Alien: Isolation or Dead Space - which is better?

They're both bad at horror, but at least Dead Space is actually fun to play.

Dead Space

Dead Space 1 and 2 ,,, fantastic games. 3 was okay with a friend but such a let down solo

I only played Aliens but I voted for Zombie Army Trilogy.

Dead Space is way better. I see you just started on Isolation. It is good for the first 4-5 hours, then you realize how lame it is.

Resident Evil 4.

Alien isolation is better than each individual Dead space game but the Dead space franchise as a whole is better than alien isolation of you get my meaning

They're both equally bad

Alien Isolation any day of the week. Even with its shitty second half the game easily outclasses the subpar nonsense that is the Dead Space franchise.

I'm jealous of you, having just started Alien: Isolation. You are definitely in for something special, you are correct in saying that. It was my personal 2014 GOTY as well as PC Gamer's GOTY. There are sections of the game that can be annoying and it may be slightly longer than it should be, but other than that it is one hell of an experience that will leave you breathless. I hope you're playing it in the dark with headphones or some kind of surround sound, otherwise you're missing the full experience. I played the PC version and it was tense as **** being a foot away from my monitor, lights out, and 7.1 surround sound.

So my vote goes for Alien Isolation although I am a fan of the Dead Space series. Never played the third one though but have heard it wasn't anything special anyway.

I don't like to rank two different design approaches (play design, not theme/setting) against each other, but according to the critical standard of how something is executed according to the designers' intent, Dead Space was better realized. Alien Isolation is a more interesting setup up to me, and had potential but couldn't maintain it. Dead Space is solid all the way through as a space-horror themed shooter.

Haha. Yea, I'm playing on PC with the sound up. It's crazy, I love it. The bastard killed me a couple times already. One while I was running towards a vent, and another when I was peeking out of one, lol.

Dead space 1 is a great game too bad ea f$&@ with the series and dudebro all over it.

Very different games.

I think Alien freaked me more though. It has some epic fanservice too.

I have yet to play Alien Isolation, but to be honest, Xenomorphs are not scary. At all. They're too exposed. And from what I understand Alien's mechanics are mediocre so...

Dead Space isn't scary either, but the mechanics are awesome, so it's fun to play which makes up for the lack of being really scary. The first two are great, three was just okay. 2 is actually one of my favorite games of the last generation.

I'd rather not compare two games I really like. Though I will say Dead Space has or had more going for it given they've had three great games in the series, plus the rather good supplemental rail shooter Dead Space Extraction. However, from EA's business end, I think they're setting Dead Space aside after Dead Space 3 due to the lukewarm critical and commercial reception. Plus they needed Visceral to make Battlefield Hardlines while DICE works on the next Mirror's Edge and Star Wars Battlefronts. Meanwhile there's probably a decent chance that Alien Isolation will get a sequel given the general positive reception it received. Though, SEGA only had a license for so many Alien games and I think they exhausted the number of games they were licensed to make from 20th Century Fox, so it's up to SEGA to renew that license. However, lots could go wrong, 20th Century Fox might not given them the license, SEGA might not want it given the clusterfuck of games that came as a result, like AVP3 and Colonial Marines. Though, Alien Infestation on the DS was pretty good admittedly, though a smaller game, but Isolation was the only one of the games that amounted to much. They might ignore it entirely. Also, SEGA is now on a different path regarding game publishing and I'm not sure Alien Isolation is part of that plan. The game only sold 1 million copies last I heard just a couple months ago. That's less than Vanquish and Bayonetta and Sega wanted nothing to do with sequels of both of those.

Anyhow, about the games...

I really loved the original Dead Space, it was refreshing to play a masterly crafted survival horror game that actually had excellent combat mechanics. Dead Space 2 got more critical acclaim than the original, did a great job putting more story into things, and I for the most part agree. My only problem is they gimped my favorite weapon from the original game, the Ripper, it aims high instead of low which makes a huge different, and the blades stays hover closer to the player than further away. But, completely ignoring the Ripper I learned to love the other weapons more. Dead Space Extraction on the Wii was also pretty cool. When it came to Dead Space 3 I was almost demoralized by how bad the demo was. However, the actual game was still pretty damn good and in no way as horrible as people made it out to be. I learned to really like the weapon crafting system. I really hope Visceral can go back to making some Dead Space games at some point, hopefully they aren't on Battlefield detail much longer. Of any of the 7th gen games I think need a 8th gen collection I'd hope one of them would be the Dead Space games.

As for Alien Isolation, and as a fan of the Alien franchise, I for one loved it. It was so refreshing not to have an Alien(s) game that I could effortlessly love. I was somewhat surprised given how meh people were about it, saying the game started out strong but became tedious and boring at the end. I didn't feel that way. Sure when it comes to most horror games they're scarier in the beginning before players get numb to them. I never found it truly terrifying but the game all the way to the end was still a tense one and kept me on my toes. Overall I think this game truly did the franchise justice. My only gripe about the game is with the season pass and DLC. Granted I haven't played it, but I got the Nostromo Edition DLC and if felt cheap, tacked on, served more promotional purposes than actually expanding the game, and for that I totally ignored the season pass. Admittedly I still haven't done any survival mode, mostly played through the game. Looking forward to going back and getting all the collectibles and earn some of the achievements I missed. Though, I'm totally not even going to try going for that one of playing the entire game without dying, I know that's going to frustrate and infuriate me and nothing good can come of that.

I'd say it's a toss up if it's Dead Space 1 or Isolation, if it were any of the other DS games then I'd have to say Isolation.

Xenomorphs being exposed may take away from how scary the beast actual looks, but Alien's understanding of basic horror rulesets like pacing, tension, build up, and complete silence is something Dead Space even when it was pretending it was Event Horizon (dead space 1) couldn't do properly. Mechanically speaking there is nothing special about either game, but Alien's gameplay works in its composition mostly because of how they handle the alien AI and game structure.

Dead Space 1-3 are dull repetitive shooting galleries with a limb dismembering gimmick that Binary Domain did better.

Dead space series easily , even if DS3 didnt deliver.

The whole concept, atmosphere , lore ... i found it the only true survival horror shooter of last gen by far . DS3 wasnt that good but first game was a blast to say the least.

I played Dead Space 1 all the way through out of boredom at the time it released. Visually it had some cool stuff going on, didn't really care for it enough to try the sequels though.

Haven't played Isolation yet, but from what I've seen/heard, I think I'll enjoy it more than Dead Space.

@jg4xchamp: Event Horizon is so friggin scary, and Ive been watching horror movies forever.

Really enjoyed both games. The pacing and suspense is better in Dead Space as far as I'm concerned, so it got my vote. I still replay it every year around Halloween with headphones in a dark room. It still has some good jump moments.

Isolation was very good, but you seem to spend a lot of time hiding in lockers, vents or under tables. While it does raise the suspense level, it can get boring. Still I'm really hoping they make a sequel at some point.

Word, good fucking movie.

DS1 > A: I >>>>> DS 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DS 3

the struggle i have to live with, horror is my favorite genre yet i don't get scared anymore QQ

Still good movie tho.

Dead Space 1 ..dislike horror games that all you do is run & hide.. prefer ones that you fight back. :P

That's a joke. Dead Space by about a million. At least it's a good video game.

@Krelian-co: Recent films that got me some were Evil Dead and The Conjuring.

lol you learn to appreciate them for different reasons I feel once you stop getting scared.

Plus you begin to separate what's genuinely tense from what startles people.

Have not played Alien: Isolation, but I'm not a fan of the whole progress > run from monster > hide > progress > die > restart section > die again > etc. It sort of loses the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, I just felt Dead Space was fun to play, the first one anyways. Second one started drifting away from what made the first great, and then the third... I didn't even finish. :S

Taken as a space dungeon crawler (as opposed to a horror game) Dead Space 1/2 are pretty good.

Dead Space.......is better.There is no other game like Dead Space games.I hope for Dead Space 4.

oh yeah i still enjoy them a lot, and scary games too, still my favorite genre i just don't get scared, which is why i liked alien isolation it actually managed to give me that sense of urgency and dread.

@wolverine4262: I won't lie, I actively hate the Conjuring, mostly because of how new and exciting everyone was making it out to be. It was literally nothing more than jump scares that were as predictable as they come. It didn't take any kind of risks or do anything in an even remotely interesting way. Much like The shining, it was a horror movie for people who don't like horror. Of course, The Shining is actually a good movie regardless of genre.

Dead space is a lot better , aliens always have and always will be atrocious they should give up on it already noone cares except a hand full of fanboys

Dead Space.

He's the reality of it all. Games aren't scary, never will be. They can, however, contain elements of suspense, such as paranoia. The only thing that video games with a horror aspect can truly rely on to even be considered scary is anxiety. Games like Amnesia, and Outlast pretty much perfected this. Now the challenge here is for a game to be both "horror" and fun at the same time. Fun will always take precedent over horror every time.

Completely different games. I'd love to say Alien: Isolation simply because of it's originality, but that wouldn't be honest. Dead Space 2 is a far better compiled title to be frank. It may not have been original, but unlike A:I, it truly feels like more than the some of it's parts in almost every respect. A:I is special, but namely because it's different. If the market were flooded with the same type of game, no one would be singing it's praises save for the praises that truly deserve to be sung -- namely the fact that it truly nails the 80's retro future atmosphere to a tee.

From what I know about Alien Isolation its more stealth/cat and mouse game so I would pick dead space.

Well they are completely different. Deadspace is a mindless shooter. Alien is a jump scare stealth game (I'm playing through this right now BTW).

I enjoyed deadspace more but I highly recommend alien if you haven't played it. Especially if you enjoyed the movie.

Dead Space 3 is better than Alien Isolation. So the first wins by a huge margin.

I should probably play Alien: Isolation but I'm almost positive I would find Dead Space better.

Dead Space all day.

Dead Space, but not DS2 or 3