All Dead Space Difficulty Settings & What They Change

Dead Space recreates a quintessential survival horror experience for a modern audience, allowing players to explore the ruins of the USG Ishimura as they are hunted by the ship’s mutated inhabitants. The game can be an intense and horrifying experience for those new to the franchise, so knowing what can be expected from the various difficulty settings is vital to ensuring you don’t ruin a playthrough unintentionally. To that end, here’s everything we know about all the Dead Space difficulty settings and what they change in the game.

All Dead Space Difficulty Settings

Dead Space has five difficulty settings which can be selected at the beginning of the game: Story, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Impossible.

Story

Story is the most accessible option for new players experiencing Dead Space for the first time, and for those who simply want to experience the game’s story. This difficulty setting allows Isaac to deal massive damage to enemies while taking significantly less damage himself. Isaac can also heal automatically, has a larger oxygen tank, and is able to easily escape grabs from Necromorphs. The Story difficulty setting provides players with a significant advantage against your mutated enemies, and allows the plot to take center stage.

Easy

Easy is a slight step up from this. Isaac still has an advantage over his enemies and can deal much more damage, but his oxygen tank requires slightly more management and enemy grabs can be more troublesome to escape. While this experience might be slightly more challenging than the story difficulty, it should still provide new players with a fair experience.

Medium

In Medium difficulty, the Dead Space Remake is played at baseline level, meaning that Isaac and his enemies are on equal footing throughout the duration of the game.

Expect a slightly more challenging combat experience that will require you to think on your feet and be strategic in order to outwit the Necromorphs. The oxygen tank will also have to be managed with more diligence and ammo can’t be found as frequently, meaning that resources must be used sparingly. This difficulty is arguably the closest to the game’s intended survival horror experience.

Hard

Hard turns the odds against Isaac and makes the Necromorphs significantly stronger, allowing them to deal much more damage and their grabs harder to escape. Don’t expect to find too much ammo lying around either, as this difficulty options encourages players to rely on their wits to survive.

Impossible

Impossible is the dead Space Remake’s hardest difficulty and provides a truly brutal experience.

In this difficulty mode, the tension is exasperated to new heights as a permadeath feature is added to the game meaning that Isaac has only one chance to make it through the USG Ishimura unscathed. This difficulty was initially unlocked in the original Dead Space after beating the game, but if you feel like going through a punishing experience right away, then you can do so in the new iteration.

That’s all the info available regarding all the difficulty settings in Dead Space Remake and what they change. Be sure to check out our review, as well as all of our coverage related to the Remake below.