Game Review: Dead Space (2023)
To be honest, when I picked up this title I wasn’t especially keen on a return to the Dead Space franchise. Sure, it’s the well-regarded also-ran of the golden age of survival horror, and I remember enjoying the original trilogy immensely back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but after the veritable barrage of recent remakes from that same era, did we really need this? While the Dead Space series had some distinct hallmarks and iconic atmosphere, it was never quite spoken about with the same reverence as big brothers Resident Evil and Silent Hill (before both of those series sloughed off the proverbial exquisite corpse).
Fortunately, my initial inclination was misguided, and over the course of my twelve-hour playthrough of this reimagined-but-spiritually-faithful remake, Dead Space not only reminded me why it has a legendary legacy in the genre, but made me long for additional returns to this world far more than another quality revisit to the aforementioned series.
“Do you believe, Terence, do you?”
If you’re unfamiliar, Dead Space opens with a small crew docking on a eerily quiet ‘planet cracker’-class megaship, the Ishimura, and finding that most of the crew have been turned into necromorphs, a nightmarish amalgamation of zombies and aliens who can only be killed by severing their limbs. This was a novel concept when the original game was released in 2008, when headshots ruled the day, but the gimmick is ultimately far more interesting in how it affects your arsenal rather than actual gameplay. Instead of a high-caliber pistol or shotgun, player-character Isaac Clarke uses a variety of space-age industrial tools to slice limbs as though they were rusted pipes, putting his background as an industrial engineer into unironically practical use. Isaac moves about the Ishimura alongside his dwindling number of crewmates, trying to save survivors while looking for his lost partner, Nicole, a scientist stationed aboard the ship. Naturally, disaster ensues and most of their efforts come to nothing until it becomes very clear that their only goal should be escaping this multi-trillion space currency death trap.
Thematically, Dead Space employs a lot of familiar shades, and the story is a fun blend of consumptive corporate ambition, brutalist capitalism, space-age religious zealotry, and alien terror. It doesn’t hit any new notes, but it does tell a familiar story exceptionally well, and the remake put a nice layer of polish on the original story while–just as it does with the gameplay–remaining faithful to what made it so good.
“Out of little: endless”
The setting of Dead Space is truly memorable, boasting a remarkably consistent and effective atmosphere: the Ishimura’s miles of shadowed, metal corridors and minimalist industrial design makes anything space more than that feel like a safe haven (even if it isn’t). The cumulative effect of running around such a space for hours, watching its condition decline as both systems and their backups fail, is to experience a slow suffocation of security, and no matter how successful you are advancing the story and overcoming obstacles, it always feels like Isaac is conceivably a few lightless rooms away from something insurmountable.
Dead Space also does an exceptional job of tactile storytelling. It throws you right into the action early, saving its limited cutscenes to introduce new horrors or illustrate pivotal moments of the story. I also appreciated the old-school approach of giving most of the backstory to the player through audio recordings and diaries, creating unexpected moments of respite in game that doesn’t give you many during normal play.
Another element that caught my eye is that most of the animations appear to be pretty faithful to the 2008 original, and despite the obvious age, much of that original art design shines through. Using as sawblade to cut off pieces of a alien child monstrosity felt appropriately nervy, and continually I was reminded that Dead Space became popular in part because it gets under your skin in visceral ways purely though design choices, in a way that most other survival horror games can’t manage.
“At last, if I don't have any limbs…”
In Dead Space, virtually all combat encounters revolve around some shrieking, sharp-clawed creature with spindly, flailing limbs rapidly closing distance on you as you rapidly fire your weapon of choice in an attempt to slow down or sever those never-still limbs. Really, it’s a quite simple formula, and while you’ll see it hundreds of times over the dozen or so hours of gameplay, it somehow manages to remain both fun and exhilarating to the end. Sure, sometimes the monsters will be bigger or have particular weakspots, or may prove more elusive and try to turn nearby corpses into additional enemies, but it all pretty much comes down to the same core concept: shoot off the limbs and kill the thing before it eats your face.
Other elements of gameplay are suitably on-brand. One of my favorite features is that in a game where 95% of the scenery is narrow spaceship corridors, the simple-yet-elegant navigation system is just Isaac launching a beam of light from his hand which streaks off in the direction of your next objective. In the same spirit, digging through your inventory, looking through the map, reading notes, are all done in real time and pop up on a projected display from Isaac’s suit, effectively keeping the player alert to their surroundings and out of menus for almost every aspect of the game. Little details like this do so much for immersion and realizing a world, and too often developers are content to do the conventional when these little touches can really improve a game. The space-horror Tinkerbell Isaac uses to navigate epitomizes why Dead Space, despite uniformly simple systems, makes such a beautiful whole.
With that said, not all design choices have aged well. Backtracking through lengthy, linear paths is a regular feature when Isaac’s security access upgrade, both for critical path progress and exploration, and these frequent moments create a slight drag between the excellent stretches where you’re exploring something new and advancing the story. Having to revisit areas is a common element in survival horror, but Dead Space’s stark settings make it far less interesting to actually do.
This remake also added a handful of new side missions, but it does a very annoying thing of assigning them to you well before they can be completed and you don’t know this until you run into the locked door just before the objective. This means you can waste ten or fifteen minutes backtracking only to find out you’re going to have to do the same backtrack again later in the game when you have the key, assuming you stay motivated.
While always fun, the terror elements do fade, as Dead Space just doesn’t have that many tricks in the bag in this regard. It doles out the situation of having to turn off the lights far too often, or getting pincher attacked. As a player, you just normalize the reality that light other than that which comes from your flashlight is a privilege, and if there’s one monster you can see, there is also one behind you. It’s always fun, but on a long enough timeline, most players will want a bit more from encounter design than what Dead Space can offer. With that in mind, the game does a fair amount with its limitations, giving Isaac control of exterior guns to fend off asteroids, saving the life support and oxygen creation system by running through a toxic area populated by gas-producing monsters, etc. None of these things are beyond what we would see in a game in 2008, but that’s okay.
To wrap on a positive design note, the weapons are still an element that stands the test of time, as Dead Space’s unique and memorable arsenal of ripsaw blades and plasma cutters really sets it apart from other games of the genre. Seeing the force gun literally blow the skin and sinew off of a necromorph at close range is simply way cooler than a shotgun, and the grisly satisfaction of combat in Dead Space has a long shelf life.
Older Than the Stars
All in all, what was created here pretty much epitomizes what the remakes of our current age should strive for: an authentic revisit that captures the spirit of the original game but isn’t afraid to make slight design changes to fix what we’ve only realized is a bent or broken in subsequent years. Were it not for the modern post-processing and lighting effects, I could genuinely believe that I was simply playing a face-lifted version of the 2008 game, as EA has kept the core gameplay and vibe of the original intact. I started out slightly skeptical, and a few hours into this return I was all-in, remembering just how good it felt to play a Dead Space game for the first time.
Signing Off
Dead Space was a masterpiece when it was released in 2008, and somehow feels even more so remade in 2023, when engrossing singleplayer horror story games are so rare. It threads the needle by doing something original, meaningful, and memorable, while giving appropriate nods to the properties that inspired it. Sixteen years later, much of that quality still shines though, though the inevitability of progress has ground some of the luster off of this title and made the offering feel more limited than it once did.
Further, the title is an incredible journey back to the golden age of survival horror. Though limited and not entirely ageless, it presents something that holds up despite the time that has passed, and is absolutely a sojourn worth taking for fans of the genre. The greatest tragedy of this remake is that it didn’t sell enough to justify a remake of its sequel, which is largely regarded as the strongest entry of the trilogy. Even knowing the story ends here, I highly recommend picking up a copy and taking this wild trip to the infested halls of the Ishimura whether it’s your first time or not.
Score: 9.1
Strengths
Well-designed from top to bottom
Provides a unique and memorable experience that we don’t get from modern games
Iconic setting and style echoes through the years with the same impact
Weaknesses
Ultimately limited gameplay that may feel too simple to modern gamers
The twelve-hour run time feels a bit long
Reminds us how good Dead Space was without the promise that more is forthcoming
You can purchase Dead Space on Steam, Playstation, or Xbox. Other vendors may be available.
You might also like: Resident Evil 2 (2019), Event Horizon, Alien
