Dead Space Remake brings an incredible classic to life for modern gamers

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I haven't spent a lot of time with the remakes. But Electronic Arts and Motive Studios put so much care into the remake of Dead Space, a 2008 sci-fi survival horror title, that it drew me in. Carefully built and upgraded to a visually stunning level, this type of gear gives remakes a reason to exist.

The original designers of Dead Space, like Glen Schofield, drew heavy inspiration from sci-fi films like Alien and Event Horizon, as well as computer games. horror like Resident Evil 4. I thought it should be noted that Schofield, who created his own spiritual successor, Callisto Protocol, which debuted in December, thanked the Motive team at EA for taking such a care in crafting the Dead Space Remake. It was praise, and I share it.

It's a phenomenal title that scared me in so many ways, sometimes just leaving me alone in the dark with a heartbeat gone crazy. Simple sounds like humming engines and creaking trams can scare you as the machinery stops, interrupted by a roaring monster. From tiny crawling creatures to huge bosses with deadly octopus-like arms, Dead Space throws all kinds of horror at you.

The beginning is scary because of the mystery. You have no idea why these monsters, the Necromorphs, kill everyone they meet aboard a mining spaceship. Isaac Clarke doesn't start out as a superhero. He's just an ordinary mining engineer in deep space worried about his girlfriend aboard the USG Ishimura mining ship. His crew boards the derelict "planet cracker" ship to investigate why it went silent in a distant star system. There are things inside the ship hiding in the dark, and all you need to see them is a flashlight with a very narrow field of vision.

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The best improvement Motive has made to the new game is that Clarke has a real voice. This allows for better storytelling. This makes the narrative more social and gives Clarke a certain personality as an engineer who resists all problems, whether mechanical or monstrous. The previous game was an isolating experience, and Isaac was just taking orders from his compatriots.

The remake has a full cast of characters who you see play out their story in audio diaries or on an augmented reality stage, which becomes visible to Isaac when he views video recordings from the past. This gives us some insight into the characters and necessary context for the horrific bloodbath on the Ishimura.

Another achievement of the remake is the improved graphics of the modern game. The visual effects are so much better and scarier than the original. It feels more immersive and expansive. Whereas the Ishimura was a bunch of corridors in the first game, it's now an entire ship, physically laid out as if it really existed. If you want to take a tram to different parts of the ship, you can. Or you can wander through its connected hallways. It's more like a whole world.

Isaac's girlfriend, Nicole, is older than she was in the original Dead Space and has a deeper voice, almost as if she's aged in the middle years as Isaac hadn't done it. There is also a secret ending with another variation of the original ending in the final scene.

Motive has added some cool game systems. It can dynamically increase the intensity if it detects that you need more action. And it has a peeling system that shows bodies not just a gooey mess when you dismember or disembowel Necromorphs. You see layers of flesh, tendons and bones breaking. Now you can shoot a layer from a monster's body and find that you have even more to clean up. You can creatively create...