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Dead Space Remake (2023)

Oh, wow. They're showing off a WIP version of the game on twitch in a few minutes.



Granted, it will probably be a carefully curated segment created specifically to show off to the masses, but this is still much earlier than I expected to see live gameplay.


EDIT:
My mistake, it's not live gameplay. It's some WIP screenshots of in-game environments.

At the very least, we're getting more confirmation of a visually faithful update. It'll certainly look good. The lighting is different, but IMO different in a good way.

I'm still waiting for anything regarding the sound design.


EDIT 2: oh, wow, I've been proven wrong again. They actually showed a working Isaac Clarke with a working plasma cutter, chopping a Slasher necromorph to pieces. It looks appropriately ghastly and gory, and limb damage is much more granular now.

EDIT 3: Isaac is no longer a completely silent protagonist! He'll speak, but only on occasion and only when spoken to. Honestly I hope he remains eerily silent during the Nicole scenes.
 
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I'm just happy having Gunner Wright back. Dialog sounds like it'll be around Dead Space 2 levels, which is good.

And I must say, I love how gross the Slasher looks. I hope future models add hair though, I don't think I can buy everyone on the Ishimura having gone bald just because they died.
 
Nottheunmaker said:
And I must say, I love how gross the Slasher looks. I hope future models add hair though, I don't think I can buy everyone on the Ishimura having gone bald just because they died.
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Given that the Necromorph pathogen causes people to sprout bone blades and other drastic morphological alterations I think it would be logical to assume that hair either falls out or is absorbed.
 
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Fourthspartan56 said:
Given that the Necromorph pathogen causes people to sprout bone blades and other drastic morphological alterations I think it would be logical that hair either falls out or is absorbed.
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But it's not as scary. They look less like people without their hair. I want them to look very unnerving, get into the uncanny valley as much as possible.
 
Nottheunmaker said:
But it's not as scary. They look less like people without their hair. I want them to look very unnerving, get into the uncanny valley as much as possible.
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Yeah, I also thought "The slasher looks really good, but it would look even better (worse) with a full head of human hair on top of the distended skull."
 
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Nottheunmaker said:
But it's not as scary. They look less like people without their hair. I want them to look very unnerving, get into the uncanny valley as much as possible.
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Given that I don't remember if Necromorphs had hair in Dead Space 1 and I've literally played it a day ago I can't say I agree.

Necromorphs are already horribly mutated, not having hair doesn't really change that.
 
Fourthspartan56 said:
Given that I don't remember if Necromorphs had hair in Dead Space 1 and I've literally played it a day ago I can't say I agree.

Necromorphs are already horribly mutated, not having hair doesn't really change that.
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They did. Some anyway. It was a flat texture, but Slashers and Spiters both had hair. I can't link any pictures because I'm pretty sure that level of gore is a rules violation, but just go to either wiki pages or do an image search.
 
I'm completely in love with what I've seen of the new weapon upgrading system. I love the idea of finding parts that give powerful boosts or even a special ability, and that finding those parts let's you do even more upgrading. Seems like a very fun feedback loop.

The Necromorphs also look wonderfully disgusting and seem a good level of killy/hard to kill. A basic Slasher can knock off a quarter or even half your starting health. It's all very good. I wasn't sure about the new sounds at first, but they've grown on me and fit into the environment well. And the peeling system is cool.

Seeing as like, those two things are going to be 50% of my experience with the game, and drinking in the atmosphere another 40%, I'm very confident in this game.
 
One thing that catches my attention is that, despite all the gameplay elements backported from DS2 to the remake...the helmet remains DS1 style.

That is, Isaac Clarke's helmet remains a normal helmet, rather than the very-cool-but-physically-impossible folding helmets introduced in DS2. He has to physically pull it on and off his head.

Which makes the remake's art style ever so slightly more grounded.
 
The changes I'm most interested in are what I've seen of the combat. Having necromorph health bar be how much flesh is left on their bones is great, and the changes to the weapons really make them feel special. Like normally I only pick up the flame thrower for a laugh, because setting necromorphs on fire is very cathartic, if not all that useful. But the flamewall alt fire? That would be amazing late game when they'll probably start throwing hordes at you. Proximity mine on the plus rife? Love it. Gravity well on the force gun? Sounds like the perfect pairing with the laser mine on the line gun.

I'm a little sad there doesn't seem to be any new weapons, but the changes to existing tools more then makes up for it. It all seems very smart so far, good variety.
 
A current meta-critic score of 89, mostly getting 9/10. It's being hailed has the new standard for remakes.

Yes, this has very much succeeded as a game. Now we just need to hear about sales numbers to speculate if they'll try remaking 2 and 3.
 
Nottheunmaker said:
A current meta-critic score of 89, mostly getting 9/10. It's being hailed has the new standard for remakes.

Yes, this has very much succeeded as a game. Now we just need to hear about sales numbers to speculate if they'll try remaking 2 and 3.
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I'm wondering the same, because I played Dead Space 2 recently (I tried Dead Space 1, but it bugged out a lot, so I gave up at the asteroid-shooting part), and it actually holds up really well even now.

The gameplay does, at least. I can't comment on the story, because it's always been rather silly in my opinion, so I never put much thought into it.

In any case, I don't actually know if Dead Space 2 needs a remake as such, or if it can stand on its own as a worthy sequel to this Dead Space 1 remake.
 
Dead Space is definitely one of the series that could most benefit from modern lighting / reflection techniques and smoke volumes, but in DS2's case you could make the argument that's more just a remaster rather than a full-on remake, ye

From what I remember of returning to play DS1 a while back, what I most hope for is:
- Cutting down on the tutorialized CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS ISAAC it smothers you with at the beginning. Since that's one of the more obvious / infamous things to fix it sounds safe to assume they solved that
- Could go either way on the modern third-person controls vs original resi-4 style, though it looks like they're taking the DS2 approach to zero-gee movement which probably is for the best
- They had a whole-ass map system that looked like they wanted to be a metroidvania but in the end went for a strictly linear story progression, complete with strictly linear/predictable necro spawns. That combined with their habit of blaring scare chords the moment one roared or blundered on-screen, there was very little sense of dread about what you might find around the corner, given the necros announced themselves by trumpet well in advance of them actually being a threat to you, and backtracking when you weren't expected to was like wandering around an empty stage set. Making things more dynamic and less linear would go a long way. Things like the checklist of objectives you have to run through to fix the Ishimura could definitely be made a non-linear / 'solve these things in any order' affair. I really liked the DS1 map system and it was an absolute shame you never really had to use it beyond following the plotted line.
 
I've actually been playing Dead Space 2, and it really does hold up incredibly well. Feels like it could have been released yesterday. It's a bit difficult to decide what could - or even should - be overhauled in terms of gameplay and progression.

Dead Space 1's big set piece is the Ishimura. It's a single ship that you stay on for almost the entire game, acting as a narrative closed circle. It's a singular, giant thing you're forced to get to know and be aqcuainted with over the entire game. Speaking of which:

Guessmyname said:
- They had a whole-ass map system that looked like they wanted to be a metroidvania but in the end went for a strictly linear story progression, complete with strictly linear/predictable necro spawns. That combined with their habit of blaring scare chords the moment one roared or blundered on-screen, there was very little sense of dread about what you might find around the corner, given the necros announced themselves by trumpet well in advance of them actually being a threat to you, and backtracking when you weren't expected to was like wandering around an empty stage set. Making things more dynamic and less linear would go a long way. Things like the checklist of objectives you have to run through to fix the Ishimura could definitely be made a non-linear / 'solve these things in any order' affair. I really liked the DS1 map system and it was an absolute shame you never really had to use it beyond following the plotted line.
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You'll be happy to know that they seem to have addressed this - the Remake has doubled down on the approach I mentioned, expanding what exists and giving you lots of reason to backtrack. There's a "security clearance" system by which you can get ever increasing access to locked doors, giving you motive to revisit past areas.



Returning to Dead space 2, it takes a very different approach. Rather than DS1's more intimate, meandering experience on the Ishimura, Isaac is taken a roller-coaster ride through the Sprawl. It completely eschews Dead Space 1's frankly very half-hearted approach to being a metroidvania, cuts away the fat with a plasma cutter, and goes for lean-and-mean.

There's trade-offs for this. DS2 is very good at maintaining a sense of constant forward momentum, but this comes at the expense of making its environments feel like believable place. One thing really sticks with me - when you revisit the Ishimura in DS2, you get to see the bridge controls again. On the holographic display, the Ishimura is a fully realized 3D model that you can walk around and inspect from multiple angles. The Sprawl, meanwhile is literally just a 2D image that rotates to face you. I think that's a good microcosm of the difference between the settings - the Ishimura feels more real, more believable than the Sprawl.

But this isn't a bad thing so much as part of a shift in priorities. DS2's environments are much more blatantly video game levels, but they are tightly designed in that aspect.

Which is part of what makes it difficult to imagine what a Dead Space 2 remake should be. Obviously porting in the "peeling" mechanic and improved graphics would be nice, but beyond that...DS2 was much better at being exactly what it wanted to be than DS1. DS1 had a metroidvania lurking under the skin, never quite realized, and the Remake seems to be a better realized version of that vision.


So what should a Dead Space 2 remake be like? Should it be:
  • A faithful recreation of Dead Space 2, a strictly linear adventure akin to a rollercoaster?
  • A complete reimagining that puts Isaac in a single big environment akin to the Remake's Ishimura? Something that reinterprets the Sprawl as something smaller, or limits Isaac to a smaller part of the overall city?
  • Something in between, a bit like Resident Evil 3 (both OG and the remake)? A hybrid of linear and exploration segments?

Though, since I have been replaying Dead Space 2, I think there are some areas that show clear room for improvement.
  • The Church of Unitology is probably the best area in the entire game. It's definitely the most visually striking - there's a haunting beauty to the opulant environments. Plus it actually has a tiny bit of the classic Resident Evil style backtracking, what with opening locked doors from the other side, steadily exploring and opening up a single continuous area, and repeatedly returning back to a safe room that has a shop and workbench.
    • Yet this area is front-loaded in the first third of the game. Done and dusted, just like that.
  • The writing.
    • Similar to the Church area, the Unitologist plotline is done and disposed with in the first third of the game. Diana is revealed to be a Unitologist who was manipulating Isaac, she does her big hammy villain speech...and then she's unceremonously murked by Tiedemann's gunship in the same scene.
    • Nolan Stross' character outstays his welcome IMO. His big contribution happens right at the beginning of chapter 6, after the Unitologist plotline is concluded, when he incites Isaac to destroy the Sprawl marker and directs him to the Government sector. After that he just sort of hangs around for a while until he goes crazy, takes out Ellie's eye, and needs to be put down like Old Yeller. If a DS2 remake keeps Nolan Stross, I'd appreciate his character being given more texture.
      • Imagine being Ellie and dragging Stross around for half the game, getting your eye gouged out by Stross, and then Isaac - after constantly insisting on needing Stross - casually saying he was never going to be helpful. I'd be a lot more miffed in her place than the writing presented her as.
    • The writers failed to keep straight what the Sprawl Marker was even trying to do to Isaac.
      • For most of the game, Ghost-Nicole (a product of both the Marker and Isaac's emotional issues) is pretty simple - she's trying to get Isaac killed. Which makes perfect sense as both a manifestation of Isaac's guilt, and as action from the Marker if it percieves Isaac as a threat.
      • But in the last part of the game, Ghost Nicole does a complete about-face. Instead of trying to kill Isaac, she's trying to lure him to the Marker to complete the Convergence event. This is in line with Ghost Nicole's hammy villain speech in the final boss battle about how Isaac's mind is the last piece needed to complete Convergence, but...
      • These two agendas are in conflict with each other. If Isaac is a necessary piece of the Convergence jigsaw puzzle, then trying so hard to kill him for most of the game is very confusing behaviour on part of the Marker.
    • Director Tiedemann. He's like...you could just cut his character out of the game entirely and not lose a lot.
  • Drop the fixation on babies and children, maybe? There's a lot of that in Dead Space 2, to the point I wonder if someone on the creative team was working out their issues.
...hmmm. After writing all that out, I'd say a "best" Dead Space 2 remake would be:
  • Make it a linear-ish adventure, with a bunch of small-to-medium self-contained areas that you unlock over time, and which have a steadily escalating enemy encounter design. Kind of like the Hospital section in RE3make. Or like DS2's Church section but better.
  • Touch up the writing.
But really, the game most crying out for a remake is Dead Space 3. That's the one that really has a potentially good game buried under the surface of utterly horrible writing and questionable design decisions.
 
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Oh, also - it's interesting that in Dead Space the intelligence behind the Red Marker was actively trying to stop the Necromorphs. Isaac was trying to get the Marker back to its plinth ("Make Us Whole") because it was the way to contain* the outbreak. And the research logs in NG+ said as much, with the plinth being designed to amplify this effect. That's another reason the game was called "Dead Space," because the Red Marker created a "Dead Space Field" around that suppressed the Necromorphs (not that this came up in gameplay when you're transporting the Marker to its plinth).

While in DS2 onwards, the Markers are much more...malevolent, for lack of a better word, acively seeking to perpetuate the necromorph infestation.

I suppose you can square that circle by saying that the Red Marker was simply different from the others on account of being man-made. Though, given the same goes for the Sprawl Marker, it's amusing to think that Tiedemann's researchers and the Earthgov of Year 2511 fucked up way worse than their counterparts in the 2200s.

I do wonder if/how the Remake addresses that.
 
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This is EA's occasional and very annoying reminder that they can, in fact, do a good game when they feel like it. I am unsure whether an overhaul like this is warranted for DS2, but I'm looking forward to seeing what this has in store.
 
Honestly I wish it were possible to skip remaking 2 in favor of giving 3 a redo.
 
Isn't the only reason why they remade this game over remastering it that they just straight up couldn't remaster it for technical reasons? With the strongly positive response to this remake pretty much anything is possible (it seems fair to guess that we will see a repeat of the original Dead Space's success, which was a big franchise for a while there) and from a publisher perspective it may seem like just a remaster as a follow up isn't 'good' enough, but as I understand it they only remade this game because it was easier to build it from the ground up lol
 
Still in chapter 1 but I'm enjoying the game so far. I like how Isaac starts swearing when I'm completely out of ammo - he's just as panicked as me when a Necromorph is rushing my way :p

As an aside Hard mode is, well, hard. I'm curious what reward you get from the Impossible difficulty; a special suit and weapon, but you have to survive the entire game on a single life.
 
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