We’re living through a peak period of video games remakes. Between recent releases like Metroid Prime Remastered, Dead Space Remake, and Resident Evil 4 Remake to upcoming titles like Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, System Shock, and Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, it’s seldom been a more lucrative time for publishers and developers to dive back into their catalog of releases, dust off their most enduring titles, and sell them at full retail price to eager nostalgic audiences.
If you’re anxiously waiting around for publisher Electronic Arts and developer Motive Studios to actually get around to announcing that Dead Space 2 Remake the developer has previously hinted at, why not give this “demake” of the original Dead Space a spin?
Created by Fraser Brumley, an independent game developer based out of Melbourne, Australia, Dead Space Demake is exactly what you’d expect from its name: A recreation of the memorable opening moments of the 2008 survival-horror shooter Dead Space, albeit remade in the style of a PlayStation 1-era horror game, complete with a “tank control” control system and native gamepad support.
Like other recent “demakes” of popular contemporary titles like Bloodborne, Super Smash Bros., and Disco Elysium, Dead Space Demake is an homage to two separate generations of game design, juxtaposed together to highlight the appeals of both.
“This project was mostly a way for me to learn Unreal and the PS1 aesthetic so look forward to what I’ll be putting together in the future,” Brumley writes on the game’s itch.io page. Having played through the demake myself, I can confirm that Dead Space Demake is every bit as exhilarating, mildly terrifying, and impressive to play as either the original 2008 version of Dead Space or its 2023 current-gen remake.
The game is currently available to download for free on itch.io, which may or may not draw the ire of Electronic Arts. Move fast, check your corners, and don’t forget — you gotta aim for their limbs!