As if being stuck in a massacred space vessel wasn't scary enough, Dead Space and its 2023 remake had to add zombie aliens into the sci-fi horror mix. They're officially known as Necromorphs, and they make their Alien movie Xenomorph inspiration look meek by comparison.
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Necromorphs in Dead Space are more aggressive, more grotesque, and more misshapen. They certainly have no qualms about announcing and enforcing their ownership of the USG Ishimura, which is a crying shame for Isaac Clarke and the players. That's because Isaac has no choice but to wade through the toughest Necromorphs just to make the most of his engineering degree.
8 Swarmers
Dead Space initially trains players to deal with human-sized enemies, mostly by telling them to shoot off the limbs. So, when the Swarmers were introduced, it was a horror curveball unlike any other. These little nightmarish pests are tough to deal with since they're designed to make players waste their ammunition.
Tough luck if the players are out of Flamethrower ammo, because players will be wasting their Stasis shots, explosives, and projectile ammunition just to preserve their health for supposedly tougher encounters. These things are also unfair, they're supposed to just be reanimated flesh, so they're practically just bits of zombie steak that can kill players.
7 Pregnants
If players pop open a Pregnant Necromorph, they won't be treated to candy, just killer zombie steaks all rushing Isaac and draining his health. Things can be even more dangerous if the Pregnants are killed at point-blank range; a fact that the Pregnants seem to be well aware of.
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These sinister beer-bellied bloats will try to bum-rush players in a zombified attempt to seek sustenance from the nearest individual, only, their babies need meat instead of milk. The Flamethrower is literally made for these things. Otherwise, just shooting their legs off will do the trick.
6 Exploder
Speaking of Necromorphs who love to get intimate, the Exploder is another notorious enemy type in Dead Space. It has an arm that glows and if gets close enough to the players, the arm will pop off into a violent explosion that, in most cases, can kill Isaac in a single hit. Thankfully, the strategy for dealing with them is fairly obvious.
Players need to shoot their arm off or shoot the shoulders to sever the swollen arm. Unfortunately, doing so can be painfully tense. The shoulders are thinner than bones so hitting them is not easy, and players can't shoot the glowing arm if they're too close. At best, players can hope that their panicked lizard brains can prioritize taking out the exploders first.
5 Lurker/Super Lurker
Apparently, infants are allowed on the USD Ishimura, which was a huge security and logistics oversight, because they eventually became the Lurkers and Super-Lurker Necromorphs. These are freaky zombie alien babies who can retract their weak points, meaning that players can only kill them fast if the Lurkers are poised to attack as well.
Lurkers are also annoying to fight since they force the player to change the orientation of their Plasma Cutter. In the heat and anxiety of an encounter, pressing another button is a huge hurdle to survival. Oftentimes, players will find themselves trading health points with the Lurkers.
4 Leaper/Super-Leaper
Players might easily underestimate the Leapers since they have no legs, so how hard could they be? Half the fight's finished already. Unfortunately, they are significantly more durable than the regular bipedal Necromorph. What's even worse, they're stealthier and harder to hit because of their stature.
So begins the brief existence of the players' ammunition as they unload their conventional weaponry to kill a few Leapers. Without Stasis, fighting these miscreants is one of the most horrific ordeals in Dead Space and its 2023 remake. The funny thing is, they're easier to fight in zero gravity since they're more spread out.
3 Divider
Dividers are effectively several of the most frustrating Necromorphs all rolled into one evil package. They're durable, they're mean, and they look like they're competent. If players employ the usual Necromorph killing tactic, the Dividers will just split themselves limb-by-limband chargethe players as though they were Swarmers.
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What's worse is that these violent, dismembered limbs are about as tough as the original Divider. Facing several of these Necromorphs at once is easily one of the most harrowing experiences in Dead Space. Thankfully, that doesn't happen too often suggesting that the developers were at least responsible enough to know the monster they'd created.
2 Brute/Super-Brute
The Brute Necromorph might feel like a boss fight, but it isn't. They're mostly just mini-bosses since encounters with them are typically one-on-one arena battles. It's really more like a series of tactical retreats, however, because players don't want to get caught within arms' reach of the Brute.
Imagining what will happen to Isaac if he gets caught by one of the arms is almost mandatory, and fights with the Brute take around a minute with players frantically worrying about whether their ammo supply will last. The only way to defeat these things is to shoot their joints, which are often partly covered by their impenetrable carapace. Stasis helps immensely.
1 Hunter
A game whose chief inspiration for its monsters is the Xenomorph has to have the closest equivalent to the Alien monster, and that Necromorph equivalent would be the Hunter. It's fast, it's angry, and it's immortal. No measly human small arms or tool can kill this regenerator.
For this reason, it's the scariest enemy in Dead Space. The only thing players can do is run after they've bought enough time with their bullets. There is a certain point in Dead Space when players feel almost invincible due to the strength of their equipment and experience, but at that point, the Hunter will rear its ugly head to remind them that they're playing a horror game.
Dead Space is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows.
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