How the Dead Space remake became prettier to become scarier

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How the Dead Space remake became prettier to become scarierBack on the Ishimura with fresh eyes

Back on the Ishimura with fresh eyes

Image credit:EA

Isaac injects a Wheezer necromorph with a fatal enzyme in the Dead Space remake.

Dead Space’s remake treatment has produced a piece of gory greatness, someSteam Deck wobblesnotwithstanding. Vid bud Liam touched on the visual upgrades in hisreview, but since it’s been shaking my bones even harder than the original did, I wanted to dive even deeper into the mottled flesh of the modernised Dead Space to examine how all those new polygons and effects aren’t just there to please nerds. They do, in fact, make the remake scarier.

Dead Space PC Review - An Excellent Remake Of A Horror ClassicThis is the Dead Space you remember but with a brilliant new sheen, luxuriously improved in small but considered ways. Comfortably familiar, but excellent nonetheless.Watch on YouTube

Dead Space PC Review - An Excellent Remake Of A Horror Classic

Cover image for YouTube video

And what better way to conduct this investigation than with a before-and-after comparison with 2008’sDead Space, which I’m presenting in the distant hope that everyone who’s interested in such a thing won’t have already watched three of them on YouTube?

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A dead Slasher necromorph lies on the ground in the Dead Space remake.

A dead Slasher necromorph lies on the ground in Dead Space.

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Also, yes this is a graphics comparison, but the remake’s new ‘morph screams are miles more unsettling than the original’s purely bestial growls. There’s a lot more human in them, serving both to overtly remind you that there’s a corrupted person (or several) in there, and to present some nasty implications as to just how dead the host bodies really are.

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The Ishimura’s med bay enters lockdown in the Dead Space remake.

The Ishimura’s med bay enters lockdown in Dead Space.

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With the body horror quota more than filled, it’s the Ishimura that delivers the quieter brand of spookiness. To the original’s credit, its presentation of a spacebound,late stage capitalist hellholestill stands up today – but the remake makes excellent use of modern lighting and effects to really up the sense that this mechanical leviathan wants you dead as much as the necromorphs do. See the above: I love (or, given the circumstances, hate) the more urgent red lighting and ghostly steam added to the medical deck, the site of a particularly stressy chapter about halfway in. Isaac is no longger inexplicably lit brighter than his surroundings, too.

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Isaac enters a forebodingly long, seeming empty hallway in the Dead Space remake.

Isaac enters a forebodingly long, seeming empty hallway in Dead Space.

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Isaac approaches a spooky-looking vent in the Dead Space remake.

Isaac approaches a spooky-looking vent in Dead Space.

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It’s not like the darkness is used to hide half-arsed textures and modelling work, either. The remake’s Ishimura is more densely detailed than ever, right down to (what I can assume are ironic) hazard markings on the vent covers that your foes are so keen on bursting through.

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A Lurker necromorph kills an unfortunate scientist in the Dead Space remake.

A Lurker necromorph kills an unfortunate scientist in Dead Space.

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Also, when I said the Ishimura still stands up, that’s mainly in the atmospheric sense. If you canget the original Dead Space runningtoday, you will see some advanced graphical ageing in places. Like these sickly green (and, again, oddly bright) specimen tanks, which make for more subtle scene dressing in the 2023 version. Yeah, sorry mate, I’ll help you in a sec. Just admiring the tanks.

The Dead Space remake has a lot more going for it besides: the combat is weightier, the characters are more nuanced and developed, and you spend far less of what time Isaac has left waiting around for trams to arrive. It’s just extra-impressive that it’s all presented with as much of an eye for effective horror as it is for simple GPU-straining shininess. Fantastic stuff.

Then again,thisnever happens in the remake, so clearly the original is better: