/08
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but where's the creme filling?
Sharpless at 02:46 PM on 04/30/08
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For goodness sake, people, who cares if it's derivative? As long as it's not, say, BioShock only with a new name slapped on top of it, then I think we need to get over that fact that most things have already been done by someone somewhere. It doesn't mean it sucks.

Cliches are only bad when they're done poorly.
phoenix at 03:22 PM on 04/30/08
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@Sharpless: thank you. :)

alternatively, in before "get your logic out of this 'there's nothing new under the sun' thread!"
Silver_Back at 04:33 PM on 04/30/08
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I think I've fallen in love. Now if only I can make some time for myself to play "Alone in the Dark" and "Dark Space" in one giant scarefest marathon gaming session.
worldnick at 04:57 PM on 04/30/08
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I would much rather be the aliens in this game.
Final at 05:18 PM on 04/30/08
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Wouldn't you be more pissed if you spend the time to travel to a planet and rip it apart and it was just hallow?

like when somebody offers you gum and it's just an empty wrapper.
Simon Piper at 06:30 PM on 04/30/08
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They should tie in this game with Douglas Adam's "Starship Titanic"

[www.starshiptitanic.com]
DocGratis at 06:45 PM on 04/30/08
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@Final: Given the frequency that horrible soul stealing flesh eating monsters come from inside planets, I would think that hollow would be a relief...
volve at 07:29 PM on 04/30/08
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Oh look, someone checked the 1997 section of IMDB and made an Event Horizon game, except they couldn't name it Event Horizon: The Game, because then it might SUCK, so they named it Dead Space instead, and added some miners...
kevinr at 04:42 AM on 05/01/08
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Not to join in the pile-on (okay, maybe to join in the pile-on), but I think I've got that game sitting next to my computer, and it's called Quake 4. I mean, the details may be different, maybe it's Quake 4-meets-BioShock-in-space, but 1) I'm disappointed that they're going for a horror angle rather than an SF angle, and 2) I'm tired of fighting zombies in a space station. I don't think this will be a bad game, but it doesn't feel groundbreaking to me in any way, and that's kinda disappointing.
Pugcake at 08:37 AM on 05/01/08
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This game looks really cool, I'm hoping it's not another one of those games I look forward too... then wind up being shite. I'm a big horror fan, and a sci-fi fan, I hope this will satisfy both needs.
tamoko at 09:46 AM on 05/01/08
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It "looks" visually compelling... but game play is another matter. I guess we'll see in October.

The accompanying comic is actually quite good, Ben Templesmith's artwork is amazing, as ussual.
tamoko at 09:47 AM on 05/01/08
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@volve: LOL. It does have that vibes, doesn't it?
muteboy at 02:13 PM on 05/01/08
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It reminds me of this Onion article: [www.theonion.com]
oldandintheway at 02:57 PM on 05/01/08
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From what i've read about this game,
the interesting thing about game play
is the fact that your "weapons" consist mainly of tools normally used in "mining". Also, teh "enemies" come invarious types each ofg which must be "killed" in a certain way. What works for one type doesn't necessarily work for others..can't wait to play this one..along with Gears Of War 2
volve at 06:28 PM on 05/01/08
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@tamoko: Hell yeah it's got that vibe. Especially when you see the artwork of a medical bay with nothing but blood splattered around it, or when there are corpsey monsters randomly showing-up around every corner in a dark spaceship. WTF PEOPLE! Backstory is supposed to be pertenaint to the plot; knowing the main character's parents are DIVORCED doesn't exactly explain why there are GIANT MONSTERS INSIDE MINED PLANETS. Unless, you know, Mr. Dude's step-father is actually the SPAWN OF PLANET MONSTER... or something.

Jesus. And isn't it a bit late to be using the Doom3 engine? Ugh.