Reviewing a remake is never an easy task in gaming circles. In almost every case where a remake is made, you already know that the original game was widely beloved. It probably still holds up quite well on its own. But judging the worth of the remake itself is a bit of a murkier proposition.

Take EA’s Dead Space remake, for example, which is launching onto PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S this week. Here at RadioTimes.com, we got our copy nice and early and we were excited to load it up and start playing, the nostalgia for the original burning bright in our hearts.

We kicked off the first level and, well, the game felt scarily familiar from the start. This is a remake that knows what worked in the original and doesn’t want to veer too far away from that. The level design, the story, the music, it feels at first like a replay rather than a reimagining.

The first comparison point that comes to mind is the Mass Effect Legendary Edition from 2021. Another EA sci-fi property that got a new lick of paint for modern systems, it didn’t exactly go out of its way to surprise you. Here, in a similar way, you get the sense that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was a mantra during production.

Part of the problem, of course, is that the way you remember a game is not always accurate. The original Dead Space that launched in 2008 felt like a cutting-edge product at the time, so when you picture the game in your mind’s eye, you imagine it having the cutting-edge graphics that you’re used to in the modern day.

When we first started playing the Dead Space remake, that’s exactly how we felt. Isn’t this the exact same game as before? What is this, some sort of cynical cash grab? It’s only when we went back and looked at the original game again that we realised how wrong we were. We took a look at the video below and that really put things into perspective.