Dead Space Remake Review

Credit to: Electronic Arts and Visceral Games

This may be one of the best remakes ever

Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at the brand new video game, a remake to the original game of the same name, Dead Space! If you’ve never played Dead Space before, it’s a sci-fi horror game that takes place on a spaceship known as the Ishimura, where all hell breaks loose. An alien artifact called the Marker emits a pulse that causes people to essentially lose their mind, and actually raise the dead as these horrible, gruesome looking monstrosities. It’s extremely graphic, as it’s bloody, gory, and downright disgusting. If you can’t handle that, skip out on this remake, because it really amps up all of the above compared to the original. But let’s not blabber. This is gonna be a nice, quick review. Without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.

Pros

To be honest, just about everything in this remake is a pro to me, but let’s start with the overall look of this game. Man, they absolutely KILL it here. The environment, the brand new character models for not just Isaac (the character you play as), but the necromorphs (the gross zombies created by the alien artifact) and the side characters, the beautiful level design, and the gorgeous graphics as a whole. This game just looks beautiful, even though it’s absolutely disgusting. As far as the environment goes, they do a fantastic job at making sure that they not only improve the feeling of the original game, but they add extra details to the game and cutscenes to really spook you. The areas that were dark in the previous version of the game are even darker here. The jumpscares that scared the controller out of your hand in the previous version have been dramatically improved. They even add a couple of new areas that you can go through, some areas even having zero gravity, so you’re free to move Isaac around there. If you were worried that they would change too much about the game, I assure you, there’s nothing to worry about. Just like the original, there’s still the same old areas for you to explore, just updated. Not to make it seem like they’ve done nothing but make the game look pretty, but they do respect the game that they’re recreating, while adding things that not only enhance the experience, but improve certain aspects from the original.

Now, the enemies themselves, the necromorphs. Were they already terrifying? Absolutely, and yet somehow, they manage to make them even scarier. The glossed over eyes, the exposed flesh and bone that protrude from their bodies and limbs, the wet, slimy blood that stain their sharp appendages and gaping mouths, the guttural, pained groans and screams that fill the room as they roam, and the sudden, wild, and twisted movements they make as they try to kill you in the worst ways possible all make for the most uncomfortable experience possible in all the best ways. It’s clear that the developers understand how important it was to get this remake right, and if these creatures were boring and slow, just doing the same old thing while looking plain and dull, it would just be a bad experience. But no. As I said before, they enhance the jumpscares. They remake the cutscenes that involve necromorphs and other creature types that I won’t spoil for brand new players, all to scare you even more. I absolutely love them here. They’re gross and brutal, just like I remember them to be, while looking the best way that they possibly could. So if you’re a veteran to the Dead Space universe, then definitely get this game. If you’re just a fan of horror games, and you enjoy going up against or running from some terrifying creatures, then yeah, give yourself nightmares by picking up this game. Not just the necromorphs are creepy, but also the people who were affected by the Marker. Seeing the people become increasingly more insane, doing more and more drastic things as you make your way through the levels, it’ll definitely leave a mark on you if you haven’t played the original. Long story short, it’s creepy. I love it.

The last thing I want to dive into is the character of Isaac himself. Maybe I’m remembering this wrong, but I don’t remember him speaking this much, if at all. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s actually pretty cool hearing him speak. It’s not too much, not much at all actually, and it’s really only when it’s truly necessary. It genuinely does benefit the story, so that’s really good. Beyond this though, let me just say that the weapons and outfits from the previous game are back, and oh my GOODNESS do they look absolutely beautiful. Isaac looks nice and sleek in every single outfit, and they even reimagine a few components to different armors that are available for you, and the weapons that you get access to are all gorgeous to look at. I doubt this’ll make much sense, but Isaac just pairs well with every weapon. Like, Link from The Legend of Zelda holding his Master Sword, or Master Chief from Halo holding an assault rifle. Of course, Isaac has access to the classic plasma cutter, but seeing him with some of the big, badass weapons you eventually get is just UGH. I love it. I’ve always been a fan of the overall Dead Space design, so seeing everything look so high quality makes me smile so much.

Cons

There’s only one true issue I have with this game, and it’s the performance issues I have here and there. There have been a few times where I see an enemy clipping through the walls or the floor, I have seen fog suddenly appear here and there in certain areas of the game, and while this has only happened once, I will still point out that my game has in fact crashed on me. I’m sure that with time, there will be patches to iron out a couple of the kinks, including a few that I haven’t mentioned here, but I do have to point out that yes, I have had a couple of issues with the game. Other than that, I’ve had a wonderful experience.

Final Thoughts

I love this game. It brings me back to when I was a kid, getting all scared but still having a good time with the original. I was into scary stuff, and I still am, so honestly it’s a nice, nostalgic feeling that I get from this. While again, I have a few glitches and bugs here and there, I can’t complain too much because that’s in every game. It happens. When I think of classics, I think of Bioshock, Halo, Borderlands, Killzone, and this series, Dead Space. So, to return to this series with a brand new look, it just makes me smile. I really hope that this is a sign that we’ll be getting more games for this series, and it’s my absolute hope that if they do remake Dead Space 3 in the future, they completely redo the game, from top to bottom. Not necessarily replace every single thing about the original, but definitely replace a couple of bad eggs that made it stink in the first place. Fans have been waiting for a long time to come back to this series, and I’m overjoyed to finally have that come to fruition in the best way possible. This remake is fantastic. It does everything it needed to with all of the quality of life improvements and graphical upgrades, while also introducing some new things. This has been a great experience overall. But what did you all think? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure you’re following us there to stay up to date with the latest and greatest entertainment news and reviews. That’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den!

4.5 out of 5.