Visceral Games delivered a perfectly paced blend of action, sci-fi, and horror when it launched the game in 2008, and it’s a similarly surgical approach that justifies this year’s glossy remake. The Intensity Director says 'not so fast.' Its presence isn’t overtly advertised, but it’s always there to shake things up or disturb you in new ways if you’re ever feeling too safe.Precision is the defining characteristic of Dead Space, a meticulously constructed thrill-ride about carving up alien mutants inside the universe’s most cursed spaceship. But that means if you backtrack, you might not be worried about going into certain rooms that you’ve already cleared. While Dead Space originally relied on scripting terrifying moments for maximum scares, this Ishimura deserves to be explored to its fullest. The Intensity Director was developed to solve an interesting side-effect of the remake’s more open map. Motive has made a big deal about the new tech like this found underneath the hood, from the peeling system that gives the Necromorphs even more layers to surgically hack away, to audio tech that dynamically reacts to whether Isaac is hurt or not.īut beyond these cosmetic changes, Motive has introduced one more impressive trick to add a layer of intensity that didn’t exist previously: The Intensity Director. To be able to freely walk through this terrifying labyrinth only makes one of gaming’s greatest locations even more glorious. It can also be fully explored without any loading screens or cutscenes. The Ishimura is hands-down the least welcoming ship in any universe, and being able to see this rust-colored behemoth in even greater detail is breathtaking. The USG Ishimura where Dead Space is set is reborn, hissing, and more sinister than ever.

I definitely blocked the Necromorph babies from my memory, but here they are ready to skewer you through the head if you aren’t too careful.

While gruesome games were admittedly in their golden era during the mid-2000s (think of how popular Gears of War was back then), Dead Space really tried to outdo the competition. My time with this preview build reminded me just how gnarly Dead Space was in the first place.

Dead space review