Dead Space is a Sci-Fi Survival-Horror game was released in 2023 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC, and it was developed by Motive Studio and published by Electronic Arts. It is a 2023's full-remake of 2008's game of the same name developed by Visceral Games.
Before I begin reviewing this game, I need to share my nostalgia on the 2008's original game because Dead Space is a terrifying horror masterpiece that I did not expect the title to be such an incredible experience that took the genre into a new level of horror gaming.
It was all started back in my old days of late 2000s when I went to my cousin's house to play his X360 console, so he introduced me a horror title that I never heard of it before which is why I give it a go to see if its anything good to play, but the answer is the game is totally new experience which is totally different from the early days of 90s survival horror series like Capcom's Resident Evil and Konami's Silent Hill which are those that made the genre quite popular back then, but when its comes with the new elements of horror designs and much sadistic presentation overall the EA's Dead Space is one of the title that I have never seen anything quite frightening to play.
It filled with many distressing events going on, the design of the monsters kinda look like John Carpenter's The Thing but looks quite scary as f**k, you could hear someone screaming through the video call and audio logs, the lights and generators suddenly stops working making it everything pitch black, and of course the whole facility filled with traps, hazards, and of course the monsters came down chasing you around the corridors is what made the game a horrifying moments of 7th gen gaming era which is why the game had won several of awards and being listed as the greatest game of all-time by gaming journalists.
The success of the first title had spawned with sequels, spin-offs, comic book, novels, and animated film.
The 2011's sequel such as Dead Space 2 are also had similar praises as the first game for its atmosphere, narrative, graphics, audio, and gameplay design which I consider the second title just as frightening but also entertaining to play, until when they released the third title Dead Space 3 in 2013 just didn't live up to series well enough which is why it had disappointing commercial performance and just nowhere near good as the previous twos, so they had to cancelled the fourth title's development and disbanded the development team got closed down in 2017.
It's a shame that the series had been abandoned by these greedy-ass gaming company had to screwed over a most talented game developers worked so hard to create such a phenomenal horror titles that are so incredibly fun to play, but completely being destroyed by the third title filled with horrible practices such as microtransactions, uninspired plot holes, short-length play, and of course the departure of survival horror approach is the reason it ruins the franchise.
In 10 years after the third title, the remake of the first original had been revealed by EA which they have confirmed that they are releasing a remake in the beginning of the 2023 making it a first release in the series since 2013's third title.
So this is the kind of game that I'd love to re-visit my past since I've played the 2008's original game, so what's makes the remake quite different from the original game? well it's basically being built-up from the scratch with new graphical engine while retaining the same story and structure as the original but features redesigned assets, character models, and environments which the development team had promised to make the game staying true to the original atmosphere while improving and modifying where necessary.
So could the remake be a faithful recreation of the original game? so let's find out the positives and negatives aspects of the whole game doing something better or worse which is why I am here to review the game.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game set in the 26th century and takes place in somewhere in deep space. It started with Isaac Clarke and the crew of the repair vessel Kellion being assigned to the USG Ishimura, a massive planetary mining ship operated by the Concordance Extraction Corperation that has gone silent above the planet Aegis VII.
When they arrives at the outskirts of Aegis VII, but they crash-land aboard the Ishimura due to a docking malfunction, they began investigating the abandoned ship till the crew are attacked and separated by creatures made from mutated human corpses called Necromorphs leading Isaac is forced to fend for himself as he tries to save his crewmates and learn the truth behind the loss of the Ishimura.
The story in this game is pretty outstanding which tells the plot of the game that involved crew members went onto the planet Aegis VII to investigate the spacecraft that are being abandoned for awhile till the ugly-shit happens which separates the team crew while being attacked by an creatures.
You have an engineer Isaac Clarke who travels on the Kellion to find out what happened to his girlfriend Nicole Brennan, an Ishimura's senior medical officer which likely she's somewhere inside the Inhimura which is why he went on to search for her.
He was aided by supportive crew members such as Kendra Daniels and Zach Hammond can able to contact him through the video calls as they tried to figuring it out the way of escaping from the Ishimura.
He then gathers the recording information from the text and audio logs linking to what really causes the mayhem related to research such as Red Marker, a man-made object that led to the creation of a virus-like organism that infected corpses and transformed them into undead creatures called Necromorphs.
The story is getting really interesting when learning about the backstory behind the research scandal that led the creation of the Red Marker can potentially put people into danger is what I liked the idea of having the horror game where the man-made stuff had infected many humans could transformed into a hideous monster.
Aside with the story, I say Isaac Clarke is very good in the remake because instead of being a mute protagonist like on the 2008's original game, they wanted to add a full-on voice like the second and third game featuring the communication dialogue between the characters throughout the scene is what really adds up his personality level a lot better than his 2008's original counterpart.
I say the presentation design is surprisingly dark and creepy throughout the corridors and facilities giving a unsettling feelings that made you feel uncomfortable inside proving that the whole settings of Ishimura is looking very dangerous and cursed throughout the locations such as storage rooms, office rooms, research labs, cargo area, bathrooms, and other types of rooms and areas are filled with dead corpses and blood-stains everywhere.
I got to praise the design of the Necromorphs are so much similar to John Carpenter's 1982 horror film such as The Thing in terms of body figures and concepts are actually quite terrifying, so you have Slasher palled with two spiky arms and open-wide stomach, the Lurker is the little-mini creature with three long-tentacles from the back, the Leaper is a ground-crawling freak has the legs fused together with tail-like appendage and a scorpion-like spike as well as the snake-like sharp teeth, the Exploder weld with the orangey mass that can explode, the Pregnant is similar to slasher but has swollen stomach, the Guardian is a wall-creature has flailing entrails that emerge from a cavity in the host's stomach, and the Brute is a largest creature that resemble those of gorillas with massive fists which I consider these freaks as the most aggressive video game monsters that you'll ever see in this horror title.
What makes the game even terrifying is there are several of f***ed up stuffs going on in the scenes that involved deadly stuff like the dead bodies been dropped down from the above, watching the person getting killed in gruesome way, the monster just suddenly came out surprise you with jumpscares, the people are getting eaten alive, there are the person covered in blood with their stomach being torned off still breathing for 10 second then dies in cold blood, and what's makes it even disturbing to watch is that someone in the facility had began to commit suicide which is the most grossest things that makes your body shivers...damn, that's quite morbid as f**k.
Overall, it has outstanding story, very good main protagonist, and gruesome presentation concepts and design.
Gameplay
In single-player campaign, you take control of Isaac Clarke in third-person perspective as your main goal is to find the way of escaping from the Ishimura as well as protecting yourself from the creatures by using your survival tactics, so in order to do this you must complete several of objectives throughout the story mission such as mostly puzzle solving that leads you to the next area.
During the gameplay, you'll move the character by pushing the left stick controls while clicking the left thumbstick button is to make you sprint through, and you'll push the right stick controls to rotate the camera movement around the area.
You will press the cross button which are used for picking up items and objects as well as interacting the stuff like unlocking doors and activating the panels.
You can access to your inventory by pressing the touchpad button which displays stuff like the items which you can organise stuffs like currencies, ammunitions, and nodes, then you have a map inventory which displays on the screen that allow you to navigate your waypoint which tells you where are you at, and finally the mission logs which has the list of quests that you want to focus on such as the story mission and side quests.
Once you've selected one of the objective, you can click the right thumbstick button to pin point the right location makes it much easier to traverse through the areas.
In combat, you hold down the left trigger to ready for aim with your weapon then press the right trigger to shoot down the enemies as well as with secondary fire by pressing the right shoulder button does a different firing attacks depending on which weapon you're using during the combat, so you can also move your character while on aiming mode with the left stick controls as well as aiming around the target cursor with the right stick controls.
You can reload your weapon by pressing the square button while holding the left trigger, and then while you're not on the aiming mode you can perform two melee attacks with the right shoulder button for close-range punching attack when the enemies get closer to you and then using the stomping ground attack with the right trigger which kills off the ground enemies laying on the floor.
There are two modules that are used for some elements in the game such as kinesis which allows you to pick up and move around objects in the environment which works mostly with the pick up items that are out of reach or in places the player is unable to get to, and it can also be used various things like transport objects such as power cells to a specific location and interacting moving objects along a track, but the best part of using the kinesis is that you can also throw any of heavy objects at the enemies could work as a throwing attack.
Then you have a stasis which allows you to temporary slow down time on objects like generators and fans, and it also works effectively on enemies which you can temporary slow them down for around 10 seconds.
These stasis can also depletes the energy when using it frequently, so you can able to re-charge these with the stasis energy station nearby or using stasis battery item by just simply press the triangle button to increase your stasis energy meter.
There are a great selection of weapons that has different advantages such as plasma cutter which is basically an heavy pistol that allow you to not only firing the weapon but also switch between vertical and horizontal reticule, the pulse rifle is an automatic weapon which fires long-range rapid shot and also shoots out grenade launcher deals heavy exploding damage, the line gun is a much bulkier version of plasma cutter that deals heavy firing attack and fires out proximity mines which I considered this weapon as powerful, the ripper is a saw-like weapon which allows you to shred their limbs off with the saw-blade and also fires a saw-blade that ricochets off the walls, the contact beam that can tear off their limbs with large plasma beam as well as using burst kinetic energy to blow enemies away, and lastly the force gun that fires a giant kinetic wave blast making a huge burst out of these enemies.
What makes the game quite interesting is that you can able to upgrade your suits and weapons at the workshop bench, so in order to do that you really needed to find a item called nodes that adds up to your upgrades which can be found in some rooms or purchase this item off from the store shop that sells various of items like health pack, ammunition, and nodes.
In workshop bench, you get to choose your upgrades for your choice of weapons that needed more ammunition capacity, increased firing rate, more firing damage, and faster reloading time, where as your suits that needs to have increased health bar, increased energy meter for stasis, more oxygen air supply, more kinesis throwing damage, extended kinesis grab range, and have better stasis duration is what really improved your player's strength and abilities to be good enough to fight against these big and strong enemies.
So far, the gameplay plays absolutely fantastic which definitely lives up to modern standards thanks to customisable control options and some useful accessibility settings really helps the newcomer of this series can able to get into this perfect remake.
As the controls plays stunningly well, the combat system and upgrades are just as straight-forward making it an easier to play throughout the single-player horrorfest.
The shooting range are just as right to shoot the enemies at the long-distance, the impactful of shooting damage in some weapons are sure responsive making it easier to fight against some tough enemies, the melee system are quite effective against these ground-enemies laying on the floor, and of course those useful modules are worked really well on several parts of the game like being able to move and drag objects away and slowing down time on enemies or hazardous objects just works perfectly.
I got to say that I really liked the puzzle elements in some areas such as getting the generators working to power on some stuff like doors and elevators, rearranging the satellites to restore power to communications, fixing the clutch generator to activate the centrifuge, and of course the best part of the game is got to be a zero gravity area where you're start flying around the area but has some of the segments like shooting down asteroids, planting the beacon, and some other stuffs you do in zero gravity segments.
For those who wanted to get into playing survival horror type of game that has difficulty options, so if you're one of those people wanted to go for much challenged focused approach which I highly recommended to play it on hard difficulty which makes Issac's attacks do much less damage attack and the enemies are much more tougher to fight, where as the impossible difficulty which disables the autosaves, one save slot, and you only have one life which means if you die in the game then you had to start the single-player at the beginning all over again which makes it not just being tough to beat but also adds-up overall scare factor even more...yep it's sounds too scary to die in the game isn't it?
If you're not being confident with the harder ones then it's entirely up to you, if you wanted to go for the medium or easy mode for balanced playthrough if you want too.
What really matter the most is the entire single-player campaign because it filled with many stuffs like one of the creature that regenerates the health came chasing you around, there are a long-ass tentacles just suddenly came grabbing and dragging you across the room, and you had to make decision to either you fight them if necessary or just simply save some ammunition and health pack by avoiding contact with them is part of survival tool, and of course facing a battle against bosses that are really frightening to fight is what made the game really great to play because I can guarantee these enemies makes a scare the living shit out of you.
I also wanted to praise the additional side quest which also not only expands the single-player length, but also quite rewarding too if you're one of the person who wanted to have some additional side missions to keep you busy with the game, and speaking of keeping the busy is that this remake does have the new game plus which has additional secret ending that aren't featured in the 2008's original game is what really adds the replay values.
Overall, it has fantastic combat system and upgrades, good puzzle elements, and has frightening battles with the enemies.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is looking spectacular in terms of the new engine under DICE's Frostbite 3.0 which produced really good details in many ways.
The environmental design inside the Ishimura are surely looking dark inside in terms of lighting and shade effects seems very acceptable for horror game, but I got to say I really liked the texture details on the wall surfaces and objects that are quite sharp and clear is very well done indeed.
I love the way the remake is completely looked new with rendering features and revamped level layouts to make it look more up to date for 9th gen system.
The character model is looking amazing with great body figures and their facial animation are just looking perfect throughout the game.
I got to say I really liked the level of gorefest system where you had their body getting chopped out in pieces with many chunks of limbs and intestines just suddenly coming out of the human's body while the blood dripping everywhere on the floor is just pure f***ing morbid as f**k.
The game's performance has two graphical options such as the quality mode which produced full 4K resolution and has better image quality overall, where as the performance mode does reduce the resolution and image a bit but also runs better framerate speed mostly on PC, PS5 and Series X model, where as Series S model being capped to 30fps seems to be bit rough compared with Series X performs so much better.
Overall, it has spectacular environmental design, completely new rendering features and revamped level layouts, amazing character's model, and use of gorefest system.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack in the game is just as you expected from the horror game. It delivers a mix of dark ambience and some gritty industrial sounds just gives us sort of a Sci-Fi horror films feel to it seems really fits the game's terror level.
It was composed by Trevor Gureckis did a terrific job of retaining the Jason Graves's original score from the 2008's original game with new musical elements and cues feels just right in most of the part.
I also wanted to praise the sound design that capturing the scary elements of environmental sounds such as the roaring background noises in surrounding areas, the sounds of scratchy static noises from the radio call, there are really loud frequency sounds that made your head vibrating, and there are some parts of zero gravity area that made the sounds go really silent and muffled just adds up realism to this horror game, and I say they did a good job on voicing their character's role throughout the game especially with the original voice actor, who previously voiced Isaac Clarke from the DS2 and DS3, did such an decent job on his performance just made the character's development quite better in the remake.
Overall, it has terrific dark soundtrack, great environmental sound design, and decent voice acting for some characters.
Special Features
The game does features the new game plus which you'll be replaying the game again while carrying over all previous unlocked weapons and equipment as well as upgrades.
It also features an new alternative ending in which you have to play the single-player game twice again after first beating the game, so you might want to go check out the guides from internet gaming sites to find out yourself how to get a secret ending.
There are a DLC pack called Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade which includes 5 exclusive cosmetics such as 3 unique suits and 2 suit textures, but unfortunately it's not worth for £10 which seems to be quite too much for this DLC purchase so it would have been better off with cost as free instead.
Overall, the new game plus is fine but except the overpriced DLC pack.
Advantages
Outstanding story
Gruesome presentation concepts and design
Fantastic gameplay
Spectacular visuals
Terrific soundtrack
Great environmental sound design
Disadvantages
DLC pack not worth for £10
Final Verdict
Presentation 9/10 - outstanding story, very good main protagonist, and gruesome presentation concepts and design.
Gameplay 9/10 - fantastic combat system and upgrades, good puzzle elements, and has frightening battles with the enemies.
Graphics 9/10 - spectacular environmental design, completely new rendering features and revamped level layouts, amazing character's model, and use of gorefest system.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - terrific dark soundtrack, great environmental sound design, and decent voice acting for some characters.
Special Features 7/10 - new game plus is fine but except the overpriced DLC pack.
Overall 9/10 - Dead Space is an outstanding recreation of the 2008's original game of the same name thanks to revamped visual design, gorefest presentation, great environmental sound design, and of course fantastic single-player campaign with additional side quest, well designed puzzle and combat, replay values, and has many terrifying moments is what made the game worth replaying again after 15 years since the first original game that bought us such a frightening horror experience we ever played.
Sadly this remake hasn't met with the sales overall which unfortunately the development on the Dead Space 2 Remake is unlikely to happen...yeah typical EA as always, those f***ing money-grubbing assholes.
But that being said I'm really happy with the remake which I do not regret purchasing this title because this game is definitely worth for £25 for PS5 where as it's cheaper on XSX/S for £15 which you can get these physically, and for digital releases on PC, PS Store, and Xbox Store which you can get it for between £60 to £70 are quite pricey compared to physical releases. I say it is must play for horror gaming fans will likely to appreciate this quality remake title had done the job right.
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