The game famously asks the player, as the engineer Isaac Clarke, to cut off their limbs. The secret ending, however, definitely seems to shed some light on this time period and makes the story fit more succinctly into what will happen in Isaac Clarke's future.In addition to being an absolutely terrifying work of video game horror, Dead Space is known for the unique way it asks you to deal with the Necromorphs, the horrifying reanimated and transformed corpses that stalk the claustrophobic USG Ishimura spacecraft.

Given the fact that, by the start of Dead Space 2, Isaac Clarke is found to have been locked up in a mental hospital for roughly three years with no real explanation of how he got from the shuttlecraft to that point, the original ending has always felt like it left something of a major gap between the two games. However, in a new secret ending that was added for the remake, Clarke has a full conversation with the Nicole hallucination and describes his need to 'build a little something.' The camera then pans out, and it is shown that symbols from the Marker have been drawn all over the ship, implying just how deeply Clarke's exposure to the Marker and the Necromorphs has affected him. He then witnesses a hallucination of his girlfriend Nicole jumping out at him, ending the game in one final jump scare. In the ending of Dead Space, both in the original and the remake, Isaac Clarke escapes in a shuttlecraft and begins to fly away to safety. Unlike the original portrayal of Isaac Clarke as something of an everyman placeholder-style character to make players feel the terror and isolation of the original Dead Space for themselves, the new side missions show Clarke to be a more well-rounded character who is intelligent, empathetic, and ready to take action. In this way, players can help Isaac Clarke to assist his crew mates, investigate what happened on the USG Ishimura, and even look into the origin of the Necromorphs themselves. More importantly, though, these side missions expand upon the lore and story of the game and even expand upon Isaac Clarke himself. These missions are all optional, of course, but many players may wish to do them, as they have been made easy to find and offer valuable rewards upon completion. However, the remake has added several side missions to flesh out the game even further than before. Players would typically stick to a straight line, occasionally stepping off into a side room to pick up some ammo or an audio log that added a bit to the lore. Back in the original 2008 Dead Space, there wasn't much in the way of treading off the beaten path.

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