Crew Deck
Residential Quarters of the USG Ishimura
The Crew Deck was the residential section of the USG Ishimura, a self contained district of sleeper bunks, mess halls and recreation built so that miners and technicians could live aboard the Planet Cracker. During the Necromorph outbreak it became a slaughterhouse and a site of mass Unitologist suicide.
The Crew Deck was the residential section of the mining vessel USG Ishimura, set in the lower forward portion of the ship. It served as the home of the crew who lived aboard the Planet Cracker during its long extraction voyages, and it was central to the events of the Necromorph outbreak that destroyed the ship. (Dead Space; Dead Space (2023))
Layout and purpose#
The Crew Deck was a large area built to house everyone who worked aboard the Ishimura, from miners and technicians to doctors and the senior officers. It was designed so that the crew would feel at home through the long extraction voyages, and it held the necessities of life on a working ship: sleeper bunks, a large Mess Hall and a Zero-G Basketball Court. The 2023 remake fills it out further, with spacious common rooms, bunks that could be closed off for privacy, a gym, a fitness center, a cinema and a chapel. (Dead Space; Dead Space (2023))
A Tram Station connected the deck to the rest of the ship by way of the Tram Tunnels, with a service entrance leading toward the Bridge Security Station. In the remake, the heart of the deck is the Central Nexus, a crossroads marked with guide arrows pointing to the sleeping quarters, the Mess Hall, the fitness center, the chief steward's offices, the shuttle bay, the cinema and the chapel. (Dead Space; Dead Space (2023))
Living quarters#
In the 2023 remake, crew housing is divided by rank. The Standard Quarters, set closest to the Mess Hall, held the lower ranked workers, with a common area of tables, chairs and vending machines opening onto a large room of bunks. The Deluxe Quarters served higher ranking staff and offered more privacy in smaller bunk rooms, along with guest consultant suites. Dr. Challus Mercer kept his personal room among the Deluxe Quarters. (Dead Space (2023))
The remake's Executive Quarters housed the ship's most senior staff, including Captain Benjamin Mathius, First Officer D. White, and Chief Science Officer Terrence Kyne. The executive block was furnished more richly than the standard sleeper blocks, with carpeting and sofas. Nearby was a shuttle bay holding the Executive Shuttle USG-09, a craft reserved for senior officers and kept separate from the ship's other shuttles, which left it aboard after the rest were jettisoned during the early chaos of the outbreak. (Dead Space (2023))
The outbreak#
The Crew Deck was tied to the spread of the catastrophe aboard the Ishimura. In the remake, from the Central Nexus, the security officer Zach Hammond hid in the air vents and watched Unitologists carry Marker 3A from the Cargo Bay into the Nexus. As he relayed the scene to Isaac Clarke and Kendra Daniels over a live transmission, the Marker released a massive signal pulse that cut his transmission and struck both listeners. (Dead Space (2023))
The remake also has Challus Mercer use the deck as a killing ground, pumping toxic gas from the Hydroponics Deck into the Standard Quarters and poisoning the crew sheltering there. In the original 2008 game, the sleeper blocks became the worst infested part of the deck, as the personnel who had retreated there to survive the first wave were later driven by the deranged Mercer to commit mass suicide. The common area near the gym was turned into a chapel where the Unitologist faithful who had fled to the deck took their own lives in ritual fashion. (Dead Space (2023); Dead Space)
Sources
- GameDead Space, EA Redwood Shores, 2008
- GameDead Space (2023), Motive Studio, 2023 (remake)
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
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