Dead Space Review – An Effective Yet Finite Facelift

The original Dead Space was the product of a very different era. Back in 2008, survival horror was on a downward trend, with Dead Space being a bit of an outlier that publisher Electronic Arts didn’t quite seem to appreciate or know what to do with. 14 years later, survival horror is back in a big way and Dead Space’s trademark bone-sawing sci-fi take on the genre couldn’t be more in demand. Just over a month ago, we got the (not entirely successful) Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol, and now EA is poised to release a full-on Dead Space remake.

The new Dead Space may be the passion project of Montreal-based developer Motive Studio, but does it stand up against today’s top-tier horror titles? Or has time sliced the legs out from under the game? Fasten your helmets and seatbelts; it’s time to return to the Ishimura.

The new Dead Space largely sticks to the story you remember. Players once again take on the role of Isaac Clarke, a regular working-class systems engineer who is part of a team sent to investigate when the massive “planetcracker” ship USS Ishimura stops sending signals. Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole happens to be the medical officer aboard the ship, so he has an extra personal stake in the mission. Upon arriving, it’s soon discovered most of the people on the Ishimura have been transformed into grotesquely-mutated undead “Necromorphs” created by the Marker, an artifact worshipped by the cult-like Unitologists. As Isaac’s crew drops like flies, he must find a way to survive the Ishimura, find Nicole, and hopefully head off the Unitologists’ dark plans.

While Motive doesn’t mess around with the Dead Space’s core plot, new multi-part sidequests provide more detail about what characters like Nicole, Dr. Mercer, and others have been up to when Isaac wasn’t around. In addition, new logs, environmental details, and spoken lines from Isaac himself combine to create a richer, more lived-in-feeling world.

Isaac is well-equipped to explore that world, boasting all his classic abilities and then some. Combat is once again a matter of slicing through limbs rather than going for the headshot, with the ability to throw items and enemies with Kinesis and cast pockets of slow motion with your Stasis ability adding just enough additional depth. The new “peeling” system, which graphically shows the flesh being shredded off the bones of whatever unfortunate enemy you’re assaulting, is more than just gross (although it is very gross). In the past, limbs just kinda popped off once you hammered on them for a while, but now you can see exactly how close they are to snapping, allowing you to better react and strategize.

Dead Space’s collection of weapons, from the ever-reliable Plasma Cutter to the nasty Ripper and powerful Contact Beam, remains one of the most unique and empowering ever dreamed up. This time around, the majority of your weapons receive new alt-fire modes, most of which are significantly more useful than in the past. For example, the Flamethrower now allows you to throw up a blazing wall to block enemies, while the Pulse Rifle can shoot off a powerful shotgun-like blast. New weapon upgrade trees also hide some fun new options, including the ability to fire off ricocheting Ripper blades.

On top of tweaks to combat, zero gravity traversal has received a full redo, as you now have full 3D control rather than simply jumping from point to point. This certainly feels more modern than the old approach (and more in step with Dead Space 2 and 3), although this means some Zero-G sections are actually more complex and challenging than in the past.

As with story and combat, the new Dead Space largely sticks to coloring within the lines laid down by the original game when it comes to level design. Dead Space has always exuded a certain M-rated Metroid vibe, but now it sports a full-on Metroidvania-style layout. While you won’t be getting lost as often as you would in a real Metroid game due to your trust locator beacon, the map is now much more interconnected. Meanwhile, a new security lock-out system will present you with many enticing doors, chests, and lockers you’ll only be able to access when you return to an area later in the game.

Beyond the Metroid-esque changes, you’ll mostly see the same areas you did in the original game, but in many cases, their layouts have been significantly overhauled. Additionally, new circuit breakers and corruption tendrils that must be cleared out of the way by shooting their weak spots add a reoccurring puzzle element to progression. Playing the new Dead Space feels like returning to a neighborhood you haven’t visited in years – the landmarks are all still there, but the way they’re arranged and relate to one another may not be quite how you remember.

As if the layout changes weren’t enough, the makers of the new Dead Space attempt to further throw vets off with the new “Intensity Director.” This system provides a wide range of dynamic scares, with Motive promising over 1200 unique events. At times it’s fairly obvious you’re being messed with, but when it really works, the Intensity Director serves up some of the scariest moments in the game. You’ll grip the controller extra hard when the lights go out right after you’ve survived a particularly tough encounter and I’ll admit I screamed more than once when the system spawned a sneaky Necromorph behind my back.

Dead Space doesn’t over-rely on this procedural approach, though. Motive also hand tweaks and polishes a number of the game’s set pieces and encounters. Often this is for the best – your initial encounter with the Hunter is now a lot more exciting, the part from Chapter 7 where you have to defend Nicole is less annoying, and boss fights are improved. That said, I can’t help but feel like Motive could have practiced a bit more “addition by subtraction” and completely removed some bits. Sure, the asteroid shooting section from Chapter 4 has arguably been improved, but frankly, I could have done without it altogether.

In general, the Dead Space remake still feels a bit dated in some ways. You can only save at certain spots, checkpoints are ungenerous, and level design still revolves heavily around elevator, gondola, and tram rides, even though the load times they once masked shouldn’t be an issue anymore. More fundamentally, Dead Space never really lets its horror breathe. Even Resident Evil, which has a reputation for being more on the action-ey side of the spectrum, still occasionally takes time out to focus on building tension or to toy around with different horror genres. Dead Space, on the other hand, never really lets up with the steady drum beat of objectives or changes its level of intensity. Of course, some will enjoy that relentless approach, but as the horror genre has matured over the past decade-and-a-half, I think we’ve seen that variety and modulations in tone can be valuable tools.

While Dead Space sometimes feels like a product of the past, it doesn’t look like one, bringing a new aura of dread to the Ishimura through the use of impressive lighting, fog, and reflections. I played most of the game in Quality Mode with ray tracing, as I feel a game like this benefits from the improved atmosphere, and it seemed to mostly hold a steady 30fps on PS5 with only brief spots of trouble in particularly elaborate effects-laden areas. Generally, action scenes held up well, even with lots of Necromorphs and carnage on screen. Does Dead Space measure up to recent survival horror visual showcases like Resident Evil Village, The Last of Us Part I, or even The Callisto Protocol? Honestly, not quite. The level of detail isn’t there, and fairly regularly occurring visual bugs drag things down a bit (thankfully, these glitches usually don’t affect gameplay). This is a very nice-looking game; it just doesn’t reach that highest tier.

One area in which the new Dead Space absolutely does match or beat the competition is replayability. While the campaign sticks to the original’s core beats, the expanded map and new moments mean what was once a 10-hour campaign took me closer to 15 hours to complete. Throw sidequests and a much-improved New Game+ with fresh collectibles, enemies, and an alternate ending to unlock into the mix, and Dead Space should continue to live on your recently-played list for some time.

This review was based on a PS5 copy of Dead Space provided by publisher Electronic Arts.

Dead Space

The new Dead Space is a mostly-successful revival of a survival horror landmark, offering atmospheric new visuals and a series of precision updates to combat, level layouts, and the game’s scary bits that ought to surprise and excite veteran engineers. That said, there was room for Motive Studio to push ever further, as some game elements still feel a bit dated. Dead Space should satisfy long-suffering fans of the franchise, but compared to the latest, greatest AAA horror competition, it’s no longer a cut above.

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