Dead Space was to games what Alien was to movies

Now available free on PC, Dead Space came closer than any other game to replicating the look, feel and atmosphere of Ridley Scott's sci-fi thriller Fri 16 Feb 2018 06.27 EST Last modified on Fri 16 Feb 2018 06.28 EST This week, Electronic Arts has made one of the most interesting and atmospheric narrative games of the 2000s available for free to users of its Origin gaming service. Released in 2008 and created by Californian studio Visceral Games, Dead Space remains a heady, often terrifying thrill ride and if you've never played it before, it's worth taking this chance – especially if you're a fan of the Alien movies. Although there have been numerous attempts to bring Alien directly to video games – most successfully, Creative Assembly's incredibly tense Alien: Isolation – it's Dead Space that has got closest to replicating the look, feel and atmosphere of Ridley Scott's original film. Dead Space is about a small crew travelling out into space to investigate a research ship, the USG Ishimura, with which all contact has been lost. Like Alien's vessel the Nostromo, this is a labyrinthine mining vessel, a multilayered nightmare of interconnected corridors, labs and living spaces built from metallic walls and lit by strobing neon. Like Ripley and co, the rescue team discovers the ship has been invaded by a hideous alien species, and that its shadowy corporate owner may know more about the infestation than anyone is letting on.