Uhhhhh Dead Space ramblings, tw for corpses, descriptions of gore, and human suffering
Oh also, Halo Flood mentioned too, and a lil comparison between the two cause i really like both and not enough people talk about how cool they both are and which one would win in a fight
So I'm lookin up Dead Space necromorphs atm for creechur design purposes (shhhhhh spoilers) and fuuuuck i love that it's not alien, it's just, mutated human corpses. Like the blades, the exploding pus globs, the giant fangs protruding out of their mouths, that's all mutated bone and organs and stuff. It's all human, in the most fucked up, painful, sad way imaginable where you can't help but feel bad for em and imagine what that would feel like, but also it's so damn cool. Especially what they do to the faces. Like the ones that have the exploding arms?? I thought they had two heads but no it's just one head split down the middle and the skull has reformed at the top to resemble sharp mandibles, as if to attack or detect overhead threats/prey.
And like each necromorph has a purpose. You have the crawlers and slicers that are obviously just, to kill, but also to slice up or digest meat in order for it to be repurposed as walls or the giant flesh monsters. Then you have the ones that pump out toxic gas, and their lungs have been pulled from their body and expanded, while the rest of their flesh is used to anchor them to the floor. And the babies are meant to lure vulnerable people in, and then explode them, or serve as tracker dogs as they can go through small spaces to hunt those in hard to reach areas. And that's so fucking cool?!?!?!?! It's like, not just bodyhorror but bodyhorror with purpose.
Dead Space has like, the only kind of 'gore' i can look at besides the Flood in Halo, cause it's just so fascinating how they work with one another as an ecosystem and how parts of their bodies were purposely crafted for their assigned tasks. Also the fact, you can tell the people they once were are not completely dead, cause they're in so much pain or they're forced to do such gruesome tasks that they can do nothing but scream and moan, indicating pain and a subdued consciousness, and it makes you wonder who they were as people, making it hurt a little to kill them. Like the ones with the explosive arms, they do that highpitched scream that i can still hear whenever i think about them. And the ones on the walls sob and wail. And the ones that pump out gas can only gasp and groan from the weight of it, sounding so tired. The babies scream, indicating pain, and sometimes giggle, which tbh hurts more than really being scary. Most of them were 'born' like this. This was how life greeted them the first time they woke up from incubation, and so they don't know how sad their situation is, as this is all they've known, so they can giggle while no other necromorph can express anything other than suffering and sorrow, because they're more used to their twisted bodies.
The way the turned children cackle is sad too, they probably aren't even able to process what happened to them, so they're just 'playing'. Chasing each other and whoever they can find around as a pack. You encounter so few of these groups, but that's cause there's so many in each pack. They're also part of this messed up ecosystem like that though. They were lonely and hurting and they found each other, and their numbers grew and grew and grew, creating a difficult horde to fight that can last several minutes each time. They're bigger threats than most of the other necromorphs due to the sheer size of the packs.
And that strikes me too. I love how the necromorphs, while they are a hivemind, can't use weapons so they grow their own, and the fact that the hivemind preys on their lingering consciousness, their fears, their loneliness, their helplessness, and turns that into a weapon. While the Flood in Halo is one cohesive mind. The souls of the infected are gone, and the Gravemind can accurately use weapons through them because there's no lingering consciousness that it has to work around. I love how resourceful the Dead Space hivemind is, how resourceful the Marker is. It's just all so fascinating and every time i look them up I'm just reminded how well they tackled the concept of a zombie outbreak, in space.
Btw if you can't tell, I actually cannot stand zombie stuff. Not cause of the gore, or how 'scary' it is, but how uninspired and boring the genre is, and how it's specifically not scary to me, so without an emotional aspect to fall back on, there's nothing that keeps me hooked. The biggest reason that zombies have never held my attention though is cause most media just doesn't utilize it very well. Like sure they have their different types and whatever but usually it's just indistinguishable gore or globs of meat that besides fulfilling a certain role are not memorable to me. Which isn't a problem that Halo or Dead Space have.
On to the Flood. So, i like the necromorphs more, obvi, but I'm more fascinated by the necromorphs and sympathetic towards them than scared (even though i still scream like a little bitch every time i play it) while the Halo Flood actually scares me. And i don't know if it's cause of the music or atmosphere or the way the levels are designed around the Flood, it's a very meticulously crafted experience, tbf. But again, playing to the strengths of the space zombie concept. And plus the designs are very stylized and recognizable, i can accurately recall at least 4 different Flood enemies. And sure this kinda goes against the 'i love that its not alien' thing that i enjoy about the necromorphs, and tbh that's also why i like the necromorphs more, i gotta give the Flood props for still utilizing its alien aspect due to the fact that the Flood is so diverse and distinct in its designs. The Gravemind is also super cool and interesting, and i like that it's an intelligent being that has the potential to infect with purpose. But that's cause all its victims are no longer concious, so there's not a million voices screaming and crying in the hivemind, unlike with the necromorphs. Kinda hard to a be a sentient hivemind of one when there's so many in your arsenal being so loud. Though tbh, that's also what gives the necromorphs an edge above the Flood. Because it has to get crafty due to not being able to control each individual necromorph, it allows control to its victims who can only follow base instinct due to their afflictions. It makes them a stronger threat than the Flood who has all the weapons because, in the end, the Gravemind has to move each Flood piece like a puppet on a string.
The Flood can also be contained, dealt with planet by planet, and if you kill the Gravemind you disorient and quiet the Flood and set it back to base threat level til the Gravemind rebuilds itself again, which is a problem the Marker doesn't have, again due to giving all control to its victims. On top of that, the Marker makes sleeper cells out of anyone who has ever made contact with it or the necromorphs and it causes some of them to even worship it and build new Markers. Making it 10 times harder to lock down and get rid of than the Flood. Which is fucking cool. I mean they're both cool but the necromorphs are really fucking cool, specifically the Marker. I literally have a Marker lamp (which has a heart beat pulse mode on it, btw) because i just think it's that cool.
Also due to the above problems, the Flood is pretty slow to build. The Gravemind forming acts as a conduit but anything that's far enough away from the Gravemind is less reactive and acts somewhat mindless with a small set of goals and instincts. That's why they have to build the Gravemind themselves. It's a very slow takeover process that involves several days to take over a planet, while the Marker only needs hours, and can infect ither planets faster than the Flood can even travel, due to the sleeper cell problem from before, and the fact that it ahs built a religion around itself to spread its affects, making it able to spread and consume 20 times faster than the Flood ever could. And i haven't even brought up the fact it can turn literal planets into all devouring creatures as well, while the Gravemind just turns em into glorified anthills. So, yeah no i think the necromorphs have a pretty solid dub on their hands in comparison to the Flood.
Now it would be cool tho if they teamed up, yanno? The necromorphs provide the ecological knowhow and the organic material, and the Flood could supply the weapons? And then the spread would be 100 times faster for both, and then the Markers could also amplify the Gravemind's reach tenfold. It would be pretty cool. Then again both seem to be deathly territorial so maybe not.
Anyways that's all XDDDD i just wanted to ramble about the Flood and the necromorphs for a lil bit cause i really really like them and they kinda crawl outta the hyperfixation woodwork every like, 6 months. Also cause, again, i was looking them up for some creechur designs tehee~ i wanna get better at drawing spiky mouth stuff with all the razor teeth and whatnot. I hope you all enjoyed, i love you all!!!!! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
