So a while back this thing happened with space zombies, a giant glowing stone thing and a bunch of psychotics. Everyone’s favorite errand boy, Isaac Clarke, managed to escape the doomed USG Ishimura and apparently makes it back to civilization. Of course, everything goes to Hell and he finds himself in the thick of it once more, but we won’t be taking part in any of that business until next year.

Rather than risk allowing players (read: potential customers) to forget about the only worthwhile Survival Horror franchise on the market at the moment, EA has opted to dangle a carrot in front of our noses in the form of a downloadable prequel adventure.

Dead Space Ignition will be taking place on the Sprawl and chronicle the initial necromorph outbreak. The game is really more of a choose-your-own-adventure interactive comic than a complete game, with three different hacking mini games: Hardware Crack, Trace Route and System Override. No specific information has been given as to what these games actually entail, just that they offer “… a fun and satisfying arcade experience that will challenge players with puzzles and twitch gameplay.”

So it’s a prequel, but it only covers the events that occur right before the real game. It features a few different mini games and that’s it. And it’s supposed to be like an interactive comic with four different endings. Now as much as I love Dead Space, I couldn’t help but wonder why I should care about any of this. It sounds mediocre at best, really. Well the answer is simple: Unlockable swag.

The game offers four unique endings and upon completion of each one, players will be rewarded with unlocks including an exclusive suit, all of which can be used by Isaac Clarke in Dead Space 2 when the game releases on Jan 25, 2011.

No amount of scruples will prevent me from attempting to unlock an exclusive in-game suit when it comes to Dead Space. Not even the knowledge that I’m being bent over a barrel. But come on, you can unlock a new suit!