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- What Is Peng?
- The Peng Statue
- The Memeing Of Peng
There's one thing to remember in the Dead Space universe, no matter how bad things get, there is always Peng. It's everywhere, from billboards to achievements and even physical statues that can be sold for a pretty penny. Peng is all around, and it's great.
Related: Dead Space: Who Is Isaac Clarke?
Peng is a phenomenon that's wrapped all around the Dead Space franchise and it's taken on a life of its own within and outside of the games community. It pops up in every mainline game as well as a handful of spin-offs, so it's permanently part of Dead Space's DNA. A dumb joke that's become an unkillable meme, here's everything you need to know about Peng.
What Is Peng?
The fun thing about Peng, is that it can apply to many things within Dead Space. Initially it started as a gag or Easter Egg inserted into the first game by the developers. Then over time, it became a bit of a meme within the community as nobody could quite figure out what it was supposed to mean, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Peng first appeared in the original Dead Space on posters and graffiti scattered around the USG Ishimura, as well as a golden model that was hidden away but could be recovered for an achievement/trophy and sold in the Store for around 30k in credits.
The statue would go on to reappear on Titan Station in Dead Space 2, and again in Dead Space 3, as well as the DS2 DLC called Severed and the mobile port of the original game. Mentions of Peng itself are throughout these titles as well, again in graffiti or posters, but it's never said outright what it's supposed to be.
As a result, Peng can be whatever someone wants it to be. For example, in some languages Peng means beautiful, and when plastered on posters with models you can see how the connection can be made.
Peng can also mean money or a financial boon, and again the gold statue of Peng nets you a ton of cash, so it tracks. There's also another school of thought that points to it being some sort of performance-enhancing drug or at least a stimulant that's popular with deep-space crews.
Also, one of the original game's object artist's last name was Peng, so Peng could literally be everything that was modeled by that particular person on the team and this is a shout-out. Finally, and though this one is a bit looser, a professional engineer is abbreviated as "P.Eng," and Isaac is a Professional Engineer. So you see, everywhere you look, there's always Peng.
The Peng Statue
We mentioned it briefly, but it's worth digging into the Peng Statue. This medium-sized trophy resembles a woman in an elegant ball gown standing with her hands on her hips. Whether it's the same woman shown in the posters seen so frequently throughout the series or not is anyone's guess, but there are some similarities.
Related: Dead Space: What Is The Hive Mind?
The statue has also appeared in almost every Dead Space game. Though it's not mandatory to collect it, doing so is always worthwhile. Achievement and trophy notification aside, it goes for quite a lot of credits in the store, so it's a healthy chunk of change to collect especially if you're already short on cash and are running through on the highest difficulty setting. Money that can then be funneled into some nice upgrades, ammo, or other supplies you might need in a pinch.
The Memeing Of Peng
It didn't take long for Peng to become a meme within the Dead Space Community, and you really can't blame them when you take a look at some of the ammunition the developers gave them. For example, there are posters with the tagline "I love my Peng," "I want more Peng," "P, Get Ya Some" and graffiti that proudly exclaims: "I give great Peng."
There was plenty for the internet to work with, and oh, how those little elves got busy. As the series progressed, the developers leaned more into Peng, and it only benefited the game more as it gave more fun things for the community to come up with, joke about, and generally appreciate the game more as the gagg continued.
Though the devs did hint when the first trilogy came out that they would expand on what Peng actually was, it was never to be, as the series got canned before we ever found out the true meaning of Peng. But, Peng and Dead Space are so intertwined at this point that it became a mystery just as interesting as the true source of the Markers. After all, just like them, there's always Peng.
NEXT: Dead Space: Why Are There Babies On The Ishimura?
