[Dead Space 2] Good Fear

The previous post pointed out three fears that Dead Space exposes the player to. In this post we’ll see the answers to these fears and what good fear looks like.

The Answer to Fear

The astonishing good news of the gospel is that Jesus dealt with all of these fears through the single act of dying in our place.

When we were powerless to our sin, Jesus died for us to take on our sin. Being nailed to the cross was him at his most powerless as he was subject to the torture and pain we should have received, but he endured it in our place. After suffering on the cross, he returned to right hand of God, who also happens to have all of the power.

Being crucified on a cross was considered the most shameful way to die. Jesus was stripped naked and hung up where all could see him struggling and bleeding. On the cross he was exposed and vulnerable in the worst of ways. But because he is God, he triumphed over that shame. By experiencing shame for us, we do not have to be put to shame. This means that we do not have to struggle with the fear of having our secret thoughts exposed.

Jesus’ resurrection from death gave him the power over death. Now we have the hope of eternal life by trusting in the one who claimed victory over death.

Good Fear

We can all acknowledge that fear can be good for us because it prevents us from doing things that would otherwise be dangerous. But what about fearing God? The Old Testament talks about the fear of God multiple times, but mostly in that context it’s meant to describe a healthy respect of God. However, there are also stories and examples of people literally being terrified of God when they encounter him. Some take issue with a God who instills fear in his creation. The response to that concern is this question- If your god isn’t big enough to fear, is he really worth following? The power of God that we fear is the very same power that saves us. If your god does not induce fear, then your god is not powerful enough to save you.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” That fear is not for your punishment, but for your salvation. The God that we fear is as equally wise and loving as he is powerful. This is why “Fear not” is one of the most common commandments by God in the Bible. We silly humans are prone to fear the things listed above and so much more. But God is on our side and so he encourages us to trust in him rather than give in to our fears. He tells us, “fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.” Because he is a God who loves us perfectly and has the power to protect us, his love gives us no reason to fear, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

There may soon come a time when you sit down in a dark room to play through a horror story. You may start hearing noises in the next room and perhaps check behind you for a hidden Necromorph, zombie or something similarly terrifying. Let that fear you feel serve to remind you that there is a God who both justifies your fear and loves you enough to take that fear away.

And speaking of love, happy Valentine’s Day. Go find someone you care about and give them a big hug.

We’ll continue the discussion about Dead Space next time by discussing bad gods, rebirth, and taking another look at Unitology.

[Dead Space 2] Fear

We’ll delve deeper into the Dead Space universe this week and look at fear, rebirth, and distorted reality. This first post will look at the theme of fear that extends across both Dead Space games.

What are you afraid of? What keeps you up at night? What troubles your thoughts throughout the day? We all struggle with fear on some level at some point in our lives. It could even be said that some of us set the trajectory of our lives in a certain direction based on our fears. The Dead Space games are able to tap into this because fear is something that we can all relate to. The very reason we enjoy playing these horror games is because they acknowledge the fears that we all carry. Many forms of entertainment have this horror genre that seeks to play upon our fears of both the physical and psychological. The Dead Space games have us experiencing three main fears. We’ll look at these three fears here, and in the next post we’ll seek out the answer to those fears and also discuss good fear.

Fear 1- Powerlessness

As the horror genre has carried over into actions games, it has spawned a slew of “survival horror” games. These include games like Bioshock, Resident Evil, and Silent Hill. The goal of these games it to dole out steamy bowls of fear through not only the content of the setting and story, but also through the gameplay itself. This is done by limiting the player’s resources and abilities, causing them to think more strategically and use ammo more conservatively. This causes increased fear and tension as the player is constantly in danger of running out of supplies, at which point they are completely vulnerable to an imminent death.

Another example is a gameplay component that Dead Space has mastered- the quick time event. At any point you could suddenly be attacked by who knows what and you’re only option is to frantically mash a button to prevent a gory death. This produces constant fear that control can be completely wrested from the player in an instant.

"Which button do I press to NOT die??"

Losing control of everything is a part of our everyday lives. This is why we have safety measures on our cars, insurance on our houses, and countless other services and gadgets to ensure that we maintain control over our lives.

At the broader level is the story of Dead Space’s background forces. The first game reveals that the government was behind the placement of the first Marker on Aegis 7. Dead Space 2 shows us that the ship from the first game, the Ishimura, did indeed survive that catastrophe. But not only has the government brought back the ship to be studied, but they have used Isaac’s mind to build another Marker. What’s their goal in all this? To learn more about the Marker so that they can use it to increase their power. They want to weaponize this mysterious alien menace. Does this sound familiar? Because it’s the meta-narrative of every Alien movie. Has this kind of plan ever ended well? The prevalence of this theme illustrates that those in power are willing to do whatever is necessary (no matter how ill-advised) in order to maintain or increase their power. They operate under a fear of losing control, which leads to some very bad decision-making.

Fear 2- Shame

The relationship between Isaac and his dead girlfriend Nicole is what provides these games with emotional depth. At the end of Dead Space, Isaac learns that she killed herself out of desperation to avoid a worse death at the hands of the Necromorphs. Isaac is tormented with guilt over not being able to save her in time. Nicole appears much more in the second game as she regularly terrorizes and antagonizes him. She is not real, but is actually a manifestation of the Marker’s presence in Isaac’s mind. There was one encounter in particular that provides insight into Isaac’s character. She tells him, “No one would ever know the guilt you feel, never know the dark thoughts you keep.” Isaac is afraid of having to come to terms with his internal feelings of shame and failure related to Nicole’s death.

This plays into our fears because we all have secrets that we keep. There are things that we think about or have done that we keep to ourselves. They serve as reminders of how terrible we really are. On the outside we put up a good front and act like nothing is wrong because we could not bear the possibility of others seeing the shameful things inside of us.

Fear 3- Death

These games have plenty of examples of death to haunt our fears. The gameplay deals not only death but with painful, gory, excruciating death. We have enough trouble mentally and emotionally dealing with the mystery of death and what comes after, but playing these games just makes it worse by watching Isaac experience a great deal of pain and suffering before finally kicking the bucket.

Isaac's battles have left him as only half the man he used to be.

When you fail, the game provides many opportunities to experience death scenes like the one pictured above. The difficulty level and abundance of enemies in the game means that this is a common occurrence and death is always following close behind Isaac. Likewise, we are constantly reminded of our impending death. This is why there’s always been a compulsion towards dieting, beauty enhancement, and medical advances, to name a few. These are all our attempts to soothe our fears about our inevitable death. Even the Necromorphs in Dead Space are an example of how someone’s attempt to cheat death backfired horribly.

So what do we do about all this fear? Come back next time to find out.