Dead Space Remake review: horror at its best

At the risk of putting modesty aside, I’m not someone who is very sensitive to works rooted in the horror genre. Put me on a movie, lock me in a haunted house, immerse me in a creepy video game, nothing helps. The jump scare and other artifices used by artists to bead drops of cold sweat on the backs of the reckless are only failures. But a frankness also pushes me to affirm that there is always an exception.

This exception is called Dead Space.

dead space was released in 2008, on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It was developed by Visceral Games, a studio that no longer exists today. In the survival-horror genre, especially fueled by the Resident Evil saga, its success is immediate. It was then magnified in an even more hectic sequel, before hitting the wall with a third opus next to the plate. He will have precipitated the fall all at once of dead space and Visceral Games (two years after the release of dead space 3). In 2023, Electronic Arts decides to order a remake of the one that started everything at Motive. And we are delighted to put on the Isaac Clarke costume with a vision that has made it a cult work.

Good sci-fi horror

For who would be familiar with the first dead space, this remake in no way betrays the narrative foundations of the original story. It always revolves around Isaac Clarke, an engineer whose first and last name refer to major authors of SF (Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke). He finds himself plunged into a space hell by joining the USC Ishimura, a mining vessel which deserved his services for a repair. This was without taking into account the discovery of a real evil that lurks, linked to a strange monolith and a very opaque religion. It is perpetrated by particularly aggressive creatures, called Necromorphs. With makeshift tools, Isaac must survive and unravel a mystery also linked to his own wife.

If it may seem very conventional (a monolith contaminating people?), the story of dead space remains remarkably efficient. It mixes high stakes with more intimate goals as Isaac Clarke descends into madness on contact with the horrors he encounters. To justify the status of remake, Motive has nevertheless reworked certain points, in particular the deepening of several sub-plots or the addition of other branches (by secondary quests). The main lines remain the same, but a few parentheses appear to make the experience even more striking. They will certainly delight fans who will have fun playing the games of the seven differences – which also applies to the fate of certain secondary characters.

It is much more the realization that borders on respect in this Dead Space, reinvigorated by a much more advanced 3D engine and a project that started from scratch (with a boss despite everything already quite complete to follow). Without being as beautiful as The Callisto Protocol (his spiritual son, available a few weeks before), the remake takes advantage of a modernized graphic rendering to further support its gloomy atmosphere. Thanks to more realistic lighting, dead space paradoxically becomes darker and more oppressive. The whole thing is coated in a production in a sequence shot which, without achieving the creative success of God of War Ragnarok in the science of framing, ensures total continuity in the adventure (without any downtime or loading).

We are also delighted to note that the work on sound design still borders on the sublime, in the horrifying sense of the term. dead space, it is this permanent alternation between chilling silences and cries of dread. We find ourselves dreaming of being in search of a vain glimmer of hope, right in the middle of the sound effects thought to worry (a shower that goes off without warning, the stultifying din of a blade of a huge fan that makes everything vibrate to the rhythm of the lighting changes). In its propensity to heckle the player and the player with next to nothing and to create an atmosphere that is anything but welcoming, dead space remain a master.

Dead Space gameplay remains unmissable

The updating of dead space also benefits its gameplay which, it must be admitted, has not aged a bit. This observation is mainly explained by the fact that no other game has really ventured, let alone flourished, in this mechanics of dismemberment. To get rid of the Necromorphs, Isaac Clark was better off shooting their arms and legs, rather than aiming for the head. This other way of aiming really changes the approach in the way of experiencing a shooting game. You then learn other reflexes, trying to abandon your old reflexes (we always say to aim for the head…) to play differently. It was very gameplay costs in 2008, and it still is in 2023.

It should be noted in passing that the reinvigorated production offers developers the opportunity to make the gory effects even more striking. Concretely, by shooting several times on the same part of the body, you will see little by little the skin, the flesh and the bones shred with surgical precision (no pun intended). The visual technologies of 2008 did not allow to go so far in the visceral argument. It is undoubtedly not for nothing that several actors have fun multiplying remake projects in the horror genre – from Resident Evil to Silent Hill. Thanks to a more solid visual part, the horror becomes much less ridiculous and grotesque, more striking and captivating.

Motive has made some marginal changes, in the wake of the weapon upgrade system (slightly revamped), free – but complicated – movement in weightlessness or the integration of random events when crossing dozens of doors from USC Ishimura (spoiler: enemies can come from anywhere or… not come at all). With these developments, coupled with reworked environments too, the remake of dead space encourages much more exploration. There are even rooms and chests closed by a level of security requiring you to first accomplish a series of side objectives. It’s a somewhat perverse redistricting. While nothing invites you to spend time in this dehumanized and labyrinthine carcass, the developers find ways to prolong the suffering.

The verdict

We liked

• Respect for the original title
• Gameplay still as effective
• The few additions solidify the experience

We liked less

• Could be a little nicer
• Watch out for sensitive souls
• Phases in weightlessness

In 2008, Dead Space terrorized gamers with its gloomy atmosphere, visceral gameplay, and psychologically charged sci-fi story. In 2023, the remake is set to repeat those feats, rekindling nightmares for some, instilling new ones in the minds of others. Under the leadership of the Motive studio, Isaac Clarke finds his voice as much as the voice, in an adventure reinvigorated by a realization sublimating the atmosphere and the sound design.

It must also be said that no one has really managed to make Dead Space after Dead Space. This saga deserved much more than a forced retirement after a third episode disguising everything that has been so firmly established by the appeal of the big show. It is finally a fair return of things: this major production of horror SF could only be reborn by starting from the base. Hoping that, this time, the takeoff will not be followed by a crash. Because, in oblivion, no one can hear you scream.

Do you like our media? Tell us in this survey!

Some links in this article are affiliate. We’ll explaine everything here.