DEAD MAN WALKING

The DEAD SPACE remake is a promising portent for the series' future

- Sean Martin

Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?” a dying woman sings over the elevator speakers as I climb through the decks of the doomed ship Ishimura. I’m not a big fan of that whole nursery rhyme horror cliché, but it fits for Dead Space. This was never a series about exploring the wonders of the universe or of space as a wild frontier where the worst evil we can imagine is corporate greed dominating the stars.

No, this is a game about how space is downright scary; an abyss into which we gaze and see our nightmares reflected right back. It’s hard to marvel at the universe with a Necromorph’s blades in your gut. Necromorph is a fancy space word for zombie, by the way, and you’ll come to know them intimately in Dead Space, as they jump-scare you every few minutes for the next ten or so hours. If there’s one thing I’m glad this remake didn’t change, it’s the Necromorph jumping-out-of-vent scream that almost sounds as if they’re as surprised as you are. It’s good to be back on the Ishimura, even if this is a remake instead of a fourth game.

It’s a fact made all the more frustrating by how much this remake feels like a brand-new Dead Space. Sure, it’s got the same bleak atmosphere, overarching narrative and the same ol’ Necromorphs, but it could be the foundation for Dead Space moving forward; proof that this survival horror formula is as strong now as it was when the original launched in 2008. And I think a big part of this remake’s strength is down to the fact that it builds on what was already there, rather than trying to make something brand-new.