Review: Dead Space Remake
by William Hernandez
While the appeal of space as a setting is generally rooted in the beautiful unknown, it also allows us to tap into our greatest fears. Loneliness. Being vulnerable. Being powerless. The Dead Space Remake puts players in exactly that position where they feel small and alone in a ship filled to the brim with dangerous, alien lifeforms. The game leans heavily into its atmosphere, trying to make you feel as uncomfortable as possible with every step forward. It succeeds tremendously. Not a whole lot of games with Dead Space's level of action are legitimately terrifying enough to dissuade you from stepping back into the dark. Dead Space isn't exactly a perfect horror experience, though, as the game starts to lose its identity over the course of the story. The more weapons you begin to collect, the cheaper the scares start to feel. There's also just something off about the game that's hard to shake off and that's probably the fact that this remake doesn't feel all that modernized. That definitely needs some explaining so let's just delve right in.
Enjoyability: 9/12
For as enthralling as Dead Space is, it's not the most exciting game out there. Part of that comes from the rigidity of the main quests. There's just too much asked of the player and it's constantly updating. It doesn't really feel like you get to explore the Ishimura at all. You're more just following the linear path set out for you so that you don't get lost while doing 1 of 100 jobs. It certainly doesn't help that your primary tasks effectively boil down to either fetch quests or boss fights. Dead Space's main problem is its monotony which extends to almost all facets of the game. When that monotony gets broken up, that's when the game really shines. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen as much as it should. There's certainly moments where players will be left awe-struck, but, just minutes later, things will be back to the norm. At first, the gameplay loop is what will keep players entertained the most, but even that will wear off as soon as downing enemies starts to feel like yet another chore. Dead Space isn't boring whatsoever, don't get me wrong. It's just...middling for some good stretches of time.
Gameplay: 11/12
Most of the weapons feel really good to use and that's all one could really ask for. It helps that they all have different optimal use cases, encouraging the player to actually switch between them all. And so, despite the complete disparity in terms of damage numbers, players will still find themselves having to rely on the Flamethrower or the Ripper to clear out rooms by the end of the game. Running out of ammo will also force your hand and that's not so infrequent in later sections. Because of the upgrade system, you can also completely pimp out your Plasma Cutter, making it almost as legendary as it was in the original game. Of course, you could also play favorite with any other weapon if you so choose. One quick tip: upgrading capacity has the added benefit of filling your ammo to its new maximum so it's not a bad idea to hold off on a reload until after the upgrade. You'll end up with spare ammo that way instead of having nothing. Health upgrades for the suit work basically the same. Just something to keep in mind. Definitely helped me power through a couple of sections.
The modules, stasis and kinesis, are very neat tools necessary for certain environmental puzzles. They don't have a whole lot of mandatory uses, but kinesis does make for some interesting interactions. Mainly a lot of missing power cell problems, but there's clever stuff mixed in there. Stasis, on the other hand, has its moments where it's not apparent how exactly it's supposed to be employed. That's not too bad until it becomes a necessity whilst monsters are around. Then, it's a point of frustration until you actually have time to reflect on the situation. Either way, both are much more entertaining outside of their mandatory uses. Stasis offers you a bit of crowd control by slowing down enemy movement (very helpful for precision aiming or approaching with melee attacks). Kinesis allows you to throw almost any object around. There's some explosives and one-shot items all throughout the ship so there's almost always something to help you in a fight. It's also just really amusing to toss things up into the air every now and then. The gameplay is phenomenal; a little clunky in some areas, but it was clearly well-thought-out.
Atmosphere: 12/12
The visual upgrades are substantial in this remake and you can clearly see the stark difference when looking back at the original. The lighting is 10x better and that matters a lot in establishing the ambience which was already very strong in the 2008 Dead Space. It gets really dark in some places and that's just perfect. It's what you would expect from a damaged ship. Now add to that a bunch of unnerving noises and flickering lights and you have a captivating horror atmosphere. There's always some level of tension in any room you walk into because you quickly begin to understand that there are very few safe places. Then, you start to notice all the openings that enemies can come through. Then, you start to worry about how far away the next save station is. Dead Space does a really good job of unsettling the player with everything it has available to it. Sound design, graphics, map design. On top of that, the game's atmosphere aims to do more than just scare you. It also wants you to feel the impact of space as its main setting. The game is more than happy to throw you into zero gravity, be it inside or outside the Ishimura. You'll have some interactions with asteroids and the ship's combat systems. Heck, there's even some level of space travel. Dead Space realizes the full potential of its environment and absolutely delivers on the sci-fi, horror mood that it establishes in the first few minutes. Also, I suppose I have to mention the insane level of gore that the series is well-known for. Yeah, that's definitely here alright; although, admittedly, Isaac getting ripped apart in game over screens loses its shock value real quick.
Design: 10/12
Dead Space has various different setpieces that'll leave you surprised and awe-struck - beautiful moments that make a statement regarding what's possible. What's even more impressive to me is that these were things designed for a game from 15 years ago and still they leave a powerful impression. Again, it mainly comes from just how well the environment is used. Dead Space executes on various different ideas that would work only in the space setting that it's in. So when the player finally gets to those big moments, it feels so natural and so right. The little moments that actually make good use of the ship also invoke a similar feeling. Dead Space has an enemy problem, though, that taints the overall design structure despite the high highs. Too frequently does the game push you into the exact same situation where you're locked in a room and have to take out a wave of enemies. It's a constant in every chapter. In fact, it'll happen multiple times through various chapters. It just gets really tiring because this isn't Doom. The satisfaction that comes from the action quickly loses its appeal because it's just not really all that rewarding. Having countless waves of enemies thrown at you is also completely counterintuitive to resource preservation which is kinda what the game really encourages. There's a weird clash of subgenre ideals going on. Ultimately, the game's biggest fault is eventually feeling so predictable and so monotonous that the horror appeal begins to lose its value. Being scared of being killed instead of being scared of finding some ungodly creature just isn't the same thing.
Direction: 9/12
Finding your way through the Ishimura is absolutely abysmal. It becomes readily apparent why you have a pathing guide available to you and it's because there's so much to traverse with very few distinguishing features between rooms. It also doesn't help that the game always wants you to go to a specific-named place. Unfortunately, though, you can't see the names of rooms on the map at a quick glance. You have to manually scroll through the areas which is just too much to do with how many objectives you have to handle. The pathing guide is a very helpful tool, don't get me wrong, but it's a shame that players have to be almost completely dependent on it to get anywhere.
On another note, the narrative takes a long while for the stakes at hand to feel palpable and significant. It does get there, but it definitely feels like it's on the backburner until about halfway through the game. You'd be very much mistaken for thinking that the plot is merely concerned with escaping the ship. It delves into some very unexpected areas with a few twists here and there. The cast of characters isn't the strongest (after all, you rarely interact with them much in-person), but there are a few highlights. When you do get to the end, it will feel impactful. Dead Space isn't the cleanest journey out there, but it'll definitely do.
