After getting burned in Resident Evil 3, I’m wary of survival horror remakes.So at first I wasn’t expecting much. dead space remake when announced. But as EA Motive revealed more, I found my optimism growing. The studio has stated many times that its main directive was to respect the source material, and it worked out better than I had hoped.
Please note that this review is for readers who have played the original Dead Space. As a review for those who have not experienced the original, Visit our sister site GameRevolution.
WARNING: GAME SPOILERS BELOW.
Mr. Clark finds his voice
The story beats of the Dead Space remake remain the same. You play as Issac Clarke, an engineer who accompanies his USG Ishimura emergency maintenance team. Unfortunately, the ship carrying the team crashes into Ishimura and they find themselves stranded there. The Necromorphs soon make their presence known and Clark finds himself fighting to bring Ishimura back to life.
The biggest difference to the plot this time around is that Isaac is a fully voiced character instead of a taciturn protagonist. It makes sense to want to give agency.
In fact, the new characterization of Issac is mixed. Giving him a voice takes away some of Dead Space’s claustrophobia. In the original, you weren’t just trapped in the narrow corridors of the Ishimura family. You’ve been trapped in a gallery of villainous characters who are using you for their own ends. I was compelled to obey whatever was said in the vague hope that it would somehow lead to my escape.
In the remake, Isaac is treated as an equal partner by Hammond and Daniels, and when Issac informs and gives his opinion, the tone of the relationship between the two changes significantly. Also, for some reason, Hammons and Daniels are less hostile to each other in the remake, removing the awkward feeling of being stuck in the middle that the original gave.
Luckily, EA Motive made sure Issac wasn’t too talkative in his Dead Space remake. He usually doesn’t speak until spoken to and keeps things relatively brief. He also doesn’t always talk to himself or joke. This is great most of the time.
However, there are some awkward moments when Isaac remains fully mother at inappropriate times. For example, in the medical section, you enter a room and see a woman in an isolation tube killing a patient by making a wide incision from the patient’s trunk to her sternum. This definitely seems like the kind of scene that throws out a “stop,” or at least a “dang.” Instead, Isaac is completely silent about the poor woman’s fate.
bring the dead back to life
The graphics upgrade in Dead Space Remake is great. Many of the environments replicate what we saw in the original and look great. The big star here, though, is the new effects. New and vastly improved smoke, fog, fire and sparks all combine to make Ishimura feel more real than ever.
Luckily, Motive didn’t overdo it here. Some areas feel a little more homogenous than before, but they have a unique feel that makes you imagine what they were like before Necromorphs. There are lots of labs and spooky scenes, and plenty of pranks that make noises and move in the background to paint a better picture of being on a giant spaceship.
This time, you can traverse from end to end of Ishimura without any loading screens or tram systems. Despite the devs hyping it up, the progression of the Dead Space remake is pretty much the same as the original.
There are some side quests that extend the story of selected NPCs. Unfortunately, one of these takes away some of Nicole’s mystery. In the original, your imagination has to fill in a lot of the blanks as to what Issac was doing before boarding her Ishimura. However, the remake makes her a bit of a martyr and makes her less interesting as a character.
don’t die open inside
In the original game, you completed a section and that was it. All encounters are scripted, so when we finished, we found part of the ship safe. Luckily, Motive has come up with a solution for this. According to the developer, Intensity Director AI has about 1,200 scenarios ready to throw at you.
You never know what will happen when you enter the remake area. Gunshots and screams may be heard in the distance as the rest of Ishimura’s crew fights for their lives. Enemies may burst from air ducts or just rattle. Power can fail in your section, leaving you shrouded in darkness. Each playthrough needs to be different, as the director works side-by-side with pre-scripted encounters.
Sound, of course, played a big part in the original Dead Space presentation, and that’s carried over into the remake. Motive has retained the original score by Jason Graves and added new audio cues that work with the AI Intensity Director.
Graves’ work still feels fresh, but unfortunately, the new musical cues are often overwhelming. All too often, the twang of the strings gave the surprise of an enemy encounter before I could even hear or see the sound of the enemy. Hopefully it will be toned down in future patches as it would otherwise spoil the excellent sound design.
make appropriate changes
Dead Space’s gameplay is surprisingly fresh for a 15-year-old game, but some parts are older than others. The remake takes the opportunity to add quality-of-life features and change some of the more annoying sections for the better.
Zero G gameplay that restricted Issac from jumping from surface to surface in one direction now has 6 degrees of freedom in its movement. This allowed Motive to completely revamp sections like activating his ADS cannon and fighting Leviathan.
What I didn’t notice during my playthrough is the lack of content. Like the Resident Evil 2 remake, there are some differences in the text and audio logs, and some new and tweaked lore (especially regarding Unitology), but everything in the original is represented . Unlike the Resident Evil 3 remake, there are no missing locations or radically different interpretations of the source material.
Dead Space Remake Review: Final Verdict
Dead Space Remake is the definitive version of the game. The original is relatively old, but not available on current generation consoles, and the PC version is cumbersome on newer hardware and Windows versions. Some changes in the remake work better than others, but the important thing is that, like the original, it’s a supreme survival horror and a worthy successor to the beloved series.
9.0 | |
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