Dead Space is a really solid game in many ways. It's fun as a third-person shooter, with satisfying combat mechanics, varied enemy designs, and nice-feeling controls. Its mix of bloody sci-fi action thriller with elements of psychological horror and survival horror game design is mostly a success. The visual detail, lighting, sound design, and overall layout of the areas you explore make them really immersive. Exploring the ship flows well, and does a good job rewarding you even if you go the "wrong" way. In general, it has a nice control over the ups and downs of its intensity level that keeps things moving without ever getting truly boring or tiring.

As good as the game can be at a fundamental level, it does stumble in a few areas. The middle hours of the game blend together a bit visually and fall into some overly predictable formulas in their mission design and storytelling. The kinesis and stasis powers could have made this stuff feel more varied, but they feel underdeveloped, as you'll use them for the same basic stuff at the end of the game as you did at the start. Then by the end they're just throwing more and more of the same enemies at you, often in forced "you're locked in this room until they're dead" encounters, and even this fun combat can only stay novel for so long.

The story lays the foreshadowing on a bit too thick, keeps a lot of its intrigue separate from the main action with you as an observer via FaceTime while waiting for doors to unlock, and lacks characters that I really cared about, so as a result some of its big moments fall flat. The remake gives the formerly silent protagonist a voice, a mostly-successful conversion, but not every moment translates well and he's still a bit of a bland character for me. The game is better when it leans into feelings of isolation and mystery, so I wish it would lay off the talking for longer periods of time. Overall though, it's a decently engaging story with some unexpected extra layers, and delivers some nice big memorable setpiece moments.

Some little stuff about the game still understandably feels "Xbox 360-ish", but the majority holds up well, especially once you layer on some of the little changes from this remake. It's not a Resident Evil 2-level reimagining, nor would I say it's as good as a game like that, but I would say it justifies itself as a remake / very high-effort remaster for a game that many felt didn't need updating. Worth picking up, especially once it goes on sale down in that $35-50 range.

The Dead Space series has a special place in my heart. It's such an obvious ripoff of things like Alien, Halo, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it takes those things, blends them together, and really makes something kind of interesting out of it. The emphasis on improvised weapons took what would could have just been a normal space survival horror game, and made it something with a really unique art direction. The Rig, plasma cutter, and the Marker are unmistakably Dead Space. I think the originality of the original game is exactly why this remake felt a little unimpressive to me.

To start off, this game is by no means bad. It's quite good, honesty. If you like survival horror and haven't played Dead Space (either version), you should. It could stand up with Resident Evil and Silent Hill as a pinnacle of the genre if EA weren't such psychopaths. My main problem with the remake though, it kinda just feels like a new coat of paint slapped onto a game from 2008. There was another high-profile survival horror remake that came out in 2023: Resident Evil 4 remake. Some people lamented the changes in that game, like that you don't run away from Robo-Salazar, or have the U3 fight even though that's present in the Separate Ways DLC, but I think I liked that game so much because of what they DID change. There are new enemy types, new story beats, characters get expanded on, new weapons, entirely new combat systems, and the original game came out a few years before Dead Space.

Comparatively, Dead Space 2023 really falls back on the same types of encounters that it did in the original. Any time you solve a puzzle, a horde of enemies are sure to attack. Big vents on the walls are just there so enemies can jump out from them. I'm not sure the few story beats that were changed are especially interesting, either. Though they don't hurt the game necessarily. I am a little torn on Isaac being voiced in this game, though. I love Isaac in Dead Space 2, but giving him a voice in DS1 kind of further emphasizes how ridiculous everything is. I always thought it was funny in the original how everyone depends on him to do basically everything, and he never voices concern, about the absurd weight put on his shoulders. In remake, though, he's always raring to do whatever needs to be done, except in one scene involving a nuclear bomb, which I did find very funny.

Giving Isaac a voice and face in Dead Space 2 seemed more appropriate since that story is more about Isaac, in a way that the first game isn't.

Let's move on to stuff that I did like.

I'm glad power node doors are gone, replaced by security clearance. The way the node doors worked in the old games seemed very poorly thought out. They almost always had another node in them, making the doors just a straight net gain of resources. And this way you can focus on upgrading weapons and your Rig.

Isaac now has his little jet boosters from DS2 in this. No more of that slow zero g jumping from the original.

The graphics are excellent. I was kind of stunned the first time I got inside from a space walk and found Isaac covered in frost, and then even moreso when the frost melted inside the ship, and Isaac had a nice misty sheen all over his Rig. The flesh physics on the Necromporphs are also superb. The way parts of them fall off, or when most of their flesh is gone, and they keep attacking as an animate skeleton. That stuff is very impressive.

Speaking of the Necromporphs, the enemy variety in these games was always great, and that keeps the encounters from getting boring. I never felt absolutely confident with my load out, which I think is good. The Plasma Cutter is probably the best weapon generally, but dealing with those little globby guys, it's nice to have the flame thrower or the Force Gun.

In summation: I'm very glad this franchise still has some life in it, ironic as that may seem. I really hope we can get more from it in the future and we will be made whole.