Known as a "planet-cracker" in-universe, the mining vessel serves as the setting of the 2008 Dead Space and its 2023 remake after its crew recovers an alien artifact on the planet Aegis VII, which transforms them into undead creatures called Necromorphs.

[5] Liam Richardson of Rock Paper Shotgun called the Ishimura a believable vessel due to its "lived-in" feel, with each room providing context for how the ship operated, and the engineer protagonist, Isaac, being a "functional part" of the larger machine.

Characterizing its interior as "suffocatingly bleak", with "endless corridors of grim metal", he stated that the fact that the ship was "a miserable place to live and work" before the catastrophe was what made it remembered as fondly as locations such as City 17, Rapture or Spencer Mansion.

[1] Nic Reuben of NME called the ship a "believable space" with "often-comical freedom", saying that it was hard to resist for horror fans due to its "palpable sense of misery" and praising its "collage of found sound effects".

[8] Cass Marshall of Polygon called the Ishimura a "terrifying, rusted labyrinth" in both versions of the game, but lamented that the remake missed the opportunity to expand upon the rest of the ship's crew like it did with Isaac's characterization, describing them as "cardboard cutouts".

[9] However, Ashley Bardhan of Kotaku criticized the "lightless" ship's "smallness" as "suffocating", calling the remake's shadows "the only extra dimension" to the Ishimura, and expressing disappointment that the gameplay was not changed more drastically.

[11] The implications of the idea of "planet cracking" itself were discussed by Chris McMullen of The Escapist, who believed that the Ishimura and similar ships were "deeply disquieting" due to the destructive methods of their operation.