Dead Space 2 players uncover easy money trick hidden right in front of them 13 years after release

(Image credit: EA)

If you're low on money, you can always just smash up an ATM. In Dead Space 2, I mean. I'm talking about the videogame Dead Space 2. Because 13 years after the game came out, players have stumbled upon the discovery that applying a bit of percussive (or ballistic) maintenance to the game's various inanimate objects can yield significant rewards.

As spotted by GamesRadar, a Reddit user named wetodd1337 recently realised that plugging a couple of rounds into Dead Space 2's ATMs can yield significant financial rewards. Specifically, shooting up a cash machine can net you 10,000 free credits. Or, if you value health over wealth, you can smash the hell out of a medical station and get a free recharge for your time-dilating stasis module.

deadspace from r/DeadSpace

None of which would be enormously interesting if it wasn't news to fans of the game over a decade after it came out: The replies to wetodd1337's post are filled with users issuing a baffled and collective "Wait, what?"

"... You can what?" reads the top-voted comment on the thread from user madmechanicmobile, and that sentiment pretty much continues unabated for the next 200+ replies.

"I'm so blown away because of the days I've wasted in those games," said Sirbuttsavage (though I question if his knighthood is genuine), while one poster who claims to have worked as a visual effects artist on the Dead Space games also claimed not to have known about the trick.

Now, although the trick is news to plenty of Dead Space 2 players in 2024, that doesn't mean it's the first time it's been uncovered. A quick search reveals a GameFAQs thread from the time of DS2's release date titled "ATMs and vending machines." In that one, user TheSwedishChef alerts their fellow fans to the ATM trick, prompting a familiar series of replies: "Oh wow, I never realised you could do that," says HeroicBloodshed. "I've never noticed the ATMs," says Core_Of_Stuff.

So perhaps this one is trapped in a kind of secrecy cycle, perpetually looping between discovery and obscurity forevermore. What I'm saying is, see you in 13 years when the denizens of neo-TikTok uncover the trick all over again.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.