Our fifth comparison, as we move onto the extra-terrestrial cast members while avoiding the overwhelmingly obvious influence of Aliens, is The Thing - in both visuals and behaviour. Dead Space’s Necromorphs are so unpredictable in their biology - so tentacle packed, so scuttly and so adept at crawling over ceilings - it’s impossible to work out where their weak spots are. Combat works through a system that EA call ‘str♑ategic dismemberment’, but we call ‘lopping bits off them with laser wedges until they stop clawing at your face’.

Being an engineer your tools are like laser-enhanced versions of the cheese wires and bacon cutters you’ll find behind a deli counter - and as an array of teeth and bile scuttles toward you it’s up to you to take aim with three Predator-style lights and chop off legs, heads, toes and other bits until all that’s left is a pile of limbs and a cloud of arterial spr♏ay. A certain bloody nightmare creature may be best dealt with through a slice at the knees for example, though exactly which knees you’ll have to surmise through trial, error and an element of terrified blind fire. Break a foe in two and the ch༺ances are both parts will claw their way across the floor to you; consider an enemy decapitated, don’t be surprised if a head grows legs and jumps onto a table. Frankly, it’s terrifying.

Obviously then, there’s an element of Soldier of Fortune in the dismemberment stakes - you can take apart dead humans if you so wish as well - but the end result feels a lot more like the Resident Evil blueprint combined with the motions of firing circular saws at zombies in Half-Life 2’s Ravenholm. The Freeman cribbing doesn’t end there though - among Isaac’s engineering paraphernalia is a gravity toy we’re more than accustomed to, while the environmental puzzles in which it’s used certainly aren’t a million miles away from Valve-central. One tool that’s entirely fresh however, is the abꦦility to place i൲ndividual enemies (and indeed bits of furniture and thrown severed heads) into a personal slow-motion field - giving you time to choose the most pertinent slicing shot given your steadily falling ammo supplies.

Doom 3 probably wins 𒆙through in the comparison stakes though, and before you start, it’s the stuff that id got right (or stole from System Shock 2) that’s been aped. For a start there’s that feeling of dank solitude and organic invasion that, away from the combat, Doom 3 nailed. Then there’s the audio logs left by the recently deceased and mutated - although this time slightly bereft of ammo locker codes.