Tropes relating to the characters introduced in Dead Space and its remake.

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USG Kellion

Isaac Clarke

See Here

Zach Hammond

Played by: Peter Mensah (Original), Anthony Alabi (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_hammond.png

Hammond in the Remake

"Your lack of confidence in me is duly noted, Ms. Daniels, but I have a mission to complete and that's exactly what I intend to do. With or without you. Do we understand each other?"

Chief Security Officer of the USG Kellion. Hammond is one of the three members of the repair team that makes it off the Ishimura's flight deck, along with Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels.

Adaptational Angst Upgrade: He's less closed off in the remake, namely being more distraught over Chen and Johnston's deaths (see Sanity Slippage).
Adaptational Wimp: Hammond unfortunately got the short end of the stick in this regard. Whereas his original counterpart was a headstrong and determined leader who did his best to assist Isaac in his quest while defending himself from Kendra's accusations, and was remarkably resistant to the Red Marker's influences, the remake instead depicts him as a more deferential and passive officer who puts up a rather limp attempt at proving his innocence, all while suffering from an increasingly worsening onset of dementia that became borderline delirium by the time the Valor arrived on the scene and directly contributed to his demise.
Bald of Authority: Completely bald, and he's the leader both by his official role aboard the Kellion and by his actions in the game.
Character Development: Goes from being dead-set on completing the mission to simply wanting to get off the Ishimura. Justified as ten minutes aboard the Ishimura will tell anyone it's a lost cause.
Cruel and Unusual Death: The Brute who attacks Hammond in the original game first slowly pulls off his leg, than pounds him repeatedly with its gigantic armored limbs and finally smashes him through a thick pane of safety glass.
Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end in Chapter 9 of the original game. He never stood a chance against the Brute that killed him.
Demoted to Extra: Downplayed in the remake. Hammond no longer plays a role in Chapter 6, unlike in the original, instead being on the Crew Deck at the time. Instead, the person helping Isaac in this chapter is Elizabeth Cross.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Originally Hammond died getting ripped apart by a Brute. In the remake he goes out with a lot more dignity, pushing an infected Chen into the Valor's singularity engine after letting Chen get close enough to impale him during a bout of Marker madness that Hammond manages to overcome in his final moments.
A Father to His Men: In the remake, he cares a great deal for his crew and is distraught when Chen and Johnston are killed. This becomes deconstructed, as his close friendships with Chen and Johnston begin to weigh on his conscience and impede his ability to lead after losing them both. It's also how the Marker is ultimately able to sink its hooks into him: upon realizing that the USM Valor was there to destroy the Ishimura, meaning that his crew was doomed the minute they set out on their repair mission, he finally snaps.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Starts the game all business and being rather demanding. However, he does show concern about Isaac's search for Nicole, and eventually abandons the repair mission in order to get his surviving crew off.
Go Mad from the Revelation: In the remake, he maintains his composure throughout most of the game despite being directly exposed to the Marker. His investigation of the USM Valor and subsequent realization that they were there to destroy both the Ishimura and the Aegis VII colony to keep the Marker under wraps, meaning that the Kellion crew were dead the minute they arrived at the Ishimura, causes him to unravel entirely. He only manages to regain his sanity upon being mortally wounded by necromorph Chen.
Heroic Willpower: Hammond's discipline in the remake is to the point he's able to persevere mostly unaffected by the Marker till the later parts of the game, but what really qualifies him is after succumbing to its influence he then breaks free of its control and performs a Taking You with Me with the Necromorph Chen, a feat that's been only been otherwise done by Isaac and John Carver.
Locked Out of the Loop: In the original game, Kendra accuses him repeatedly of hiding secrets. He insists he has no idea what's going on. He's telling the truth; Kendra's the military spy. This is taken a step further in the remake, with Hammond himself discovering that the CEC withheld the truth about Aegis VII, their mission, and the Valor.
Mission Control: Isaac is ordered around by a lot of people, but he is the main one.
Not Enough to Bury: He dies in the remake by pushing necromorph Chen into the Valor's singularity core. Needless to say, there's not much left of him afterward.
Red Herring: You would think throughout the first part of the game that he has something to do with the Marker and Unitologists. You'd be wrong.
Sanity Slippage: Under the effects of the Marker, Hammond hallucinates Chen as though he's alive, despite having watched him die and become a Slasher. By the time Isaac catches up to Hammond, he's mentally regressed all the way back to his memories of the flight lounge ambush, though he regains control in his last moments.
Staking the Loved One: A platonic example, but in the remake, Hammond is deeply shaken by the appearance of Chen as a necromorph, and is unwilling to actually destroy the Slasher. Instead, he forces Chen into an escape pod and jettisons him into space, and even that is done with hesitation. Unfortunately (or fortunately, considering the truth of their mission), Hammond's doubt leads directly to the destruction of the Valor, which picks up the pod and releases Chen. He eventually manages to work up the resolve to put Chen down, but it ends up costing Hammond his life as well.
Taking You with Me: In the remake, instead of a Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of an Enhanced Brute, Hammond is fatally skewered by the infected Chen while succumbing to Marker madness. However, rather than expiring immediately, he manages to recognize the situation and musters enough willpower to throw the two of them together into the Valor's singularity core, obliterating them both in an instant.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Along with Kendra, you don't physically interact with him except for three moments in the game, though he's constantly sending you updates over comms.

Kendra Daniels

Played by: Tonantzin Carmelo (Original), Brigitte Kali Canales (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kendra_daniels_remake.png

Daniels in the Remake

"More of what?! What the hell are those things? Is that the crew?!"

The computer specialist aboard the USG Kellion as part of its emergency maintenance team. She does not get along with their commander, Chief Hammond, but is friendlier towards Isaac.

Adaptational Heroism: In the remake, she's more sympathetic, portrayed as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain with an I Did What I Had to Do approach to her actions (including having Isaac facing the truth about Nicole's death, which was conversely a sadistic and cruel Kick the Dog act of hers in the original game) and her death is ultimately a tragic Heel–Face Door-Slam wherein Isaac tries in vain to save her life.
Adaptational Intelligence: In the remake she's makes small talk with Isaac a few times at the beginning, only wonders if the necromorphs are the crew once Isaac himself points out they're wearing Ishimura uniforms while in the original she randomly blurts it out, is supportive of Isaac's attempts of finding Nicole, plants the seeds of Hammond being "suspicious" when he mentions he checked her files and only starts to antagonizes him once she decides it's time to pretend to be suspicious of him, instead of antagonising at the very beginning of the game. All of this makes her look friendly and reasonable, her "suspicion" of Hammond more logical, and her betrayal subtle and harder to notice. She also realizes the Necromorphs are too dangerous to be dealt with and wants to hide the Marker from everyone, while in the original she was just following =[Earth Gov's]= orders even though that was clearly a terrible idea.
Adaptational Modesty: Her uniform in the remake is no longer form fitting, and is instead realistically baggy.
Adaptational Nice Guy: In the remake, Kendra's behavior is less emotionally charged and intentionally "bitchy" towards her fellow crewmates, especially Hammond whom she's more readily willing to work with, and instead is a lot more clinically minded and relatively calm even under pressure. Even when she is revealed to be The Mole, she isn’t malicious toward Isaac, maintaining she’s only doing what she has to do to and is sad to betray him.
Adaptational Personality Change: She's the most changed character in the remake, and is practically a new character. The only things her remake counterpart has in common with the original are supporting Isaac by hacking doors open, her antagonizing Hammond, leaving Isaac to die after betraying him, revealing that Nicole was dead all along, and trying to take the Marker away, and the way she goes about those actions are all different.
- Original Kendra was short tempered to the point she kept antagonizing Hammond before she even decided to pretend she's suspicious of him being a traitor, was pretty aggressive once she starts to accuse him, never once showed any sign of empathy towards Isaac's quest of finding Nicole, and once she's revealed to be a traitor she's leaves Isaac to die without a care, and in the final chapter once she gets the Marker back, she taunts him over his insanity.
- Remake Kendra comes across as friendlier, since she makes small talk with Isaac at the beginning of the game, mentions that Hammond checked her files to make him look suspicious, only starts to antagonize him once she decides to pretend he's a traitor, and sounds less emotional while accusing him, and she is supportive of Isaac's quest to find Nicole. Once she betrays him, she says the Marker is too dangerous to be in anyone's hand and wants to hide it from everyone, even =[Earth Gov]=. While she's still an antagonist either way, she comes across as more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist in the remake than the blindly loyal to =[Earth Gov]= agent who enjoys making others suffer.
Adaptational Sexuality: A rather muddled example. The Remake has her mentioning she's looking forward to seeing her girlfriend back home, indicating Kendra's a lesbian, but the original game never even mentioned her sexual preferences. There's also the fact her girlfriend may just be a constructed part of her cover story.
Adaptational Villainy: In the remake, she murders Elizabeth Cross for refusing to surrender the Red Marker to her. However, given Cross' state of mind by that point, it was very much a Mercy Kill, making Kendra's actual villainy debatable.
Alas, Poor Villain: In the remake only, as her betrayal in the closing act of the game is motivated by her well-intentioned, but misguided plan to hide the Red Marker someplace where no one can find it, not even EarthGov, to protect humanity after seeing firsthand how dangerous the Marker is. However, in so doing, she spells her own demise as the Hive Mind brutally crushes her while Isaac tries in vain to save her due to her removing the one thing keeping it docile.
Ambiguously Brown: She's modeled after her voice actresses. Her original VA, Tonantzin Carmelo, is Native American, while her remake VA, Brigitte Kali Canales, is of Mexican, Cuban, and Spanish descent.
Asshole Victim: She murders Dr. Kyne and tries to strand Isaac on the Ishimura rather than return the Red Marker to its pedestal on Aegis VII, despite being told it's the only way to stop the Necromorphs. Then she traps Isaac, steals the Marker back (reawakening the Necromorphs) and mocks him over Nicole being dead but Isaac being in denial. She's well and truly deserved it by the time that the Hive Mind crushes her. Averted in the remake, which makes her a far less callous and cruel character, even after The Reveal.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the original game. Even before the plot twist, Kendra's behavior is just as out of line as she claims Hammond's to be. She constantly throws him under the bus and responds to him with snark and dismissiveness, as well as (given the situation, understandably) refusing to respect her current superior despite at least some logical decision making. The plot twist itself just serves as a final nail in the coffin, as it shows her to be an utterly despicable person who leaves Isaac to die on the Ishimura and steals the Aegis VII Marker, while also taking the time to rub it in Isaac's face that she used him to get the artifact, and then later does it again at Aegis VII, this time with Nicole's death. She's not only an insubordinate and impolite crew member, she's a gloating, sadistic traitor. Averted hard in the remake, where she is a vastly more sympathetic character who is torn between her mission and the teammates she's grown close to over the course of the game.
Cruel and Unusual Death: While attempting to escape Aegis VII, the Hive Mind smacks her off a platform and then rolls her around with one of its tentacles before throwing her to a sharp corner of a building so hard that two of her limbs are ripped off and her head is destroyed. As her body landed, her remaining two limbs are also crushed, leaving only her limbless, headless body on the ground. The remake is significantly more merciful to her, as she survives the initial throw with her limbs intact, instead being quickly crushed when one of the tentacles lands on her, which then throws her body aside.
Curtains Match the Window: Her hair and eyes are the same color.
Evil Costume Switch: After revealing herself as The Mole, she removes her white jacket and runs around in a black undervest. This is kept even in the remake where she's less evil.
Faux Affably Evil: Apologizes and compliments Isaac in a snobby, superior tone right after betraying him and leaving him to die on the Ishimura. In the remake, she's more of an Affably Evil Punch-Clock Villain with a I Did What I Had to Do attitude.
Insanity Immunity: It's not pointed out, but she seems to have this in the original game. Apart from a brief mention of her seeing her deceased brother, she remains remarkably sane throughout the entire game and never suffers any Marker related breakdowns unlike everyone else on the Ishimura. Averted in the Remake where she's noticeably more distressed at seeing her brother and her insistence on taking the Marker away to a new hiding place could be the manifestation of her own insanity.
Just Following Orders: Most of her villainous actions are merely the result of carrying out her mission of retrieving the Marker. This is more emphasized in the remake following the character's Adaptational Heroism.
Karmic Death: After stealing the Marker that was keeping the Hive Mind imprisoned, she gets killed by said newly freed abomination.
Kick the Dog: While most of her crimes are just done for the sake of her mission to retrieve the marker, she can’t help but force Isaac to watch the full video of his girlfriend dying before leaving him for dead on Aegis VII. Averted in the remake, which was more in line with Cruel to Be Kind and I Did What I Had to Do.
The Lost Lenore: Her younger brother, Kieran; this is especially apparent in the remake (as the original has the possibility she fabricated his existence) with how emotional she gets whenever she sees him.
Manipulative Bitch: In the original game, she plays Isaac and Hammond against each other and acts friendly towards Isaac so she can get him to do most of the work. Averted in the remake, where she's far more cooperative and has a less malevolent personality despite still being The Mole.
Mission Control: She serves this function through the majority of the game after being separated from Isaac and Hammond in the opening act and barricading herself in the Ishimura's data center. From that point on she frequently appears on comms to provide situation updates and open new paths so Isaac can access previously locked down areas of the ship.
The Mole: She's actually working for EarthGov and was assigned to the rescue mission by her higher-ups. Her actual purpose is to reclaim the Red Marker and return it to her superiors to be hidden away once more.
Ms. Fanservice: Downplayed; Kendra's rather well-endowed and wears a form-fitting jacket, but she's still wearing rather conservative clothing overall, isn’t sexualized by any means, and the camera doesn’t leer over her body. The remake makes her outfit less form-fitting, though she's still an attractive woman.
Only Sane Woman: In the original game, she frequently argues with Hammond to abandon the mission and rightly states that he's out of his league. Of course, this later turns out to be an act. However in the remake, that ends up being played straight upon the reveal, thanks to handy case of Adaptational Heroism, as Kendra intentionally goes rogue from the original mission as she realizes the Marker is just too dangerous to be given to any party period, including EarthGov, but ends up becoming an antagonist anyway to Isaac because her decision to try and hide the Marker somewhere other than Aegis VII isn't going to prevent the outbreak from spreading past the system, only stifle it for the time being.
Sanity Slippage: Like everyone else exposed to the Red Marker's signal, she begins to experience hallucinations aboard the Ishimura. Specifically, she sees her dead brother waving to her from the security monitors.
Shoot the Dog: Guns down Elizabeth Cross in the remake for refusing to let her retake possession of the Marker. Her murder of Dr. Kyne also becomes this, thanks to her Adaptational Heroism.
Smug Snake: Once she shows her true colors she acts very arrogant and makes it clear that couldn't care less about what becomes of Isaac and the Aegis VII. Averted in the remake.
The Smurfette Principle: Played straight in the original due to being the only female crew member of the Kellion and both Nicole and Elizabeth Cross never appearing in the flesh. The remake averts it by gender-swapping a Kellion Redshirt and vastly expanding both Nicole's and Cross' roles, including a face-to-face meeting with Cross. Kendra still gets far more screentime than all the other women combined, though.
Too Dumb to Live: She really shouldn't had taken the Red Marker off its pedestal, as it is the only thing pacifying both the Necromorphs and the Hive Mind.
Villainous Crush: In the original game, she claims to Isaac that she is starting to like him before leaving him to die on Aegis VII, but whether it is genuine or an insult or even both is unknown.
Villainous Valor: Until getting crushed by the Hive Mind on Aegis VII, she was still able to survive on the Ishimura by herself despite being even less equipped than Hammond.
Villainous Breakdown: Completely and utterly loses her composure in her last moments, right before the Hive Mind smashes her flat. Averted in the remake.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Like Hammond, she spends most of the game visibly absent and instead talking to Isaac over his comms, providing information and guidance.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the remake only. Whereas everything Kendra was doing in the original game was a calculated move by Earth Gov, the intent was to eventually recover the Red Marker to study as a new energy resource, and she didn't even care about the lives lost in obtaining it (and in fact was expected to Leave No Witnesses), the remake on the other hand has her going rogue from her original mission once she realizes that the Red Marker is too dangerous for anyone to have, so she decides to try and conceal it somewhere it'll never be found even as she begins to succumb to Marker madness herself, which still places her as an antagonist to Isaac since it would not eliminate the current outbreak, only stifle its growth. Not to mention that Kendra, also unlike the original game, had no intention of killing any of the team or survivors while on her original mission. In the end, with this Adaptational Heroism, Kendra in the remake is a far nobler, more tragically conflicted character who unfortunately dies while about to make a Heel–Face Turn.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the original game, she plotted to have Hammond's expedition assassinated once they'd led her to the Marker. Because the USG Kellion crash-lands into the Ishimura, she's unable to go through with her original plan and instead tries to summon the USM Valor for backup (and cleanup). When the entire crew of the Valor and most of the Kellion crew bite it, she resorts to swiping the Marker from Isaac right as he's recovered it, then leaves him to die. Averted in the remake, as while the mission is the same in its objective, her Adaptational Heroism ultimately has her come to second-guess betraying the team while they are trying to survive and at no point does she try to intentionally eliminate any witnesses to what's going on in the system, even wishing Isaac luck when she leaves him behind during her betrayal because she's confident he'll find a different way to escape.

Aiden Chen

Played by: Chris Wu (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chen_0.jpg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_chen.png

Chen in the remake

The pilot of the USG Kellion and a member of the shuttle's security detail. He successfully landed the ship within the Ishimura despite external damage, but was killed after ten minutes inside the planet-cracker.

And Then John Was a Zombie: He gets killed by a slasher in the opening act, then comes back as a slasher himself.
Ascended Extra: In the Remake, Chen still dies in the flight lounge, but has a larger role as a Necromorph Slasher that persistently hounds Hammond throughout the game. He winds up being the Slasher jettisoned from the Captain's Nest by Hammond that slaughters the crew of the Valor after they pick up his escape pod, and even claims Hammond's life rather than a Brute in the original.
Chekhov's Gunman: He gets trapped by Hammond in an escape pod after transforming into a Necromorph, and is then jettisoned into space. He later gets picked up by the Valor on its way into the system and ultimately kills everyone on board, setting up the final act.
Composite Character: In the remake, Chen becomes a slasher necromorph who replaces the random slasher that gets jettisoned by Hammond and picked up by the Valor, and the random Brute who later kills Hammond inside the Valor's crash site.
Flat Character: He’s the pilot of the USG Kellion and one of Hammond’s two troopers. That's about the bulk of characterization he receives before he’s bumped off several minutes into the game.
Named by the Adaptation: Given the forename of Aiden in the remake.
Red Shirt: He exists only to get killed off and reveal the dangers infesting the Ishimura.
One-Man Army: Both a villainous and posthumous example, but an infected Chen manages to singlehandedly slaughter his way through the battalion of armed soldiers aboard the Valor with little issue after they’re foolish enough to pop open his escape pod.
Super-Persistent Predator: In the remake, Chen becomes a slasher necromorph that stalks Hammond throughout the ship, until the latter traps it in an escape pod. After the crash of the Valor (caused by Chen when the Marines opened up the jettisoned pod), Chen's slasher shows up in the wreckage specifically to attack and kill Hammond.
Token Minority: He’s the only known Asian character in the first Dead Space game, and the first of the Kellion crew to die.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies alongside Johnston in the opening of Chapter 1 to the first Necromorphs that come in.

Hailey Johnston

Played by: Erica Luttrell (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnston.jpg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/haileyjohnston.png

Johnston in the remake

Co-pilot of the USG Kellion. Like Corporal Chen, Johnston was also under the command of Zach Hammond. In the original, Johnston was the first crew member of the USG Kellion to be killed by a Necromorph; a Slasher sneaks up from behind and decapitates him. In the remake as a woman she lives slightly longer but is killed when the Kellion is blown up.

Action Girl: From what little we see of Johnston in the remake before she’s killed, she’s shown to be something of a competent shot against the Necromorph lunging at her.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the remake, Johnston injures her leg when the Kellion crash-lands aboard the Ishimura and is forced to stay on behind. As a result, she's spared from the flight lounge attack that claimed her original counterpart, and isn't even aware of what's going on until Isaac returns to the Kellion near the end of the first chapter. Unfortunately, Hailey still dies before the chapter concludes when Necromorphs destroy the Kellion's reactor core, causing it to explode with her on it.
Flat Character: He/she is the co-pilot of the USG Kellion and one of Hammond’s two troopers. That's about the bulk of characterization he/she receives before he/she is bumped off several minutes into the game.
Gender Flip: Johnston is male in the original game, but female in the remake.
Named by the Adaptation: Given the first name of Hailey in the sequel- given that Hailey is nominally a Gender-Blender Name, this works in both versions.
Race Lift: Goes from a white male to a black female in the remake.
Red Shirt: He/she exists only to get killed off and reveal the dangers infesting the Ishimura.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies alongside Chen in the opening of Chapter 1 to the first Necromorphs that come in. In the remake Johnston lives slightly longer but is killed when the Kellion blows up.

USG Ishimura

Captain Benjamin Mathius

Played by: J.G. Hertzler (Dead Space), Jim Cummings (1952) (Dead Space: Downfall), Jim Pirri (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/benjamin_mathius.JPG

"Don't tell me what to do, I'm the captain! This is my ship!"

Mathius' portrait

The last captain of the USG Ishimura, and secretly a devout Unitologist.

Adaptational Villainy: In the original he was antagonistic, but this comes off as more the result of Marker-induced insanity and paranoia than any inherent malice- as seen by his decision to quarantine Aegis VII, which almost prevented disaster. In the remake he's revealed to be much more openly villainous even before the Marker paranoia sets in, as seen with him trying to hamper Nicole's efforts to help Brant Harris.
Asshole Victim: His willingness to abandon countless people to madness and death to protect his precious holy relic means we have no sympathy for his death.
Ax-Crazy: The Marker starts driving him into a violent paranoia, to the point that he begins to threaten the lives of the surrounding crew.
Authority Equals Asskicking: For no particular reason, the good captain is the first enhanced Necromorph you face in the original game. Downplayed in that all corpses Infectors transform turn into Enhanced Slashers and it was more of a introduction for the Infector.
Bad Boss: Mathius doesn't care how many people on his ship die so long he delivers the Marker to the Church and berates anyone who questions him. It is implied that he was the one who sabotaged the communications array to prevent anyone for calling for help ^note The Chief Communications Officer noticed the sabotaged before the Captain's death and Kyne's subsequent sabotage on other parts of the ship
- The remake has him being particularly mean towards Nicole because she specializes in deprogramming Unitologist members and accuses her of being a bigot.
Came Back Wrong: His corpse is infected and transformed into an enhanced slasher by the first infector in the series, although Isaac, who happens to be nearby, fixes that problem.
The Captain: This is his official rank aboard the Ishimura, and until the Marker sickness turned him into a raving, paranoid lunatic, he was very popular with his crew.
Eye Scream: Via a syringe that was intended to sedate him. In the game we only get to hear the event occur via audio log, though his corpse in the morgue can be momentarily seen with the needle still jammed through his eye. In Dead Space: Downfall it's shown in all its squicky detail onscreen.
Faith–Heel Turn: A negative example of the trope. He seems to be suffering from rapid onset cancer as tumors were found in his body that weren't there when they first set out for the planet. It's implied that while he was a Unitologist already, his imminent death and the promise of eternal life and a heavenly unity was the main focus of his Marker-induced insanity. This explains why he wanted to protect it so badly.
Immortality Immorality: Recovered logs reveal that the entire reason he was so bent on bringing the Marker on board the Ishimura is because the Church of Unitology had promised him a slot on one of their mausoleum ships, where his body would be preserved in cryo until Convergence could be achieved - but only if he was able to send the Marker back to Earth. He makes this his top priority with no regard for the negative consequences the Marker's presence has on the people under his command.
Immortality Seeker: It's implied from his terminal cancer diagnosis that one of the main reasons he wanted the Marker so badly was so he could use its power as a last ditch effort to escape his inevitable death. It's telling that he starts cracking big time when Kyne and the other crewmembers consider ditching the Marker.
Ink-Suit Actor: His portrait and model in the original game, are both a dead ringer for his actor, J.G. Hertzler.
It's All About Me: While still an overzealous member of the Church, the remake explains that Mathius' obsession with bringing the Marker to the Church is more than just paranoia. Mathius is apparently dying from cancer and the prospect of dying scares him. The Church has promised him to preserve his body at one of their mausoleum ships if he succeeds in delivering the Marker and he will ensure it will, no matter the cost.
Jerkass: Shows shades of this in the original, implied to be from Marker madness. The remake plays it up more, showing him as someone who goes out of his way to interfere with anyone that gets in Unitology's way.
Knight Templar: He's a devout and fanatical follower of Unitology.
Sanity Slippage: Thanks to Marker Sickness, he became increasingly paranoid, obsessed and erratic, until it got so bad that Dr. Kyne declared he had to step down under space-navy law as unfit for command. He tried to resist and got himself killed in the process.

Terrence Kyne

Played by: Keith Szarabajka, Pej Vahdat (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kyne.jpg

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_kyne_portrayal.png

Kyne in the remake

"We have been deceived into believing there are space gods; Unitology is a lie. That is the mechanism of their control, the lies that brought us here under false pretenses."

Chief Science Officer of the Ishimura and formerly a devout Unitologist. Fearing what would happen if the Necromorph outbreak spreads, he sabotaged the ship, until visions of his deceased wife show him how to stop the outbreak.

Age Lift: The remake gives him an odd variation. While he looks physically younger, he has a different hair color entirely, trading his dark brown for white/grey.
The Atoner: All he wants to do is make things right after sabotaging the Ishimura and making things worse for others.
Action Survivor: He was on the Ishimura at the very beginning, and managed to survive the ship's massacre and the events of the game up until the the last chapter aboard the Ishimura.
Accidental Murder: When Kyne tries to sedate Captain Mathius while he's being relieved of command, he unintentionally jams the syringe into his eye when the unstable captain charges at him.
Adaptational Personality Change: In the remake he's noticeably less eccentric and more compassionate.
Big Good: Arguably. Everything that he does is to ensure that the Necromorphs do not spread beyond the system, which would have saved countless lives had his efforts been successful.
Broken Pedestal: Kyne turned to Unitology after the death of his wife to find some comfort, only to be horrified by their madness during the outbreak.
Cloudcuckoolander: Played for Drama. He's been driven over the edge by a combination of Marker sickness, the horrors he's seen and survivor's guilt.
Creepy Good: He's unhinged and delusional, but still utterly dedicated to stopping the outbreak. Downplayed in the remake (see Adaptational Personality Change).
Dead Person Conversation: Frequently chats with his dead wife.
Everyone Has Standards: Despite being a Unitologist, Kyne is not a crazy zealot and is horrified when he sees the Marker spreading madness to the people and transforming them into savage monsters. He realizes the Marker isn't some holy artifact and tries to stop the Marker from spreading and dooming humanity.
The Extremist Was Right: Alissa Vincent really should’ve listened to him, as blowing the Ishimura to hell would've been for the best.
Failure Knight: Despite trying to do the right thing, he constantly fails and in many situations, he makes things worse, such as when he actively sabotages the Ishimura's engines.
Only Sane Man: He's one of the few Unitologists who's sane enough to recognize the Marker is bad news, and that everything going on before the game's events is not at all a heaven that people should want. Even as he hallucinates his dead wife, he's still lucid enough to want to help Isaac. It contrasts heavily with Mercer, who's all too happy to speed things along, and actively interferes with those who try to help people; and Matthias, who's so obsessed with protecting the Marker that Kyne tries to sedate him.
Reluctant Mad Scientist: As shown by his actions in the game proper, he doesn't really like what he does.
Sanity Slippage: After the Marker is brought on board the ship, he starts seeing and talking to his dead wife.
The Smart Guy: He's a scientist, after all, and he was trusted with being able to decipher and decode the Marker found on Aegis VII.
Token Good Teammate: In the remake, he seems to be the only Unitologist who doesn't follow Mercer. Franchise-wise, he is also the only Unitologist ally Isaac encounters in his games and one of the few Unitologists who isn't a homicidal or manipulative zealot. Even Nicole and Isaac, despite their dislike for the Church, find him an honest person, with the latter even mourning his death in the remake.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Wants to doom the entire crew of the Ishimura, but most of them are already dead and killing the rest will prevent what happened to them from happening anywhere else.

Challus Mercer

Played by: Navid Negahban (Original), Faran Tahir (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mercer_4.jpg

"Your future, the future of our race ends here!"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_mercer_4.png

Mercer in the Remake

Another Mad Scientist and Unitologist on the Ishimura. Audio logs Isaac finds detail how discovering the Necromorphs drove him from an unstable scientist into a full blown Ax-Crazy Apocalypse Cultist. By the time Isaac finds him, Mercer has been experimenting on humans and Necromorphs, the results of which he unleashes on Isaac.

Adaptational Badass: In the remake his enhanced stasis module (which seems to be able to completely stop its victims for upwards of a minute) makes his survival on board the Ishimura, despite being otherwise unarmed, much more plausible than in the original.
Adaptational Karma: In the original, he goes to his death praising his coming transformation into a necromorph (and even if you do prevent this from happening, he still dies a fulfilled man). In the remake, he goes out terrified, pathetically begging for his life as he's crushed to death.
Adaptational Villainy: Yes, somehow, Mercer is actually a worse person in the remake despite coming off as more affable than the psycho-mad cultist he was in the original as he is a more clinically-focused individual and has a much more sensible endgame in mind than being an Omnicidal Maniac that murdered the survivors systematically. He's also a lot more sadistic as he uses a stasis tool to explicitly draw out and savor the deaths of his victims, as poor Jacob Temple suffers here as Mercer blows his brains out.
Admiring the Abomination: He's utterly enamoured with the Necromorphs. Half his dialogue is describing how they are the true successors of humanity, the ultimate life form. He speaks with nothing but pride when describing his latest "creation": the Hunter.
Arc Villain: While not responsible for the outbreak in itself, he's the only survivor aboard the Ishimura whose fanatical devotion makes him actively hostile toward Isaac. He repeatedly impedes Isaac's progress and is responsible for the creation of the Hunter. Once he's dispatched, the Hive Mind takes stage as the overarching threat.
Ax-Crazy: He's gone completely over the deep end, murdering people to help spread the necromorph infestation and actively trying to engineer even stronger strains of necromorph.
Beard of Evil: He has a short-trimmed, chin-hugging beard & mustache combination, and he's a batshit insane lunatic who is actively antagonistic towards Isaac.
Belief Makes You Stupid: Dr. Mercer emphasizes the fact that being a Unitologist basically makes you extra-vulnerable to the insanity caused by Markers. Mercer worships the necromorphs, believing that the transformation into a necromorph is the promised "Convergence" of body, mind and soul preached by his cult, so he actively tries to "assist" others in becoming necromorphs. The original emphasizes the fact that Mercer is an unhinged fanatic even by the standards of the other Unitologists; there's a looping video in one of the dorms before you encounter the Hunter for the second time where he tries to convince a band of offscreen Unitologists to accept that the necromorphs are the Convergence promised by the church — and fails, as they turn their backs on him in disgust.
- This trope comes into play in the remake in a different way, as his devout faith in Unitology leads him to completely misunderstand his role in the grand scheme of things. His faith in the Marker to grant him immortality through Convergence causes him to completely fail to comprehend that he's been promised nothing and that he has no real sway over the Necromorphs, who in turn have no real incentive or intention to keep him alive.
Cruel and Unusual Death: His death in the remake has him being tied to the Marker by a Drag Tentacle and dragged to the cargo hold. It’s unclear if he was crushed by the tentacle, killed by being dragged through the Ishimura, or simply assimilated into the Corruption upon arrival, but not a pretty way to die regardless.
Dirty Coward: While this doesn’t apply to Mercer in the original, who gladly surrenders himself to an Infector, in the remake his motives are considerably more self-centered and craven. While still a devout Unitologist through and through, it becomes increasingly clear both through his logs and the terrified reaction to his own impending demise that he’s afraid of actually dying. In an attempt to cheat his own mortality, Mercer would go on to conduct horrific experiments on the crew, murdering or infecting an untold number of innocent people in the hope that his own life would be spared.
Disc-One Final Boss: Barring the Necromorphs themselves, Mercer is the most prominent antagonist Isaac encounters aboard the Ishimura, but dies in the tenth of the game's twelve chapters. From then on, Isaac has to deal with the Hive Mind.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: Instead of becoming an Enhanced Slasher of his own volition like in the original game, Mercer is ultimately The Unfought as he's compacted to death by a Necromorph tentacle constricting both him and the Marker while he exclaims in horror that he was promised Convergence.
Dissonant Serenity: In contrast to everyone else Isaac encounters on the Ishimura, Mercer always speaks in a calm, almost reverent tone, showing just how detached he is from the horrific reality of the Necromorph outbreak. The only time we see him crack is in a video log, where his "flock" of Unitologists turn their backs on him.
The Dragon: To the Hive Mind, as he's actively trying to return the Marker to bring about Convergence.
Dramatically Missing the Point: The remake Mercer's ultimate undoing. His unshakable faith in Unitology and the Marker blinds him to the reality that he's not in any way special, nor has the Marker actually promised him anything. He's merely a pawn, and once his role is played out, the Hive Mind almost off-handedly disposes of him, with Mercer crying in horror at his denied eternal paradise. From then on, the Marker begins affecting Isaac to nudge him to complete what Mercer started, highlighting just how expendable the doctor really was.
Evilutionary Biologist: As part of his delusional faith, Mercer experiments with the Necromorphs, which ultimately allows him to create the Hunter.
The Fundamentalist: He's an absolute religious fanatic, and believes that the only fate humanity is "worthy of" is to achieve his religion's promised deliverance. It’s played differently in the remake. He’s far less overt with his fundamentalism and more of a Cold Ham but he’s still just as fanatical with his beliefs, albeit for much more selfish reasons.
Faux Affably Evil: He’s very calm and cordial, and talks to Isaac as if he’s genuinely doing a bad thing in defending himself against the infected, but whatever morals and scruples Mercer may have had have long since been subverted by the Marker, with his considerable rap sheet proving that there is no line in the sand he won’t cross to see Convergence happen.
The Immune: Curiously, in the remake, Mercer is not affected by the Marker much at all despite his continuous proximity as stated in his logs as he expresses frustration about how little he can communicate with it and only gets vague whispers at best when he does. Even people with a higher than average intellect like Isaac severely suffered due too much proximity to the Marker, but Mercer keeps all his faculties and isn't plagued with the hallucinations and paranoia that are typical hallmarks of Marker sickness, which implies a certain immunity not seen before and makes him all the more terrifying as his actions are entirely his own.
Hypocrite: In the remake, Mercer gladly murders or sets the Hunter on any of the living crew he finds in the name of Convergence, but when it’s his turn to die, he screams and begs for his life as he’s crushed to death by a tentacle.
Knight Templar: He will happily torture and murder people and bring about the extinction of humanity, because he believes that this will bring about the ascent to his religion's paradise.
Laser-Guided Karma: After killing countless people and setting the Hunter upon Isaac, he ultimately gets taken apart by Clarke after he turns and tries to kill him. Alternatively, it’s entirely possible to prevent his transformation altogether, denying Mercer the ascension he killed for. In the remake, he meets his end at the hands of the very creatures he revered, getting crushed to death by a Necromorph tentacle.
Mad Doctor/Mad Scientist: Creates stronger Necromorphs by experimenting on human beings. This is doubled down on in the remake, as he's had fun creating not only stronger Necromorphs but also created horrific weaponry and tools to turn on the other survivors of the Ishimura, such as his prototype Osmium Stasis module.
The Man Behind the Monsters: While not leading the Necromorphs directly, as their true leader is the Hive Mind, he is helping to advance the Necromorph infection and create new, more powerful types of Necromorphs.
Meaningful Name: Mercer is an old term for a dealer of textiles. Seems he's a man of the cloth. Another interpretation: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a type of bacterium responsible for numerous difficult-to-treat or outright incurable ailments in human beings. It's abbreviated MRSA, and the abbreviation is often pronounced "Mer-sah" or Mercer. His first name, Challus, is a homophone for "chalice", the goblets that are used to celebrate Communion in many Christian denominations and are also important in several other religious traditions. Given the game's extensive use of Body Horror, it's appropriate that his name evokes a ceremony involving the symbolic consumption of flesh and blood.
Mortality Phobia: The remake makes this his motivation. Mercer has spent his entire career trying to find a way to overcome death in accordance with Unitology's beliefs, but it's evident in his final moments before being killed by the Marker that dying actually scares the shit out of him enough to push him to commit inhumane experiments in hopes to avert ever succumbing himself.
Not So Stoic: Mercer's calm, patient, and downright sinister demeanor turns into complete and utter rage upon the discovery that Isaac has killed the Hunter.
Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Especially pronounced in the remake. He claims his actions are all in order to bring about Unitology’s promised Convergence. However it becomes especially clear the further along you get that he only cares about saving himself from death and he doesn’t care how many others die if it means he gets his own eternal reward.
Omnicidal Maniac: Mercer's master plan, such as it is, is to use the Ishimura to transport the Necromorphs to Earth, where he'll unleash them to turn the entire planet into Necromorphs. This plan's not particularly realistic given the current condition of the Ishimura, and he eventually forgets about it entirely and feeds himself to an Infector. In the remake, however, due the surviving members of Kellion's crew repairing the Ishimura's engines and other systems (for the most part to get enough time to find out a way to escape the ship), the prospect is far more possible for him. He even thanks Isaac for his inadvertent help in achieving his goal, which remains the same: to bring the Necromorphs and the Marker aboard to Earth to begin a Convergence event.
One-Winged Angel: In the original game, after Isaac kills the Hunter, Mercer lets an Infector turn him into a Necromorph. His transformation isn't anything special though, as he just becomes another Enhanced Slasher. The process can even be averted if the player is fast enough to kill the Infector before Mercer transforms.
The Quisling: While a large chunk of the Ishimura’s crew are Unitologists as is, Mercer actively works to help the Necromorphs slaughter the crew. The original contains a looping video on the Crew Deck of him trying to convince a group of Unitologists to accept death at the hands of the Necromorphs. They promptly leave in disgust.
- He's a more traditional turncoat version of this in the remake, though all the "promises" he's been made are more delusions of his own creation.
Sanity Slippage: Like everyone else exposed to the Marker, he's gone completely screaming off the deep end, to the point he has taken to worshipping the necromorphs and wants to turn all of humanity into them. The remake averts this as Mercer is saner than most pawns of the Marker, something that upsets him considerably as he can barely decipher what it's trying to communicate to him, and instead implies that all of Mercer's actions over the course of the remake as entirely of his own volition.
Torture Technician: In one of his audio logs, he says that a test subject has volunteered his services, and is calm and complacent. And yet, we hear terrified screaming in the background. Calm and complacent, my ass...
Undignified Death: In the remake he is crushed against the Marker by a tentacle and dragged to the cargo hold begging for his life. He doesn’t even get to die onscreen.
Unwitting Pawn: More explicit in the remake. For all his devotion and atrocities committed in the name of Unitology, Mercer is nothing more than a tool in the eyes of the Marker, a convenient means of hastening Convergence. Tellingly, once the Marker begins manipulating Isaac, it quickly discards Mercer, as the engineer has proven more useful than the doctor could ever be.
Villainous Breakdown: In the remake, upon seeing Isaac kill his "Hunter" for good, Mercer snaps into an uncharacteristic rage instead of his usual Soft-Spoken Sadist schtick and demands that the Marker kill Isaac immediately so they can be "made whole". The Marker is happy to oblige, and kills both Mercer and attempts to with Isaac, with Mercer's last words being of explicit horror as he realizes just how expendable he is.
Villains Want Mercy: He frantically begs for his life during his death scene in the remake, in contrast with his death in the original game
Worthy Opponent: He respects Isaac's ability to survive and constantly compliments his efforts, even if he does believe Isaac's only fighting the inevitable.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the remake, he murders Temple in cold blood while stating this (in the original it was simply a ritual execution so that the Infector would later turn him). However, he also gets his own medicine when he is no longer useful to the Marker.

Nicole Brennan

See Here

Jacob Temple

Played by: T. J. Ramini (Remake)

Acting Chief Engineer of the USG Ishimura after most of the crew is dead. His story is chronicled through various logs Isaac finds, where he attempts to repair the Ishimura and find his girlfriend, Dr. Elizabeth Cross.

Adaptational Badass: He's given a more proactive role in the remake. Rather than desperately searching for an SOS beacon in the original game, he's responsible for creating it, as well as many of the traps Isaac finds in the Mining Deck. He's even packed with a Force Gun to brave the undead halls of the Ishimura. Unfortunately, it doesn't save him from Mercer's treachery, but at least he puts up a fight.
Adaptational Sexuality: He seems to be bisexual in the remake, as he makes reference in his logs to "old boyfriends" onboard the ship as well as an ex named David before he started dating Cross, whereas the original Temple made no references to partners outside of Cross.
Ascended Extra: Downplayed in the remake. Whereas in the original game where his logs are little more than breadcrumbs, Temple in the remake has a larger presence including being tricked by Mercer into bringing the Marker to the crew deck and following his death, his apparition is used by the Marker to trick Cross into thinking Isaac is him.
BFG: Carries a Force Gun in the remake, using it against Necromorphs and Mercer before the latter puts him in stasis.
Cruel and Unusual Death: In the remake, Mercer shoots Jacob in the head after putting him in stasis, a fate Mercer explicitly states to be excruciatingly painful.
Determinator: Despite the Necromorph outbreak and being there on the Ishimura at the very start, he resists Marker sickness and fights his way through the necro-infested halls until late into the game, only for Mercer to get the jump on him and murder him.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the remake, by virtue of being a more tangible character that actually has a physical presence alongside Isaac for a brief portion of the story before he's ultimately murdered later on in front of Isaac by Mercer not unlike before.
Genre Savvy: Enough in the original to quickly realize that the Ishimura is being sabotaged, which prompts him to give up trying to fix the ship and focus on finding Elizabeth instead.
Hero of Another Story: His journey through the Ishimura mirrors Isaac's, with him trying to repair the ship and find his girlfriend. In the remake, he was the leader of a group of survivors holding up at the Mining Deck and was the one who built the SOS beacon that Isaac used to call for help. Isaac finally meets him at the Crew Deck and desperately tries to save him from Mercer but fails.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Finds Cross... only for them to be Together in Death thanks to Challus Mercer. In the remake he doesn't even get that far.
You Are in Command Now: Jacob is forced to take up the position of Acting Chief Engineer after the previous one died.

Elizabeth Cross

Played by: Sumalee Montano (Remake)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_cross.png

One of the chief horticulturalists of the USG Ishimura and Jacob Temple's girlfriend.

Adaptational Badass: In the original, she abandoned hydroponics not long after the infestation began. In the remake, Cross and several other crewmembers stayed to find a way to destroy the Leviathan and she came up with a plan to poison it. She even assists Isaac in carrying out the plan when he arrives. Once it is revealed that Isaac's hallucination of Nicole is actually Cross, this means that Cross has fought her way through hordes of Necromorphs throughout the game until the final chapters.
Ascended Extra: In the original game, she was a bit character who had little characterization besides being Jacob Temple's girlfriend. The remake gives her a pivotal role that ties directly into one of the major plot twists of the game.
Bond One-Liner: After Isaac defeats the Leviathan, Cross quotes Psalm 74:14, referencing the creature's namesake from the Bible:
Cross: And lo, you crushed the heads of Leviathan- he will be meat for those in the wilderness.
The Dead Have Names: In the remake, one Audio Log found has Cross listing the names of her teammates who are turned into Wheezers.
Despair Event Horizon: In the remake, when told that Jacob is dead, Cross tells Kendra to go ahead and shoot her when the latter holds her at gunpoint for the lift controls, saying she has nothing left to lose.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the original game, she was used as bait and Killed Offscreen by Mercer, following which he quickly captured and murdered Jacob Temple. In the remake, she outlives Jacob, and is in fact the "Nicole" that Isaac interacts with throughout the game. She's ultimately killed by Kendra after refusing to surrender the Marker to her.
It's Personal: Cross' team has been turned into Wheezers after breathing in Leviathan's toxic gas. Wanting to avenge them, Cross stays in Hydroponics to find a way to kill the creature.
Killed Offscreen: In the original game, Cross has already been killed by Mercer before Isaac witnesses him killing her boyfriend.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the remake, the "Nicole" that Isaac encounters is no longer a hallucination but Cross. This means that she must have fought multiple Necromorphs along the way every time she and Isaac split up.
Sole Survivor: In the remake, she is the only member of her hydroponics team to survive long enough to meet Isaac.
Together in Death: In the original game, Mercer kills both Cross and Temple at the Crew Deck, not long after they have been reunited. In the remake however, they aren't so fortunate.
Unwitting Pawn: In the remake, Cross, like Isaac and Kyne, is manipulated by the Red Marker to bring it back to the pedestral on Aegis VII.

Ariel Rousseau

The Ishimura's Chief Engineer during the events of The Bench, made to promote the release of Dead Space (Remake). They send players the puzzles they must solve in order to unlock nodes.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Due to its nature as an Alternate Reality Game, their role in The Bench requires this. They speak directly to the players as they take on the role of the Comms Relay Crew of the Ishimura.
Canon Foreigner: They are a new character made specifically for the remake's promotional Alternate Reality Game. While they clearly existed in the original game due to Jacob Temple's status as the Acting Chief Engineer, they were never referenced nor mentioned.
Doomed by Canon: They are Chief Engineer of the Ishimura during the events of The Bench. Jacob Temple is Acting Chief Engineer during the events of Dead Space and its remake. Rousseau's RIG is one of five that players have to find in the remake to unlock the highest security clearance. An audio log is found near their RIG that suggests that Rousseau, driven crazy by insomnia and Marker exposure, threw themself into the ship's engines, which might account for at least some of the deliberate sabotage Temple mentions.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Their role in The Bench. They have not been shown in person as of this writing, speaking solely through audio transmissions and directing the Comms Relay Crew with the puzzles that, in-universe, are meant to help fix certain things aboard the Ishimura. Out-of-universe, solving the puzzles gives players goodies in the real world.

Necromorphs

Slasher

The most common type of Necromorph as well as the first type Isaac encounters. Attacks with razor-sharp arm blades.

Blade Below the Shoulder: The primary weapons of the Slasher are a pair of deadly bone blades that are either sprouting from the former hands of the host, or on entirely new limbs emerging from the shoulders or elbows.
Bloody Horror: Quite a few have visibly bleeding injuries, especially a variant that's been twisted in half and put back together, which has a huge gash across its chest.
Big "NO!": After heading through the Eye Scream machine in 2, every Slasher encountered lets out a recognisable, drawn-out NO when killed by Clarke.
Body Horror: There are many variations of Slasher, all of them providing different takes on how horribly mangled and twisted the human body becomes when made into a Necromorph.
Cutscene Power to the Max: In the first game, a slasher is able to overrun and infect the Valor all by its lonesome.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version are much faster, have more health and deal more damage.
The Goomba: They make up the rank and file of the Necromorphs, usually being seen in great numbers in infested areas and are fairly easy to put down when someone figures out how to stop them.
Heavily Armored Mook: One variant wears engineer boots that make it very resistant to kneecapping. The remake one-ups this by giving them less damaged clothes, granting them further protection to shots that aren't aimed at the head or arms.
Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: These Necromorphs can be found wearing all sorts of clothing that indicated what they did back when they were still among the living. Some of the variants you can spot include miners, Sprawl security, doctors and patients.
Mascot Mook: If any Necromorph is going to appear in promotional material, it's this one.
Monstrous Mandibles: Security guard and psych patient slashers.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They have a pair of vestigial arms sprouting from their abdomens in addition to their original arms, which are mutated into bone swords. In DS3, they have a couple more sets when encountered after they've been freeze-dried for 200 years.
Nightmare Face: Ranges from "mostly intact, but visibly damaged" to "has tentacles growing out of their eyesockets and/or mouths" to "no face left" to "where's its head? Oh, it's that lump of meat there."
Playing Possum: One of their favorite tactics. If you see an intact Slasher corpse, start shooting.
Running on All Fours: In 3, Slashers will sometimes charge at their opponents by using their blade-arms as forelegs to quickly scuttle along the ground towards them like a spider.
Sinister Scythe: Their primary weapons are their arms, which have mutated into extended talons shaped like a scythe's blade.
Underground Monkey: There's actually several different varieties of Slasher that you encounter in each game. Some are mere cosmetic reskins, but others have unique abilities. Female Slashers have been separated into a new species entirely, called "Spitters". One variety of Slasher has armored legs, making leg-shots useless on them. In 2, there are some (usually the ones wearing surgical scrubs) who have proper mandibles instead of a broken lower jaw, and some wearing clerical robes who keep their lower arms in the Sign of the Marker; these guys have tendrils coming from their eye sockets. And, of course, Enhanced Slashers are dark-fleshed, decayed-looking Slashers who are twice as tough.

Spitter

A variant of Slashers made from female corpses that spit balls of acid at their prey.

Adaptational Badass: In the remake the Spitter is considerably tankier than in the original games, taking more punishment to put down than a normal Slasher, and their caustic spit can now no longer be caught and tossed back, necessitating the need to dodge. They're also a lot more careful and significantly smarter too, actively repositioning themselves after shooting to avoid enemy fire and outright shying away from their prey to prioritise ranged attacks over close quarters combat.
Breath Weapon: They can attack from a distance by vomiting up acid globules or explosive tumors at Isaac.
Dark Action Girl: They're female and just as deadly as the males.
Distaff Counterpart: The female version of the slashers.
Fan Disservice: In DS2, Spitters appear completely nude. However, any possibility for titillation is offset both by the sight of their original arms pulling their chest muscles apart and their mouth, which has been transformed into a distended, acid-launching maw. Of course, that’s discounting the fact that they’re reanimated corpses with a taste for violence and slaughter so gratuitous that it transcends madness itself.
Fantastic Firearms: Their lungs, stomachs, and throats are mutated into biological Grenade Launchers.
Gender-Restricted Ability: Averted in 3, as we find male Spitters, although these have had to grow an organitec cannon after the relevant organs were repurposed into muscle, wasting biomatter to achieve something that just happens automatically on someone with two X chromosomes. If there are girls around, it's played straight.
Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: In contrast to Slashers, Spitters are usually formed solely from female corpses, and while just as prone to charging at their victims like their male counterparts, they’ll occasionally pause to bombard their prey. In the remake of the first game, this is much more pronounced, with both Slashers and Spitters having differing behaviours and tactics. The former attack by rushing their prey and tearing them limb from limb in a berserk whirlwind of blades and sharp teeth, while the latter keeps at a distance to snipe at their victims, only falling back on their blades when they've either been decapitated and rendered incapable of spitting or in the event the target decides to get up and close and personal.
Hoist by His Own Petard: In the original series, you can use kinesis to catch the balls of bile they spit at you and then throw it back to them.
Non-Human Head: The male Spitters in 3 have had the original head of the host pushed out of position, with a fleshy, toothy maw taking its place.
Roar Before Beating: In the remake, it's not uncommon to catch a Spitter momentarily stopping it's corrosive volley just to furiously shriek at you for its own sake.
Sinister Scythe: Like Slashers, they prefer to get up close and personal with huge scythe-blade claws, occasionally stopping to spit when Isaac's too far away. In the remake of the first game the Spitter uses them primarily as backup weapons, with their spitting attack being their go-to method of offense.

Leaper

A scorpion-like Necromorph that attacks with its large tail.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Their "legs" have twisted into a long, fleshy tail tipped with a blade. Naturally, their main method of attack (other than leaping at you and trying to bite you with their protruding fangs) is to lash you with it.
Body of Bodies: In 3,they're actually made of two corpses mashed together, with one (extremely mutilated) body providing an extra pair of arms and some ribs.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version has more health and damage output.
Fingore: The ones in Dead Space 3 have extra teeth made from fingers.
In a Single Bound: They can make enormous leaps and use these to quickly close with and grapple Isaac, especially in the Zero-G segments.
Lightning Bruiser: In the second game, which significantly beefed up their speed and power.
Monstrous Mandibles: Their jaws are mutated into a quartet of chilicerae (articulated fangs usually seen on arachnids).
Scary Scorpions: Undead corpse, human-based scorpions.
Wall Crawl: They have the ability to clamber over walls, which combines with their massive jumping ability to make them extremely maneuverable and very annoying.

Lurker

A disturbing Necromorph created from infants or dogs that can attack with its tentacles as well as barbed projectiles.

Black Comedy: Isaac's Lurker kill animation has him try to kick the zombie baby/dog for a field goal.
Beware of Vicious Dog: Dead Space 3 shows that dogs are suitable candidates for Lurker transformations as well as humans.
Body of Bodies: The Enhanced and Phantom Lurkers in the remake of the first game are visibly shown to be composed of two infants/organ donors that have been merged together.
Combat Tentacles: Three. Cutting them off is an easy way to kill them.
Elite Mook: The Enhanced version has more health and damage output.
Enfante Terrible: The original Lurkers are zombified clone babies that attack with Combat Tentacles.
Fantastic Firearms: Their tentacles can fling sharp shards of bone at such speed that the air burns in their wake.
Raising the Steaks: The version in Dead Space 3 is based on infected dogs.
Undead Child: When made from a baby.
Wall Crawl: Like Leapers, they can clamber on walls. Unlike Leapers, they can also climb on the ceiling and attack from there, due to being lighter.

Infector

A Necromorph whose sole purpose is to spread the infection. While it is physically weak, it is a credible threat thanks to its ability to turn corpses into Necromorphs.

Bat Out of Hell: The variant present in 1 and 2 is an infected human that has been drastically transformed, stretched and folded into the shape of a headless bat, and seeks out corpses to infect and reanimate when not trying to add to the body count itself.
Composite Character: In 3, Infectors are dramatically changed, resembling Swarmers in function. They travel in large groups, are much smaller than before, and attack like Swarmers.
Expy: In 1 and 2, their body shape vaguely resembles a Facehugger while in 3, they get a redesign; instead of a large mass of flesh with a proboscis, Infectors are now much smaller, and bear a great resemblance to headcrabs. However, the latter variant’s appearance as a skittering blob of flesh that appears in swarms combined with their ability to infect living and dead creatures alike by forcefully burrowing into their bodies also brings to mind the Flood Infection Forms from Halo.
Gameplay and Story Integration: One of the tenets of Unitology is that the bodies of the faithful must be preserved and protected until Convergence. Bodies that are too mutilated can't be turned into Necromorphs by Infectors, only digested by the Corruption or repurposed into multi-corpse forms. Therefore, the sensible thing to do when one encounters a corpse, or a room full of corpses, is to cut their limbs off, and if one sees an Infector transforming a corpse, quickly dismembering it before the transformation is complete can often halt it.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Their death animation features them unintentionally decapitating Isaac rather than keeping said head on its body where it can be infected.
Glass Cannon: It doesn't take much to kill one, but if given enough time it can revive a whole room full of Necromorphs.
Puppeteer Parasite: Their basic purpose is to latch onto corpses and transform them into full-fledged necromorphs.
Mook Maker: They can revive the dead bodies of the crew as Necromorphs, typically Elite Mooks.
Oh, Crap!: Their kill animation has them accidentally rip Isaac's head off, which comically startles them.
Starfish Aliens: Unlike many Necromorphs, these are just....flaps of skin and a proboscis. Or a blob of flesh on Spider Limbs. The flaps of skin and proboscis variety is still visibly human, despite how deformed they are.

Pregnant

A bloated-looking Necromorph that carries Swarmers in its stomach. Damaging its belly will release the Swarmers, making it a difficult Necromorph to deal with, especially in large groups.

Adaptational Wimp: In the remake, it's significantly harder to burst their bellies with gunfire compared to the original, and their new habit of raising their blade arms above their heads when charging instead of leaving them at stomach-level makes it much easier to saw them off and put the Pregnant down without spilling it's payload.
Attack Its Weak Point: Subverted, unlike most others. Shooting a Pregnant in the stomach, the most obvious weakpoint on it, is one of the worst things someone can do when facing one.
Blade Below the Shoulder: The Pregnant has a similar physiology to the Slasher in this regard, possessing a pair of bladed limbs emerging from the shoulders of the host, with the now-redundant original arms having merged with their belly sac.
Dead Weight: Although being heavily bloated doesn't slow them down much.
Kill It with Fire: The flamethrower, though objectively a lousy weapon in the first game, has the benefit of burning their Swarmers to death as they pour out. In the remake of the first game, the Flamethrower has replaced the Force Gun in being the the best weapon to deal with them, thanks to now being able to roast the bloated beast without the danger of rupturing its stomach.
Mister Seahorse: Squickily implied, as none of them bear any apparent feminine features.
Outside-the-Box Tactic: The Force Gun can be used to shoot Pregnants even in the stomach and avoid releasing Swarmers. In the remake of the first game this tactic has been moved to the Flamethrower, as shooting a Pregnant with a Force Gun will now spill its payload.
Mook Maker: Shooting them in the stomach unleashes Swarmers or a Lurker. Sometimes, usually when significantly wounded, a Pregnant will even take the initiative and carve their own bellies open to unleash its foul cargo, sometimes killing themselves in the process.
Pregnant Badass: They carry Swarmers, and occasionally a Lurker, in their bellies, but even if they don't end up unleashing them, they can still tear you apart with their arm blades.

Exploder

A very dangerous Necromorph with a bloated (and highly explosive) arm which it detonates in a suicide attack if it gets too close.

Action Bomb: If that wasn't bad enough, they often appear in large groups. On the plus side, friendly fire is in full effect here, and you can even steal the bomb if you sever it from the arm.
Attack Its Weak Point: That big, glowing, orange thing on its arm? It might be a good idea to shoot it before it gets too close.
Explosive Stupidity: If you're in range, they'll try to swing their big bomb arm upon you. Scurrying out of the way leaves empty space... and the impact of the floor results in the bomb exploding. Typically taking the Exploder, and any nearby friends of it, out in the explosion.
Glass Cannon: Not counting the bomb, two shots will put one down. You don't even have to aim since it's so thin. It's a walking stick with a bomb attached.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: An extremely efficient way of killing Exploders is to use their own arm bomb against them, either by detonating it via gunfire from a safe distance or by severing the appendage and lobbing it back.
Took a Level in Badass: To a very minor degree, but in 3, they now crawl, dragging their explosive behind them, and move faster than before; this makes hitting them before they get in close slightly harder.
Use Your Head: If they’ve been robbed of their bomb and they’re still alive afterwards, the disarmed Exploder will try to attack Isaac by headbutting him.

Divider

A tall, thin Necromorph that splits into several smaller Necromorphs upon being attacked. In Dead Space 3, only the head-entity reappears, nicknamed "The Creeper".

Chekhov's Skill: In Dead Space 1 and 2, the head part had a move where it jumped on Isaac, and could replace his head. This is their gimmick in 3, able to revive fallen enemies, including gun-wielding ones.
Detachment Combat: Goes all to bits when "defeated" and attacks Isaac as 5 little buggers.
It Can Think: If the head part hijacks a corpse that has a firearm, it will know how the weapon works and open fire on Isaac, although their aiming skills are very poor.
Out of Focus: They were an uncommon enemy in the first game, but still showed up often enough that you kept an eye out for them. In the second, there are a few separate parts and maybe one or two complete Dividers in the whole game. They come back into the spotlight in the third with a different gimmick, their old gimmick of "changes when dismembered" having been given to the Fodder. Only Divider heads looking for new bodies show up, with no intact Dividers to be found.
Puppeteer Parasite: The "head" piece. Which makes for one of the most disturbing deaths in the entire game. In the third game, this is their new power; Divider heads can show up after a battle with Unitologists and possess their corpses by decapitating them and replacing the head.
Playing Possum: While it only happens on rare occasions, the Creeper variant can retract its tentacles and pretend that it’s an ordinary severed head until a target comes close enough.
Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: In 3, when piloting a dead Unitologist Space Marine. The undead head is a weak point.
The Worm That Walks: It's a bunch of thin, tentacle creatures (one of which is wearing a skull) latched to each other to form a monster, and breaks apart into those creatures when damaged enough.

Twitcher

Soldiers whose stasis modules fused with them upon being turned into Necromorphs, making them extremely fast.

Adaptational Badass: The Twitchers in the remake have been beefed up radically compared to their original selves, becoming perhaps the toughest iteration of this Necromorph type seen yet. Now, not only are they capable of taking an insane amount of punishment before dying, they're also flat-out immune to stasis blasts without hitting the module embedded in their chest.
Attack Its Weak Point: In the remake of the original, the stasis modules on their chests can be ruptured to slow them down drastically - though only temporarily.
Bullet Time: Thanks to the stasis modules fused with their flesh, these creatures exist out of synch with the normal time-flow, which makes them incredibly fast.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Due to being Slashers empowered by malfunctioning stasis modules, they possess the same bone blades as their undead brethren.
Body Horror: On top of their armor and Stasis modules fusing with their flesh, they also appear to have bug-like wing segments on their backs, though it appears to be just for show.
Demonic Head Shake: Thanks to the dodgy stasis units embedded in their flesh, these Necromorphs are permanently locked into a state of constant, high-speed motion. Even when simply standing still, a Twitcher will fidget and jitter uncontrollably.
Elite Mook: From Severed onwards, Twitchers are upgraded from their Fragile Speedster status to this, as they’re now as tough to kill as an Enhanced Slasher, much more unpredictable in their movements, and even more relentless in melee combat than the Twitchers found on the Valor and the Aegis VII colony.
The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: After killing Isaac in their death scene, they suddenly turn towards the player.
Glass Cannon: Though they will fall apart under the best weapons, the problem is actually hitting the bastards, given their insane speed and being immune to your Stasis shots. This is on top of hitting hard once they get close, and quickly dashing away to avoid retaliation.
Hoist by Their Own Petard: In the original series, using your stasis module on a Twitcher completely negates their own stasis-induced Super-Speed and makes them a sitting duck. In the remake of the first game, while now immune to conventional stasis blasts, shooting the module embedded in their torso will cause it to backfire on its undead wielder and temporarily resume normal functionality, leading to the same result.
No-Sell: In the remake of the first game, trying to slow them with Stasis does nothing, they will keep moving unabated. Unless you shoot the modules in their chest, which will cause a slowing explosion and finally slow them down.
Roar Before Beating: In the remake, Twitchers are prone to screaming at you out of sheer, animalistic aggression before closing in for the kill, sometimes even retreating momentarily just to do so.
Lightning Bruiser: They gain a potent boost in toughness in Severed, taking significantly more effort to dismember compared to the first game. They retain this boost in 3. In the remake, they're even tougher than before and this time can laugh off even stasis blasts.
Nightmare Face: Even more so than most of the others in Dead Space 1, as due to the violent fusion between their flesh and the stasis module, their faces are completely static.
Super-Speed: Thanks to the stasis unit, these things can close in on you in seconds.
You Are Already Dead: One particular death scene has a Twitcher kill Isaac so fast that when he raise his weapon to counter his entire body falls in two halves.

Guardian

A mass of flesh attached to a wall that spews out smaller, weaker Necromorphs to defend itself. Often encountered one at a time, but can sometimes be found in pairs. One of the most extreme cases of Body Horror in the franchise for a single human body.

And I Must Scream: And scream it does. Apparently, the Guardian is still alive, and in hideous agony. It is also unable to move. Luckily, you can kill it. The Guardians created from the S.C.A.F forces have it even worse, as they’ve been languishing in that state for two centuries, and despite being as desiccated as the other infected are still just as painfully aware of their own plight as the day they were born.
Attack Its Weak Point: The various tentacles springing from its chest have to be shot off to kill it.
Combat Tentacles: Used to kill Isaac if he comes into close proximity with one, and seemingly made from intestines.
"Instant Death" Radius: Getting too close has them decapitate Isaac with a tentacle. It happens so quickly that Isaac's body will reach up to grab at the space where his head was, before falling down a few moments later.
Mook Maker: Constantly spits out tentacle pods to help defend itself. In 3, it produces Swarmer/Infector hybrids instead.
Mercy Kill: Unlike other Necromorphs, who are just too far gone to care, Guardians are still aware of their current predicament even when they’ve fully transformed, so the act of killing one is just as much euthanasia as it is self-defence from the monster they’ve become. This goes double if the Guardian is an immature one, as it’s almost completely harmless, doesn’t drop any loot and is yet to develop its formidable abilities, so relieving these tortured souls of their unending suffering is the only real reason to seek out and kill them anyway.
Mister Seahorse: They appear to be male, and they produce baby-like Pods as a means of defense.
Piñata Enemy: Drops a circuit board or a box of goodies depending on which game you're playing.
One-Hit Kill: Its only direct attack is to lash out with its tentacles if Isaac gets close, which instantly decapitates him.
Stronger with Age: An immature Guardian is a pushover, little more than an animate torso on a wall, able to be easily killed and with almost no offensive capability. Give them time to grow, however, and they’ll metamorphose into screaming, shapeless masses of flesh that can spear the head off anyone in striking distance with pinpoint precision and unleash numerous smaller Necromorphs to back them up.
Screaming Birth: The Guardian constantly lets out an agonized wail anyway, but its shrieking definitely goes up an octave when it spawns a Pod.
Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Those who have the dubious honour of becoming a Guardian are reduced to a torso and affixed to a part of the Corruption, where they grow into the horrendous abominations you come across. However, this is only noticeable during their immature stage, because you really, really can’t tell when they’ve fully transformed.

Swarmer

Tiny, swarming Necromorphs that, despite their small size, can easily overwhelm Isaac with sheer numbers.

Camping a Crapper: In the first game, groups of Swarmers have been observed to emerge from toilets to ambush their opponents, likely because they may be using the septic lines of the Ishimura as a (disgustingly) quick, easy way to travel around the ship.
Composite Character: The new Infectors in 3 are a combination of Swarmers and the original Infector; they are small, appear in large groups, and their attack is lifted directly from the Swarmers.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Individual Swarmers do pitiful damage and can be swatted off before they even do damage. However, as their name suggests, they're much more deadly in groups, and can severely injure or kill Isaac if he's caught in a large swarm.
The Swarm: You always encounter these in massive numbers that work as one.
Zerg Rush: They live up to their name, attacking in big groups to wear you down.

Brute

A massive and deadly Necromorph that uses brute force as its only tactic.

Adaptational Badass: The Brute in the remake of 1 has slightly harder to hit weak spots and will switch between charging at Isaac or bombarding him with organic grenades from the get-go, whereas the Brute in the original has significantly larger weak points and will only resort to its Chest Blaster after it’s been crippled.
Attack Its Weak Point: Its armored shell blocks most frontal attacks, but its joints and entire back side are vulnerable.
Body of Bodies: Made from at least three corpses.
Chest Blaster: Possesses an organic grenade launcher on its abdomen, which it will use when it's been crippled (original), or periodically throughout the fight (remake).
Elite Mook: Even more so in its Enhanced version.
Fantastic Firearms: If one of its arms is broken, it reveals the organitek grenade launcher its stomach has been turned into.
Foe-Tossing Charge: It will try to rush you and knock you on your ass, leaving you open to further assault.
Lightning Bruiser: It's deceptively fast for its size.
Made of Iron: Most of its body, aside from a few weak points, are completely immune to damage. When playing on hard or impossible difficulty, one main concern isn't its attacks, but running out of ammo while fighting one. Hope you saved up some stasis so you don't have to worry about missing...
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: One shows up out of nowhere on the Valor and delivers one to Hammond. They can also do this to Isaac.
Piñata Enemy: These big bastards will either drop a power node, enough money to buy one, or a semiconductor that sells for enough money to buy one.
Top-Heavy Guy: Somewhat similar to a Tank, they have huge, bulky arms but tiny, spindly little legs.
Starfish Aliens: The only part of it that could be recognized as belonging to a human is the upper part of its face. It otherwise looks totally alien.

Wheezer

This type of Necromorph only appears in one chapter, whose only form of attack is slowly poisoning the air. They are often supported by more combat-oriented Necromorphs.

Adaptational Badass: The Wheezers can be killed by any method in the original game. In the remake, they are immune to normal means and can only be killed using Cross' enzyme.
Adaptation Expansion: The remake reveals that they were once Elizabeth Cross' teammates on the Hydroponic Deck. In addition, the Wheezer now acts as an extension of the Leviathan to help it spread its toxic fumes to other parts of the ship. This works both ways, by injecting the specialized enzyme into the Wheezer, it would affect the Leviathan as well.
Body Horror: The Wheezer's lungs have grown several times in size and burst out of their backs. Possibly because of the weight of their new lungs, the victims are forced into a kneeling position, causing their arms and legs have been fused together and making them immobile.
The Cameo: Makes an appearance in Dead Space 3 in a co-op mission.
Deadly Gas: Its only form of attack. Standing next to one too long will suffocate Isaac.
Gotta Kill 'Em All: Their only appearance consists of this, in order to keep the air in the Ishimura safe to breathe.
Mercy Kill: In the remake, they were formerly Elizabeth Cross' fellow scientist on the Deck. As part of his mission to infect the Leviathan, Cross asks Isaac to kill her transformed friends and end their suffering.
Mook Maker: A variation. Killing one will summon several Necromorphs to Isaac's location.
Nigh-Invulnerable: In the remake, the Wheezers are impervious to conventional weapons and attacks. The only way to kill them is by injecting them with the enzyme.
Non-Action Guy: One of the few Necromorphs that doesn’t pose a direct, physical danger to survivors, instead hindering their survival by poisoning the air with toxic gas.
Vader Breath: Easily located by their loud, well, wheezing gasps for air.
Zero-Effort Boss: You don't even need to waste ammo on these guys. A few stomps from Isaac's mighty boot or punching them will put them down. In the remake, while now immune to conventional attacks, the Wheezers are still trivially easy to put down. All you have to do is walk up to them, inject them with the enzyme as Cross instructed, and then they just fall down dead.

Drag Tentacle

Presumably part of a larger Necromorph, the Tentacle grabs Isaac and drags him towards its lair unless Isaac can shoot it off.

Attack Its Weak Point: Because this is the only way to hurt it and if you don't you will be dragged into a hole in the wall and killed horribly.
Attack of the Monster Appendage: In the game proper you'll never interact with more of this particular necromorph than just the tentacle itself.
The Cameo: In 2, Isaac has a flashback of being attacked by a tentacle during the Nostalgia Level, and is actually flung into a zero-gee area of the Titan mines by one. They also show up in 3, infesting the Roanoke's power core.
Combat Tentacles: As is par for the course. They come in two varieties, the first being the familiar tentacle that tries to drag Isaac to his death unless he chops it off, and the second possessing a thick organic club on the tip instead of pincers that will attempt to splat anyone getting too close.
Hope Spot: Often when Isaac is dragged all the way back to their hole he tries some desperate form of escape only to be killed almost immediately. When the second tentacle that appears pulls him near the hole it loses its grip just long enough for Isaac to stand back up before brutally grabbing his head and yanking him the rest of the way in.
Interface Screw: Whenever one grabs Isaac it messes with his aiming controls, making it much harder to hit. However, the weakpoint is very large.
Nothing Is Scarier: We never do get to see what is on the other end of this thing, but whatever it is kills Isaac instantly. In the remake, it is believed that these tentacles come from a creature similar to the Leviathan, the result of the accumulated biomass from all the Necromorphs killed flowing into Cargo Bay and combined to create a new yet-to-be seen form.

Regenerator

More of a scheme of Necromorph than a type in and of itself, this is a typically bipedal Necromorph that takes on a variety of names depending on its incarnation. The main constant, however, is that it can regenerate lost limbs, making it nearly impossible to kill. Goes by three different identities across the games; the Hunter in Dead Space 1, the Ubermorph in Dead Space 2, and the Tau Volantis Hunters in Dead Space 3. Game-specific tropes are covered in the Boss Necromorphs folders.

Continuity Snarl: The existence of the Ubermorphs and Tau Volantis Hunters from the second and third games; the Hunter from Dead Space 1 was explicitly the result of experiments by Mercer to create a super-necromorph, so there's no reason given why it should show up in the second game. On the other hand, regenerating 'morph species could just be a regular part of any larger outbreak, and since the Regenerator in DS 2 looks markedly different from DS 1's Hunter, the latter might just have been brought into being by the Markers whispering one of several methods of creating this particular menace into Mercer's insane mind.
Determinator: Due to being nearly impossible to kill, it doesn't see much reason not to try following a target forever.
Do Well, But Not Perfect: If you go overboard in dismembering it, it will actually grow its limbs back faster, since the game wants it chasing you at all times. If you only minimally cripple it (one arm and one leg), it'll hobble after you for a bit before the regeneration kicks in.
From a Single Cell: Dismembering it until it's nothing more than a torso will simply make it angrier. The only real way to kill it is to obliterate the entire creature.
For the Evulz: Unlike the other Necromorphs, who will simply skip to slaughtering you when it has the chance, some of the regenerator creatures have been observed to stop and sharpen their claws/blades briefly before resuming the hunt, seeming to take a degree of pleasure in the chase.
Implacable Man: Whenever a Regenerator spots a target, it will not stop hunting them until they’ve either been killed or rendered completely incapable of following their victim. The latter being the easiest option on hand given that there are precious few things that are able to eliminate the beast without it healing.
Menacing Stroll: Fortunately, they don't move very fast, which is a mercy given their nature. Doesn't make them any less intimidating. However, they can pick up the pace if sufficiently motivated, graduating to a speed walk while closing in.
Mighty Glacier: Powerful, but slow and easy to cripple (about halfway been a mook and Elite Mook in terms of damage resistance). It just keeps coming, though.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Due to a healing factor, it cannot be destroyed by conventional means.
Shapeshifter Baggage: With varying plausibility, they regenerate limbs seemingly from within their own bodies.
Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Able to quickly reform lost limbs, though mercifully the limbs themselves don't reform lost Regenerators.
Super-Persistent Predator: It does not stop coming ever.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The various types each mimic the first game's "Hunter" in how they move and their kill animations.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The only way to kill these creatures, considering that anything other than completely disintegrating the creature will slow it down at best or have no effect at worst.

The Corruption

Described to be a "habitat changer", the Corruption is the result when organic matter that are not big enough to create a Necromorph is instead melted into biomass that continues to expand during a Necromorph outbreak. Certain Necromorph forms can be found in the Corruption such as Guardians, Cysts and Nests.

Evil Smells Bad: While probably not the nicest smelling substance to start off with, what with being made out of rotting flesh, a text log reveals that the large amounts of noxious gases being emitted as part of its Hostile Terraforming also contributes to the horrendous odour as well.
Genius Loci: While it’s debatable how much of a mind is behind the wheel, the Corruption is at least aware enough of its surroundings to perceive and act against survivors intruding in its territory, such as when it attacks Isaac by spewing forth Pods in chapter 7 of the first game.
Hostile Terraforming: While less actively dangerous by itself, the presence of Corruption is significantly advantageous for the Necromorph outbreak as a whole, ranging from acting as a repository for extra biomass, either to later repurpose into stronger infected or simply store until Convergence, to simple area denial thanks to its pervasive nature, hard to traverse surface and the gases it produces gradually poisoning the local atmosphere. To make matters even worse, immobile Necromorphs such as Guardians, Nests and Cysts are typically found growing anywhere the Corruption takes root, which combined with its speedy growth can lead to it effectively blockading entire areas.
Meat Moss: Created from any leftover dead organic matter such as skin cells, hair, dried blood, or corpses that are deemed unfit for a more active role in the outbreak for whatever reason, the Corruption manifests as an invasive, almost tumorous growth that engulfs any available surface within infested areas.

Boss Necromorphs

The Hunter / Brant Harris

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dsr_hunter.jpg

A special type of Necromorph created by Dr. Mercer, made from injecting Necromorph tissue into a live victim's skull. It constantly regenerates limbs, requiring Isaac to stop it using his environment. For the type, see "Regenerator" in the Necromorph section.

Adaptational Intelligence: Is revealed to be partially self-aware of his original identity as Brant Harris in the remake, and is able to briefly communicate with Mercer about how the early stages of transformation into the Hunter felt. This retroactively makes the Hunter the only Necromorph with any individuality separate from the collective hive mind save for the Brethren Moons.
Adaptational Villainy: The host for the Hunter in the original game was implied to be a random victim who was unfortunate enough to get captured by Mercer- here, Brant Harris is a willing test subject.
Ax-Crazy: While Harris was already unstable from the get-go, his story in the remake beginning with him undergoing intense psychotherapy due to murdering a nurse in the throes of Marker Sickness, having his already tenuous mental state being pushed to the brink by Mercer, along with a piece of Necromorph flesh being inserted into his brain for good measure, turns the mild-mannered, broken Harris into a violently unpredictable fanatic that would go on to brutally murder a miner via triggering a suit kiosk malfunction. This would only get worse as time went on, his progressing infection and Mercer's continuing manipulations gradually degrading him in both mind and body until Harris is little more than a screaming, undead berserker, retaining only enough lucidity to continue his role as the enforcer of the former's will.
And I Must Scream: One audio log implies Mercer operated on Harris using his enhanced stasis module- in short, while Harris was still conscious.
Ascended Extra: Brant Harris is mentioned in a single text log in the original game; here, he gets an entire subplot and becomes one of the main antagonists.
Body Horror: Not atypical for Necromorphs, but the Hunter particularly has some unsettling details in its design. If one looks close, the Hunter's actual arms appear to be melded into its chest, caked over by a layer of muscle that resembles a strait jacket. Its ribcage is exposed and crooked, and its jaw is horrifically elongated, with multiple tongues freely hanging from its open maw, and that's not even getting into the fact that it appears to have no skin.
The Dragon: Dr. Mercer's. While this is only alluded to in the original, it's more explicit in the remake. He's revealed to be former miner Brant Harris, who was manipulated by Mercer into becoming a willing test subject for his unethical experiments. After being transformed into the Hunter, Harris continues to serve as Mercer's attack dog, making him the only Necromorph that retains a sense of their former identity.
Evil Is Visceral: In the remake, the Hunter is given a much more Meat Moss-like appearance than a traditionally gory-ridden appearance like other Necromorphs, which foreshadows The Reveal that unlike other Necromorphs, Harris gradually evolved into his new appearance in a controlled environment by Mercer and maintains a measure of his old identity to collaborate with his "creator" still, rather than forced to become a monster with no semblance of the original individual and kill indiscriminately.
Expy: In the remake, the Hunter takes much clearer influence from Nemesis from how it is portrayed. Much like the Nemesis, the Hunter was created from a very deliberate process of augmenting an individual with a controlled specimen that causes a drastic transformation (although here with a normal human instead of an already augmented bioweapon), and despite the sheer horror of this process, maintains a conscious ability to operate unlike the baseline monster fought in both games which allows it to collaborate with it's creator(s) and follow orders. They are both Nigh-Invulnerable Super Persistent Predators that force the game to radically change into that of an intense cat-and-mouse game that can only be resolved by an elaborate series of events that provide the opportunity to dispose of the creature once and for all.
Freudian Excuse: Harris mentions his co-workers on Aegis VII mistreated him even before he murdered the nurse that in his eyes looked like a necromorph. His co-workers stuffed him into a suit kiosk that presumably crushed him but didn't kill him and laughed as he screamed. At another point his co-workers stole his power nodes and left him mining in the dark. Mercer preys upon his outcast status in order to use him as a useful pawn and eventually converts him to the Hunter.
Hopeless Boss Fight: Except in two circumstances, it cannot be defeated. You just have to hold it off long enough to get through the next door.
It Can Think: In the remake the Hunter is revealed to be the end result of Mercer's experiments on Brant Harris, who was conscious during the transformation process in a controlled environment and has some self-awareness despite being a Necromorph still to be voluntarily on Mercer's side after his eyes have been "opened" by him, as shown by them having a civil conversation during the early stages of his transformation, along with his continuing loyalty to Mercer even after his mutation is complete.
Implacable Man: The Hunter Necromorph reappears throughout the levels it's in (albeit in fixed locations), regenerates from any damage you do to it, and even returns a few levels later to menace you after you think you've stopped it by trapping it in a cryogenic freezer. Even when it’s being turned to ash by the escape shuttle’s thrusters, it’s still trying to take a swing at Isaac and only stops when its arms have been burned away.
Kill It with Fire: You ultimately destroy it by incinerating it with the biggest torch available: the engines of your escape shuttle.
Logical Weakness: How do you kill something that can regenerate from any injury? Don't leave anything behind to regenerate from. The Hunter is finally killed by luring it in front of the escape shuttle's engines and reducing it entirely to ashes.
Mercy Kill: If the Hunter's sidequest is finish, Isaac's Bond One-Liner is changed to pitying Harris's fate and tells to rest now as Mercer cannot hurt him anymore.
Sanity Slippage: As Brant Harris, who while always a bit of an awkward individual according to his background, was exasperated to the point of insanity like those stricken with Marker Madness; this not at all helped by his trauma both on Aegis VII from his coworkers and Mercer's manipulations who push him farther with each step. It peaks when he accepts Mercer's offer to be a lab rat for his experiments that would, inevitably, turn him into the Hunter... but ironically, upon having Mercer inject a sample of the Corruption into his brain, he becomes frighteningly more composed than before and instead begins spiraling in a different direction whilst becoming Mercer's "willing" partner during his transformation.
Tactical Suicide Boss: In both instances where you can defeat it, it's in a room which has the exact thing needed to stop it. This is especially bad in the first instance, as Mercer had the bright idea to make you fight it in a cryo-storage facility.
Technically-Living Zombie: In the remake that is, unlike other Necromorphs; Mercer turned Harris into the Hunter by an elaborate procedure with inserting the Corruption into his brain while he was still alive, which creates a very unique aberration that caused him to gradually evolve into his current state instead of transform violently into an abstract shape by the infection process. The end result leaves Harris actually as the only somewhat sapient Necromorph who maintains a willing loyalty to Mercer, and makes the Hunter incredibly dangerous because he is a conscious Super-Persistent Predator that can determine of how to get from point A to point B in the most efficient manner to his target. However, the fact that Harris can easily shrug off and survive wounds that would be instantly fatal to a living creature such as decapitation (which would instantly drop a Feeder, also an example of a still-living Necromorph), makes it ambiguous as to whether Harris is still this side of alive or not in his new state.
Toxic Friend Influence: It's clear from Brant's interactions with Mercer that the latter plays on his insecurities and resentments so he'll go along with the latter's surgery.
Tragic Monster: In the end, in spite of how much of a relentless threat he is towards Isaac as the Hunter, Brant Harris was manipulated by Mercer every step of the way into his transformation; especially as he was already on the verge of a psychotic break from a combination of his outcast status, the horrible conditions his co-workers put him through for kicks, and influence from the Marker made him easy pickings for Mercer playing with his emotions to be a willing test subject for the promise for things to be different. This is even reflected in a line of dialogue that plays, should you finish his sidequest before the end of Chapter 10, where Isaac says that the Doctor can't hurt him any longer.
Transhuman: In the remake, its revealed that the Hunter is the end product of Harris's transformation into a Necromorph from Mercer's experiments. The uniqueness of how Harris transformed left him still functionally sapient—as explained in a dialogue between him and Mercer in the earliest stages of the transformation—making Harris as the Hunter the only independent Necromorph in the series (beyond the Brethen Moons) which is reflected on how, unlike other Necromorphs, seems to recognize others beyond flesh to convert (given its seeming loyalty to Mercer enough not to attempt to hurt him despite being in the same room as him) and is more of a Super-Persistent Predator instead of the ravenous proxies Necromorphs typically are for the Markers.
Undying Loyalty: After fully coming under the sway of Mercer, Harris eagerly and unquestioningly follows any command the doctor gives him, regardless of how heinous it is. He even retains this trait post-transformation, never attacking Mercer despite having ample opportunities to and continuing to serve the Ax-Crazy doctor as his equally mad undead enforcer.
Voice of the Legion: While speaking with Mercer in the early stages of transforming, Harris spoke with a distorted reverb that would foreshadow his monstrous future state.

The Leviathan

A Necromorph that has barricaded itself in food storage and is poisoning the Ishimura's atmosphere as part of the necromorphs' habitat changing. Takes the form of an enormous wall of flesh, with a central orifice surrounded by tentacles. Fights Isaac by flailing its tentacles and shooting exploding pods at him.

Adaptational Badass: In the original first game, while tough, it doesn't do much else besides take up space in Food Storage and poison the air. The remake has it perform a similar role, but then it returns in a later chapter, refusing to die until Isaac blasts it with the ADS guns and mulches it into mush.
Attack Its Weakpoint: Its core is dead center in its mouth. Every time it roars, it will expose the weakpoint for a few rounds of spitting explosive orbs at you.
Breath Weapon: After destroying its tentacles, the Leviathan will start spitting organic explosives at Isaac in quick succession.
Berserk Button: In the remake, the Leviathan actually seems to hold some genuine fondness for the jungle ambience in Hydroponics, to the point that turning it off will elicit an enraged roar in response.
Came from the Sky: More like it came from the planet. It is presumed that the Leviathan was a piece of Necromorph biomass that was ejected into space, either by the Hive Mind or when the tectonic plate was extracted. It was discovered when what was thought to be an asteroid struck Hydroponics, before making its way to the Food Storage, where it began consuming every organic matter in its vicinity.
Combat Tentacles: Three. After destroying them it reveals its weak point allowing Isaac to finally kill it. The tentacles regenerate periodically.
Composite Character: In the remake, due to their similar nature, the Leviathan that was ejected from Hydroponics ends up taking the role of the Slug on the communications array after barely managing to cling back onto the structure of the Ishimura.
Diabolus ex Nihilo: Its overall relevance to the story. It wasn’t even created on board the Ishimura, having literally appeared from nowhere one day, slammed itself into the ship and grew into the Hydroponics section, where it began poisoning the air.
Damage-Sponge Boss: It's not uncommon to waste all your ammo trying to kill this thing. It's so bad that ammo pickups and explosive canisters spawn periodically and the boss can be damaged by its own projectiles.
It Can Think: In the remake, the Leviathan gradually reveals itself not only to have enough of a personality that it gets very agitated when the jungle ambience is turned off, but when Isaac begins to get the better of the beast during their confrontation in Food Storage, it starts to panic and tries to gas him while attacking with everything it has to offer. Later, during the second encounter over the Comms Array, the Leviathan gradually wises up to what Isaac is doing and starts smashing the ADS cannons, then starts spitting out tons of organic Space Mines to restrict his movement and prevent him from getting to the last cannon before smashing that one too in mid-operation in a last ditch attempt to save itself.
Made of Iron: The damn thing refuses to die in the remake since it withstands enough poison to dissolve a freighter, Isaac unloading all of his weapons into it, and being sucked into space. It takes Isaac shooting it with the Ishimura's Anti-Asteroid cannons in multiple spots before it finally dies.
Rasputinian Death: In the remake it takes getting poison injected directly into its heart multiple times, being fought by Isaac, being sucked into space, and being shot at with the ship’s ADS cannons before it finally dies.
Space Mines: During the second battle outside the comms array. it will start spitting out a large volley of these, with the mines in question being organic facsimiles made out of explosive, tendril-laden tissue, to hinder Isaac after a certain point.
Tactical Suicide Boss: The explosive orbs it spits at you can be thrown back with Kinesis, not to mention the room is filled with explosives. There’s also the fact that it exposes its core every time it starts spewing organic bombs at you, giving the player a lengthy window to unload everything they’ve got into the beast as it tries to defend itself.
Thrown Out the Airlock: In the remake, after Isaac and Cross weaken the Leviathan through repeated enzyme injections, they try to use the airlock the creature's set up shop over to space it, albeit to no avail as the Leviathan is still too strong and resists the attempt. Isaac has to go into food storage and blast the beast into submission before it finally lets go. Despite this however, the Leviathan still refuses to die and returns two chapters later, having anchored itself to the communications array and necessitating a second battle to remove it. It takes Isaac commandeering the nearby ADS cannons to put the undead monstrosity to rest for good.

The Slug

A huge Necromorph that attacks from outside the Ishimura by flinging debris. Isaac fights and kills it with the ship's turret system.

Berserk Button: It’s actually fairly docile for a Necromorph and is pretty content with sitting on the communications array and minding its own business. Then Isaac shoots at it, and it goes from annoying obstruction to deadly threat in the blink of an eye.
Combat Tentacles: It uses them to pitch debris at you, which you must destroy if you don't want the hull to rupture. Shooting them off is the only way to kill the creature.
Composite Character: In the remake, due to their similar nature, the Leviathan that was ejected from Hydroponics ends up taking the role of the Slug on the communications array after barely managing to cling back onto the structure of the Ishimura.
Fake Difficulty: In consoles it has shades of this. What you have to do against the boss is damage the yellow spots in its tentacles to interrupt its attacks and eventually destroy them. Problem is the turrets don't move fast and the console versions don't have any way to speed up the aim speed. While the boss isn't too difficult, the battle is noticeably harder just because of that fact alone. PC version having ways to speed up the aim speed, on top of mouse aiming being better in general, makes this battle into a non-issue.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Considering Kendra's status as The Mole, and how the Valor's mission would Leave No Witnesses, its presence may have saved Isaac's life.
Spanner in the Works: Its presence on top of the communications array prevents Kendra from being able to radio a warning to the Valor.
Uncertain Doom: While it detaches and flies off after Isaac destroys its tentacles, it’s unclear whether it’s actually dead or just inert.

Hive Mind

The Hive Mind is the last boss in the game and has been controlling the other Necromorphs through telepathy. It kills Kendra after she betrays Isaac and attempts to make her escape before turning on Isaac himself. After a heated battle, Isaac manages to destroy it and barely escapes with his life.

Ancient Evil: This thing has been on Aegis VII for quite a long time, with some of the background information detailing that it’s been kept in check by the Marker ever since the first colony there fell to the infection 200 years before.
Adaptational Badass: The Hive Mind in the Remake has access to more varied attacks such as a wave of corrosive spit and planting organic bombs in addition to its normal tentacle strikes.
Ankle Drag: Does this to Isaac during the second stage of the fight, snatching him off of the ground by one foot and holding him upside down in front of its advancing maw. The remake instead turns this into a Last Ditch Move after it’s second phase.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: It’s the size of a skyscraper.
Attack Its Weakpoint: Both forms have yellow weak points that serve as the only means of damaging it.
Big Bad: It is the cause of the Necromorph outbreak and is the one controlling them.
Breath Weapon: In the remake, the Hive Mind will attack Isaac by spewing forth clusters of organic bombs in its first phase, then switch to jets of acid for its second phase.
Combat Tentacles: Its favorite type of melee attack is swinging its tentacles at Isaac. After dealing a significant amount of damage it will grab him with them and lift him up in the air where he'll have a short amount of time to destroy its remaining weak spots or be ripped in half.
Cruel and Unusual Death: If Isaac should fail to destroy the remaining two pustules on the Hive Mind's head when grabbed (final in the remake), a scripted death scene follows. It will force Isaac into its mouth, chew on him for a bit, then pull him out violently, ripping off both of Isaac's arms. As Isaac screams in pain, the Hive Mind grips him between its teeth. Another painful scream is heard from Isaac before the Hive Mind tears him in half at the waist, swallowing his upper torso and throwing his legs to the platform.
Enemy Summoner: In the remake, after destroying the weak points on its face, it will sic a small army of Necromorphs on Isaac before going into the second phase proper.
Eaten Alive: It rips Isaac apart with its mouth in the most hideously deliberate way in the game.
Eldritch Abomination: Looks more like one than any other boss Necromorph in the game.
Final Boss: It's the very last thing you need to defeat in order to end the necromorph infestation and escape Aegis VII.
Half the Man He Used to Be: It will bite Isaac in half if he doesn't destroy the last weak point it has while in its clutches.
Hive Queen: As the name suggests, this thing seems to be the controlling intelligence behind the necromorphs of Aegis VII.
Last Ditch Move:
- In the original it can still kill Isaac after defeating it by crashing down onto the arena. Stand too close to the edge and you’re repeating the fight.
- In the Remake, after all of its weakpoints are destroyed it grabs Isaac and attempts to devour him, with Isaac needing to destroy a final weakpoint to finish it off.
Kaiju: The thing is enormous, towering over any building in the nearby starport.
Kaizo Trap: It can fall on Isaac and kill him after dealing the final blow if you’re standing too close to the edge are at low enough health. It’s pretty easy to dodge though. Thankfully averted in the remake, where the death throes of the creature are locked into a cutscene.
Mook Maker: Spits out two Pregnants at the start of its second phase.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has an enormous, toothy mouth it uses to menace Isaac.
Rasputinian Death: Gets shot to shit by Isaac, has a continent's worth of rock dropped on it, and the detonation of the planet itself a few weeks afterwards ensures that both the creature and any lingering fears of its return are decisively dead and gone.
Sealed Evil in a Can: This monstrosity was kept pacified and slumbering underground by the Red Marker ever since the first outbreak on Aegis VII 200 years before. Then the second bunch of colonists found the Marker and removed it from its pedestal, rousing the beast and unleashing the undead plague anew upon the planet once more.
Taking You with Me: It was guaranteed to die once Isaac accidentally disabled the tethers keeping an entire continent worth of land mass from falling back onto the planet and was likely intelligent enough to know this. This is possibly why it only shows up at the landing site to kill Isaac and Kendra only after they try to escape. In the original, it can also fall on Isaac and kill him after the finishing blow is dealt if you aren’t careful.
Uncertain Doom: It’s unclear if defeating it killed it or simply incapacitated it. However, it was definitely killed regardless of its state beforehand when a large chunk of Aegis VII fell right on top of it. And if that isn't enough, Aegis VII is destroyed a few weeks later.
Villainous Breakdown: In the remake, the Hive Mind grows more and more determined to see Isaac dead as he slaughters its undead servants and counters every attack the beast throws at him, growing visibly more frustrated as the fight goes out of its favour until it finally loses what little patience it has left, grabs Isaac and tries to straight-up devour him.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: It's more than big enough to destroy the landing pad Isaac's on or use the tentacle surrounding him to crush Isaac like a grape. Instead, it tries to flatten him or use projectiles, allowing Isaac to dodge all of its attacks.

Others

Poul and Octavia Clarke

Isaac's parents. Poul was a renowned ship designer working for the Galactic Union Merchant Marine Corp who went missing during an extended off-world tour. Because of her husband's absence, Octavia seeks solace at the Church of Unitology and becomes a devoted follower.

Ascended Extra: Isaac's parents are only mentioned in the original game via an unlockable file to give Isaac a little background. In the remake, their presence has some significance to Isaac and Nicole's relationship.
Death by Adaptation: Isaac's father disappear without a trace during his off-world tour and his mother's fate after he became an engineer was not known. In the remake, Poul returned home from his tour and was killed by his wife in an act of murder-suicide.
Disappeared Dad: Poul disappeared during one of his tours when Isaac was still a child. Isaac tries to investigate his father's disappearance but failed as any records about Poul were deemed classified. Subverted in the remake as he returned when Isaac was already an adult though his mission was still considered a secret.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Octavia bankrupting the family in order to join the Church of Unitology is much similar to how cults or fake organizations scam victims out of their valuables.
Hope Spot: Nicole was the doctor in charge of curing Octavia of her Unitologist brainwashing. At some point before the events of the first game, Poul returned from his tour and Nicole believed that Octavia had overcome the worst of her brainwashing and discharged her. Unfortunately, Octavia's condition was worse than Nicole had thought and she killed Poul and herself.
Murder-Suicide: In the remake, Octavia's mental health worsens and she kills her husband and herself.
Parental Neglect: In order to cope with her husband's absence, Octavia joined Unitology and spent the family funds to become a Vested-rank. This action caused Isaac to be denied entry to a prominent engineering school and forced him to join a lesser one.
Shout-Out: Like their son, they are named after famous science-fiction writers.
Small Role, Big Impact: Octavia spent most of the family's savings to become a higher-ranking Unitologist member, forcing Isaac to forgo admission to a prominent engineering college due to lack of finances and go to a lesser college. This leads to Isaac's distrust of Unitologists.
- The remake also adds that Isaac first met Nicole when he brought his mother to the medical facility where Nicole was working. After Poul returned from his tour, Nicole discharged Octavia, believing her husband's presence would help her mental state. Unfortunately, she was wrong and Octavia killed both herself and Poul while Nicole was serving at the Ishimura and their bodies were taken by the Unitologists, denying Isaac the ability to give his parents a proper burial and further increasing his hatred for them. An unlockable file after completion of the game also reveals the Red Marker took the form of Octavia to convince Nicole to bring it back to Aegis VII.

The Red Marker / Marker 3A (MAJOR SPOILERS)

A supposedly alien artifact discovered by miners from the Aegis VII colony. It holds major significance for the Church of Unitology and its followers. Its removal from its resting place on the planet coincided with an outbreak of hysteria on the colony and then the arrival of the necromorphs.

In reality, it's a man-made artifact, the result of a government experiment on the real Marker gone wrong some 200 years prior.

Adaptational Intelligence: In the original game, the Red Marker was basically a machine, doing what it had been programmed to do. In the remake, it seems to be at least somewhat self-aware and is capable of communicating with humans. This seems to be a trait shared by all human-made Markers, as the Marker in 2 is capable of the doing the same thing.
Artifact of Doom: Played with. On one hand, it is responsible for the necromorph outbreak on Aegis VII and the murderous hysteria that destroyed the mining colony. But on the other, it has been suppressing the Hive Mind and preventing the infestation from spreading beyond the Aegis system.
Ascended Extra: In the original, the Red Marker was little more than a MacGuffin needed to save the day. In the remake, it's an actual, though silent, character with its own agenda.
The Bad Guy Wins: In the remake, since it can't start Convergence, the Red Marker is trying to spread blueprints for that person to create their own Marker so that Marker can start Convergence, and regardless of the ending, the Red Marker's objectives are fulfilled.
- In the good ending Isaac escapes, but he'll eventually be captured by the Sprawl, and while that Marker will be stopped, the game's post credits reveals there are more Markers around. Eventually other Markers are activated on Earth, and the Brethren Moons will target it as well, with very little hope of them being stopped.
- The bad ending is even worse, since the Red Marker fully succeeded in corrupting Isaac and he's planning to create more Markers, and considering how competent Isaac is when fighting against Necromorphs, him being on their side would be bad for everyone.
Black Speech: The Marker is covered in strange writing referred to as Marker Symbols. People driven insane by the Marker start scrawling this on any surface they can find and the few lucky enough to survive it, like Isaac, can read it.
Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The Red Marker was on the receiving end of this from the human scientists that created it. Once they realized its true purpose, they retooled it to suppress the Hive Mind and prevent a Convergence event.
Deity of Human Origin: This alien object that is worshipped by the Church of Unitology as a holy relic turns out to be built and placed there by humans hundred of years ago, based on the designs on an actual alien artifact.
Depending on the Artist: The Marker is several stories high in Downfall, whereas in the game, it is only a few feet taller than an average human. In the remake, it is much larger than in the original game but still smaller than in Downfall.
Even Evil Has Standards: Judging from how it treats Dr. Mercer, refusing to communicate with him and eventually killing him, even the Red Marker finds him disgusting. To repeat: the Red Marker, a device specifically created to cause a zombie apocalypse in the hopes of creating an Eldritch Abomination that eats entire civilizations, still wants nothing to do with Challus Mercer.
Fighting from the Inside: A strange example in which the Red Marker has two different agendas programmed into it. For the Brethern Moons, it tries to cause a Convergence event to create a new Moon. From the human scientists that built it, it suppresses the Hive Mind and prevents the Convergence event. Several events over the course of the game show each agenda overwritting the other and vice versa. It culminates in it triggering the Convergence event once it is returned to its pedestal, which ended up fulfilling both of its goals. It also gets around its inability to truly accomplish either objective due to lacking its original creators as sacrifices or as guides for its operation by instead imprinting upon Isaac deliberately so it would create more Markers to finish what it failed to accomplish.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: It uses hallucinations of people's loved ones to get them to do its bidding.
- Per an unlockable file, it appeared to Nicole Brennan as Octavia Clarke.
From a Single Cell: According to Dead Space: Aftermath, every portion of the Marker, no matter how small, contains all the information and properties of the whole thing. So even a single fragment is enough to cause a Necromorph outbreak.
Gameplay and Story Integration: According to logs, the Red Marker creates a safe zone around itself that Necromporphs won't enter, which was shown outright in Dead Space: Downfall. In the original game this isn't evident for the most part, except for at the end when placing the Marker on its pedestal causes all the remaining Necromorphs in the area to flee. It's more evident in the remake, where Necromorphs will be slowed down when near it, making them easier to deal with.
Heroic Suicide: Depending on how you interpret the Red Marker triggering the Convergence event, which led to its destruction, it may have intentionally killed itself to destroy the Hive Mind and finally end the Aegis VII outbreak. Further information in the remake however implies this was more of a My Death Is Just the Beginning moment, as it is ultimately too damaged to fulfill its function by virtue of its creators being long dead, thus eliminating it's failure while imprinting on Isaac and others like him to become new "architects" for more Markers to fulfill what it failed to accomplish.
Imported Alien Phlebotinum: The Red Marker isn't a true alien artifact. It was built by Soveriegn Colonies scientists two hundred years before the first game, based off the original Black Marker discovered on Earth. In 3, we learn this is the MO of the Brethren Moons: leave behind Markers for nascent spacefaring species to find, copy and then be consumed by Convergence events to create new Moons.
It Can Think: The Red Marker isn't just an object that creates Necromorphs, it can also influence people to do its bidding. It manipulates Isaac and Kyne (as well as Cross in the remake) to bring it back to Aegis VII using hallucinations of their dead loved ones. Basically, the Red Marker and all Markers in general, serves as an antenna for the Brethren Moons to spread their signal across the galaxy, manipulate the native species to create more Markers and to start a Convergence Event.
Manipulative Bastard: Using hallucinations of a person's loved one, the Marker convinces them to bring it back to its pedestal at Aegis VII. It has done this to Isaac and Kyne (as well as Cross in the remake).
My Death Is Only The Beginning: With its original makers dead, the Red Marker realizes it can't start Convergence without them. However, it isn't too bothered by the setback and decides to start again with Isaac and make him (and Cross in the remake) a new "architect." While Marker 3A is ultimately destroyed when the payload of the Ishimura falls back into the planet, it "lives on" by sending knowledge and blueprints into Isaac's mind so he can make new Markers, succeeding where it failed.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Isaac brings the Marker back to its pedestal, it commences a Convergence Event but by doing so, it releases an energy pulse that disables the gravity tethers holding the trillion-tonne mass above orbit to fall to the planet, destroying the Marker and Hive Mind.
Ominous Chanting: Get close to the Red Marker and Isaac will start to hear ominous voices speaking to him.
Pragmatic Villainy: An unlockable file in new game plus reveals how Nicole "reasoned" with it. The Marker requested that she bring "the Makers" to it—with the Markers' creators being the key to completing the Convergence event per the Golden Marker in 2. When it realized that its creators were long dead, it chose to seek to be returned to Aegis VII in hopes that "an architect" would come.
Retroactive Idiot Ball: The Red Marker, and the Black Marker from Martyr, were trying to stop the Necromorphs, but Dead Space 2 retcons the Markers' motivations as them trying to make the event Convergence happen, and for that they want the Necromorphs to spread. This created a massive Plot Hole with the first game and Martyr, and in-universe it made both Markers unwilling to do the one thing they were created for with no explanation given. The first game's remake fixes this; in Dead Space 2 it's established that the Marker's makers need to be absorved to start Convergence, so the remake's fix was rather simple, by establishing that since the Red Marker's maker is long dead, it changed its priority into spreading blueprints onto someone else and it wants to stop the Necromorphs so Isaac can survive and make his own Marker to start Convergence.
Sealed Evil in a Can: After the original experiment went wrong, the Sovereign Colonies government buried the Red Marker and then declared the Aegis VII system off-limits indefinitely. Then after the civil war which toppled SCAF and empowered EarthGov, most of the records regarding the project were lost.
Time for Plan B: The Marker realizes it can't commence a Convergence Event without its original creators, who are long dead by now. So, it decides to make a new "architect," so to speak, imprinting new instructions to make more Red Markers into Isaac's mind when he returns it to the pedestal on Aegis VII.
Too Desperate to Be Picky: The Marker seems to realize that it will not be able to start a Convergence Event because its makers have died a long time ago. Thus, it is set on imprinting the Marker Codes onto an architect to ensure more Markers will be created.
Red Marker: If not the makers, then an architect will come.
Villainous Legacy:
- Even though the Red Marker is destroyed, it manages to imprint Isaac with genetic codes that allow him to build more Markers.
- In Dead Space: Aftermath (between Dead Space and Dead Space 2), Nolan Stross comes into contact with a Red Marker shard that survived Aegis VII's destruction. The shard also imprints the Marker blueprints into his mind, which drives him insane and causes him to start the Necromorph outbreak seen in the movie.
We Wait: Once it learns its creator is long dead, therefore it can't start Convergence, the Red Marker decides to be put back at its pedestal and wait for an "architect", knowing one will come.
Return the Marker to its place, return the nexus to its sleep. If not the makers, then an architect will come. Time is patience, when fate is inevitable.

Characters / Dead Space

USG Kellion

Played by: Peter Mensah (Original), Anthony Alabi (Remake)