Dead Space
Table of Contents
This is Dead Space as I see it. I love horror video games and I love Dead Space. The 2023 release attempts to recapture the magic that made the original Dead Space so memorable. The graphics upgrade does wonders to increase the effect. However, adding a voice to Isaac and taking away the breathing effects feels like a wrong move.
ABOUT DEAD SPACE
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to the gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.
Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.
Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
Dead space on Steam. Welcome to Steam. (n.d.). https://store.steampowered.com/app/1693980/Dead_Space/
THE CHANGES
The original Dead Space is a perfect survival horror game. I played through the game so many times to the point where I knew where to expect every single enemy and scare.
ISAAC
Why did they give Isaac a voice? This change hurt the most and I think this is one of the worst decisions in the 2023 release. On top of giving him a voice, he also has a dry humor at times that doesn’t match the circumstances. He also sounds sort of unintelligent at times.
When I played the original release, I liked that he didn’t have a voice. His breathing alone made my anxiety rise. In the 2023 release, his breathing is not as loud as it was in the original so I didn’t get the same reaction.
Last but not least, why does Isaac Clarke look like Mark Zuckerberg?
ZERO-G
I think the Zero-G update is okay. I didn’t mind how the original’s Zero-G mechanics worked so I didn’t find the update all that necessary. I did have a tough time with rotation but overall, it wasn’t so bad.
BOSS BATTLES
All of the boss battles were just about on par with the original. The exception is the second battle with the Leviathan. I did not like these changes. I prefer the original version of the boss battle. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just leave it on that note.
THE END
To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that I’m not sure why she is in the seat vs behind the seat. I think the original release had a bit more impact and it was much more scary.
THE GAMEPLAY
The gameplay feels familiar when comparing the two releases. I think Isaac is a little faster but, as in the original, he is still a bit hard to maneuver. When a monster is chasing Isaac or he gets surrounded by monsters, I find it hard to get Isaac out of tough situations.
BUGS
I did my Dead Space playthrough on the PlayStation 5. To my surprise, I ran into quite a few bugs. Some of the bugs caused the game to abruptly close and some of the other bugs froze the game. When the game froze, I had to take a few steps to get the game to close out to boot the game back up. I had this happen to me at least five times.
Some of the other bugs I encountered included graphical and ragdoll bugs. The graphical bugs were usually quick and consisted of flashing lines on the screen or missing textures. Those I can deal with. However, the ragdoll bugs were abundant and caused me several headaches. There were so many times that I thought something was trying to attack me but turned out to be a ragdoll bug.
THE ATMOSPHERE
The graphics update is incredible. Dead Space is horrifyingly beautiful. The floating dust and shadows bring the environment to life.
I did not like the sound mix as much as I did in the original. One of my favorite rooms in Dead Space is the engine room. In the original, when you started those engines, you could feel the power of those engines because of the sound. The sound clips a bit and I appreciate that. These engines should be very loud and powerful. I didn’t get the same effect in the 2023 release.
AS I SEE IT
I like the original release better. The updated graphics are a very nice touch in Dead Space 2023 but I don’t care much for anything else. In the grand scheme of things, I think too much was broken. It’s only the graphic update that I get excited about with the 2023 release.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love Dead Space 2023. I have my quarrels with it but I think my bar has been set high by the Resident Evil 2 remake. In time, I will make another run through Dead Space 2023. I want to experience New Game Plus.