I played the original Dead Space for the first time when I was a kid behind my parents back and nearly cried when I got jumpscared for the first time. I never made it past Chapter 2 at the time. Once this version got announced, mixed emotions overwhelmed me, since this game brought me literal nightmares when I was young. Boy did I enjoy getting back to it and remembering everything that was great about this game, and grasping the few flaws I wasn't able to discover or remember during my childhood. Here's everything you need to know about the Dead Space 2023 remake.

Pros

• The game looks incredible. The environments are well-polished, very atmospheric, and downright creepy. The enemies are horrifying to look at and dismember, everything feels very much alive and mutating, the gore is gross as hell. They even nailed Isaac's suits. The skyboxes are amazing, the lightning effects are captivating, I could go on and on. The only thing that felt a little off compared to the rest were the faces of the crew members, which felt a little off compared to the rest.
  
• The gameplay is absolutely peak. Scary monsters, great variety of weapons (all incredibly satisfying to use), decent resource management & upgrade systems, a good amount of abilities that adds to the gameplay/puzzles, you name it. This is hands down one of my favourite 3rd person horror shooter speaking purely gameplay-wise. Very useful quality of life improvements too, like the navigating system.
  
• Completion is much more fun, although I haven't experienced it yet, there's a lot of good words about the New Game Plus the game has to offer. Going for 100% completion is definitely an incredible challenge, but even on Impossible, the difficulty set by the game isn't the most frustrating and unforgiving there is. Both casuals and completionists will have fun with this one.
  
• The level design is great. The semi-linear environment will offer some optional backtracking for people looking for the biggest amount of resources possible or to progress side quests. The rooms and corridors are usually just rightly cramped, meaning Necromorphs will actually be a threat because of the restrictive room space, without usually being unfair. Some rooms are much more open, but contains more enemies coming from a lot of different directions. I liked the slight variety behind some environments because they would shape you into approaching the fights with different tactics once in a while.
  
• I'd say the story is good enough (not at all the best I've experienced when looking at the horror genre) but the addition of a voice actor for Isaac was a wonderful idea which definitely added up to the experience. I liked the story a lot during the beginning, and thought the introduction of the Marker/Unitologists were a great plot element, but some characters felt flat a bit.

Neutrals

• The few bosses encounters, while usually fun and change of pace, are quite ordinary. Their attack pattern are very straightforward and they're usually unchallenging. They really felt straight out of a late 2000s shooter. They could have been more captivating in my opinion, but they aren't that bad either.
  
• The game length felt mostly appropriate, but the last chapter really dragged the story out. I feel like this game should be closer to 10 hours in length than 12, but they still ended up with an overall captivating story. This is more of a nitpick on my end, but I'm sure some people will also experience this minor story stall towards the end.
  
• The AI was decent, but felt clunky on occasions, especially between doors and different zones. The different Necromorphs' hitboxes felt inconsistent at times when you're trying to squeeze between enemies in order to get away. You sometimes just end up getting stuck against one even though there is an opening clearly visible.

Cons

• Performances and stability were sometimes a let down. Occasional screen tearing, random FPS drops. Some places ran smooth like butter, others not so much. It felt inconsistent during the whole playthrough. Thankfully, I didn't encounter any crashes, but those technical issues still bugged me since they sometimes broke my immersion.

TL;DR
Fantastic remake. Very good horror shooter. Amazing graphics and sound design. Gameplay is nearly perfect: everything's snappy and responsive, the core levelling-up systems are well thought out yet surprisingly simple. Decent story with very occasional flaws. Great voice acting from Isaac. Boss fights are okay, game length felt a little too dragged out, minor AI issues. Performances are still inconsistent, while nothing dramatic, random FPS drops will sometimes affect gameplay and immersion.

Rating: 8/10