Isaac Clarke

Isaac Clarke is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Dead Space video game series. Originally a ship systems engineer, his life changes for the worse when a seemingly-routine repair mission becomes a struggle to survive the Necromorph scourge. After he destroyed the Red Marker, Aegis VII and stopped the outbreak, he survived and was captured by EarthGov and taken to Sprawl; a massive space-station build in the remains of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. There, EarthGov used his mind to build another Marker and then he was taken to the hospital of Sprawl due to his dementia caused by the first Marker. Soon the outbreak followed him and he was once again in the middle of a real nightmare. Isaac managed to destroy the second Marker and his deadly hallucination of his dead girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, who died onboard the Ishimura during the time of the first game. Isaac succeeded to escape the station with another survivor, Ellie Langford just before it exploded. They hide from EarthGov to Earth's moon, where they developed a romantic relationship, which they soon broke due to Ellie wanting to stop the Markers and Isaac hide from EarthGov because his mind still containing the Marker codes. He soon got back to action by two EarthGov soldiers, Cpt. Robert Norton and Srg. John Carver who were looking for him. Soon after they found him, a group of Unitologists know as The Circle led by a psychopath named Jacob Danik attack them and Isaac and Carver were separated from Norton. They managed to get to the extraction point, but Danik and his men got there first. Danik soon activated a bomb, which exposed a Marker and it's deadly signal, which caused another Necromorph outbreak to occur. The two managed to survive and go to the secret coordinates of Tau Volantis. There, they found Ellie and the origins of the Markers, or so they think. Outside of the series, Isaac's armour is an unlockable costume in several games, and he is also a playable character in others such as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Conception and development
During development for Dead Space, EA Redwood Shores (now Visceral Games) gave Isaac a portmanteau of two science fiction writers, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. During development for Dead Space 2, Visceral Games decided to give Isaac a voice and chose Gunner Wright.

Appearances
Isaac is first introduced in Dead Space as the son of Poul Clarke, a starship architect, whose work greatly influenced him, leading Isaac to achieve high honors in mechanical and electrical engineering. His depressive and anguish mother Octavia was a member of the Church of Unitology, a religion centered around the alien Black Marker, and sold off much of the Clarke family estate to finance her membership. Due of this, Isaac could not afford the tuition for a prestigious school instead opting into a lesser-known school. After graduating, Isaac enlisted in the merchant naval force, where he quickly gained a reputation for his resourceful engineering solutions. During this time, Isaac tried to find his father Poul, who went missing some years ago, but in vain. Isaac also fell in love with Nicole Brennan, a medical officer, that, before the events of Dead Space, moved out after receiving a promotion, which lead her to serve aboard the USG Ishimura (石村), the first "Planetcracker-Class" starship.

In 2508, the USG Ishimura, during an operation on the planet Aegis VII, sends out a distress signal to the Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) that sends the USG Kellion to investigate; among the crew is Isaac, who volunteered in hopes of seeing Nicole again. Eventually, the Kellion crashes into the Ishimura dock, and when the crew explores an apparently abandoned ship, they are attacked by monsters; only Isaac, Commander Zach Hammond, and Computer Specialist Kendra Daniels manage to escape. The ship's systems are failing, and Isaac goes to make the repairs, learning, by some text and audio logs scattered in the ship, that during the mining of Aegis VII, the Ishimura crew found the Red Marker, the most valuable relic of Unitology. Captain Mathius, a devout Unitologist, shifted focus from mining to retrieving the Marker. After the Marker's extraction, humans from the planet's colony and the ship suffered from mass hysteria and violent hallucinations, killing subsequently each other. Isaac and the others learn that a Marker-based alien lifeform began to ravage the Aegis VII colony, infecting any available corpses and turning them into "Necromorphs"—colour-coded fascists that slaughter humans to spread the infestation. A colony shuttle carrying an Necromorph caused the scourge to spread across the Ishimura. Though Hammond states that he is unaware of what the Marker is, Kendra confides to Isaac that Hammond may be lying. Isaac later encounters Nicole, who indirectly assists him, though they are unable to meet. After repairing the critical systems, Isaac's team launches a second beacon, attracting the nearby USM Valor; however, the Valor, having picked up an escape pod with a Necromorph inside (jettisoned earlier by Hammond) is overrun and crashes into the ship. Hammond deduces, from the military equipment he finds on board, that the Valor was actually assigned to destroy the Ishimura (later confirmed through a text log found on the Valor). Deciding that they must escape while they can, Isaac and Hammond retrieve the Valor's power core in order to repair an available shuttle, though Hammond is killed by an enhanced Necromorph on the way out. Dr. Kyne, one of the last survivors of the Ishimura, later contacts Isaac, urging him to first return the Red Marker to Aegis VII, believing that it can restrain the "Hive Mind", a creature that controls the Necromorphs. After Isaac loads the Red Marker onto the shuttle, Kendra murders Kyne and takes the shuttle, revealing herself as a government operative ordered to retrieve the Red Marker, a reverse-engineered copy of the original Black Marker found on Earth, for her superiors. After she leaves Isaac for dead, Nicole arrives and helps him recall the shuttle remotely, prompting Kendra to flee via escape pod. Isaac takes the Red Marker back to the colony, pacifying the Hive Mind and creating a "dead space" that makes all Necromorphs in the surrounding area dormant (it is revealed in the "backstory logs" unlocked by completing the game that "dead space" refers to the area surrounding the Marker wherein the infection and reanimation processes are subdued by the emission of various types of signals from the Marker). However, this also disrupts the gravity tethers keeping Aegis VII from tearing itself apart. Before Isaac can leave, Kendra appears and starts to take the Red Marker back to the shuttle. She shows Isaac, through a recovered distress transmission, that Nicole committed suicide via lethal injection before Isaac's team arrived on the Ishimura; the "Nicole" he has been seeing "in person" were mere hallucinations caused by the Marker's influence. Isaac intercepts Kendra loading the Marker back into the shuttle; before she can leave, however, the Hive Mind reawakens, killing her, leaving Isaac to defeat it in a battle. Leaving the Marker behind, Isaac flies off in the shuttle before Aegis VII is destroyed. In the epilogue, Isaac sets a course away from Aegis VII. He watches Nicole's last transmission again; now knowing how it ends, he turns it off before it can finish. Noticing something in his peripherals, Isaac looks to his right and is attacked by a vision of Nicole, covered in blood and screaming in his face, just before the scene cuts to black.

After escaping Aegis VII, Isaac was intercepted by EarthGov (Earth Government) forces, later taken to the densely populated Titan Station, a space metropolis surrounding a shard of Titan, one of Saturn's moons. When Dead Space 2 begins, Isaac awakens with no memory of the past three years since, having just been awoken by Franco Delille, who claims to be trying to help him. The already-ongoing Necromorph outbreak claims Franco's life, leaving Isaac to escape on his own. Later, Isaac is contacted by Daina Le Guin, a woman claiming to try and save Isaac; he is also contacted by fellow patient Nolan Stross (a main character from Dead Space: Aftermath), who endured a treatment similar to Isaac's. Daina explains that Sprawl administrator Hans Tiedemann has created a new Marker using information encoded in Isaac and Stross' brains. She also claims that a self-replicating signal was imprinted on Isaac's mind by his previous encounter with the Marker, putting his life in grave danger, which Tiedeman kept in check with memory suppressants. Ignoring Stross, Isaac fights his way through the city (still filled with survivors trying to escape the Necromorphs ) to reach Daina. Along the way, Isaac experiences hallucinations of Nicole, which become more vivid as "she" tries to deter him from his task. Upon his arrival, Daina, a Unitologist agent, has Isaac restrained, claiming that they need him to build more Markers to spread Convergence, an event foretold in Unitology, across the universe; however, an EarthGov gunship strikes, killing Daina and her associates and allowing Isaac to escape. Stross contacts Isaac, claiming that they can destroy the Marker, located in the Sprawl's Government Sector; left with no choice, Isaac reluctantly decides to trust Stross. As he makes his way there, Isaac comes across Ellie Langford, a CEC pilot who eventually joins their mission. As they travel through the Sprawl, they encounter several obstacles caused by Tiedemann, eventually forcing Isaac to venture back inside the Ishimura, which is docked at the Sprawl for decontamination and repair after the events of the first game. Additionally, Stross' dementia worsens, causing him to gouge Ellie's eye out with a screwdriver; she survives, and Isaac kills him in self-defense. After enduring further verbal assaults from "Nicole", Isaac comes to accept the guilt of being unable to prevent her death, causing the visions to become benign. Upon reaching the Government Sector, Isaac sends a protesting Ellie away on a gunship, saying that while he couldn't save Nicole, he can at least save Ellie. Once inside, he sets the Necromorphs onto Tiedemann's forces near the Marker chamber. When Isaac reaches the giant Marker, he finds it surrounded by thousands of Necromorphs, which triggers a Convergence event. With "Nicole"'s guidance, he uses the NoonLight Diagnostic Machine, which activates the Marker-affected parts of his brain, and was used on him and Stross prior while constructing the giant Marker. He fights his way to the Marker, where he encounters and kills Tiedemann. At this point, "Nicole" pulls Isaac into his own mind, revealing that the only way to make the Marker "whole" is for it to absorb its creator—in this case, Isaac himself. Infuriated and betrayed, Isaac destroys "Nicole" and the Marker codes in his mind in a grueling mental battle. Making up, Isaac discovers that the Marker has been destroyed, and that the accumulated damage to the Sprawl has resulted in its reactors melting down. Isaac slumps to the ground, ready to accept his fate, only to be interrupted by Ellie, who crashes the gunship through the ceiling. The two escape as the Sprawl explodes. Later, Isaac, again sensing something in his peripherals (an allusion to the first game's ending), turns to his right to find Ellie beside him, who sees his expression and asks, "What?"

After escaping the Sprawl, Isaac and Ellie Langford have become romantically involved and then separated. Taking Isaac from his apartment located on the Earth's moon, Captain Robert Norton and Sergeant John Carver explain they are the last battalion of EarthGov, and they require Isaac's help to find Ellie and her missing team. Fleeing, the trio is attacked by Unitologist soldiers; during the escape, Unitologist contingent Jacob Danik, who is hunting Isaac from his heresy against Markers, activates a Red Marker near the colony, causing a new outbreak to born. Isaac, Carver, and Norton use this outbreak to their advantage, managing to escape aboard the USM Eudora. Norton manages to trace Ellie's last transmission to Tau Volantis and the 200-year-old ruins of its colony. The group tries to reach Ellie's SOS signal; however, the Eudora breaks apart due to mines left in orbit of the planet by the old S.C.A.F (Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, Earth's old government before EarthGov). Norton, Carver, and Isaac manage to escape the exploding Eudora, reaching the derelict CMS Roanoke, which is densely guarded with necromorphs. They succeed in rescuing the "Marker Team", consisting of Ellie, Jennifer Santos, and Austin Buckell, and Isaac learns about Ellie and Norton's new relationship. Isaac soon discovers that Tau Volantis is the Marker Home World, which contains a Machine, which the team believes it controls the Markers and the captain of Roanoke wanted 200 years ago "turn it off". Despite Norton's protests that any such attempt would be a suicide mission, the team attempts to land on Tau Volantis; however, mines and debris tears the shuttle apart and separates Isaac and Carver from the rest of the crew. Discovering Buckell, who helps them before dying from hypothermia, Isaac and Carver are able to locate the others, and plan to track down the Machine. Finding a recording from General Mahad, it's discovered that 200 years ago S.C.A.F had discovered Necromorphs buried beneath on the planet and experimented on them, only for an outbreak to occur; as a result, Mahad's team murdered all survivors and destroyed all evidence to prevent further outbreak. Isaac frequently finds himself clashing with Norton, who sees Isaac as competition for Ellie's love; it's soon discovered that the Unitologists inexplicably followed them to Tau Volantis, before Norton explains he betrayed Isaac and plans to exchange him to Danik for a ship to return home. Danik, going against his deal, attempts to murder Norton along with Isaac and Carver; after the trio escapes following Necromorph interference, Norton attempts to murder Isaac, forcing him to kill Norton in self-defense. Isaac, Carver, Ellie, and Santos make for an abandoned science facility called the "Rosetta lab" on the side of a mountain. Santos has found records of a Codex located there, created by someone named Rosetta. After Santos dies during the ascent, the team manages to reassemble a frozen Rosetta, who is found to be an alien. Experiencing a vision, Isaac discovers Tau Volantis is not the Marker homeworld, but a homeworld of aliens who, like humanity, discovered a Black Marker and started making Red Markers from it, which soon consumed them. The planet's moon is actually a giant Necromorph; the Brethren Moon and is the result of the Convergence event foretold by Unitology; before it could complete and consume all life in the galaxy with its brothers, a Machine was built to freeze Tau Volantis and force the Brethren Moon into a state of dormancy. The command to "turn it off" is actually a command transmitted from the Markers themselves, who wish the Machine disabled to reawaken the Brethren Moon. Isaac, acquiring the Codex, discovers Danik is holding Ellie and Carver hostage. Ellie, confessing her love for Isaac, sacrifices herself to allow Isaac and Carver to escape, and the two pursue Danik down into the planet to the Machine. The duo then finds a video log from Serrano, who explains that with Codex, the Machine can either free the Brethren Moon or destroy it. He and Carver regain control of the Codex, but are forced to surrender it to Danik when he reveals Ellie is still alive and he is holding her hostage. Danik shuts off the Machine, but he is killed by falling debris as Convergence restarts. Isaac puts Ellie aboard an escape craft, shares one final kiss with her, and then works with Carver to reconfigure the Machine and destroy the Brethren Moon. The two succeed, and as the moon smashes down into the surface of Tau Volantis, destroying the Markers forever, Isaac and Carver are swept away. Ellie watches from space, and then tearfully turns her ship back towards Earth. In a post-credits scene, an static-filled audio log briefly plays, with Isaac calling out to Ellie.

After the battle with the Brethren Moon over Tau Volantis, Isaac and Carver wake up on the surface of the planet, shocked to find out that after falling to their near death, they are still alive. They then make their way across the surface of the frozen planet, finding memories of the horror they had experienced. After finding out that the Marker signal was still causing insanity, suicide and Necromorphs and Earth is in danger, they battled through more of the threat that Isaac and Carver had just faced. They then find out about a ship that can take them back to Earth. After witnessing many ships lift off, they find a ship, but soon discover that the Shockpoint Drive in the ship is damaged and it can only take them to the CMS Terra Nova. Once aboard the Terra Nova, Isaac and Carver must find a way to restore power to the derelict ship and find a new Shockpoint Drive in order to return to Earth. However, within the halls of the old Sovereign Colonies ship, they encounter the remnants of The Circle who've taken refuge inside and begun a new following in the name of the Necromorphs. After dealing with members of the Circle, as well as their own insanity, Isaac and Carver find the ShockPoint Drive, but Isaac is now losing his mind. He protests installing the ShockPoint Drive into the ship, because he happens to think that if they install it, the Brethren Moons will follow them to Earth, and kill everyone living there and the only way to save the Earth is to blow the ship. After Isaac and Carver have a hallucination of fighting each other, the hallucination is interrupted by another hallucination, in which the Brethren Moons reveal that they were only slowing Isaac and Carver down, and that they have known where Earth was all along. After regaining his sanity, Isaac admits that Carver was right all along. He agrees to install the Shockpoint Drive into the Terra Nova. However, Carver then recalls that the Audio Logs hinted that the reactor could power up enough energy in the engine to go into shockspace and return to Earth. They install the ShockPoint Drive into the reactor, and they overload the reactor by dumping plutonium cores which generates enough power to enter Shockspace. After returning to the bridge, they activate the ship and return to Earth. Soon after their arrival to the Earth's space and attempting to communicate with Earth, they hear transmissions of people getting slaughtered by Necromorphs. When they look out of the cockpit of the Terra Nova, they notice that the Brethren Moons have already arrived and are attacking Earth. One of the moons comes up in front of the Terra Nova, crashing the ship and knocking Isaac and Carver unconscious.

Outside the Dead Space series, Isaac also appears as an unlockable alternate costume in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, as a skateboarder in Skate 3, as playable character in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, and as a downloadable playable character for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, where his rival is Zeus from God of War. His armor can also be worn in Dragon Age II, Dante's Inferno, and Battlefield Heroes.

Reception
PlayStation Universe described him as "corpse-slaying badass", saying: "starting off as the mute hero of the original Dead Space, Clarke was finally given a voice and personality in the sequel, becoming a standout character in his own right". They added: "his willingness to help others and strong morals makes him an ideal partner", and stated his best characteristic to survive is his adaptability. GamesRadar ranked Isaac, who has "a cool demeanor, and an even cooler suit of futuristic armor", as 22nd "most memorable, influential, and badass" protagonist in games, also including him in other three "Top 7": at the fourth place in their list of "The Top 7... Mentally damaged characters we love"; as the sixth most badass game character of the generation (as of 2012), and his romance with Nicole Brennan was ranked as the fifth most disastrous in video games. Isaac was featured as one of the characters IGN would like to see in an ultimate fighting game, adding "He may lack the pizazz of some other fighters on this list, but try making fun of him when he holds a space-age nail gun to your forehead." In 2013, Complex ranked him as the sixteenth most badass characters in video game's history. In addition, his helmet was also listed by UGO Networks at six in "The Coolest Helmets and Headgear in Video Games" list. ZoominGames listed his armor as the fifth on a list of the top five "badass armor in video games"