In Comparison: Dead Space vs. Alien

There are multiple different genres of fiction out there in the world of entertainment, whether written down in novels or brought to life in the film media. Fiction can obviously be broken down into multiple categories: general fiction can be anything that's not based on real accounts; fantasy fiction often involves lands populated by elves, dwarves, golems, dragons, wargs, and the like; and science fiction, for example, usually incorporates space, aliens, technology, monsters, and other such elements. My personal favourite is sci-fi...that's why I prefer the war-torn wasteland of Fallout 3's setting to the sprawling, mystical world found in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, for example. There's something that draws me to that type of entertainment...I guess I just prefer railguns to wizardry.

However, one sci-fi creation can differ wildly from another. For example, while you may experience a less serious, more humourous take on an alien invasion such as in Duke Nukem 3D or Mars Attacks!, you can also find much more strikingly realistic experiences and fleshed-out universes such as those found in Mass Effect or the Star Trek series (I LOVES ME SOME TREK). While I love many forms of sci-fi, there's a particular movie series that has always stood out to me amongst the rest: the Alien series.

What makes Alien so appealing to me is the thought and care that was put into creating an amazing universe and atmosphere. While not as massive or complex as Star Trek, it manages to be extremely convincing and detailed to the point of really drawing the viewer in. The gritty backdrops, the intricacies of the technological aspects, and the design of the Xenomorphs themselves are all amazing feats at the time of the creation of these movies. Everything not only looks real, but FEELS real...I don't quite know how to explain it. Maybe it's because Alien captures the essence of a future where humans are just starting to travel throughout space. There isn't a sheen on everything, and nothing's quite perfect...having those imperfections in the world of Alien really makes you think "Wow, this could potentially exist some day." Dilapidated structures, rust, and leaking pipes are a common thing to see in Real Life (TM), and it's this kind of bridge that makes Alien seem all the more plausible...having that sort of tie to flaws, inaccuracies, and problems that we see every day, rather than the future being clean and perfect such as that found in many other futuristic settings.

I remember when I first played Dead Space for the Xbox 360, I was blown away. I STILL continue to be blown away by Dead Space, and it's not simply because it's a well-made game series, but also because it shares many similarities with the aforementioned movie series that I love so much. Alien and Dead Space are very, very similar and I find that it's extremely clear that Dead Space drew from the legendary movie series in many respects. In addition to this, I find that the evolution from Dead Space to Dead Space 2 very closely mimics the differences that can be observed between Alien and Aliens...it's an interesting relationship and I intend to outline my thoughts on it as best I can in this article.

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1. Keep your settings?

In Alien, a crew aboard a vessel called the Nostromo investigate a moon (LV-426, to be exact) when a distress signal is received from it. The ship itself was not sent out for the purpose of searching out the distress call, but rather was en route back to Earth from a mining operation. The Nostromo's a starfreighter, containing a large amount of mining equipment and also a large amount of ore. Thus, it is able to transport large amounts of materials back to Earth for processing and use in everyday construction and other such activities. The Nostromo is a utility ship, plain and simple...nothing military. This is not unlike the setting of Dead Space, during which protagonist Isaac Clarke and fellow crew members Kendra and Hammond are sent to investigate a distress call originating near a planet called Aegis VII. The planet was in the middle of having large amounts of material extracted from it by a method known as Planetcracking...the purpose of a large space freighter in the vicinity of Aegis VII known as the Ishimura. When the Nostromo crew investigates the surface of LV-426, an alien organism called a Facehugger attaches itself to a crewman and is brought onto the ship, causing the events leading up to the birth of a Xenomorph. This creature then proceeds to destroy everyone on the ship, except for Lt. Ellen Ripley. In the case of the Ishimura, the Necromorph infection is also brought aboard the ship when an Infector stows away on a shuttle heading for the Ishimura from the surface of Aegis VII, where a colony had plunged into chaos from several factors. Dead Space and Alien have very similar settings and plot elements that establish those settings as places of chaos, death, and horror.

2. Atmosfear

When you look at the atmospheric design of Alien and compare it to that of Dead Space, you'll find remarkable parallels. It's difficult to explain, but I'll give it a shot. The atmosphere in Alien is dark and foreboding to the point where it's not necessarily the presence of a Xenomorph that scares you, but rather the situations where it's absent as well. It plays tricks on your mind by using the environment to its advantage...the entire Nostromo looks like a completely undesirable place to EVER be. Chains dangle from the ceilings in some areas, water and other liquids burst out of pipes, and the ship generally looks worn out and dilapidated. As a result, the entire ship seems all the more real, as I mentioned in the introduction to this feature...it all comes together in a striking package that is so well made that it's entirely believable, and I believe that THAT is what makes Alien such a successful sci-fi movie. I remember when I first played Dead Space...it was the demo actually, which has a part of Chapter 3: Course Correction. You're placed in the Ishimura's engine room and must fight off a horde of Necromorphs with the weapons provided to you. This setting just screamed "Alien" to me...the engine is loud as Hell, which makes you instantly on edge because it's stressful and it may also mask the noises of enemies. Many gritty, half-destroyed paths populate the area as well, which just tells you that Necromorphs are gonna be using every single one of them to try to kill you. The environment itself just feels...unsafe, which is the same feeling you get from Alien. If there's one way to freak out your observer more than just throwing disgusting creatures at them, it's to do so in an equally unsettling atmosphere that gets the adrenaline rushing, making you want to be anywhere but there. Both Alien and Dead Space have this kind of effect due to their atmospheric nature...again, it's hard to explain in full, but in general it's the use of the environment as a tool of fear just as much as the use of aliens, creatures, and special effects.

The USG Ishimura: Welcome to Hell!

3. Separation anxiety

I doubt it's any coincidence that both Alien and Dead Space have alien life forms whose life cycle, from what we can tell, depend completely on the presence of another species to acts as a host for at least a small portion of it. Dead Space's Necromorphs are the result of a viral spread...it gets into a person, drives them mad and takes over their body, mutating them into strange creatures with lesions, cancers, bone blades, and multiple other freaky structures. In general, a Necro called an Infector grabs people, both living and dead, and injects the virus directly into their skull, transforming the body into another Necromorph (usually a Slasher type). These find more bodies for the Infectors to parasitize...it's a pretty vicious cycle. In Alien, a spider-esque creature called a Facehugger attaches to the face of a victim and implants an embryo into their chest (called a Chestburster). This hatches later on and lives inside of the victim, later bursting out of their chest and growing into a larger Xenomorph. Xenomorphs will usually kill or wound other humans and take them to egg chambers where more Facehuggers emerge and implant again. Sound familiar? Not to mention that both types of villain are referred to as "morphs"...a simple similarity, but one that stuck out at me as soon as I heard that the Dead Space creatures were called Necromorphs.

4. Shifting gears

In the Alien franchise, the first two movies are similar in that they share similar elements, but the overarching style of each movie is completely different. In Alien, the first encounter with Xenomorphs is more horror-driven. Only one Xeno is actually on board, and it starts to pick off the crew one by one and with relative ease, so whenever you watch a scene with any of the crew, the only thing you're thinking of is how they're likely gonna get killed. The sequel, Aliens, changes things up. Although it does retain the same amazing atmosphere that the first movie established, it becomes more infused with action. Aliens has Ripley going back to LV-426 with a squad of Colonial Marines, armed with Pulse Rifles and Smartguns...much more capable than the barely-equipped crew aboard the Nostromo in Alien. They've been sent to check out a colony that's been overrun by Xenos...not just one as in the first movie. This basically means that the Xenos are now expendable...in the first Alien, the single Xeno was a major plot device that pretty much HAD to remain until the end in order to keep suspense up; in Aliens, they get blown apart frequently and are therefore inherently less startling. Sure, they're still scary, creepy beasts, but the increase in firepower results in more action rather than straight-up horror. In addition, Ripley has become a much more able character at dealing with the aliens from her last encounter, and rather than being completely scared and frightened of the Xenos, she actually suits up in a Power Loader and beats one down by the time the movie ends. This character progression really dilutes the horror...because the main characters feel more powerful, YOU feel more powerful as a result.

Now what about Dead Space? Well, it really follows the same trend, but in a different way. Rather than seeing Isaac going on point with a team of hardened killers, he alone has become more powerful and adept at dealing with the Necromorphs. You don't feel nearly as helpless in DS2 as you do in the original game, and part of it is because of the way that Isaac is portrayed. For starters...he talks. This is important, because Isaac becomes much more "take-charge" in Dead Space 2 by his interactions with other characters that he encounters...particularly Stross and Ellie. He manages to tell them what to do and calm them down in seemingly hapless situations (moreso Ellie than Stross), which establishes him as a strong leader rather than just a voiceless engineer as in the first game. On its own, this causes Isaac to feel stronger and more fearless...but then you need to add in the fact that, much like the Alien series, Dead Space evolved in a similar way. The structure of Dead Space 2 is much more geared toward action rather than horror: there are significantly less moments to make the player jump, and the game overall is also much brighter than the last. Isaac also gains access to an array of cool suits, such as the Security or Advanced suit, which grant powerups to the player and can have effects on the weaponry you're using. Speaking of weaponry, there's an increase in the number of weapons, and in addition to this all of the old ones have been tweaked. In DS1, the Plasma Cutter was the way to go...although the other weapons were potentially useful, the PC was your main choice of dismembering enemies and was used more prominently. This is not so in DS2. The original weapons were switched up to be as powerful as the Plasma Cutter, rather than dumbing down the Cutter to mix better with the rest. Your tools of the trade are all more powerful as a result, which makes dealing with Necros a tad easier. That's a good thing, too...because in similarity with Aliens, there are significantly more Necromorphs to deal with in Dead Space 2 when you compare it to Dead Space 1. Rather than worrying about things jumping out at you in Dead Space 2, I find that you worry more about how many damn Necros you're gonna run into in the next area, and thinking fast enough to blow them all away.

If one of these ever asks for a hug FOR GOD'S SAKES KILL IT WITH FIRE.

5. Home is where the hurt is

I've mentioned the settings of these media, but the shifts that they undergo is what's important. In Alien, you obviously have a pretty isolated incident. The Nostromo just manages to float near LV-426 and pick up a distress signal, starting the whole thing off. The only people at risk in this case are, of course, the crew of the ship. Aliens takes place much farther in the future; Ripley has been adrift in space for a very long amount of time...so much that the moon from the previous installment has now been colonized by people, and families are living there. I don't know why the hell anyone would want to raise a family on a desolate, shitty moon...but that's beside the point. The threat has now moved closer to home, so to speak...Xenomorphs wind up overrunning the colony on LV-426 and cocooning 99% of its population because they were established horrendously close to the alien spacecraft that was found in the first movie. Talk about bad luck. The Dead Space games follow the same formula...where the first game took place far out in space, the second one occurs on a station known as the Sprawl. This is a massive city that's been established on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, after it had been almost completely mined for materials. Throughout the game, you make your way through residential districts, hospitals, and even nursery schools that have been attacked by the rampaging Necromorphs, and overall more people have been affected. Even the events of Dead Space 1 were covered up as a terrorist attack, meaning that the residents of the Sprawl were as oblivious to what's going on as much as the colonists of LV-426 were in Aliens. Both of the media show the threat has expanded and attacked innocent civilians and families.

6. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and you!

Both Aliens and Dead Space 2 manage to address the effects on their main characters after the events of their initial encounter with an alien threat. After awakening from stasis, Ripley consistently has dreams about what happened to her and the crew of the Nostromo. At the beginning of the film, we see her dreaming about a Chestburster erupting from her torso, and quickly waking up and clutching her chest...this also happens one more time later on in the movie. She's clearly still shaken up by what happened (and let's face it...who the hell wouldn't be?), and it comes out in her character such as in the way she talks about the Xenomorphs when she tries to explain them to the Marines. It's clear that lasting effects have taken their toll on her, but she eventually starts to conquer that fear. In the final moments of the movie, she straps a Pulse Rifle to a Flamethrower, loads up on ammo and grenades, and sets off to blow the Xenos to kingdom come...and don't forget the Power Loader incident I mentioned earlier. Isaac Clarke from Dead Space has similar issues...memories of the past plague him in the form of an image of his dead girlfriend, Nicole, that he wasn't able to save from the USG Ishimura. These encounters show that he blames himself for what happened to her, and they haunt him throughout almost the entirety of the game. Chapter 10 in particular is a long portion of the game that displays his memories and regrets from the events of the first installation...but I won't talk about it, because it's one of the best segments of any survival horror game I've ever played and I'd hate to spoil it for anyone. Near the end, however, he becomes strong and accepts the present for what it is and begins to forgive himself, which somewhat parallels the character progression of Ellen Ripley.

Do you feel lucky? PUNK?

7. THE GOVERNMENT!

Oh, you wily government...what lengths will you go to in order to make a profit? Well, according to the Dead Space and Alien series, it'll go pretty damn far. In Alien, Ripley eventually finds out that the Nostromo was directed to LV-426 to investigate the distress signal...and bring a Xenomorph back for study. First priority, crew expendable. In addition to this, a Synthetic (basically an android) turns out to be in cahoots with the government and tries to fulfill that idiotic order. In Aliens, a government official named Burke is sent with Ripley and the Marines, and he also attempts to scavenge some alien material in an effort to bring it back for study...namely for the bioweapons division. He attempts this by releasing two Facehuggers in a room with Ripley and a young survivor (Newt) while they're sleeping. They would get infected and return to Earth, and unknowingly bring samples to the government in the form of implanted Chestbursters. Both plans ultimately fail, but there's always a clear, authoritative shadow looming over the actions of both movies. In Dead Space, Isaac is sent to investigate the USG Ishimura's distress call with two other characters: Hammond and Kendra. Later in the game, it's discovered that Kendra is working with THE GOVERNMENT...she's been sent to retrieve an artifact from Aegis VII called the Marker. This relic has certain effects on the Necromorphs, and it turns out that some think it's the key to unlocking eternal life...particularly members of a religious cult known as Unitology. These Unitologists make up a large portion of the government and make it overly corrupt with their insane beliefs, which eventually causes the outbreak on the Sprawl in Dead Space 2. Much like in the Alien series, it actually turns out that the real enemy behind everything is an idiotic branch of the current governmental organization, and not just the Necromorphs themselves.

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There're seven similarities for you. There are likely more, but these are the major ones that I've noted in my experiences with the media. The only question is, will this trend continue? I personally hope so, because I love the way Dead Space is panning out so far...I just hope they don't try to take any elements from Alien Resurrection...because that movie is horrible. As far as I'm concerned, the only true Alien movies are 1-3!