10 Video Games That Were Never Better Than Their First Levels

The Dead Space series is another that simply does not do subtlety. The developers are known as Visceral Games for a reason: they ensure that the player feels every Necromorph attack, every limb they sever from these ghastly beasts, every hunk of alien zombie flesh they stomp on (that’s the way picks-ups are collected from bodies). This is survival horror with an emphasis on the horror, friends.

The first title was concerned with engineer Isaac Clarke’s harrowing experiences on the USG Ishimura, a starship that was infected by a Necromorph outbreak. In the sequel, Clarke suffers from the profound effects those experiences had on him, awakening in a mental facility on The Sprawl (a space station on Titan) when the game begins.

If the first game had a dramatic and unforgettable beginning, Dead Space 2 only builds upon that. From Isaac’s attempted rescue to the Necromorphs spreading chaos and destruction throughout the Sprawl, this title begins with an incredible series of set-pieces. It’s gruelling and horrific, but it’s also the sort of action that would serve as a dramatic ending to a lot of games. It’s a testament to everything Visceral Games achieved with this awful, futuristic world that these sequences are only the beginning of Isaac’s next nightmare.