How am I supposed to immerse myself in a horror game that stutters every 3 seconds, even on the newest hardware available?

Dead Space Remake: An amazing retelling of a Sci-Fi classic I loved from yesteryear!

It comes to no surprise that when Dead Space Remake was first announced I just had to get it! This game was one of the first that genuinely instilled a feeling of dread back in 2008 when I played it on my Xbox 360 aside from Fatal Frame.

I was quite the coward back then and even now, loud startling noises would make me jump out of my skin and being cornered in the dark is one of my biggest nightmares! So obviously I had to play Dead Space Remake which promised enhanced sound design, more realistic environments and just an overall improvement to how your journey as Isaac Clarke through the darkened halls of the Ishimura (a planet cracker spaceship that you were sent to fix) would go.

And after completing the game on Hard mode I can safely say for certain that this game definitely lived up to its 2008 predecessor! From the iconic opening scene when your crew first enters the Ishimura, to just running straight to a corner after turning off the lights, Dead Space Remake still manages to scare the living heck outta me even though I knew exactly what was going to happen!

The atmosphere was further elevated as I used a decent pair of headphones and an AMP/DAC and managed to capture the ambient noises that plagued the Ishimura. From the steady hum of machinery to the groaning of its hull, the ship quite frankly came to life and frightened me occasionally when things were quiet and the ship suddenly decides to make a huge CLANK CLONK noise outta nowhere.

Story-wise it plays out relatively similar to the 2008 original, albiet with a bit more backstory and side questing involving Nicole (Isaac's love interest) and some of the folks on the Ishimura.

While none of it feels consequential to the overall plot of the game, its good to have some further knowledge about the characters that help cement their presence and significance in the world better. This for me is very much an improvement over the original as the I personally connected more with the characters (especially Nicole) and made me understand better as to why Isaac would go through hell and back just to save her.

On the gameplay side of things, it retains the 2008 template and builds up from it by adding small additional details such as the ability to backtrack through explored areas, additional upgrades for your weapons and an entirely new objective to do! The zero-G segments are still as mind-blowing as ever and pinning Necromorphs on walls or blasting their limbs off is as satisfying to do now as it was back then.

All that being said however, I did encounter some frame drops during cutscenes, while they were short and did not ruin the overall viewing experience, it is worth mentioning regardless and I hope its an isolated problem for me because this game is fun and an experience you will definitely need to go through at least once.

Do take note that we might not even get a Sequel Remake to the game due to not so great sales. (if I remember correctly) So if you are thinking of taking on the entire Dead Space franchise, I would recommend to just play the original and its two other sequels instead of this one. The difference in quality moving from Dead Space Remake to Dead Space 2 might put you off and dampen the overall experience. (spoiler alert tho, Dead Space 2 is amazing as well!)

Get Dead Space Remake at 50% off for best value! 8/10! would have my heart skip a beat again!

I'm actually a little surprised, this is one of my favourite horror games, but this remake just feels sterile and soulless. FWIW I did not have any performance issues.

The game starts out quite nicely and gives a good sense of atmosphere, but the repetitiveness of the combat, visiting the same zones back and forth as areas are locked behind security clearances just feels so contrived and artificial; there is an ongoing emergency, a certain person has the ability to control clearance levels. Why not go all the way, what is the actual point of waiting.

Same thing for some subzones, some areas are only opened up after a story event occurs, "oh great yet another emergency has popped up, very well I will open up this door in a zone you've visited several times already". Locking areas away like this would normally be fine, it's just repeated so many times that it starts to stand out.

The storytelling is good where there's some voice acting, it's weak with the audio logs and text logs, like a copout.

It's a bit sad because I did really like playing through, but the boredom set in very quickly. No, can't recommend this. It's just dull.