Dead Space

Dead Space needs no introduction. This remake upgrades and expands the original game while cutting absolutely nothing, and instead focusing on making the original gameplay more refined. All of the original locations Isaac Clarke visits in the original are here, except now, you have some side objectives you can pursue, and the biggest one, is the game is non-linear in the sense that, you can backtrack to any section of the USG ISHIMURA at any time at your leisure to scavenge new items. Also, completing certain sidequests will upgrade Isaac's rig, like making his Kinesis better. Power Node doors no longer exist. Instead, you have a Security Clearance level that upgrades through the course of the story. On top of that, there are 7 rigs you can find that will build Master Clearance which lets you unlock any door in the ship. The old power node doors from the original are now locked with Security Clearance, meaning, you can back track late in the game to acquire much needed late game supplies for simply completing a sidequest rather than spending power nodes which are your upgrade currency. Zero-G has been completely remade to be in the style of DS 2 and 3. Instead of pointing at the ceiling or wall and flying to it, you take off or land, can rotate in 360 degrees, and freely float around with the help of your rig. This one change alone makes half of the original game far less cumbersome to play through. I love the original Dead Space but the Zero-G sections weren't there yet in the original, and they are quite clunky to get acclimated to when going back and replaying it. Another change is all of the Tools Isaac uses are no longer just bought from the store every other chapter. Instead, they are organically placed and he stumbles upon them for free. To balance this, credits are far far more crunched in this version than the original. Enemies constantly drop only a couple hundred credits, until the very last chapters of the game, so budgeting and saving money is actually important compared to the original. The weapons also have more upgrades, seemingly utilizing some upgrades or ideas from Dead Space 2. Some weapons have had their alternate fire modes changed. The Pulse Rifle in the original had an AoE sweep attack that, really was unweildly, and did not do much. This instead has been swapped for basically the granade it has from DS 2. The difficulty levels of the original are all here. Hard never felt that decently challenging on the original game, Hard is a much more standard Survival Horror style difficulty where the ammo drops will need to be prioritized. Just like the originals, enemies only drop ammo for weapons you currently have in your inventory. Unlike the original, they seem to prioritize dropping credits far more in this version than the original, so even just keeping one weapon for the entire game will make your playthrough more tough as you will have to spend credits on ammo at some point or face not having any. The atmosphere and sound design are just directly upgraded. Remakes are a chore and beaten into the ground medium, but for a series like Dead Space, that EA gutted, this was an amazing return to form that did nothing but enhance the original game design. Apparently, EA Motive were in the planning stages of a DEAD SPACE 2, that was going to be a direct sequel to this remake, rather than just a straight remake of DS 2, and i believe that was a massive fumble on EA to not pursue it. This was the very thing needed to revive the series and it seems, at least right now, it'll remain the last Dead Space game again. The original Dead Space is absolutely still worth your time, and is not replaced by this remake, however, this remake really highlights how taking an original game design idea and giving it more polish can greatly benefit the original idea of the core gameplay experience. I highly suggest still playing the original first, then playing this one later, but if you've never played Dead Space, this isn't really a bad way to start the series. The deluxe version of this game also goes on sale for just 6.99 throughout the year, so it's not expensive either. I'm still hoping one day, Glenn Schofield can make Dead Space 4, but for now, this was an amazing return to form for one of the best Survival Horror game series ever made.