Dead Space originally came out in 2008. It was re-released to great fanfare earlier this year, its visuals updated for modern hardware. You might think that’s more than enough Dead Space for now, thank you very much, but we don’t always have to go so HD with these remakes. Sometimes we can go back.
Continuing in the tradition of everything from Elden Ring to Portal, Dead Space Demake is a recreation of EA’s horror game where the emphasis is on stripping so much of the experience back that it looks (and plays) like a PlayStation 1 game.
Created by Fraser Brumley, he describes it as:
Dead Space Demake has everything you want and more, from necromorph limb dismemberment to affine texture mapping errors.
You’ve played Dead Space (2008) and you’ve played Dead Space (2023) it’s time to soak in the horrid vibes of Dead Space (1998)
It’s of course not everything you want; this is more of a demo than a game, a fan-made showcase of a cool aesthetic rather than something you can grind through for 15 hours. And it’s missing Isaac’s bone-crunching stomp, perhaps the best thing about the entire game (aside from the map system).
But it still looks amazing, and has limb dismemberment, and is free. You can see how it all runs and works in this gameplay video uploaded by Retro Games Nostalgia. I love how he’s still got his suit-based health meter:
If you want to download and try out Dead Space Demake for yourself, its available on PC here, with controls for both mouse + keyboard as well as a controller. And if you want to check out more of Fraser’s work, you can find it at his Patreon.