In the remake, you can fly around like you can in the sequels, and it's fun to track leaping necromorphs as they zoom through space.

In the zero-G sections of the original Dead Space, you were stuck to the ship with magnet boots, and could only leap from surface to surface. I'm told that later in the game you'll have to depressurize areas of the Ishimura, or turn off gravity, which could have fun consequences if done cleverly. You could turn an elevator on at the expense of turning the lights off, for example-the idea that you have to make things scarier for yourself to progress is cute. Some rooms contain fuse boxes that allow you to power up systems so long as you're willing to power another system down. The remake appears to leave the important physics puzzles roughly as-is, but adds one interesting elaboration. But that's how it was in the original, too. It's more artificial-feeling than I remember, with glowing magnet stickers telling you when it'd be a good idea to try manipulating them. There's also a stasis ability used for sticking objects together and slipping through malfunctioning doors. I'm less delighted by its role in moving boxes, sticking big batteries in big battery slots, and reconnecting gears. The telekinesis ability is most fun to use for chucking spear-shaped debris at the necromorphs, pinning them to walls like the nailgun in FEAR. Something else that had gone fuzzy in my memories were Isaac's techo-magical powers Dead Space had more parallels with BioShock than I recalled. I love that Isaac's big stomps-used to squish necromorph corpses, causing ammo or money to pop out-are still animated in the chunky, not-quite-natural way popular at the height of the Gears of War era. Graphics are the one area where my false memory aligns with the new Dead Space: It looks like how I remember Dead Space looking 14 years ago, even though the original couldn't have looked nearly this complex, gross, or realistically lit. It's shiny, and it peels away to reveal pink muscle. The only big difference is that the rotten skin of the necromorphs is no longer a blurry mess of pus and blood-colored pixels.

The plasma cutter is as much fun in the remake as it was in the original.

Dead space game helmet drawing