Dead Space

Overall, Dead Space (remake from 2023) is ok/good. There were some things I liked and some things that didn't work super well for me.

The best part of the game is the soundtrack. It's very intense and fits perfectly with the dark, scary feeling of the game. It really helps build the atmosphere. The game also gets better toward the end - I felt more interested in the last chapters compared to the beginning. The weapons are also interesting and a bit different (in a good way) from other games. There's a nice upgrade system for armor and guns too.

But the game has a problem: I found it very repetitive. The enemies, the missions, and the environments all felt the same after a while. Other small things in the game are also repetitive. For example, you have to press the X button to open every single door, which is annoying. It'd be smoother if the doors opened automatically like in many other games. Is it a big deal? No. But it gets annoying when so many other things are repetitive too.

Another issue for me was the lack of cut-scenes. There are many video-calls instead, but I think cut-scenes help tell the story better (especially because we're talking about an AAA game). There's also a relatively weak auto-save system, so I had to save manually all the time. If I forgot to save and died, I had to repeat small tasks, like picking up items (aka. looting) again, which felt boring.

The game has a dark and creepy vibe, which reminded me a bit of Resident Evil (a series I love), because of the monsters, dark environment, puzzles, etc., but it didn't grab my attention in the same way. I had to push myself to keep playing. Usually, when I enjoy a game, I play longer and more often. I beat the game in 14 hours but played it across 42 days (an average of only 20 minutes a day). For comparison, I recently re-played Horizon Zero Dawn (the PS5 remastered version this time) in half that time, even though it's a bigger game.

I don't plan to play Dead Space again - not even in New Game+ mode - and I won't try to get the platinum trophy. It was a nice experience, though.