“Dead Space (2023) feels a little redundant considering the original still holds up, but a well-executed remake still results in a standout action-horror experience.”

Pros

Original has aged gracefully

All weapons at the moment are viable

Detailed visible redesign

Better zero-gravity segments

Smart, delicate enhancements

Cons

Less visually legible

Some modifications do not feel additive

If the mark of a great online game remake is that it preserves the unique expertise and makes it really feel the best way it felt the primary time you performed it, then take into account Dead Space a hit … by default. That’s as a result of the unique 2008 action-horror recreation nonetheless feels completely fashionable to at the present time, even with some dated visuals and storytelling. I ought to know, as a result of I simply performed the unique for the primary time one 12 months in the past. For a venture like this, not stomping throughout its supply materials’s corpse could be the franchise’s most secure transfer.
That’s exactly the route developer Motive Studio went with in its retelling of Dead Space. Every selection it makes is in service of the unique, from modernizing its few dated techniques to creating every weapon extra viable in fight. Even when it does break from the script, it does so in a method that’s positive to set off the Mandela Effect for followers. Several moments had me outright misremembering the 2008 model, because the developer reworked issues with tweaks that really feel like they had been there all alongside. It’s so respectful that I can’t assist however examine it to Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot tackle Psycho when taking part in it, leaving me to marvel how essential a venture like this actually is.
For anybody who’s but to play one in all gaming’s horror greats, the brand new tackle Dead Space is a reasonably definitive model of the expertise. Its limb-carving fight and claustrophobic environment nonetheless outclass its friends 15 years later, and that reality is simply emphasised with some good changes. If you’ve performed the 2008 model to loss of life, although, nothing right here is prone to deepen your relationship with it. It’s a remake for remake’s sake.
All limbs intact
If I’m merely Dead Space (2023) as its personal piece somewhat than critiquing its effectiveness as a remake, it undoubtedly nonetheless works as a third-person horror expertise. The story of Isaac Clarke, an engineer who finds himself stranded on an deserted mining ship (the USG Ishimura) overrun with murderous necromorphs, performs like an much more grotesque homage to Aliens. It’s a compact recreation that balances tense soar scares with power-fantasy motion. All of that holds true as Dead Space nonetheless exists as a superbly engineered popcorn recreation.
Story was not the primary installment’s robust swimsuit, and that’s by no means been a lot of a difficulty. Dead Space spends a whole lot of time setting the groundwork for the franchise somewhat than telling a whole story. It offers glimpses of what its model of 2508 seems to be like, balancing capitalist satire with searing indictments of spiritual cults. The new model tries to present its story just a little emotional infusion by turning the once-silent Clarke into a totally voiced protagonist, however that doesn’t change a lot, apart from breaking apart some stretches of silence. It’s one space the place I can really feel that it got here from a pre-The Last of Us world.
I don’t imply that as a knock; in actual fact, it’s a part of Dead Space’s enchantment. It has all the time labored as a tone piece, portray broad story strokes throughout a canvas it will probably totally splatter with blood, Jackson Pollock-style. The Ishimura is among the nice online game settings in that regard; it’s a darkish labyrinth of eerie corridors that feels inescapable. That fixed claustrophobia offers the journey its energy, as tight rooms and hallways flip each necromorph encounter into a quick fight-or-flight response. It’s a horror recreation of reflexes. When you’re ready for something, you’re in management. The second you get snug, say goodbye to your head.
Dead Space is carried by a signature fight system that also feels higher than most video games of its dimension.

There’s one specific sequence that greatest captures that dynamic. For a great chunk of the sport, assets are plentiful. I all the time really feel like I’ve a deep stash of plasma cutter ammo, giving me some flexibility in battle. Then I meet my first Brute. The quadrupedal monster is a hulking beast in comparison with different necromorphs, and I’m left fully panicked as I wrestle to battle it. I pump a great deal of ammo into it, however barely really feel like I’m making a dent. I’ll ultimately notice its weak level is on its bottom, however not earlier than burning via most of my ammo and making my subsequent hour much more tense. That was precisely the expertise I had taking part in the 2008 model, and it’s a testomony to the core design that it performed out the very same method for me in 2023.

More than something, Dead Space is carried by a signature fight system that also feels higher than most video games of its dimension. The core thought is that Clarke can carve off particular person necromorph limbs utilizing an array of artistic weapons. That turns each battle right into a puzzle the place gamers can handle swarms of aliens by strategically reducing off their legs or freezing them with stasis powers. Others have tried to take notes from it, however few have delivered motion that feels so satisfying to execute.
That’s one space the place Motive Studio actually understands the project. A number of effort went into strengthening that fight system with out throwing any of it away. Whereas the 2008 model was at its greatest when utilizing the plasma cutter to carve limbs, each single weapon is made viable right here. That’s as a result of amputation is extra dynamic right here as gamers peel again layers of flesh with every shot somewhat than cleanly minimize them off with a straight line. I had simply as a lot enjoyable melting down enemies with the flamethrower or blasting them away with the pressure gun as carving them up with the road gun, which by no means left my facet within the authentic. Decisions like that make it clear how a lot Motive reveres the unique recreation and solely needed to do its unsung concepts justice.
Invisible modifications
While the modifications to fight stick out to me most, the Dead Space remake is loaded with tweaks. Some are extra pronounced (say goodbye to that irritating asteroid-blasting minigame), whereas others are so simple as remodeling some story beats right here and there. The most evident change comes from its visible overhaul, which is definitely spectacular. Not solely does it appear to be a contemporary recreation, however its artwork route is extra detailed normally, making the Ishimura really feel like extra of a lived-in house.
It’s a venture born from respect, because the remake helps uphold an getting old recreation’s legacy.

Motive goes all-in on element right here. There’s a lot starker distinction, with darkness higher hiding necromorphs. Sparks rain down from lights in a waterfall of atmospheric mild. My favourite contact is the contact beam, which now obliterates enemies in a Ghostbusters-like stream of vitality that’s a bit mesmerizing. There is admittedly a draw back to all these touches although, because the 2023 model is notably much less legible than the unique at instances. In some zero-gravity battles, I’d discover myself unable to find enemies as they received misplaced within the ship’s particulars or intricate lighting. There’s a visible class to the 2008 model that makes it much less scary, however extra playable. Motive flips that dynamic right here in a method that largely ends in a net-neutral trade-off, regardless of the additional razzle-dazzle.
For probably the most half, although, the majority of the modifications are invisible. They’re the sorts of issues that really feel like they’ve been there all alongside till you play each variations facet by facet. For occasion, zero-gravity segments have been totally reimagined right here. In the unique model, Isaac couldn’t freely fly when coming into a zero-gravity zone. Instead, he may solely hop from floor to floor, a frustration that was addressed in Dead Space 2. The swap to free flying matches like a glove right here, to the purpose the place I’d totally forgotten it’s not how the unique operated. Other enhancements, like delicate overhauls to how weapon upgrades work, are equally impactful with out asserting themselves as flashy new options.

Motive prioritizes pure modifications like that over sweeping ones, which may make the venture appear rather less intricate than it truly is. That’s very true of its depth director, a standout system that dynamically modifications the state of the ship via the sport. The invisible director can fully alter a room’s lighting or change what enemies spawn the place, making every little thing really feel extra unpredictable. While that’s a formidable tech trick that will increase its worry issue and replay potential, I’m undecided most gamers will truly catch its nuances on an off-the-cuff playthrough.
That doesn’t imply these modifications weren’t price making. I respect that Motive actually discovered a technique to put its personal stamp on Dead Space with out altering the supply materials, even should you’ll want to observe a dev diary to grasp all of it. Every change, even story changes, feels tactically carried out to bolster the unique somewhat than overwrite it. There’s no second the place I really feel just like the builders try to one-up the previous Visceral Games staff. It’s a venture born from respect, because the remake helps uphold an getting old recreation’s legacy.
The query, although, is whether or not the unique actually wanted that assist in any respect.
The remake dilemma
A number of online game remakes make complete sense to me. Games are a wierd artwork kind, as every little thing from visuals to precise gameplay can naturally degrade as time goes by. It’s arduous to speak the significance of a recreation like Shadow of the Colossus to youthful audiences as we speak when its mechanics really feel downright archaic by fashionable requirements. In instances like that, a remake appears like a essential step towards preserving a recreation’s significance — a difficulty {that a} film like Casablanca will merely by no means run into.
But what’s the final objective of remaking a recreation like Dead Space, one thing that also performs nicely and is well purchasable on numerous storefronts? While 2008 appears like a lifetime in the past, it’s not that far off in online game years. Tech has slowly plateaued because the Xbox 360 days and standout video games from that period usually maintain up. While I undoubtedly loved my return to the Ishimura about as a lot as my first playthrough a 12 months in the past, I can’t say that it felt meaningfully totally different. On an emotional stage, it simply felt like your commonplace replay.
I really feel the identical method I do when a Hollywood studio green-lights a brand new movie solely as a result of it’s on the verge of dropping its IP rights.

As I performed, I struggled to seek out what made the venture really feel like a essential transfer over making Dead Space 4 or rebooting into a brand new story totally. In Sony’s controversial The Last of Us Part I, I may a minimum of level to its deep checklist of accessibility choices that made the unique playable for folks with numerous disabilities. While Dead Space sports activities its personal accessibility menu, it isn’t terribly intensive, with a bulk of its choices pertaining to subtitle customization (it additionally offers gamers the choice to allow content material warnings, which is sort, but additionally a bit humorous in a recreation by which violent limb amputation is the core gameplay hook).
Other modifications come off as superfluous. The 2008 recreation featured resource-filled rooms that might solely be unlocked with the identical high-value nodes used to improve weapons. It added a small little bit of decision-making to exploration that match with its survival horror useful resource administration hook. That’s been changed right here with a considerably arbitrary safety system, the place Isaac positive factors entry to rooms and bins by gaining clearance via the story. Theoretically, that provides gamers a cause to backtrack, however I definitely wasn’t motivated to maintain observe of each closed locker alongside my travels. It’s a minor nitpick, however one which highlights how a lot I’ve to zoom in to play a spherical of spot the distinction between the 2 video games.

I cited Van Sant’s maligned Psycho remake upfront, however the extra correct comparability may be Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Ten years after directing the psychological horror film in 1997, Haneke would go on to remake the Austrian movie in English shot-for-shot, going so far as to make use of the identical set and props. The director would say that the movie was all the time conceived as an American manufacturing, however that rationale doesn’t make its existence any much less complicated. Why watch the remake when you could possibly watch the superbly comparable authentic? Is the second model really additive? Does it matter which you watch?
I’m left with the identical questions as I replicate on Dead Space (2023) regardless of unequivocally having fun with it as a lot as the unique. At instances, I really feel the identical method I do when a Hollywood studio green-lights a brand new movie solely as a result of it’s on the verge of dropping its IP rights. Am I taking part in a Dead Space remake as a result of somebody felt the horror story would resonate extra after the collective trauma introduced on by a pandemic? Or am I taking part in it as a result of EA management deemed that the franchise wanted its social relevance restored if it’s going to stay a repeatable income supply?
Though I’m all too conscious of the chilly, usually artless actuality of enterprise, I nonetheless discover worth on this model of Dead Space. Its capitalist satire (mockingly) stings a bit extra in 2023, and its model of inescapable isolation may hit just a little nearer to residence for gamers previous and new. All of that — coupled with spectacular backend improvements that make Motive a studio to observe — is sufficient to warrant yet one more blood-soaked return to the USG Ishimura.
Dead Space was reviewed on a PlayStation 5 hooked as much as a TCL 6-Series R635.

Today’s tech information, curated and condensed to your inbox

Check your inbox!

Please present a sound electronic mail deal with to proceed.

This electronic mail deal with is at the moment on file. If you aren’t receiving newsletters, please verify your spam folder.

Sorry, an error occurred throughout subscription. Please strive once more later.

Editors’ Recommendations