If you’re playing or plan to play Electronic Arts’ horrific space shooter, “Dead Space,” the six volumes of the “Dead Space Animated Comic” set the scene nicely. The comics, basically videos of actual comic books with voice acting, directly precede the events of the game.

The comic is set in a future where humans have depleted Earth’s resources and roam the galaxy looking for planets they can “crack” with enormous mining vessels. On one such planet, a mining colony prepping the planet unearths a huge obelisk. Some of the colonists believe it’s an ancient, religious artifact, but others are skeptical.

One thing they can all agree on is that things get really weird, really quickly. The first video opens with a surviving colonist telling the viewer that the planet needs to be nuked, now, presumably with the viewer still on it, to prevent whatever’s down there from escaping to the outside world.

EA started dispensing the animated comics in dribs and drabs over the summer, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to wait to watch shows when they come out on DVD, so you can watch a whole season in a week, now’s the time to tune in, as all six parts are available to watch.

You can download high-definition versions of the videos via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network, but if you don’t mind watching a smaller version on YouTube, here’s the first one. Bear in mind that this is a video promoting an M-rated game. The animated comic features violence and harsh language.