The player takes the role of Franco Delille, an engineer who witnesses and navigates round the initial outbreak of the hostile alien Necromorphs.

It was offered as a free download with pre-orders of Dead Space 2, unlocking a new costume and story content within that game upon completion.

Dead Space Ignition is an action puzzle video game which combines interactive storytelling through third-person motion comic cutscenes and a selection of minigames played from a top-down perspective.

The action takes place on the Sprawl, a space station built in the remains of Saturn's moon Titan in a period where humanity survived near-extinction due to resource depletion by mining other planets.

[10] The game's narrative diverges between fixing a lighting failure, or resolving a hostage situation caused by an unhinged resident.

Playing through Ignition and completing each ending unlocked multiple extras, including a new outfit and additional audio and text logs, in Dead Space 2.

[4][27] Taylor Cocke of 1Up.com, giving the website's lowest score, compared the presentation to "a cheap '80s Saturday morning cartoon" and said that only franchise fans would find any enjoyment.

[23] Eurogamer's Chris Shilling felt the concept behind the game was sound, but undermined by poor execution in its presentation and minigames.

[24] Giancarlo Varanini of GameSpot said there was "nothing remarkable about either the story or gameplay of Ignition", citing its only positive as the unlockables for Dead Space 2.

[25] IGN's Greg Miller found the story and sound design engaging, but faulted the rest of the game as a waste of time for players due to the minigames' varying quality and its short playtime.

[4] Official Xbox Magazine found little need to play the title apart from its unlockables for Dead Space 2, otherwise panning the game as boring and poorly produced.