The Best Video Game Stories That Mess With Your Head
Dead Space
While some of the series’ later entries may have visualized insanity in better ways, the original Dead Space’s story still stands as a masterclass in mental chicanery.
From the start, protagonist Isaac Clarke is shown to be on his harrowing mission to find his girlfriend Nicole. He is intent on rescuing her, and after encountering her a number of times on the USG Ishimura, appears able to see things through.
Shortly before the game’s end however, it is revealed that Nicole had been dead all along. In a video sent to Isaac prior to his arrival on the space craft, she commits suicide to spare herself from the fate of being turned into a necromorph.
Unable to cope with this fact, Isaac still went to the Ishimura. Once there, the alien Marker twisted his grief into hallucinations that would cause him to take it back to the planet where it and its necromorph thralls lied dormant.
It’s a lot to take in at first, but after reflecting on the clues left for players to find – namely the acronym created by the first letter of each chapter title – it’s clear Isaac wasn’t the only one who couldn’t see the truth right in front of him.
