For those that know, Dead Space needs no introduction. One of the most beloved games from the Xbox 360 era of gaming and one of the all-time great sci-fi horror games ever created. With EA and Motive presenting a build-from-the-ground-up remake in 2023, how does it stack up to the 2009 original? And is Dead Space worthy of the remake treatment?

Well, for those that know, the answer to that last bit is a resounding yes. And as far as remakes go, Dead Space is one of the best. If not, the best. Faithfull with several subtle and welcome changes, and one of the most visually impressive games we've seen to date.

Still terrifying, still immersive, and still Dead Space. A snippet.

As seen with Capcom’s impressive Resident Evil 2 reimagining, increased visual fidelity, dynamic lighting, improved shadow effects, higher quality environments, characters, and even crisper and more vibrant soundtracks, is the outcome.

For Dead Space, reviewed on PC, this means adopting ray-traced ambient occlusion and some of the most impressive lighting and volumetric fog effects we’ve seen in a game. Remake or not, Dead Space is a visual tour de force. On the highest ultra-quality settings, it needs something as powerful as the GeForce RTX 4080 with DLSS rendering enabled to deliver what it does; a seemingly endless stream of stunning, beautiful, and unnerving backdrops.

Thankfully the underlying game mechanics, design, and story still resonate to the point where we wouldn’t be remiss to call Dead Space’s action and level design timeless.

Our Full Dead Space Remake Review