In 2011, Iron Monkey Studios released a game for iOS and Android devices, also called Dead Space. Since it has the same name, tropes for it are kept on this page, although it's more a prequel to Dead Space 2, showing the early stages of the Sprawl outbreak from the viewpoint of a Unitology operative sent to sabotage the station.
This game contains examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Vandal unwittingly lays the foundation for the Necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl, and even though she manages to deal one last giant monster and survive its attempt at taking her with it, in the end she still expires and Tyler gets away scot-free.
- BFG:
- The Heavy Pulse Rifle has unlimited ammo, fully automatic and costs 200,000 credits. You can either get it after saving a lot of money near the end of the game, or in the next playthrough (specially if you get Peng at the final boss and sell it later), or you can do a microtransaction. The Blackberry Playbook's version changes its cost to 1,000,000 credits, which can take at least four or five playthroughs to get, and it's clearly changed for the player to be tempted to use a microtransaction.
- The Corer
. Tyler describes it as having the power of the fist of God. It can cut through 65% of heavy elements.
- Big Bad Friend: Tyler guides Vandal through much of the game and provides some needed company for the beleaguered engineer as the Necromorphs begin to appear. But it's all a ploy for Tyler to trick Vandal into overriding the lockdown protocols, so the Necromorphs can pour into the Sprawl... and it works.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The fake battery-life indicator flashing red is there to screw with players' minds.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: The iTunes Store has several DLC packs with suits and credits that can give you a leg up on the early parts of the game. You certainly don't need them in standard gameplay unless you want to totally break the game, but if you attempt the Harder Than Hard Nightmare Mode, it may come in handy.
- Changing Priorities Gameplay: Because of the more limited ammo cap of the weapons you have, you may want to use the Ripper more than the other weapons to save ammo, since a single disc can kill one necromorph, or more if they're lined up, and this is specially the case in Hard and Nightmare modes, since they give less ammo overall. Once enough upgrades are given to other weapons, you don't have to be as frugal.
- Corrupt Church: You play as a newly-converted Unitologist engineer recruited to (unknowingly) unleash Necromorphs into the Sprawl.
- Downer Ending: After defeating the final boss, Vandal is seriously wounded and tries to get help but no one answers. The game ends with Vandal's helmet lying on the ground, with a trail of blood starting from where she was lying down. Meanwhile, Tyler reports to his superiors that his mission has succeeded, setting the table for Dead Space 2.
- Face–Heel Turn: All this time, Tyler Radikov was setting up Vandal. And boy, does Vandal get pissed off by this betrayal.
- Foregone Conclusion: If you've played Dead Space 2, you know this game is not going to have a happy ending.
- Guide Dang It!: Upgrading your weapon's ammo capacity doesn't just upgrade how much ammo can be put inside the weapon, but also how much Vandal can carry, and this is a huge deal because in early game you may reach the ammo cap fast, but you're not allowed to carry much which may run out fast too, but once you start upgrading weapon capacity, you can carry a lot more. This is specially noticeable with the Corer, which can only carry 5 ammo normally (+1 that is within the weapon), and 20 with max upgrades (+5 that is within the weapon). The game never hints at such a change in the upgrade system compared to other games.
- The Hero Dies: In Dead Space 2, Isaac discovers a recording next to Vandal's eviscerated corpse; the aforementioned conditions in which the log is found, combined with the fact Norton notes that may be her final log, indicate she died in the end. That being said, while Isaac finds her last audio log near a corpse, Vandal sends a last message to Tiedemann after killing The Boss, and Isaac can also find Vandal's first audio log also near a corpse, and neither of the corpses are wearing RI Gs, so this leaves it up in the air whether or not she really died.
- Interquel: This game takes place between Dead Space and Dead Space 2.
- Karma Houdini: Tyler Radikov gets away with manipulating Vandal/Karrie Norton into allowing the Necromorphs to spread throughout the Sprawl.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tyler spends much of the game developing a friendly relationship with Vandal and providing some levity in a tense-fueled situation... but that's exactly what he wanted, and he proceeds to trick the engineer into allowing the Necromorphs to spread throughout the Sprawl, effectively setting up the events of the second game.
- Mind Screw: Vandal's hallucinations get very creative and mind-boggling. At one moment, you think you've transformed into a Slasher Necromorph, only to find out it's one of the protagonist's hallucinations.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This is used to jumpstart the game's events. After sabotaging the powerboxes used to control the infection, Vandal is pressed by Director Tiedemann to repair the emergency quarantine seal.
- Non-Indicative Name: The game's name is just Dead Space, and it's not a port of the original game, but an interquel between the first and second games. It's specially noticeable since Dead Space's spin-offs that don't star Isaac have a sub-title to show they're spin-offs, but this game both doesn't star Isaac and doesn't have a sub-title.
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Obvious Beta: The game has a bunch of visual glitches, most noticeably one where necromorphs killed by explosion may have body parts stretched across the entire area, and a particularly nasty version of this glitch makes the entire screen covered in stretched necromorph skin, and that one may happen in the a tram battle from the last chapters. It does disappear if you manage to win but it makes the victory incredibly frustrating regardless. - Schmuck Bait: That battery life indicator that flashes red while fighting a Brute? It's just there to play with your head, nothing to worry about.
- Wham Shot: Amidst Vandal's hallucinations, she sees a Marker standing amidst a desert. Not unusual in and of itself, except for one detail: Markers come in one of two flavors, Black and Red. This one? It's White. The significance of this, if any, is anyone's guess.
- Unwitting Pawn: Vandal, twice. The first is when Vandal disables the power grid, unleashing the Necromorphs. The second is more of a slow-burn, as Tyler spends much of the game regaining Vandal's trust, only to trick her into jamming the doors open, so the Necromorphs can infect the Sprawl.
- You Don'tLookLikeYou: For anyone who played Dead Space 2, this game's interpretation of the Sprawl is just weird. No locations from it are featured in 2 or vice-versa, nor do they share the same architecture; it instead looks a lot more like the Ishimura from the first game, to the point that the tram stations are identical.
