Dead Space

This page is for the original game. For the remake, see Dead Space (2023).

Dead Space

Developers
	EA Redwood Shores
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Visceral Engine
Release dates
Windows	October 20, 2008
Reception
Metacritic	87
IGDB	88
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter, Survival horror
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Horror, Sci-fi, Space
Series	Dead Space

Dead Space
Dead Space	2008
Dead Space 2	2011
Dead Space 3	2013
Dead Space (2023)	2023

Dead Space is a singleplayer third-person shooter and survival horror game in the Dead Space series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Dead Space on TheGameEngine.org

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM v7.38.0007 DRM & SecuROM PA DRM. 4 machines limit. A De-Authorization Tool is available.
Amazon.com
Epic Games Store
GOG.com
Microsoft Store		Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Origin		Included with EA Play. Manual link for EA App purchase.
Steam		Included with EA Play (Steam). Key is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\EA Games\Dead Space\ergc.
(unavailable)

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via EA Play.

DLC and expansion packs

None of the DLCs were ever released for PC.

Was a mix of cosmetic and stat-altering gear.

Essential Improvements

Use Borderless Gaming

Fixes multiple issues such as high brightness and jerky mouse movement.

Instructions

Download Borderless Gaming and install it. Navigate to the Borderless Gaming installation path and run BorderlessGaming.exe Run the game in Windowed mode, then Alt+Tab ↹ to the Desktop and open Borderless Gaming again. Select the game's executable from under the Applications field, then push the first Right Arrow button located at the top. Make sure Borderless Gaming runs in the background before playing the game again.

Use DXVK to run the game on Vulkan (possibly performing smoother on modern systems)

Locks the game at 60 FPS to prevent the bugs mentioned below.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\settings.txt
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/

The file for key-bindings controls.rmp is in a binary format and requires hex editing.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Electronic Arts\Dead Space\
Microsoft Store
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/17470/pfx/

20 save slots available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics settings.

Advanced graphics settings.

Brightness settings. In exclusive fullscreen mode, game is so much brighter that even lowest value looks relatively bright.

WSGF multi-monitor screenshot.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Game's brightness is much higher in exclusive fullscreen mode.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Only if your display supports a refresh rate of 60 Hz or more.
4K Ultra HD			Subtitles scales poorly with resolution larger than 1280 pixels wide, making them too small in very high resolution. Untested Cheat Engine table for subtitle scaling.
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Ingame antialiasing is a simple blur shader. On/off toggle.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double buffered in fullscreen mode, works as a 30 FPS cap otherwise. See the glossary page for proper Vsync.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		An uncapped frame rate can result in several issues mentioned below.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

• 

  In-game AA, no AF.

• 

  In-game AA, 16xAF (driver).

• 

  4xAA (driver), 16xAF (driver).

Field of view (FOV)

Use Widescreen Fixer

Download and install Widescreen Fixer. Run the program Select the Main tab, and select Dead Space from the dropdown menu Click the settings cog next to the drop down bar In the window this opens, enter your FOV of choice (I'd recommend 0.3) Click Save Settings and then Close Window. Click the Settings tab, go to 'Hotkey' at the bottom, and input your hotkey of choice (e.g. Alt+F1) Leave the program running Launch 'Dead Space' When in game, press the hotkey you input in step 6. Your FoV of choice should now be visible in game When you look at the Widescreen Fixer program, below the Select game dropdown menu is Status. Game Running, and Fix Enabled should both be Yes if it worked correctly. Please note that the program must be kept running alongside the game for the selected FOV to work. Creates minor issues with menus and has to be toggled on every game start with the hotkey.

Input

Input settings.

Game uses controller HUD if controller is present. Simply unplug/disable controller when playing with keyboard and mouse.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Two keys per action. In-game remapping is really limited; see Remapping.
Mouse acceleration		Use Dead Space Mouse Fix for raw mouse input.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Some menus need the mouse to accept changes or to default options.
Controller remapping		Renders most DirectInput controllers unusable.
Controller sensitivity		The command has to be manually added through the settings.txt file for the game (command unknown). Controller sensitivity is higher then what it should be at FPS higher then 30 but still playable (Xpadder could be used to lower it whilst at over 30 FPS ).
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers		Game tries its best to autoassign buttons in correct places, but often fails, leading controller to be unusable. XInput wrapping highly recommended.
Button prompts		Keyboard buttons shown if DirectInput controller used.

Additional information
Button prompts		Controller given priority for displaying on-screen buttons.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		XInput only.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Hook input (legacy mode)
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

• 

  Rebinding, basic.

• 

  Rebinding, aiming.

• 

  Rebinding, RIG.

Remapping

Allow full remapping through felayga tool[citation needed]
Dead Space configuration tool by felayga allows to modify keyboard and mouse binds. Download dead space config.exe and run it. Notes Manual edits still required to bind wheel or unlock action for mouse binds and to bind hidden actions, such as map zoom.

Large deadzone

The game inserts large deadzones onto the analog sticks, making precise control very difficult, especially on gamepads like the Logitech Gamepad F310, which have their own deadzones.

Make deadzones smaller
Download Durazno XInput Wrapper. Extract the contents and run Durazno.exe. Set the AntiDeadzone option to 40%, close the program. Copy Durazno.ini and xinput1_3.dll to the installation folder. Open the game and disable Vsync. Force it through your driver control panel if you want Vsync.

Make deadzones smaller[citation needed]
Start the game. Open Steam Overlay. Go to Controller Configuration. Choose Browse Configs. Go to Community tab. Choose any from ones at the top that say they fix deadzone problem.

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 5.0 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Only when minimized.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Both English US and English GB are available
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation, donwload
Czech				GOG and Origin version.
French
German
Hungarian				GOG, Origin and Retail version.
Italian
Polish				GOG, Origin and Retail version. For Steam version download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation: download (GGames)
Russian				GOG, Origin and Retail version, download.
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation available here
Ukrainian				Fan translation, download.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			See Helix Mod: Dead Space 3D Vision fix update.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest
Novint Falcon

Issues fixed

High frame rate issues

An uncapped frame rate can result in several issues, including:

• Problems with QTEs, physics (specifically ragdoll), and animations.
• Can introduce desyncing issues with extremely high framerates (300+ FPS).
• Some of the UI speed is tied to FPS. If frame rate is too high, the game will slow down.
• The first door after getting the Plasma Cutter may be impassable and the first Necromorph fails to spawn (in Chapter 1: New Arrivals)
• Containers and crates may not be interactable.
• Hair physics may "explode" and stretch unnaturally. This can be observed in the very first scene.
• Doctor Challus Mercer doesn't appear (in Chapter 5: Lethal Devotion)
• Crashes the game during elevator use (in Chapter 7: Into the Void)
• There's a risk of player getting soft-locked in landing state during zero gravity sections, game resolves this lock-up by forcibly killing the player after 5–10 seconds.
• Excessive tearing due to very frequent flickering lights

Use the Nvidia Control Panel and AMD Radeon Software to set Vsync and FPS limit for Dead Space. Disable Vsync in-game. Set your monitor refresh rate to <= 120Hz. Due to engine limitations, game caps FPS at half of your refresh rate when using in-game Vsync and introduces severe input lag.

Fullscreen brightness levels are raised

The game might look brighter than it should when running in exclusive fullscreen mode on certain systems and the in-game brightness slider can't be set low enough to fix it.

Change brightness through config files[citation needed]
Open settings.txt in the configuration file(s) location with a text editor. Change Window.Gamma value to a negative value, e.g. -0.50000000. The default value is 0.50000000. A value of -0.15000000 should be equivalent to the default value with proper brightness levels. Save the file.

Fixing the mouse

Use Dead Space Mouse Fix
Notes Disables mouse acceleration and uses similar sensitivity for look/aim Breaks controller look/aim support Sensitivity will wildly increase while walking on organic matter (normalizes when aiming)

Difficulty changes itself when multiple save files are present

Difficulty only changes itself when save at end of a chapter (save in the train).

Always select "load game" instead of "continue game" on main menu

Use CheatEngine to change the game difficulty

Run Dead Space and load your save. Download & Open Cheat Engine Click Open Process and attach to your running Dead Space executable. Click Add Address Manually and enter "Dead Space.exe"+A8ADC0 (for Steam version) or "Dead Space.exe"+A88E30 (for GOG/Origin version), select Byte Type. Change the value to 0, 1, 2, or 3, depending on the difficulty you want: 0 = Easy 1 = Medium 2 = Hard 3 = Impossible The next time you save the game, it will save an uncorrupted file with difficulty you selected.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	RwAudioCore

Unlock impossible difficulty without playthrough

Modify settings.txt[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open settings.txt. Change Game.Played = 0 to 1.

Save game editor

A tool by malkhal that allows players to modify their Dead Space game save data. Backing up the original save files is recommended before using this tool. Can be downloaded here.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2	Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3000+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	7.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible