The original Dead Space is a horror classic. Though inspired by Resident Evil and the film Event Horizon, Dead Space delivered something unique: satisfying action and novel gameplay twists that were accentuated by grotesque body horror and jolting frights. The $59.99 Dead Space remake, developed by Motive and published by Electronic Arts, delivers a relatively faithful reimagining of the 2008 original. Showcasing impressive new lighting, excellent visual enhancements, and surprising gameplay improvements, 2023’s Dead Space is an excellent shooter to add to your PC game collection. There are a few notable changes that deviate from the original, but nothing detracts from the experience. In short, Dead Space is good, gory fun.
More Than a Fresh Coat of Paint
You play as Isaac Clarke, a spacecraft engineer en route to the USG Ishimura. Your mission is to repair a communications malfunction and spend some time with Nicole, Clarke's girlfriend, who works as a medic. Things quickly go south, which results in Isaac and his team finding themselves stranded on the Ishimura with a host of murderous mutants. Now you have a new mission: navigate the ruined spaceship's labyrinthine halls, gun down monsters, search for your girlfriend, and unravel the mysteries surrounding the mutant outbreak.
The Dead Space remake (simply referred to as Dead Space for the rest of this review) closely follows the original game’s story. The biggest difference, however, is how the story is presented. Originally, Isaac was a silent protagonist, so his team and Ishimura survivors delivered the narrative via conversations or radio transmissions. This time around, Isaac Clarke is a fully voiced character, and the dialogue was rewritten to incorporate his speech into the story. Isaac isn’t too chatty, thankfully, but his input does feel a little odd, especially if the events of the original game are still fresh in your mind. It's not bad, per se, as Isaac has a proper voice and dialogue in Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3.
The cast receives a stylistic overhaul, too, so everyone looks distinctly different from the original game. Isaac’s round face and expressive eyes have been replaced with a realistic model that closely resembles his voice actor, Gunner Wright. The same is true of Isaac’s girlfriend, Nicole, who looks notably aged compared with the 2008 original. This isn’t too bad, conceptually, except that the characters aren’t particularly expressive. Because Isaac never spoke, you rarely got to see his face in the original game. Now, you frequently see it, but his character model doesn’t emote in a way that matches his voice—it's fairly wooden and nonplussed.
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New Ways to Maim Mutants
Like the original game, the frights come from the twisted body horror and wanton viscera you encounter as you explore the USG Ishimura. Monsters constantly lunge at you from vents, and musical stingers accent every surprise encounter to the point where it all quickly becomes mundane. That’s not a ding against the game, mind you—it's just worth noting that Dead Space is more of an action game than it is a horror game.
So how do you kill something that is already dead? Dead Space’s solution to this conundrum is to stop it from moving. Dismemberment is a critical gameplay mechanic, and part of the reason why the original game is so memorable. The core gameplay systems revolve around butchering enemies and controlling movement to manage incoming threats. Spraying and praying doesn’t really get you very far, as it wastes precious ammo and doesn’t necessarily stop your target. Headshots don’t do much, either, since your enemy (the aptly named Necromorph) is already dead. Calculated limb shots are the best ways to handle them. Blow out a leg, take off an arm, and there's a good chance that Necromorph is down for the count.
Dead Space introduces even more gore and visceral carnage with a new graphical peeling system. As you damage foes, their flesh and organs are stripped from the bone, giving you a grotesque, yet clever visual indicator of how much damage you’ve done. If you can see the bone, the odds are good that the next shot should clip straight through it. It's a simple visual flourish, but it looks fantastic.
As a ship engineer, Isaac is equipped with traditional and highly unorthodox weapons. For example, the first weapon you get is the iconic Plasma Cutter, a mining tool meant to unearth rocks and minerals. Three guided lasers help line up your shots, and the alignment can be rotated by 90 degrees for vertical or horizontal cutting. Naturally, this makes it a fantastic tool for monster-maiming, and the weapon can carry you through the entire game if you so choose.
Dead Space's Weapons
Of course, you get other unique space-age and military tech, too. The weapons have been overhauled with either passive perks or entirely new features not seen in the first game. The Pulse Rifle, for example, originally had a curious 360-degree, alternative-fire mode that chewed through anything surrounding you, but it chewed through your ammo, too. Unfortunately, this firing mode was only useful when playing on the easy or normal difficulties; this ability was woefully underpowered on higher difficulties. Dead Space changes the alt-fire to a mine grenade. For the cost of 25 rounds, you can plant a mine on a surface or enemy to deal massive damage. This breathes new life into the weapon. I found myself swapping to the Pulse Rifle simply because those mine grenades were a fantastic supplement to my other attacks. Other examples include the Flamethrower (its alt-fire now drops a firewall that separates and corrals enemies) and Disc Ripper (its alt-fire ricochets blade saws against walls and surfaces). You can get surprisingly creative with these weapons. As a result, Dead Space feels less like a horror game, and more like an action game with really gross enemies.
Supplementing your arsenal are the Stasis and Kinesis modules. Stasis freezes anything you target in place for a few seconds, giving you ample time to line up shots (or give yourself breathing room). It's costly, requiring Stasis energy that you can only replenish at dedicated recharge stations or with consumable items. It's also a fine tool to use on tougher enemies that have hard-to-hit weak points.
Kinesis is your second module, and it lets you collect and lob objects in the environment. You can impale enemies against walls with sharp objects and poles, or use larger objects as shields. Unlike Stasis, Kinesis has limitless use, making it a superb offensive option if you need to stretch your ammo reserves.
Dead Space is still a blast, and the gameplay changes are for the better. The combination of tools, unique weapons, and alternative firing modes keeps the game fresh and engaging. Everything feels viable, which is especially good since Dead Space features a New Game + mode that lets you carry over weapons for taking down tougher Necromorph variants.
Additional Changes and Improvements
The original Dead Space had zero-gravity platforming zones that tasked you with pointing the camera toward a location and space-jumping to the destination. It worked fine, but was a relatively grounded affair. Dead Space now uses Dead Space 2’s fully controllable omnidirectional movement during these sections. You can hover and boost in any disorienting direction you choose, radically changing how these sections play and feel. In fact, some of the later set pieces feel vastly more interesting with the new horizontal and vertical movement.
The USG Ishimura is a much more interconnected location than the original game, and it gives you more exploratory freedom. To complement this, a new security clearance system has been introduced to encourage backtracking. As you progress through the story campaign, you come across lockers, storage units, and rooms sealed behind clearance locks. You gain clearance at various story points, which you use to access upgrades, healing packs, and additional ammo.
A few sections have been overhauled to include new puzzles or dynamic elements. For example, some rooms feature circuit breakers that you must tinker with to make progress. You make a conscious choice in these situations as to how to proceed, which gives you more agency. In addition, Dead Space now has side quests that you can find and undertake by exploring the Ishimura. They are optional experiences, but have some spoiler-related effects on the story.
Can Your PC Run Dead Space?
Dead Space features prominent graphical and lighting improvements, as well as overhauled gameplay systems, so its system requirements are considerably higher than the original (though nowhere near as demanding as Forspoken).
To play Dead Space, your PC needs at least an AMD Ryzen 5 2600x or Intel Core i5 8600 computer processor, AMD RX 5700 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, DirectX 12, 50GB of storage space, and the 64-bit Windows 10 operating system. For an optimal experience, Electronic Arts recommends an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i5 11600K CPU, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 GPU. Dead Space features full controller support, as well as keyboard and mouse support. Dead Space also has Steam Achievements and Steam Cloud saves. It is not currently supported on the Steam Deck.
On a desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM, Dead Space ran well at 1440p resolution. The game reached 120 frames per second during scenes without much action. During hectic action, however, the game moved at a still-smooth 80fps. It also dipped to roughly 60fps during loading sequences. Thankfully, Dead Space lets you preload the shader cache prior to the game's start, which makes the intro considerably smoother than games that don’t let you preload shaders.
Note: You need an Electronics Arts account to play Dead Space on PC.
Why You Should Game on a PC
No One Can Hear You Scream in Dead Space
If you're new to the series and like action and jump scares, you'll find Dead Space an absolutely worthy purchase. Its excellent dismemberment mechanics invite a degree of creativity that few shooters offer. In addition, the remake has just enough freshness to attract franchise fans who are curious about the graphical and gameplay changes. Dead Space has recovered from the last two mainline title's missteps, and lays the foundation for a bright future in the darkness of space.
For more PC game reviews and previews, check out PCMag's Steam Curator page. And for in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag's Pop-Off YouTube channel. Eager to see the new titles on the horizon? Visit The Best Video Games Coming Out in 2023.
The Dead Space remake is a brilliant shooter that once again delivers gruesome body horror and satisfying gunplay, but spices up the familiar elements with new weapons and frights.
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