The wrecked and bloodied corridors of the Ishimura are an unwelcoming space, with dread and anxiety coursing through my veins as I enter yet another unknown and seemingly empty room. Volumes of fog and gases envelope the area along with disembodied groans and noises that bang around the walls, unsure of if the source is failing machinery or nearby necromorphs sneaking behind or preparing to jump through vents, ready to kill in the flickering lights or complete darkness. The surprise jumps me as I rush for the cutter and back away, aiming and shooting their legs to slow their approach as they scream in agony. The plasma cutter cleanly cuts through both their jagged legs in the 3rd-4th shot, yet they still crawl in desperation towards me, and I rush to stomp them down and hope they offer any ammo for my near-empty weapon. Even after I know they're "dead", my body jolts from the sounds of their flesh and bodies creaking and squelching. The door is finally unlocked, and I can move on.
As a first time experience, I was pretty taken aback by the atmosphere of Dead Space from start to finish. The game looks phenomenal, but more impressive is the amount of detail that’s went into every space and crevice of the ship that fully showcase the aftermath of the attacks. The lighting, shadows and claustrophobic level design unsettle each proceeding corridor and make combat encounters even more risky, heightened especially with the game's commitment to limited (yet still decently available) resources and enemies that can tear through your life source hard. Encounters, and going through Dead Space in general, are stressful and I genuinely felt real paranoid entering a new unexplored place and even returning to old ones for now accessible goodies, and I can't say a recent horror game has really accomplished this consistently except maybe Resident Evil 2, though the anxiety there fell somewhere around the sewer section and never reached back to the heights of the Police Station for the rest of the game.
In addition to the incredible atmosphere and sound design/lighting, the gameplay is thoroughly enjoyable, seen strikingly in the weapons and their nice, crunchy feel. The plasma cutter is a main highlight that adds a unique twist to the usual starter handgun that every survival horror protag has; dismemberment is the name of the game here and ups the tension of encounters to aim for limbs rather than just filling necromorph faces with artillery, though you could still do that considering how powerful these weapons get. Speaking of, another mainstay was the force gun, which blows away and decimates crowds in glorious fashion with a sick secondary fire that crowds the aliens into one spot. While the flamethrower and pulse rifle got some time in the first half, the line gun quickly became my third weapon as a more souped up and punchier version of the plasma cutter and it got a ton of utility in slicing up groups of enemies at once and conserving ammo for the cutter. I can definitely see myself working through the ripper in a second run as the numerous amounts of upgrades and other extra content, in part, incentivize multiple runs like every good survival horror game should do.
The only sticking point I could mention regarding the gameplay is the way Isaac moves around in the space. He moves at a decent pace that puts some distance from the necromorphs, though the increased number of enemies in the second half does make things even more dicey. Avoiding projectiles from the lurkers and guardians while trying to kill them is probably the only part where I didn’t feel as engaged with the combat because of Isaac’s awkward maneuvering and a bit of spongy-ness I felt in some situations, along with some moments of hitstun. I felt similar feelings though worse whenever enemies spawned in zero gravity rooms as it always felt disorienting moving around and trying to find and kill the necros attacking Isaac, especially in near darkness. Fortunately, Isaac’s kinesis and stasis abilities, also uniquely engaging and another way of saving ammo, helped in situations like this to just throw flammable interactable objects at them. Though I won’t lie, I really forgot these abilities existed for half of the game and their integration with puzzles and combat don’t really lead to much such as leading or pulling the aliens into malfunctioning doors or traps.
While some details are a bit lost on me, the overall narrative and story progression paced decently well at a brisk speed, though some of the objectives and chapters did feel very fetch quest-y at times. In addition to the main objectives, the side content that's here adds even more intriguing lore and detail on the motivations of key players/organizations and the vicious experiments done aboard the ship. Reading final logs in text and voiced memos makes the world come more alive and even more terrifying and threatening. The mysteries themselves weren't completely new to me since I've watched videos on Dead Space before, but it was still appealing to see how they unravel and develop in real time across the campaign, even on Nicole's 'condition. The performances are genuinely good across the board, with a slight bit of goofiness under the hood of some moments; I know some people prefer how Isaac was in the og game as a silent protagonist but I kinda liked what EA Motive and Gunner Wright did here with making him a more active and voiced lead and delivering lines in a committed fashion albeit hilarious in a few points such as the initial face off against the Hive Mind (absolutely sick creature design) and the final scene of Nicole attacking Isaac in a hallucination. It really fits the vibe of "Resident Evil in Space" at points.
Dead Space is an incredible remake and an excellent survival horror game which I would argue succeeds even Resident Evil 2, and possibly Resident Evil 4 this year in some ways. I enjoy the unique spins it puts on a few core aspects of survival horror game design and can see myself getting even more enjoyment out of it in later new game plus runs. I’ll be seated for Dead Space 2 Remake whenever that comes out, though hopefully EA’s usual greedy, big bucks mentality doesn’t drive the series off a cliff again. They haven’t changed, but at least Isaac gets another chance to shine and not be in the dusted cobwebs of a dead and sabotaged franchise (for now).
As a first time experience, I was pretty taken aback by the atmosphere of Dead Space from start to finish. The game looks phenomenal, but more impressive is the amount of detail that’s went into every space and crevice of the ship that fully showcase the aftermath of the attacks. The lighting, shadows and claustrophobic level design unsettle each proceeding corridor and make combat encounters even more risky, heightened especially with the game's commitment to limited (yet still decently available) resources and enemies that can tear through your life source hard. Encounters, and going through Dead Space in general, are stressful and I genuinely felt real paranoid entering a new unexplored place and even returning to old ones for now accessible goodies, and I can't say a recent horror game has really accomplished this consistently except maybe Resident Evil 2, though the anxiety there fell somewhere around the sewer section and never reached back to the heights of the Police Station for the rest of the game.
In addition to the incredible atmosphere and sound design/lighting, the gameplay is thoroughly enjoyable, seen strikingly in the weapons and their nice, crunchy feel. The plasma cutter is a main highlight that adds a unique twist to the usual starter handgun that every survival horror protag has; dismemberment is the name of the game here and ups the tension of encounters to aim for limbs rather than just filling necromorph faces with artillery, though you could still do that considering how powerful these weapons get. Speaking of, another mainstay was the force gun, which blows away and decimates crowds in glorious fashion with a sick secondary fire that crowds the aliens into one spot. While the flamethrower and pulse rifle got some time in the first half, the line gun quickly became my third weapon as a more souped up and punchier version of the plasma cutter and it got a ton of utility in slicing up groups of enemies at once and conserving ammo for the cutter. I can definitely see myself working through the ripper in a second run as the numerous amounts of upgrades and other extra content, in part, incentivize multiple runs like every good survival horror game should do.
The only sticking point I could mention regarding the gameplay is the way Isaac moves around in the space. He moves at a decent pace that puts some distance from the necromorphs, though the increased number of enemies in the second half does make things even more dicey. Avoiding projectiles from the lurkers and guardians while trying to kill them is probably the only part where I didn’t feel as engaged with the combat because of Isaac’s awkward maneuvering and a bit of spongy-ness I felt in some situations, along with some moments of hitstun. I felt similar feelings though worse whenever enemies spawned in zero gravity rooms as it always felt disorienting moving around and trying to find and kill the necros attacking Isaac, especially in near darkness. Fortunately, Isaac’s kinesis and stasis abilities, also uniquely engaging and another way of saving ammo, helped in situations like this to just throw flammable interactable objects at them. Though I won’t lie, I really forgot these abilities existed for half of the game and their integration with puzzles and combat don’t really lead to much such as leading or pulling the aliens into malfunctioning doors or traps.
While some details are a bit lost on me, the overall narrative and story progression paced decently well at a brisk speed, though some of the objectives and chapters did feel very fetch quest-y at times. In addition to the main objectives, the side content that's here adds even more intriguing lore and detail on the motivations of key players/organizations and the vicious experiments done aboard the ship. Reading final logs in text and voiced memos makes the world come more alive and even more terrifying and threatening. The mysteries themselves weren't completely new to me since I've watched videos on Dead Space before, but it was still appealing to see how they unravel and develop in real time across the campaign, even on Nicole's 'condition. The performances are genuinely good across the board, with a slight bit of goofiness under the hood of some moments; I know some people prefer how Isaac was in the og game as a silent protagonist but I kinda liked what EA Motive and Gunner Wright did here with making him a more active and voiced lead and delivering lines in a committed fashion albeit hilarious in a few points such as the initial face off against the Hive Mind (absolutely sick creature design) and the final scene of Nicole attacking Isaac in a hallucination. It really fits the vibe of "Resident Evil in Space" at points.
Dead Space is an incredible remake and an excellent survival horror game which I would argue succeeds even Resident Evil 2, and possibly Resident Evil 4 this year in some ways. I enjoy the unique spins it puts on a few core aspects of survival horror game design and can see myself getting even more enjoyment out of it in later new game plus runs. I’ll be seated for Dead Space 2 Remake whenever that comes out, though hopefully EA’s usual greedy, big bucks mentality doesn’t drive the series off a cliff again. They haven’t changed, but at least Isaac gets another chance to shine and not be in the dusted cobwebs of a dead and sabotaged franchise (for now).