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‘Dead Space Remake’ review: a ripping yarn
A thoughtfully executed remake of 1 of the greatest action-horror games around
| 4 |
By Rick Lane
26th January 2023
Precision is the defining characteristic of Dead Space, a meticulously constructed thrill-ride about carving up alien mutants within the universe’s most cursed spaceship. Visceral Games delivered a perfectly paced mixture of action, sci-fi, and horror when it launched the sport in 2008, and it’s a similarly surgical approach that justifies this year’s glossy remake. EA Motive‘s overhaul is really a carefully considered retelling from the original story, keeping much of what worked, changing a bit of what didn't, and creating a few additions that mostly help the experience.
Naturally, probably the most substantial changes will be to how Dead Space looks, with Motive’s rebuild of the game in EA‘s Frostbite engine providing a massive jump in fidelity. The game’s grungy sci-fi style has been largely retained, which is to the Ishimura’s many corridors are simply as murky because they were in 2008, although a lot more detailed. Some of the more dramatic scenes are truly dazzling, such as when you walk into the Ishimura’s bridge for the first time, or skulk beneath the searing gravity vortex housed in the mining deck.
More broadly, the brand new visuals contribute to the experience in two ways. The improved lighting and shadow compounds the oppressive atmosphere from the Ishimura – especially if your PC can handle the demands of ray-tracing. Watching the necromorphs loom out from real-time shadows is quite remarkable. Talking about the necromorphs, the other notable improvement is how the infestation of the Ishimura is represented. The biomass that seeps from the Ishimura’s now glistens fleshy and translucent, while the tendrils that frequently obstruct your progress ripple and pulsate as you navigate around them.
All this added lustre comes at a cost. Dead Space requires a beefy PC to operate on its higher settings. Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FidelityFX mitigate some of the pain, although their performance could be inconsistent, with the game running smooth as a mill pond in some areas, and choppier compared to North Sea in other people. It isn’t clear whether it is really an implementation issue or simply the consequence of the game’s technical demands, but unless you’re running Dead Space on a thermonuclear reactor, expect to do some tinkering to find the appropriate balance.
Motive’s Dead Space doesn’t merely provide a visual upgrade. Most facets of the sport happen to be tweaked in some way, while other areas have obtained major rethinks. Probably the most significant changes is built to the zero gravity sections. In the original Dead Space, Isaac could walk on any surface in zero-G, but couldn’t float freely around environments. Now he is able to, using boosters built into his suit to maneuver, much in the type of Dead Space 2. It’s a sensible change, making these sections more entertaining to navigate, and fighting floating necromorphs less clunky. A few of the related environments and puzzles happen to be adjusted to match this locomotive change, but Motive has largely resisted the temptation to bulk the zero-G sections, or say, add extended EVAs round the hull from the Ishimura.
Dead Space 2 is the proving ground for other changes too. Isaac Clarke was a silent protagonist in the 2008 game, however in 2023 he finds his voice on the Ishimura. Again, Dead Space 2 doing this first makes it may well revision. But the effect is less impactful than the systemic changes towards the zero G. This is largely because both Isaac and also the broader plot are functional creations and never in which the game personality resides, so Isaac speaking doesn’t make much impact on his character. His whole deal remains that he fixes things and that he’s the galaxy’s biggest wife guy. Beyond dialogue, the audio design wisely sticks close to the original game, using identical or similar sound clips for weapons, item pickups, save points, and so on.
On the topic of weapons, combat feels much as it did in 2008, which is to say, phenomenal. Isaac’s Plasma Cutter remains a disconcertingly perfect tool to do the job of anatomising necromorphs, while his trademark stomp is really as bone-crushing as ever. There are a few changes. Certain weapons like the Line Gun and the Contact Beam happen to be given new alt-fires to make them more useful, and certainly, no weapon feels redundant. Hacking up necromorphs has been created extra grisly thanks to a splendidly named “peeling system”. Through this, your weapons strip the flesh off Necromorph bodies while you fight, or in the case from the Force Gun, blasts their entire skin off in one spectacularly gory go. On the completely unrelated note, the Force Gun is my new favourite weapon in Dead Space.
The boldest choices Motive makes are located in the story. These still aren’t vast alterations, but the central plot nonetheless plays out slightly differently, while “side-missions” have been added that expand upon certain characters or events. The mileage varies with every change, but overall they’re minimal effective adjustments Motive makes. All sorts of things a slightly more convoluted plot that leaves you mildly more informed about its pantomime characters. But none of it is egregious, and many from the added side-content could be uncovered with simply minor detours from the main path.
This latter point is vital, because what makes Dead Space so entertaining is its propulsive forward momentum. As soon as you step off your shuttle into the Ishimura’s hangar bay, you’re on a runaway train of action and body horror and grungy industrial sci-fi. Every chapter has an exciting and immediately tangible objective that forces Isaac into increasingly perilous situations. Fixing anti-asteroid defences externally the ship, dislodging a giant monster from hydroponics, flying across to a shuttle of space marines which has smashed in to the Ishimura’s hull. Each problem is designed to take roughly an hour to solve, as well as in that hour you’re constantly moving, fighting and problem-solving, only stopping to get the ammo left behind through the shattered bodies from the necromorphs.
And what a glorious setting the Ishimura is. Spaceships and space stations are ideal gaming environments, as they can be completely self-contained without requiring a suspension of disbelief. But the coherence of the layout, the way it unfolds over time, the actual way it seamlessly melds worldbuilding with puzzles and objectives. It’s one of the great virtual spaces, available online for with System Shock 2‘s von Braun, Resi 2‘s police station, Deus Ex‘s Liberty Island. It’s important to note Motive has rejigged the layout of certain levels to assist them to flow better. It’s difficult to judge the exact changes without playing both games through side-by-side, but either way, there’s no issue with how this game pulls you forward through its sci-fi nightmare.
Where The Callisto Protocol would be a reminder of all things that sucked about mid-noughties games (poor checkpointing, annoying boss fights, endless snatching of control out of your hands), Motive’s Dead Space highlights everything great about this era of game design. It’s twelve hours of urgent storytelling and ferocious combat with ideas through the bucket and minimal bloat. The remake is a fine conduit for revisiting the Ishimura, only one way or another, play Dead Space.
Dead Space is available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. We played it on PC.
Verdict
EA Motive’s remake of Dead Space does the majority of what you’d expect, massively improving the game’s visual quality and improving certain mechanics like zero-g, while retaining the frantic combat and lightning-paced story from the original. Your mileage can vary on the changes to the story, but it feels typically such as the Dead Space you remember.
Pros
- Visually stunning
- Improved zero g sections
- Retains the propulsive excellence of the original
Cons
- Technically demanding
- Innocuous story revisions
