izigame.me

The original Dead Space is probably my favourite game of all time.
I was really, really looking forward to this remake...
Unfortunately I have to say that the remake lost most of the appeal that the original had for me.
There are so many unnecessary changes to the plot, that sometimes even introduce big plot holes.
It even includes some references to the, in my opinion, horrible Dead Space 3 which should not exist. Characters also have stereotypical arcs of the sacrificing hero, or the mad scientist that sees the error in his ways before he dies, that they didn't have in the original. In the original, their deaths were far more disturbing and sometimes meaningless, which fits the scenario of Dead Space. The necromorphs themselves are supposed to be a credible threat, while in the remake's story, they are not.
The gameplay might look good at first but it too has actually lost a lot of depth especially later in the game, mostly due to one feature. Necromorphs no longer stagger when shot, which means you just shoot the closest necromorph until it is dead, rinse and repeat. Because the necromorphs are faster, combat is usually quite frantic and lost a lot of its surgical, strategic dismemberment aspect.
In the original game, necromorphs would stagger when shot, which introduced a strategic tradeoff between finishing off one while delaying another. Together with often unpredictable changes in the behaviour of the necromorphs (e.g. their slow, quiet approach suddenly changing into full-on charging, like a predatory animal catching its prey), this made every encounter in the original unique, frightening and replayable.
But by far the most impactful change, in my eyes, is to the necromorphs themselves.
While the Ishimura as well as most of the suits, weapons etc. have been mostly faithfully, and beautifully recreated and updated (not the USM Valor suit though, oh my god), almost all necromorphs have unfortunately been made significantly less disturbing and unique in appearance, animations, sounds and behaviour. They look somewhat like plastic, rotten and fleshy, and lack quite a few of the iconic unique body-horror features they had in the original. Remember the disgusting worms / tentacles that erupted from dismembered limbs and "lived" in the cracked-open skull of the twitchers instead of a brain? Or the hollow eyes, and blood-soaked hair of the slashers....
The visual changes are amplified by the peeling system which I think is far overdone. Especially later in the game, weapons soon make every single necromorph look like a skeleton that should not be able to walk.
The worst changes in my opinion are to the audio design... The necromorphs now mostly sound almost indistinguishable from generic zombie screams. Almost all of the easily recognizable, alien and disfunctional sounds that were in the original game are replaced. But to be fair, the original was an absolute masterclass in audio design, especially considering limited tools available at the time.
I suppose because every single employee has to be put to work on something, is why they didn't just use the audio files from the original. I would invite you to, for example, look up and compare some of the death animations between both games, especially in terms of the audio quality (E.g. Hive mind / Hunter / Brute death scenes).
I will close by giving one example that I think well summarizes the changes in the remake.
Take the introduction of the hunter necromorph in the original. When you enter the room in question for the first time, only quiet, primal and religious-sounding music starts playing... until you notice two tanks filled with liquid, one of which contains a towering necromorph that looks far stronger and more dangerous than any of the slasher necromorphs you have encountered. It is clearly alive, but its head faces downwards, so you can't see if it's aware of your presence or not. It seems to sleep, but who knows... Then, as a little special, there is a power node right between the two tanks. You don't know if you will be able to visit that room again, so you are forced to walk right next to that unknown necromorph to get it, and the only thing separating you from it is thin glass. To this day this still instills fear in me, even though I know nothing happens. When you perform the task in the room, Mercer, a bearded scientist, locks all doors and starts talking to you through a window opposite to the tank, so you can't look at both the tank and him at the same time. It becomes clear that he is hostile and probably has created that necromorph but still, nothing happens. Mercer then speaks of the necromorphs as the "children that will replace us", and, when he is done talking, finally awakens the necromorph, which slowly makes eye contact and then jumps through the glass, slightly flooding the room. Did I mention that you have no chance at defeating that necromorph, as it can regenerate all of its limbs, and later continues hunting you through the corridors of the Ishimura?
Even more, the hunter's behaviour (in the orginal!) suggests it is aware of its immortality and superiority over the player as, e.g., it never charges like the slashers, but rather always follows you in direct and quite recognizable, audibly heavy steps. It sometimes even visibly, and audibly sharpens its blades, or taunts and terrorizes by, for example, following loudly in vents right above you. It also has one of the most brutal death scenes, which knowing it, makes you want to avoid it even more. At the essence of this scene, and that necromorph, lie twisted depictions of the ideas of childbirth, creation, (hostile) evolution beyond human boundaries, immortality and playing god...
In the remake, the tanks are made out of glass that you basically can't see through, there is no particular music, no power node, no liquid, but a cutscene in which Mercer monologues while being perfectly capable of killing you. Even when the hunter itself breaks the glass, it roars first while standing right behind Isaac, instead of attacking...
Mercer was terrifying in the original game! He tried crushing you with doors, suffocating you by turning off life support, tied up and "sacrificed" people, and even drilled into alive Harris' brain while saying that his patient is "calm"...! Note how in the original, Mercer tried to kill Isaac from the beginning, but just simply had no opportunity to directly do so in that scene, unlike in the remake. Therefore, he tried to increase his chances by mentally destabilizing Isaac before awakening the hunter.
All of this should not have come to me as a surprise, as the remake was developed by EA with a clear objective of reaching a large target audience, which they have successfully done I suppose.
The 2008 game was from a time where games were more niche and original, and was led by Glen Schofield, an artist. And the artistic side was ever so present in the original, but goes unnoticed or underappreciated by many, like, I suppose, the devs of the remake. As far as I know, they didn't even consult once with Glen to get a better understanding of what Dead Space is about.
This remake in itself is not an entirely bad game, even in my eyes.
If it didn't carry the likeness of Dead Space, I would probably somewhat like and recommend it.
But as a remake of the original Dead Space, it is, to me, a basically unplayable disappointment.
Back in the day, everyone was on the same page when it came to Dead Space. Now, I feel alienated by this new community which identifies with the name "Dead Space"...