![]() ![]() It is easier to pay attention to how someone speaks than how they move, so much of the original’s delicious subtleties come from Isaac’s silence. As Edwin Evans-Thirlwell points out and powerfully expands upon in his excellent review, the remake puts Isaac’s voice ahead of his body. In the original game, he is eerily silent, always being ordered to endanger himself and never piping up in protest. The remake’s most notable change is giving a voice to protagonist Isaac Clarke. The flamethrower chars their bodies, turning them the color of ash, but their eyes still glow in the dark. Blasting weapons like the Force Gun slough off flesh like batter into a pan, leaving a thin skeleton whose claws still stretch to embrace you. The remake adds some particular terrors to the combat. Even on “medium” difficulty my wits and nerves were sometimes tested. While there are some battles that will end with frightful ease, just as many are flailing and desperate. Different necromorphs must be dispatched differently, and groups of varied enemies can offer a devilish challenge. When music mounts, Isaac is under threat, but what kind of threat and where it will emerge from is still unknown. The constant music stings sometimes feel cheap, but they also act as a fog over what will happen next. However, Dead Space, both in memory and in this recent reincarnation, is quite good at keeping you on your toes. It can feel ridiculous when a massive music sting hits for a single enemy that you will dispatch in two shots. Furthermore, the game treats every appearance of every necromorph as the height of terror. ![]() But they are just kinda goofy, aren’t they? The necro-babies in particular, obviously the product of a (sometimes) toothless edginess, are some of the silliest enemies in horror games. The game’s baseline of horror is based on a “normal” body twisted beyond recognition. Every enemy in Dead Space is effectively a space zombie, a mass of re-arranged parasitic flesh. The necromorphs themselves are perhaps the most dramatic example of these peaks and valleys. Nevertheless, I was driven to uncontrollable laughter when a voice whispered “self-inflicted ocular injury” with the tone of an IMDB parent’s guide. It’s the hush that covers over you in a graveyard, the sense of unfamiliar mourning. These voices are quiet, but still plaintive and desperate. One of my favorite details is the constant whispering, which sometimes sounds like it’s coming over the announcement speakers, and sometimes seems like it’s a voice from nowhere-a distant prayer broadcast over an unfamiliar signal. Sound is muffled, but almost absent and it makes enemies harder to track and violence disturbing in its intimate quiet. Every space sequence in Dead Space is bracing and thrilling. The sound design too is oft-praised, even influential as noted in this retrospective from Lewis Gordan, and its virtues are still present here. It makes checking for health and ammo counts easy and undistracting. Forcing a constant gaze at Isaac’s cowering body underscores the skeleton of his armor, reinforcing the ways his body appears like those he fights. In contrast, the game’s inobtrusive AI is as enveloping as ever. Seeing “CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS” written in blood above the game’s first weapon is as clumsy and ill-fitting as it was originally. The game’s corny and relentless use of graffiti is still present, for example. In some sense, both versions of Dead Space occupy highs and lows. The Dead Space remake is not as thorough a reimagining as Final Fantasy VII Remake, but it’s closer to that than one might think. Most of the more technical changes might remain unnoticed if you haven’t played the original recently. The remake’s biggest changes are in narrative details. The general thrust of the art direction is largely the same. ![]() This year’s ground-up remake reimagines or reworks plenty about the original, but constantly postures at devotion. Though much has changed since Dead Space released in 2008, the tools of terror haven’t really. In its best moments, playing Dead Space feels like wandering through a massive body, determined to break you down and devour you. Its imposing industry and claustrophobic hallways twist through shifting light, hiding unknownable metal and flesh. Though the game is a clear hodge podge of influences- Event Horizon, Alien, and Resident Evil 4 at the forefront-the sci-fi horror classic manages a breathless evocation that is hard to pinpoint, but decidedly more than the sum of its parts. ![]()
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