First-person Dead Space is even better than Doom
After 16 years of blasting Necromorphs in the crumbling corridors of the Ishimura, you might think we know all there is to know about Dead Space. Well, you'd be wrong, dead wrong. Playing EA Redwood's sci-fi shooter in first-person makes it feel like a whole new game.
Breaking the mould on survival horrors back in 2008, the original Dead Space spun out into (the arguably superior) Dead Space 2 in 2011 and limped through the underrated Dead Space 3 in 2013. There's still a lot of love for the IP, and while it's never officially added first-person support, fans have done the hard work for you.
First-person Dead Space is the Doom game we never got
Over on X (formerly Twitter), @GmanLives reminds us of the brilliant first-person Dead Space mod. Nexus Mods has ReverseEngineeringGamer's mod, which they claim had its core experience made in just five days. The developer admits it's not perfect, and you can't see Isaac's stats, but it's still a lot of fun.
Others were blown away by a first-person Dead Space, and in particular, the similarities to Doom - which helped define the first-person shooter genre back in 1993. Notably, the Dead Space mod feels like it's giving us real Doom 3 vibes, swapping the UAC's Delta Labs division for the Ishimura.
Loving the mod, one gamer cheered, "Is it me, or do the graphics in [the] original still hold up?" Another added, "Okay time to play dead space again," and a third said, "This is what the remake should have had. Something to add value to a $70 remake."
Someone summed up what we're all thinking as they concluded, "This is exactly why more devs need to use first person instead of a third person. There are too many games out there (especially horror) that don't live up to their true potential because of it. Resident Evil 7+8 and P.T. showcased this really well. If only they didn't both go back."
Give us Dead Space in VR
Others in the comments say it proves how great a VR Dead Space game could be. Whether revamping one of the oldies or branching out with something new like Valve did with Half-Life: Alyx, the potential is definitely there. Sadly, it looks like Dead Space has been put out to pasture... for now.
EA denies reports that a Dead Space 2 remake has been canned in favour of the Battlefield franchise and Motive's Iron Man, but either way, there's no sign of a follow-up to 2023's Dead Space remake. Despite being a critical darling, it apparently fell below the publisher's sales expectations, currently leaving Dead Space lost in space.
You only have to look at what Alien: Isolation did for the Alien name after it repeatedly struggled to deliver a solid video game to see how Dead Space could flourish in the first-person space. Could a first-person Dead Space remake have helped it score those sales EA was looking for? We'll never know.
