My mistake here was treating the new Dead Space like more of a sequel, reboot, or reimagining than a mostly faithful remake. I had preconceived ideas and expectations going in, and even though the remake met them all, it still kept me from enjoying it for what it was I could only see it in relation to the original. My replay plan backfired as I found myself competing with biases while trying to maintain a clear judgment. On the other hand, I knew I had robbed myself of fully enjoying all aspects of the game by experiencing a nearly identical product right before it. All of the small changes to the original, from visuals to tonal shifts, were outstanding. On one hand, I knew Dead Space (2023) was exceptional. Having full control of the situation early on takes away from that opening tension.īy the time I reached the credits, I felt torn. Isaac isn’t meant to be in control that way, at least not initially. In the early hours, when I was supposed to be fumbling my aim to target vulnerable limbs, I instead was able to predict every enemy’s move and expertly sever their weak points. I began the remake intimately familiar with all of Isaac Clarke’s strengths and weaknesses. By replaying the first, I not only refreshed my memory on where every scare happens, but also became too comfortable with its systems from the jump. What I regret most is that I robbed myself of what the new version of Dead Space sets out to do: create newfound fear and tension. “Wait, is this the part where you see the guy bashing his head against the wall? Yup, there it is!” or “Oh, here comes that moment! Unless they take it out … they wouldn’t do that, right?” Or worse, I was waiting for moments that I didn’t recognize.

As I stalked (or rather was stalked) through the halls of the USG Ishimura, I constantly found myself looking for moments I recognized. Within the first few hours of playing the remake, I began to realize my mistake. We were all well aware that this was going to be on the more faithful side of the remake spectrum, as opposed to something like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, with the core experience staying largely untouched. There are a few annoyances and moments where it shows its age in terms of design and technical limitations, but they are quite few and far between. The 2008 version of Dead Space is still a rock-solid game.

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