Within the expanse of humanity's reach into space, the repair vessel, the Kellion, responds to a distress call sent by the USG Ishimura. The Ishimura is a massive mining starship in orbit above the planet Aegis VII, and the distress call was the last communication with anyone on board. Among the Kellion's sparse crew is Isaac Clarke, an engineer.
As Clarke and the Kellion crew board the derelict malfunctioning ship, they are attacked by transformed mutated members of the crew, known as Necromorphs. The Kellion is destroyed, and Clarke and a few other members of the Kellion begin to explore and repair the Ishimura in order to escape and find out what happened to the crew. Isaac dons his heavy duty repair suit with iconic welding helmet, an overall staple of the Dead Space series.
Dead Space is a survival horror game with heavy inspirations from Resident Evil 4 and Event Horizon. Originally released in 2008, Dead Space become one of the genres best examples of survival horror done right, but eventually the series fizzled out as it became more action oriented, which was reason enough for Electronic Arts to shut down the developer's studio.
Thankfully, EA Motive, the developers of this 2023 remake, insisted that this new game stick closely to its 2008 original, which I consider the best in the series.
Dead Space was unique upon release as one of its strict design ideas was using absolutely no HUD. All ammo, health, and menus are displayed within the universe of the characters, as if the character themselves are looking at and using those displays. All button prompts appear on the objects in the environment. If a menu appears, it comes from Isaac's computer Rig on his wrist, and he looks at it when you select menu items.
Although, the true crown of Dead Space's immersion is the Audio. The Ishimura is a very dense, heavy, mining vessel. All the different areas have their thick heavy machines, and these machines are all distinct and loud. Often when you enter a new area, you become completely overwhelmed by the sounds of the machinery.
One of my favorite areas in the original was Engineering. As you kickstarted the engines, the overall sound was so loud you couldn't hear any enemies or footsteps or menu movements. It was a constant blast of sound until you exited the room. This area still exists in the remake, but they moved it into a corridor instead of the overall room.
Isaac is really just a repairman, and all of your weapons futuristic versions of welders, strippers, nail guns, and such. All of these guns have very powerful and electrical cracks and bursts that you may hear at a futuristic construction site. All these sounds feel like they split your ears as you rip apart the space zombies. With your heavy, 200lbs armored suit, you can also stomp them into the ground with a satisfying crunch.
Everything in the environment and everything you do comes with a heavy mechanical organic weight to it. It's criminal if you don't play this game with headphones turned up to 11.
In fact, one of the most impactful and immersive sequences is the first time you open a door, and all of the air and sound get blasted into space from a violent hull breach. Your suit's boots are magnetized so space walking is no problem, but the first time you get thrust into space feels like going over the top of a rollercoaster. It feels like part of your own breath was sucked into space, too.
As you continue to explore and repair the Ishimura, you move into new areas of the ship with new monsters. Often you'll reach a place of relatively quiet, only for a monster to SCREAM at you as it burst out of the ceiling or a nearby wall. This happens pretty often. As the game's sound fully immerses you in the environment, it tends to employ startling scare tactics.
You get pretty powerful later on in the game, so when a standard zombie pops out of the wall, you can quick shoot it or bash it into the ground. Even when a bunch of zombies come at you at once, you can usually take them all at once with your arsenal. So, many of these sequences turn into a corner of a haunted house. Boo!
But, the first time you fight a Brute can make you feel powerless. A brute is a gigantic zombie about the size of a car. When it comes rushing towards me and my gunfire has absolutely no effect, my next instinct is to run! But then the heavy suit makes it feel like you're trying to run in water, and its huge stomping lumbering movements are right on your heels.
There are some genuine fearful movements as you try to evade death, but ultimately, you can overcome these moments by trying again after you die. Later on, you learn about the best ways of killing things by fighting the zombies over and over again.
People generally define retro games as anything made over 10 years ago. This was an easy statement to make in the PS3/360 era of gaming, as each new console had some genuine easy-to-see graphical and design improvements over the previous generation. For example, Super Mario World and Super Mario Sunshine were 11 years apart, and the difference between those games of the same series is absolutely massive. The jump from 2D to 3D was huge, but so is the idea of having to explore the world to find levels, having a more involved story with characters having motivations, and talking with characters to find more things.
The time difference between the original Dead Space and this remake is 15 years, and the overall game hasn't really changed at all. The graphics have been modernized, and load times reduced because of current generation hardware. A few quality of life features added for smoother gameplay. Isaac talks now and involves himself in the story, too. But it's still the exact same game that I remember from the Playstation 3.
Are games from the PS3/360 era really retro if their game design still fits within the modern era of game design?
Maybe some people consider games retro if they center on a single player experience. Most modern games today have some kind of social element, so you can share the experience with friends. Or they include some kind of open world experience, so it can feel like the game is endless and you can play for hours and hours.
Dead Space is a pretty tight 12 hour game, and adding any of those modern engagement traps would ruin the experience. But, at the same time, once you finish the game (and finish it a second time), you're pretty much done with it.
After the original Dead Space, the studio became known as Visceral Games and made Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3, as well as Dead Space Extraction (a light gun game), and some novels and comics. Dead Space 2 was another high for the series, but I think there was never enough lore and story to carry it to a full never-ending franchise. Dead Space 2 started the series into something more action-oriented to appeal to a general audience, and Dead Space 3 killed the franchise and the developer.
The creator of Dead Space had actually left Visceral before Dead Space 2, and recently he helmed the creation of a new game, Callisto Protocol released in 2022, which seems like an actual new Dead Space game in all but name. It's either ironic or malicious that EA came along with the Dead Space remake at the same time the original creator made a new one himself. However much of Visceral's former staff work at Motive and were key developers bringing this remake to life.
The Dead Space remake does an absolutely excellent job of sticking to the original but adding a few new things and changing others to make it even better. This remake doesn't really feel like a cash-grab. It feels like the people working on it genuinely cared about Dead Space and wanted to bring it back.
Unfortunately, it really sucks that the remake did not meet the sales EA was hoping for.
Through killing space zombies and finding some survivors, Isaac uncovers the truth of what happened on the Ishimura. Members of the crew became obsessed and possessed by the religion of Unitology, which revolves around an artifact found of Aegis VII, known as The Marker. The Marker slowly morphed the colonists of Aegis VII into the Necromorphs, which attacked and infected the crew of the Ishimura.
On the surface of Aegis VII is the Hive Mind, which controls all Necromorphs. In order to pacify and destroy it, Isaac brings the Marker back to the surface of Aegis VII. There are several other twists and turns along the way as Isaac is betrayed by his crew, and caught between the motives of Earth and the Church of Unitology.
In the end, it turns out that his love interest that he's been chasing the whole game killed herself prior to the Kellion arriving at the Ishimura. He's essentially been chasing a ghost through manipulation of the Marker and an Ishimura survivor. With nothing left, Isaac continues to kill the Hive Mind, and escape the surface as the gravity tethers holding the Ishimura are severed, which sends the ship and its moon-sized payload into the planet, eradicating all remaining life.
Finally Isaac gets to rest after a job well done.
Oh, except the Marker left its mark on Isaac. In the final moments of the game, the phantom of his girlfriend attacks him. Dead Space 2 picks up with Isaac awakening in an asylum above Saturn's moon of Titan, the doctors having extracted the remnants of the Marker from his brain.
Now there's a new, alternate ending. As Isaac runs through the Ishimura a second time, small Markers are scattered throughout the ship. Collecting all of these Markers and placing them on their alters in the Captain's quarters will unlock this ending. Now, after Isaac pacifying the Hive Mind and letting the megaton payload destroy the surface, he is no longer so solemn.
With a course set back to Earth, he mentions to the phantom of his girlfriend that he needs to build something first before they can return. Isaac has been fully corrupted and possessed by the Marker, it seems.
Motive had plans to make a Dead Space 2, but as an alternate sequel rather than a remake of the original sequel. This sequel probably could've followed this new ending, and maybe implement some of the original ideas the creators had for Dead Space 2 back in the day, rather than some mandates EA imposed on Visceral.
EA seemed keen on continuing the remake series, but plans were scrapped as sales were poor. Motive is off working on other projects.
Dead Space is dead yet again.
I'm going to check out Callisto Protocol next and see if there's any life.