Lost In Deadspace: A Review of the Deadspace Remake

OVERVIEW

This review is from the perspective of a gamer who is new to the “horror” genre of the video game world. I came at this game with skepticism due to my disdain for the “zombie culture” that resides in much of today’s media. However, from the… jump, I was enthralled by this adventure. It tells the story of one Isaac Clarke. A young space engineer who crashes into a stranded ship with two of his coworkers. The U.S.G Ishimura.

This is where much of the game takes place. On a nearly destroyed space vessel. The crew has been turned into zombies and you and two of your coworkers have to figure out how to get off of this godforsaken ship. Your character does all of the work and heavy lifting of course. Can’t have a side character doing main character things, now can we?

I mentioned above that I had a disdain for “zombie culture”, but that isn’t at all what this game is about. Basically the crew of the Ishimura succumbed to the cult-like teachings of unitology and then parasitic lifeforms (that came from the colonies that the ship orbits) began controlling the minds and bodies of those crew members. Your job as the main character is to perform engineering tasks throughout the ship and get out of dodge. That becomes quite the task as you constantly have to find new parts or fix something sabotaged by one of the game's main antagonists: Challus Mercer. Mercer is consumed by his religion and does everything in his power to keep you from leaving the ship. This character is an excellent antagonist because of how he only appears at the most inopportune times for Isaac, like in chapter five: Lethal Devotion, when Mercer unleashed the Hunter on Isaac.

The Hunter is another main antagonist within the game. From Chapter Five on, the Hunter stalks you throughout the ship and appears towards the end of several different chapters. Usually with a horde of weaker Necromorphs. The Hunter appears several times throughout the game because the creature is unkillable. Eventually landing on a planet, your character realizes just how mad he’s gone being in… Dead Space.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay (for the most part) is solid. The only two issues I found were the running and how inconsistent the combat was. There were times when I could easily stomp out a Necromorph’s skull, and other times when it took 8 or 9 stomps (I counted). The running mechanic wasn’t the worst I had seen in gaming, but it did feel clunky. Other than those two things, the gameplay was excellent. I felt immersed in my battles and the jump scares from random enemies in dark corridors were a nice touch. The controls are simple and effective.

Boss fights were made relatively easy due to these simple controls, however, what made the game challenging is the scarcity of in-game funds (credits). Either credits would drop en masse or ammo. Never both. Whatever credits you received had to go to Med Packs because those were few and far between. The simple mechanics made the game much more fun than initially anticipated. It is also a shorter game with only about a 12-hour gameplay length.

Overall, this game gets a solid 8/10. The replay value is high for me due to the short gameplay length, the simple controls, and the fact that it was the most fun I have had with a new-gen game in a long time. I highly recommend at least one playthrough of this game.