'Dead Space (2023)' Review

Made whole

Through an incisive balance of retaining what roared and retooling what lacked, 2023's remake of 2008's survival-horror icon Dead Space does more than simply refresh faithfuls and onboard newbies - it realizes the experience Dead Space was always meant to be. The broadest and bloodiest strokes remain: Isaac Clarke and co. board a troubled 'planet cracker' mining vessel to find themselves overwhelmed by gangly-limbed living dead - as always, it is the limbs we must cut off! - but a total script revision not only gives our intrepid engineer a voice and endearing 'shouldn't-do-but-still-will' character, but the entire narrative a much more natural flow, with additional bolstering to the human element of the world building both center-stage and in new optional side content. The core dismemberment loop is as morbidly addictive as ever, now elevated by the detail afforded by the ninth generation - blasts from the Force Gun literally blast flesh from muscle, then muscle from bone; shots from the faithful Plasma Cutter whittle limbs down to the bone; all nicely grotesque touches which double as a tell for how close that ornery corpse is to falling to pieces. Special praise goes to the game's rendering of light and shadow, creating some of the most authentically-asphyxiating darkness out of any game in its genre - and devilishly forcing the player to be the one to cut the lights. Has Dead Space been elevated to high art? Perhaps not, but it delivers classic gameplay-driven survival-horror with immaculate modern aplomb. To a point, however, it almost feels uncomfortable to praise. After all, this reimagining comes almost an exact decade after the franchise's publisher notoriously gutted it and its developer on the altar of the shooter-stuffed mainstream palate, only to now deliver what fans have wanted all along. A bittersweet victory; one only hopes that, should this new path continue further, the series finds itself under kinder starlight.