Electronic Arts have established a risk-averse reputation; known for publishing annual sports installments and playing up to popular trends with games such as Apex Legends, ventures into the survival horror genre typically aren't their forte. That said, in 2008, Dead Space became a pillar of the then-dwindling survival horror style of game design, and it was successful enough to spawn two sequels.
After a decade-long hiatus, Dead Space will return with a remake in early 2023, and horror fans couldn't be more thrilled about the prospect. That said, in the meantime, there are a few other survival horror staples that gamers may want to check out.
Prey (2017)
A surprise successor to the 2006 original, Prey wore its dark sci-fi influences on its sleeve and felt like something of a spiritual successor to the System Shock games, those titles being paragons of the so-called immersive sim genre.
Dead Space is an all-out body horror bloodbath akin to Event Horizon or The Thing, while Prey is a slow simmer that feels a bit more like Blade Runner or Total Recall. Still, the two are both set on an ostensibly empty space station, they're both shooters, and they'll both have players scanning their surroundings for any signs of the abnormal lest they be caught off guard by some indescribable horror.
The Evil Within (2014)
Developed by Shinji Mikami's Tango Gameworks in 2014, The Evil Within is considered by some to be a spiritual successor of sorts to the Resident Evil franchise. A weird, warped experience that expertly recreated the tense resource management of the earlier RE titles, the game inspired a sequel in 2017 before Tango went on to create 2022's Ghostwire Tokyo.
Much like Dead Space, The Evil Within asks players to carefully line up their shots and survey their surroundings before jumping into combat. While it offers no sci-fi inspiration whatsoever, it's still an excellent experience for those who love nothing more than well-placed headshots and undead nightmares.
Alan Wake (2010)
Developed by Remedy Entertainment, a studio previously known for the Max Payne games, Alan Wake is a third-person survival horror shooter that pairs fairly traditional gunplay with a unique mechanic wherein players must aim a flashlight at enemies to rid them of spectral energy before they can be damaged.
A very loose prequel to Remedy's subsequent effort Control, Alan Wake was a success despite its apparent niche appeal, earning a remaster in 2021 and a forthcoming sequel slated for 2023. While not nearly as horrific as Dead Space, it demands that players keep their wits about them and make expert use of their suboptimal resources.
I Am Alive (2012)
The Ubisoft-published 2012 outing I Am Alive is tough to fit into a specific niche; mixing elements of action, platforming, survival, and horror, it's an odd experience that could perhaps best be described as a mishmash of Naughty Dog's Uncharted and The Last of Us games. ed for its gritty survival horror-adjacent combat and convoluted climbing mechanics, I Am Alive slipped under many gamers' radars.
At a glance, the title looks nothing like Dead Space, but the emphasis on ammo conservation and the contorted map layouts of I Am Alive are not completely disparate from what's seen in Dead Space. Plus, the wonky platforming elements of the former title are reminiscent of the equally-wonky zero-gravity sections found in the latter.
Alien: Isolation (2014)
As is the case with the movie franchise, games based on the Aliens property are known to be hit-and-miss. While stinkers like 2000's Alien Resurrection and 2012's Aliens: Colonial Marines tarnished the franchise, titles like 1999's Alien vs. Predator and 2014's Alien: Isolation more than make up for it.
Dead Space and Alien Isolation wield a similar and distinctly sinister atmosphere, and both will have gamers on constant high alert, as the next threat could be primed to pop out of the nearest vent. That said, while Dead Space provides players with adequate means to exterminate the enemy, Alien: Isolation demands that gamers hide and wait for the danger to .
Metro 2033 (2010)
The last vestiges of humanity struggle to survive in an apocalyptic nuclear winter in A4 Games' Metro 2033. An adaptation of the Dimitry Glukhovsky novel of the same name, it depicts a hellish world of mutated monsters and frigid isolation.
Though Dead Space doesn't offer any sort of grand political conflict, the two titles, though different in approach, both represent desolation and horror at the edge of existence. Plus, while Dead Space has players counting plasma cutter rounds and ensuring Isaac's oxygen doesn't deplete, Metro 2033 has players weighing the worth of their ammunition and keeping track of Artyom's gas mask filters.
The Thing (2002)
A third-person shooter released on sixth-generation consoles, The Thing serves as a direct sequel to the 1982 John Carpenter film of the same name. A new team has been sent in to pick up the pieces after the disaster at the Antarctican outpost, and it's soon discovered that the doppelganger alien parasite has total reign over what remains of the station.
Now two decades old, The Thing may look dated and play a bit clunky, but the film on which it was based was a major inspiration for the Dead Space series, and the Necromorphs bear a startling resemblance to the body horror grotesqueries seen in both versions of The Thing.
Doom 3 (2004)
The triumphant return of Id's seminal Doom franchise, 2004's Doom 3, while not exactly a survival horror title, was a graphical marvel which terrified players with its dark corridors and grim atmosphere. Initially armed with a pistol, shotgun, and flashlight, players must traverse a demon-ravaged Martian base, keeping a keen eye for creatures lurking in shadowy corners and half-hidden crawlspaces.
While the game eventually expands into a more traditional Doom-like experience, the opening hours are very reminiscent of Dead Space. Plus, released four years ahead of EA's horror title, it's likely that Dead Space took quite a bit of influence from the third mainline Doom title.
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
It's true that games like 3D Monster Maze and Alone in the Dark laid the groundwork for the survival horror genre, but Resident Evil not only solidified the formula, but it coined the term. The first four mainline RE games are heralded as some of the best titles the genre has to offer, and they were further improved following remakes released years later.
The 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, in particular, showcased just how enthralling the genre could be when done right. Much like Dead Space, which definitely Resident Evil games, Resident Evil 2 demands expert digital marksmanship and a mind well-suited for resource management.
System Shock 2 (1999)
Developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios, System Shock 2, the sequel to the 1994 MS-DoS original, was a sci-fi horror RPG that saw a hapless protagonist forced to contend with zombified horrors aboard an abandoned space station. Eerie and evil, it made players adapt and think very carefully about how they want to go about spending resources and investing in skill trees.
Dead Space definitely isn't an RPG, but the settings and scenarios of the two games are irrefutably similar. System Shock 2 is heralded as a spiritual predecessor to many great games, Dead Space being among them.