‘Dead Space’ Is One of the Greatest Game Remakes of All Time

The classic sci-fi horror (necro)morphs itself for the modern day

Isaac Clarke enters the heart of darkness. Credit: Electronic Arts

Pop culture and media has a way of constantly reinventing itself and going through cycles. One trend dies, gives way to another, which blooms, reaches its apex and then dies again, leaving a small portion of what made it great and interesting behind, like a seed. A seed which then plays a part in what comes after it — and then the whole process repeats. This is most evident with fashion and music, which go hand in hand and have a way of constantly changing — both by incrementally adding new elements or by purposely contrasting what came before — but also resurfacing every 10–20 years.

Video games are a different beast however — a veritable Frankenstein monster, consisting of many different components and inspirations (other and older games, game mechanics and game genres, film, music, comics etc.) that don’t necessarily need to be connected by some set of rigid rules, be evident of the times they release in or fit together in a logical way in order to make absolute sense. But even then, certain games, the way they’re built, look, sound or play, are almost always representative of their era, the technology and styles — trends if you will — which were popular around that time and influenced by the landmark releases of the period. These trends tend to linger in video games more than in other media, even if they remain as trace elements, but the fact is that the gaming audience is more finicky than others and that, over time, trends do supplant one another in games as well.

The original Dead Space trilogy (2008–2013) is one such example. The vision for the first game sprang up during the golden age of third person perspective action and survival horror games of the mid-2000s. These were inspired by the incredible success and influence of 2005’s Resident Evil 4, a game that revolutionized both the shooting mechanics and introduced a genre hybrid which injected a fair dose of action into the survival horror. This style supplanted the earlier Resident Evil entries’ and other series’ — such as Silent Hill — brand of survival horror of the early 2000s, that relied on the slow burn atmospheric experience in which the players were more vulnerable to the many dangers. Resident Evil 4’s idea was that the horrors such as zombies could not only be fought, but that the player could face them head on, which was the core gameplay influence on the original 2008 Dead Space, developed by Visceral Games (then named EA Redwood Shores), a subsidiary of Electronic Arts.

Dead Space took a sci-fi approach to horror, directly inspired by films such as the Alien series for its tense atmosphere and industrial ship setting, The Thing for its body horror, and Event Horizon for its strong cosmic and psychological horror elements. It placed us into the magnetic boots of an everyman space engineer, Isaac Clarke, as he navigated a ship taken over by the grotesque creatures called the Necromorphs. The first game was an immediate success and from it spawned a franchise, but as Blade Runner’s Eldon Tyrrell reminds us, “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long”. It lasted for only half a decade but in those five years had two sequels, two spin-off games, spawned two animated feature films and two novels. However, by the time the third game came out in 2013, its tense horror atmosphere and survival gameplay had mostly diluted to a generic action shooter, mirroring Resident Evil’s own lukewarm reputation of the times, which had also regressed into a full-on action game with its 6th main entry released in 2012.

The resurrection of the beloved classic

The arrival and success of FPS horror games in the early 2010s — both indie titles such as Outlast (2013) and eminent IPs like Alien: Isolation (2014), which brought back the focus to stealth survival, nail-biting tension and the atmosphere which burst from the screen — marked the next shift in the genre for the new generation of consoles and players, and directly influenced the next mainline Resident Evil game. The late 2010s also saw the trend of remakes taking hold, with the aim of bringing the previous critically acclaimed titles to modern, more powerful hardware, with vast technical and visual upgrades. The Resident Evil franchise led the charge once again, delivering several instant successes with their remakes that brought back survival horror to the third-person shooter, directly inspiring EA to try their luck in the market by bringing Dead Space literally back from the dead.

The climate at EA was however not ideal for a return to the franchise. Visceral Games, the original development studio of the Dead Space trilogy, was unfortunately closed down back in 2017, leaving any hope of in-house veterans creating a future project in the franchise an impossibility. Even the visionary mind and director of the first game, Glen Schofield, wasn’t around to supervise the project, having been busy on his own spiritual successor to Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol, which would release a year prior to the DS Remake — and ultimately fail to resonate with the fans. This meant that EA had to gamble by choosing one of their other subsidiary studios for its development.

And this gamble paid off. Developed by Motive Studio, whose only projects prior to the Dead Space Remake were related to the Star Wars franchise — portions of Battlefront II and the space dogfighter game Squadrons — the Remake is a resounding and surprising success. It not only modernizes and revitalizes the original game’s experience — released 15 years prior — in every possible way, but also makes certain creative choices that add new nuance to the core of the 2008 game. Motive has faithfully and respectfully expanded the parts that needed it, even though the choice for the remake seemed a little odd and thin ice to walk on, seeing as how the original had and still has a stellar reputation.

The Remake wastes no time in showing it’s a worthy successor to the original. Credit: Electronic Arts

The early seventh generation console era, to which the original Dead Space belongs, was marked by projects whose earnest and clear development and artistic visions and presentations, which were made possible by the new technology, made them look far more superior than what came before and also partly way ahead of its time. The ideas, principles, presentation and the details that games such as Assassin’s Creed (2007), Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and Dead Space had, were wildly influential to projects that followed them. As such, they developed a sort of divine aura that largely made them stand the test of time, partly because of the fact that they still look good.

EA’s go-to proprietary, photorealistic engine, Frostbite, created by DICE for their flagship Battlefield franchise, is probably the first and main thing one notices when looking at Motive’s Dead Space. When comparing it to the original game, it quickly becomes apparent that the 2008 classic sure could’ve used a facelift. While it still does look astounding for a 2008 horror game, taking off the rose-tinted glasses allows us to see that the original’s lighting, color scheme and effects were essentially (successful) patchwork solutions used to enhance the tense atmosphere.

[embed]The direct comparison

The lighting in particular seems a little off, with characters often being colored slightly brighter than the usual dimly lit hallways, like they don’t fully belong to the scene, which doubles down with the inconsistent shadows. The light also seems to fill entire rooms, even though their scant sources have no business emitting so much luminance. The fog/steam effect and copper tint of the game, while very atmospheric and nostalgic, also highlight the fact that these visuals were used to (a little artificially) pronounce the effects that the then current hardware could not pull off.

Frostbite engine shows its might

As is most often the case, the visual elements are crucial for horror games and films, especially the ones which are set in the environments that are a huge part of the experience. This is why they come under closer scrutiny. Luckily the Frostbite engine remedies all of the technological growing pains of the first game. The result is a game that not only modernizes the look of the classic, but also unironically looks best in its class and genre (and possibly beyond), with environments that truly look photorealistic because of the expressive lighting.

What should be dark is actually dark and what light the panels and bulbs may offer only illuminate the areas that might be covered by it, creating stark contrasts that are only alleviated by the LED RIG System on Isaac’s back and the flashlights of his weapons and helmet. The green lights of the laboratory wings, the reds and oranges of the alarm and industrial systems and the dramatic yellows of the floodlights, all dynamically engulf the environments and organically tint them in comparison to the artificial color filters in the original game.

The volumetric fog and particle effects are also a massive improvement and add extra weight to the suffocating atmosphere of the game. The fog feels thick enough to be cut through by Isaac’s trusty Plasma Cutter and sparks from the ship’s aged machinery are actual additional sources of light that pierce through darkness, not just mere visual details. The shadows of the Necromorphs are a cherry on top — very lush, realistic and reminiscent of expressionist horror, adding in the feeling of tension to the game.

The dynamic way the light is cast and obstructed by the objects in the game is truly a marvelous sight. Credit: Electronic Arts

Texture work on the environments has seen obvious improvements from the use of the Frostbite engine as well. The materials are much more clearly seen, with surfaces that looked like concrete or otherwise of unknown origin in the 2008 game, now having a higher degree of fidelity and amount of detail. This is of course most apparent on the metal surfaces that make up 99% of the game’s map — the gargantuan ship called the Ishimura — which range from the ones with more sheen seen in the hydroponics wing, to the ones exhibiting full-on crimson rust and damage, such as one of the mining decks.

Likewise, the cocoon-like growth which envelops parts of the game’s environments is much more than the simple set dressing it was in the original. In the Remake, the grotesquery of this growth is a lot more detailed, with it feeling truly alive; dripping, bulbous and pulsating all over the walls, blocking the paths and making the ground an actual organic matter that consciously and purposely makes Isaac’s movement harder, rather than the sticky goop feel the original had.

The character design and animations have also been improved a great deal. While the physics engine of the original is still an impressive feat of technology that was way ahead of its time, the Remake offers a more grounded feel to it that makes the fights more tense and entrenched and the cadavers of the taken-out Necromorphs more weighted, rather than the ragdolls of the original. The Necromorphs themselves have seen a delightfully dreadful makeover, with most of them still retaining parts of their (formerly human) uniforms, as well as having highly detailed skin and appendages. This makeover has been used for the human characters too, one of the aspects of the original that certainly hasn’t aged as well as other elements. The outfits that the characters wear now look much more detailed, led of course by Isaac’s iconic engineer suit, and their models have seen a massive improvement as well, whose more realistic depiction and facial animations add much needed life to their performances.

A total makeover of the Ishimura

The game’s setting, the “planetcracker” mining mega-ship USG Ishimura, is — in a slightly corny and overused phrase — one of the main characters of the game. While the original game’s immersive sim-inspired Ishimura was certainly a landmark when it came out — and still is — the Remake’s version improves it by a large degree. Most of it is due to its faithfulness to the first game’s map layout and design, that with added Frostbite engine lighting and textures makes it look like night and day in terms of visual fidelity when compared to the original. The improvements to the ship aren’t just visual, because the entirety of Ishimura has been designed as a seamless, open-world environment, that can be explored top to bottom, front to tail, without a loading screen in between. This is a diametrical difference to the original, which was a linear level based experience; the Ishimura tram system functioned as the loading screen between the different decks.

Dead Space Remake not only makes the tram system an actual tram that is used to (fast) travel across the ship, but the game actively encourages backtracking and curiosity. The newly added security clearance system makes many doors and lockers locked during the first visits to the areas, until the players have received a sufficient level of clearance across the story — alongside a special key that makes the “legendary” doors openable. The ship can be traversed from one end to the other on foot (and certain new zero gravity segments) as well, which goes on to show how much care has been placed in introducing new corridors and rooms that logically tie the decks together. The game also has failsafes to surprise the more exploration minded players with new, unscripted enemy encounters in previously cleared out areas, via the so called “Intensity Director”.

Necromorph, lighting and ship design form the visual holy trinity of the Remake. Credit: Electronic Arts

This Ishimura 2.0 and Dead Space Remake can be considered a new link in the seemingly endless chain of influences in the sci-fi horror genre. It started well before Alien was released, but the 1979 classic played a tremendous role in the case of Dead Space, and has served as one of the biggest influences on the 2008 original, which — in turn — had a hand in inspiring Alien: Isolation in 2014. The 2023 Remake clearly took a lot from all 3 previous titles, but one aspect which felt directly cribbed from Isolation was its sense of a lived in sci-fi setting and the environmental storytelling, which Isolation’s Sevastopol station fully embraced, itself inspired by Ishimura 1.0.

The new Ishimura has every part it would need to logically function as a mining and research ship and the way it is interconnected makes it feel like a truly believable place, even more than the original did. Likewise, the many details in the environments that showcase that there was indeed some semblance of everyday life on the ship and its recreation and living quarters, before everything went to hell, really shine in the Remake. These details emphasize the claustrophobia, with its small rooms, the dense clutter (increased over threefold from the original) and pitiful living conditions for the crew, doubling down on their decrepit mental health.

A narrative leap

Besides the vast technological upgrade, the other main difference between the Remake and the original is the narrative presentation. Namely, Isaac now has a voice. The performance of Isaac in the original game was almost non-existent and reduced to deep breaths, grunts and screams done by an unknown actor (possibly even by a developer). It was only in the second game that he got an actual voice actor, Gunner Wright, who brought a blue collar stoicness to the performance, that became more intensified during the more dramatic story moments. He returns here in the Remake and provides mo-cap for Isaac, as well as his own face à la L.A. Noire, thus making the game feel like a definitive version of the 2008 classic, mostly because his performance is very understated and doesn’t step over the boundaries that would bend the feel of the original too much.

Isaac doesn’t talk to himself for the sake of proving that he’s voiced however, like many game protagonists might do when they’re solving puzzles or some such (looking at you, Aloy). Instead, the voice adds the much needed personality that he almost completely lacked in the original, in which he was essentially a metal golem errand boy with a cool helmet, who followed whatever orders he got from the side characters over his RIG link, and just happened to have a girlfriend who should’ve, you know, made him resemble a human being with emotions. When Isaac does speak to himself, it highlights and makes more potent one of the main themes of the game’s story and its tragedy, so the original becomes quite literally “obsolete” in the narrative department when under direct comparison to the Remake.

Wright’s performance brings both this emotional connection to Isaac’s girlfriend, Nicole, who he’s looking for throughout the game’s story, and to the rest of the side characters, who he interacts with in an organic way. It also makes it fully apparent that he’s a genius engineer, who doesn’t just follow orders and objectives, but actually takes the initiative and makes plans throughout the vast majority of the game, which is essentially a series of repair jobs, something he’s clearly very skilled in. The game also expands Isaac’s backstory and past relationship with Nicole, which is commendable and gives the story more gravity and pathos.

It may take a while for the old fans to get used to Isaac’s new face, but the change is absolutely worth it. Credit: Electronic Arts

The roster of side characters is slightly expanded and reworked to fit this more cinematic presentation. For example, certain characters who were relegated to the audio and text logs in the original now get more screen time and are integrated into the narrative in really interesting and more meaningful ways. Besides Isaac and Nicole (Tanya Clarke), whose voice actors reprise their roles from the original trilogy, all of the other important characters — Isaac’s teammates Kendra and Hammond, doctors Mercer and Kyne — are played by new actors, who do a fairly standard but well done job that resembles the original performances.

Of these, the most noticeable change is Dr Kyne, a supporting character played in the original by the legendary video game actor Keith Szarabajka, who also served as the base for the character appearance, whose signature voice and snarl did well to promote some of the core ideas of the franchise, mainly the insanity. The new actor, Pej Vahdat, has a more subdued performance that contrasts the original’s, but in his own way, absolutely delivers and serves the story well. The casting changes may not be for everyone however.

The audio and text logs, the legacy of its immersive sim forefathers, still do a lot of worldbuilding and provide extra details on the more important characters, but one other main addition are the side missions. They are totally new content that wasn’t in the original game and that logically connect some of the dots that were previously left alone. One of them is a scavenger hunt that isn’t very story heavy (the aforementioned special key quest) but the other two expand Nicole’s storyline and the storyline of the side antagonist Dr Kyne, his experiments and the origin of the Hunter, the infamous regenerating Necromorph nemesis of the original game which returns in the Remake.

New Game Plus also returns with the usual assortment of tougher enemies, though with some surprises and an alternate ending that ties into the original’s sequel, as well as bonus logs that provide some additional mysteries and foreshadowing. Many logs themselves are changed a bit, explaining some things that were left a little vague in the 2008 game, such as why exactly are there so many babies on a mining spaceship — spoiler alert, they’re not the children of the crew members kept in stasis during the ship’s deep space missions, as I thought when I played the first game.

The skeleton of the story remains largely the same, however with more prominent cutscenes, which have fully realized and made the original’s distinctive, seamless “one take” cinematic vision a reality, that directly rivals the 2018 God of War — whose entire visual point of pride was the “one take” story, ten years after the original Dead Space tried its hand at it, as well as its sequel in 2011. Now that the loading screens are largely a thing of the past, the technology has even allowed for climactic space flights to also happen seamlessly, however with the aid of some of the cheekier effects that mask the transitions.

Taking the best from the past

One other improvement in the Remake is the total reconstruction of some of the more aged and uninventive sequences and bosses. By this, I mostly refer to the horrendous turret segments, a staple of the 2000s action games, that appeared not just once, but twice in the first game, breaking its horror flow by introducing a guns-blazing mini game all of a sudden.

They’re no longer in the game and in their place have come the reinvented zero gravity segments, that are not just more fun and dynamic, but more tense and in line with the rest of the game. The Zero-G in the game has been ripped straight from Dead Space 2, with free flying using the boot thrusters becoming possible, replacing the original game’s static way the gravity was handled, which relied on the magnet boots and “Superman-flying” from surface to surface.

The infamous asteroid segment from the original is reworked to be more engaging and entertaining, thanks to the Zero G. Credit: Electronic Arts

Other than these changes, the rest of the gameplay feels very faithful to the original, led by the deliberate callback to the classic UI and sound effects, with only an extra coat of paint added. The core gameplay loop is essentially the same as it was 15 years prior; dismember your way through the ship crawling with Necromorphs. Isaac’s arsenal remains unchanged, but all of the weapons are juiced up for the current generation of hardware, with added design and lovingly detailed animations (reloading the Plasma Cutter and the way the spent plasma cartridges ooze out warmth never ceases to amaze me).

The PS5 version also gives them extra weight because of the haptic feedback, while the upgrade system for the weapons and armor is likewise refreshed a bit with specialized upgrades that are hidden behind the previously mentioned locked doors. These provide the weapons with new capabilities besides the usual incremental upgrades — such as increasing the Line Gun’s laser traps from one to three lasers. The Kinesis and Stasis modules, which provide telekinesis and slow time abilities, feel more tangible as well, with another salvaged feature from Dead Space 2 making a return: the ability to tear off the Necromorphs’ sharp limbs and launch them back into them for nearly instant kills (as well as the conveniently marked poles).

Alongside the lighting, the other underlying factor that makes horror and its atmosphere what it is — and has a way of subconsciously creeping into our instinctive memory — is the audio design. The Remake’s audio remains highly sophisticated and fully commits to the idea of presenting the Ishimura as a giant mechanical beast that’s slowly dying, signaled by all the distant bumps and industrial screeches, the veritable cells to the ship’s organism. As in the original, the audio also serves to keep the players on edge by making all the thumping feel like their source isn’t the ship itself but the Necromorphs, who are crawling through the vents and other crawlways of the ship in order to ambush Isaac.

The soundtrack does its fair share of work enhancing the tension by using both traditional string instruments and industrial motifs. While the sound work is top notch, it’s undeniable that the ambiance lost a bit of the esoteric note that was present in the original, which was characterized by distant chanting and indecipherable voices that added more mystery to the setting.

The only other slightly negative aspects that still cling to the game are the bugs. Even now in 2026, the visual hiccups are present in the game, mostly related to the lighting and the shadows, but these aren’t that apparent as much as the other glitches are. I myself experienced two instances where I was completely stuck and forced to reload the most recent save. One time it was on the crates that blocked a locker containing loot, where the density of the clutter made Isaac morph to the top of one of the crates, making him completely unmovable and also messing with the camera, making it impossible to move the crate with Kinesis. The other was during the gate-opening sequence at a climactic point of the game, where one of the areas wasn’t completely loaded, therefore making the next gate completely inoperable. However, these were the only instances I encountered on my three playthroughs of the game, which makes them just drops in a sea of this otherwise perfect remake.

[embed]The Remake in action

Verdict: 10/10

Much like the series’ signature Necromorphs, Motive Studio’s Dead Space Remake is a reanimation of the decade-long dead remains of the franchise that transform into a creature that is spry of step, ready to ambush you with its surprises, tough-as-nails and just as horrific as its genre ancestors. It utilizes today’s technology to modernize every aspect of the original 2008 classic, from its look and gameplay segments to its narrative presentation, creating an experience that is as faithful and respectful to the original as it is completely fine standing on its own with its many new inclusions, improvements and details, creating one of the best remake projects of all time.

Pros

• Modernizes the core gameplay experience of the original
• Frostbite engine vastly improves the visual elements, from lighting to character models
• Isaac being voiced recontextualizes and gives much needed life to both the story and himself
• Takes the best elements of the sequels such as Zero-G and cinematic presentation
• Keeps things faithful with the new story and world additions
• The seamless exploration and details on the Ishimura

Cons

• Still has some bugs
• The mysterious occult ambiance and atmosphere is slightly toned down
• The new cast isn’t quite as potent as the original’s