Dead Space Remake
First published in GRIND IV, pages 170–175.
S/X, PC
A N AT
le! ho s W Remake U
DOSBOI'S_RECORDING 01
We are biologically programmed to recognise the hidden abnormal. To react with suspicion when confronted with something unseen, yet familiar. A sense of inner pressure – physical, animalistic, primal – welling up from the reptilian brain. Nothing is more terrifying than the human that isn't human. A living being that doesn't feel alive, even though it tries its hardest to convince you otherwise. Vampires, undead of all kinds, the creature from The Thing, skin-walkers, the classic Doppelgänger – horror fiction is full of examples.
But when change itself becomes the source of dread, when the grotesque and fear join through transformation and become a whole that is anything but occult – on the contrary, extremely aggressive and visible – the scale of our revulsion at this abnormal grows exponentially. Beyond the disgust for perverted anatomy, for the animated corpse, lurks the horror of coming face to face with someone who, an hour ago, was your work colleague – or your beloved, your brother, your sister, your mother – and is now a contorted, rotting, ravenous creature running towards you.
This is the terror of Dead Space, raised to the level of horror art.
HELP!
The original Dead Space, released in 2008, is still one of my favourite games. I remember with nostalgia the TGM magazine in which I first read a preview. I was fascinated by the screenshots, by Isaac's suit and the way it replaced the traditional HUD, by the ultra-futuristic art direction visible in the weapons and in the decor of the USG Ishimura. The article was in Italian, but I could understand about 80% of the text without any trouble – and what I understood fascinated me. The comparisons with Resident Evil, if I remember rightly, were already there in the TGM preview, from a positive and op- timistic perspective. Italians are great fans of Japanese games, and franchises like Final Fantasy, Silent Hill or Resident Evil are held in high regard in their gaming culture.
To be honest, ignorant as I was, I didn't know much about these titles back then, since I was someone with limited internet access, but the text in that magazine clobbered me like a deaf man swinging a bell.
Why? Because I did know one thing: Dead Space was body horror science fiction. The fusion of Aliens and The Thing laid over Event Horizon and Solaris. Films that my mum and I used to watch on VHS, having a laugh at the practical- effects, because it was from her that I acquired my passion for this niche. After a while, which at the time seemed eternal, I don't remember exactly whether it was around 2008 or 2009, a pirated copy of Dead Space landed on my computer. It seems pointless to tell you in 2024 what Visceral's masterpiece did well and how. Better to play it yourselves, since it's available on GOG.com too and runs on anything from an 8800GT upwards. Make your own opinions whole again, as the Marker would softly whisper, and take a look at the video material published on Return of the DOSboi.
Visceral. On the other hand, I feel the need to discuss in this article the success of the remake released last year. I'm not a big fan of the post-creative industry, but sometimes even these people get it right. Although I prefer to play the originals as they came out of the 'factory gate', plenty of games do need a refresh – at least on a technical level. Dead Space?
Not really, to be honest. I mean, the 2008 version runs without problems on modern operating systems, still looks good, feels precise and cohesive. What need was there for a remake? I scratched my head a little when I heard what Electronic Arts was working on through Motive Studio.
Because they made sure to tenderise the Visceral lot properly before drilling another hole in them, after which they sent them to the Morgue of Shame, alongside Westwood, Mythic, Bullfrog, Origin, Danger Close, Phenomic, Black Box and Pandemic. Motive will probably end up there too, even though they managed to turn Dead Space 2008 into a Dead Space worthy of 2023. Only the overlords at EA decided that sales were below expectations.
Safe travels, Motive – they've left your taxi fare on the nightstand!
Surprisingly, the answer to my dilemma arrived unforced. The Dead Space remake is an excellent game. Whatever happens behind the corporation's doors, whoever is forcing whom to love whom, the Ishimura is more terrifying than ever, and the necromorphs more gruesome than I thought possible. Every craftsmanlike element of the original has been refined in the remake, which isn't easy to do when the source material is already formed and stabilised. I'm talking about something that goes beyond gameplay, graphics and sound: the atmosphere. And from this point of view, DS23 achieves the impossible – making you just as excited and frightened again as on your first crash into the ghost ship's hangar, as though it were the first time you hear of Dead Space and have no idea what comes next.
RANCID MO0N
Someone said in a comment on my YouTube channel that DS23 is what you saw with your mind's eye in 2008, after the visual feast that was Crysis. You know full well that I count the years starting from 2007, the moment video games hit their peak.
And Dead Space was landing out of the depths of space in that same window of time.
Something extraordinary was happening during that period, a creative surge financially backed by the big studios and publishers. This time, the nostalgia can be backed with data still available on the internet – reviews, sales, appreciation from the public. No old man yelling at clouds in this text, because if I think about the present, the meme that comes to mind is the little guy poking the dead industry with a stick and telling it: 'Come on, do something original!'
Which is exactly what DS23 tries to reproduce. The feeling that Dead Space is only just coming out now. That what you're playing on PC, PS5 or Xbox is what you actually wanted to have played 16 years ago. The lads at Motive understood the mission exactly and executed the operation by the book. Let me first tell you what they didn't do: 1. They didn't touch the characters' identities, whatever that might still mean today. 2. The campaign stayed 90% identical, including the most intense moments. 3. The original art direction was preserved down to the smallest detail, visually and audibly.
On the other hand, it seems the developers understood exactly what a remake has to include to preserve the original charm and protect the franchise's legacy. First of all they dealt with the technical side, moving the game from its proprietary engine to Frostbite. This allowed for some extraordinary changes in level design and in the essence of the gameplay.
Isaac is considerably more mobile, especially in zero-G environments, where he can fly freely, and the necromorphs are fleshy in the truest sense of the word. Plasma cutter swipes now slice into simulated flesh, with tendons, ligaments, joints, fat, skin – the whole juicy package.
In short, mobility and realism. Together they make the action more fluid, and they fit into the new structure of the Ishimura, which allows you to cross it without loading screens. The whole contraption is now one gigantic level to be explored from corner to corner, and that translates into total immersion in the horror atmosphere.
The fact that Isaac is now a voiced hero may be a debatable decision, but they pulled it off so well that even the most fervent supporters of the mute protagonist were left speechless. There's not much to criticise in DS23 on the audio front, because it sounds excellent even on console. If they'd cocked it up, I'd have had plenty to criticise. Music and ambient sound are fundamental in a horror game – especially a claustrophobic one with a synthetic, angular environment. Oh yes, DS23 tickles your ears with an ulna turned into a bone sword like nothing else!
IN SPACE NO ONE
CAN HEAR YOU SCREAMING
FOR MORE...
Dead Space 2023 is a whole worth more than the sum of its parts. A definitive, complete, nostalgic remake, loyal to the original and honest with players.
One of the few that speaks both to old skool fans and to the knu skool ones (I felt the need to slip in a reference to 2008 skate/BMX culture, for the sake of other times). If you've never played the classic Dead Space, I'm starting to think you'd be better off starting with DS23. In the end, you decide whether I'm right or not. Shame nobody will hear you, because what happens in space stays in space…