Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2023
When I heard they were remaking Dead Space, I was a bit baffled. It felt like it was rather soon, considering I played it on an Xbox 360. But time flies and it was released 15 years ago already! You can read my review of the original here.
Despite staying close to the original's layout, it’s been heavily upgraded visually. All rooms, characters, enemies and 3D objects have been remodelled and considerably beefed up in their geometry.
In addition, the lighting has been completely reworked. With far more advanced and stunning volumetric lighting, shadows and effects like sparks and fire have been completely redone. Originally it ran on the Unreal Engine 3, but this new game runs on EA’s impressive Frostbite engine, of Battlefield fame.
Default it's set to performance mode, which runs smooth 60fps, really enhancing the experience for console players used to the original. There’s a quality mode, but all it does is add ray tracing to a few select surface, ups the resolution from 1440p to 4K and caps it all at 30fps. Not worth it to sacrifice the responsiveness.
Although the space station's layout and story progression are mostly identical to the 2008 release, it changes things up with a few new areas that didn’t make it for the original release. There are also a handful of side-missions added, which I recommend doing to expand the playtime.
A welcome change is the removal of mission screens. The entire story flows as one cohesive part. If you recall, the original was divided in missions, although areas were connected, but you couldn't freely traverse between them. These mission screen interruptions took away momentum and sense of one cohesive space station. I’m glad to see it all connected as one large entity. Progression with key cards and locked doors stay largely the same though.
Isaac, the once silent main protagonist, is now voiced, just like in Dead Space 2 & 3. In addition to removing his helmet for dialogues, it helps give a little more personality to his rather bland character. In general, the story is fleshed out with more explanations, with additional depth to the back story of what happened in the events before Isaac arrives.
Default it's set to performance mode, which runs smooth 60fps, really enhancing the experience for console players used to the original. There’s a quality mode, but all it does is add ray tracing to a few select surface, ups the resolution from 1440p to 4K and caps it all at 30fps. Not worth it to sacrifice the responsiveness.
Although the space station's layout and story progression are mostly identical to the 2008 release, it changes things up with a few new areas that didn’t make it for the original release. There are also a handful of side-missions added, which I recommend doing to expand the playtime.
A welcome change is the removal of mission screens. The entire story flows as one cohesive part. If you recall, the original was divided in missions, although areas were connected, but you couldn't freely traverse between them. These mission screen interruptions took away momentum and sense of one cohesive space station. I’m glad to see it all connected as one large entity. Progression with key cards and locked doors stay largely the same though.
Isaac, the once silent main protagonist, is now voiced, just like in Dead Space 2 & 3. In addition to removing his helmet for dialogues, it helps give a little more personality to his rather bland character. In general, the story is fleshed out with more explanations, with additional depth to the back story of what happened in the events before Isaac arrives.
Nevertheless, I still find Isaac a bit bland, he lacks something memorable to his personality, but Dead Space is more about what the events that unfolds does to Isaac's mentality more than the man himself.
Although occult and intriguing in concept, I still find the Marker story a little lacking. There's something a underwhelming about it when you realise what it's all about. Sure, it wasn’t taken to such a limit as they did in Dead Space 3, but I feel they already reached a dead end with the explanation of why nasty alien creatures occur. That said, rewriting the entire story would've been a massive undertaking.
Although occult and intriguing in concept, I still find the Marker story a little lacking. There's something a underwhelming about it when you realise what it's all about. Sure, it wasn’t taken to such a limit as they did in Dead Space 3, but I feel they already reached a dead end with the explanation of why nasty alien creatures occur. That said, rewriting the entire story would've been a massive undertaking.
Overall, I very much was reminded as to why Dead Space is one of my all-time favourite horror titles. it brings me back to what made the first game so special and scarier than the sequels. All the intensity of the horrors onboard the Ishimura space station come flooding back.
The gameplay has stood the test of time and is really solid, with a satisfying third person shooter feel, combined with brutal weapons that literally cut enemies to pieces. A somewhat unique take on enemy damage, even to this day.
Simply firing into the alien bodies won't harm them as much as cutting their arms, legs and tentacles off. It's a clever and entertaining combat system. Thrown into the mix is a slow motion attack, which slows specific things like enemies or moving doors, and a gravity pulling ability, allowing you to move large objects. Just like you did in 2008.
Isaac still feels a little heavy and slower than the average third person shooter, but it’s nothing worrying and feels right compared to his metallic, intimidating and scary spacesuit. The anti-gravity sections are really cool too, although a little confusing when you start turning upside down and sideways!
There are obvious tell-tale signs of a 15 year old release though, which I wish this remake had got rid of. Firstly, it’s the loading corridors between rooms of interest. They’re bland, have sharp 90-degree corners and obviously hide loading, did they need this on a current gen title? Perhaps spiced them up some more?
There are obvious tell-tale signs of a 15 year old release though, which I wish this remake had got rid of. Firstly, it’s the loading corridors between rooms of interest. They’re bland, have sharp 90-degree corners and obviously hide loading, did they need this on a current gen title? Perhaps spiced them up some more?
Same goes for the colour scheme and overall design, there's a lot of dark, grey, brown and black industrial areas. Although this remake far outperforms the original in this regard and has evidently been spiced up with more colour and variation.
That said, if you've never played Dead Space before, go straight to this version! It literally makes the original release redundant, in every way. It’s an immensely dark, violent and scary experience for newcomers, that holds up incredibly well 15 years later.
Secondly, though not as bad as Dead Space 2, are the obvious spawning of enemies. Sure, they try to scare the shit out of you by having them burst through walls in ventilation shafts, rooftops or doors, but it’s clear they’re trying to screw you over by deliberately placing them in front and behind you.
At the end of the day, I still warmly love and recommend the first Dead Space. It’s right up there with horror classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. However, as a remake, I feel this is closer to a remaster than a new experience. And yes, I get that they've completed reworked the 3D models, textures and lighting, but there’s very little changes to the layout.
At the end of the day, I still warmly love and recommend the first Dead Space. It’s right up there with horror classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. However, as a remake, I feel this is closer to a remaster than a new experience. And yes, I get that they've completed reworked the 3D models, textures and lighting, but there’s very little changes to the layout.
I’m not downplaying the beautiful visuals and the hard work put into remodelling everything, but I just don’t feel there’s enough changes here to call it a full blooded remake.
That said, if you've never played Dead Space before, go straight to this version! It literally makes the original release redundant, in every way. It’s an immensely dark, violent and scary experience for newcomers, that holds up incredibly well 15 years later.
