Is The Story of the Dead Space Remake Better Than The Original? 

I really wouldn't call Mercer's stasis "plot-powered" given that when you follow the Hunter questline, you realize that Mercer is actually able to make his own custom stasis modules, with one of them being the Prototype Stasis Module you pick up and use. It's therefore not a stretch that Mercer simply engineered his own extended duration stasis module for use on Necromorphs. Also, as a Dead Space vet I loved the ending twist. Not only was it shocking to me as a player seeing how they changed it, but it made scenes like Isaac needing to defend Nicole make perfect sense. Even if it was all hallucinations, the Marker typically likes to attach said illusions into objects to make them more convincing, and we know someone was being attacked in the defense section because the Necromorphs were attacking "Nicole" purposefully (Lurkers wouldn't just shoot thin air unless there was something there). Having Nicole be physically overlaid on Cross also has another added benefit: it shows us just how insidious the Marker is that it is able to manipulate two separate people towards the same end despite both being able to "see" each and talk to each other, perfectly showing us just how powerful the Marker's mind bending effects are, instead of just leaving everything to "it's just an illusion".

I'm gonna say that the addition of Cross being seen as nicole makes more sense to me. The times she showed up and actually interacted with the enviroment bothered me and having it actually be cross makes me more at ease with those scenes instead of filling in the gaps myself.

Wow, now thinking about the fact that Issacs and Nicole's last real conversation was her telling Issac to "go to hell." And how the events of Dead Space unfolded it actually saddened me...

I think the Kyne accidentally murdering the captain scene is supposed to be based off the Downfall movie which is the prequel to the original. I like how they they to revise on parts of the game to feel connected with the spin-offs.

I’m Gonna have to say yes, getting more context on the hunter, Seeing Cross and Temple actually survive for the majority of the outbreak, seeing Nicole and her journey through the Ishimura trying to figure the marker out. All of the extra context adds so much

I like to imagine that both endings are canon: -the first ending is an hallucination, something that happens inside Isaac's mind since it doesn't make much sense for Nicole to really be there with him, it's hard to believe that he would survive in that situation and that the same kind of hallucination that Isaac has in the 2' game -the secret ending is what is "really" happening, Nicole is still an illusion but Isaac fully believes that she is real and he is under the marker's control. This leads perfectly into the 2' game where he is found in an extremely unstable state and he is used to build the new marker.

Regarding your point about the RIg Link ID for Nicole. Toward the end of the game you get some mission updates that appear to have been set by the Marker. Your HUD will display "new mission objective" and then just a bunch of the marker symbols. I think this makes it apparent the Marker's hallucinations are capable of making Isaac misinterpret his HUD. So the Rig ID during those calls may well have been coming through as Cross, but Isaac saw it as "unknown". There is the argument to be made that the hallucinations would have just shown the ID as Nicole, but I think the answer is just that the devs did it this way because it's creepier for the player.

Nicole’s death and hallucinations were almost confirmed early in the game if you decide to fly back to the place where Issac first saw “Nicole” in person. There was a security recording that documented the conversation on her side of the hallway. The recording shows that it was Cross talking to Issac. I was surprised that they out right put this so early in the game.

Cross being Nicole worked pretty well imo, since it really reinforces that the marker seems to have intelligence and a goal, instead of just making people around it crazy and turn into necromorphs. You could argue Nicole and Kyne trying to lead you down to the planet already showed this, but having the marker coordinate multiple people like that is a moment that Puts its strength into perspective. The rig showing as an error is also probably just the marker's influence.

For Mercer's stasis, its kinda explained later when you find the stasis upgrade for yourself. The prototype you find fully immobilizes necromorphs while causing a DoT and it's next to a log of Mercer talking about the module.

I think my favourite detail of all the Ishimura story bits is that there were survivors, and they were doing well enough up to a point, probably around the point Kendra entered the computer core that they started to fail likely due to kendra unlocking doors and whatnot. All the areas you visited in the first half are areas that had fallen first as well so you wouldn't have found survivors in those areas. For the Nicole reveal I disagree on it being bad and since it gets pointed out a few times that the marker lets you see hallucinations and see other people as necromorphs or other people, which gets brought up through harris. I also liked the Temple and cross inclusion since in the OG game you were always right behind temple and you would find this out due to the logs he leaves behind. This time around cross didnt meet up with temple as she did like in the original instead she met up with you.

Given what we know of Dead Space 2 perhaps the secret ending is how Isaac perceives the sessions in the machine before he gets his dose of memory blockers. Helping Nicole by building something special.

I didn't mind Mercers stasis device because it seemed to be custom made like his pet Necromorph. It also led to one less contrived/semi contrived instance of thing happening/animatronic show behind bullet proof glass.

We didn't need this remake, but I'm damn glad that it exists.

Mercer was able to put isaac and jacob to stasis for a long time because his stasis device was an advanced prototype of some sort. You can find it in one of the side quests (cant remember which one lmao). He built it so that he can perform brain surgery which were a part of creating the hunter necros iirc.

I hope we get a remake for the second one! It would look so good, would love to see the church of unitology with these visuals.

The one thing that bothered me with the remake's revision to the Nicole twist isn't the Dr. Cross part, but how Isaac doesn't move while watching the full video of Nicole's death. The original's stronger use of a silent protagonist, he conveyed his emotions through his body language.

i’m not really a fan of cross being nicole. nicole being dead the whole time makes the fact that she interacts with the environment far creepier thinking back, and further reveals the supernatural power of the marker. now it’s a sort of silly scooby-doo esque reveal where they pull off a mask and it turns out it was cross. might make more sense, but not as unsettling imo.

Now this... This is a remake!

On Mercer's stasis, he's a doctor, so it would make sense for his stasis module to last longer or have a manual on/off switch, for restraining patients and shit like that

I like it better that there are survivors, Temple is actively trying to keep the Ishi from falling apart completely and get to his girlfriend. Cross is getting revenge for her crewmates transformed to wheezers and making the enzyme to kill the Leviathan while trying to get to Temple. Well done.

Secret ending: the fact that Isaac knows about Nicole in Dead Space 2 can be easily explained that he probably received some therapy during those 3 years on the Sprawl (at least to keep him sane enough to use him). I do agree with you on Mercer introduction and death? scenes. I also liked the original ones better, and I found the plot-powered stasis a hard thing to swallow. But I also agree those are exceptions, and most of the changes seem positive to me.

One more thing that bothered me a bit, in this otherwise amazing game, is how we promise to Cross that we'll tell her where's Jacob when we learn and once we get to Engineering/Mining and see his logs, Isaac never bothers to contact her. At least an attempt to contact her with 'aaah, comms sucks' would've done it justice. Perhaps they could've added a small hint that Cross is Nicole as if the Marker's masking powers on Isaac's mind are still in their infancy?

This was my first time playing Dead Space and I enjoyed it, definetly guessed that this was not Nicolle, but I thought that Isaac was just imagining her, not that it was gonna be another character. The last scene scared the shit out of me tho, when she jumped at him I jumped on my PC

Honestly the Nicole thing always bugged me in the original Dead space, it legitimately didn't make any damned sense for her to be active in the story doing things to much has to be hand waved by nostalgia(like you do in this video, he "forgot" to check a door.....seriously). The changes make sense, they follow established lore for the markers effect and solved a massive plot hole without overwriting the original plot. Legitimately a stellar change.

I mean, hindsight is 20/20 so it’s easy to improve an established piece. I don’t know that you can say it’s ‘better’ so much as ‘thoughtfully, respectfully expanded with an exceedingly talented brush’

After Issac finds Nichole and pritects her, if you fly over to where you first see her there is a terminal. If you activate it, you will hear a recording of Issac's interaction with Nichole, excepts Nicholes's dialogue is replaced by Cross. But she sees Issac. She wonders about Issacs mental state and she says she will help. This may only be accessible in NG+.

Nah, adding more dialogue that completely padds out and makes it more obvious about some twists, makes it loose all subtle details.

Some of it is nice… but a lot of it was unnecessary or not good writing. I just don’t like how tacky villains or how modern writers always make the girl be a smartass confident know it all. I liked older Kendra. Mercer also seems like a generic villain.

I am happy to see a remake like this. So much has been done in a good way that the game is almost a completely new game too. With all the lore this game has it's cool see that they expanded the first game. It's a lot better that Mercer actually appears face to face and later gets his "truth". It makes this feel like a story instead of most human encounters hidden behind glass windows. Characters got more time and stuff to do so we actually learn something about them. I played all games and watched a lot of videos but never knew Issac's mom was a uni. Everything just seems better. Like even some guns were made better. No wonder this game is praised so much. On some video in comments saw a guy saying this is just Dead Space 1 on new engine and should be called remaster. I honestly don't know what these people smoke. Just by watching this you can see so many changes done. It's not like you can insert 15 year old game into new engine and call it a day. They had to rebuild the game and record everything again. People who say that maybe are the same people who call Callisto Protocol amazing. A game that looks and sounds great but lacks any substance in other parts. Heavily uses jump scares. There is pretty much no story there. If they continue like this then Dead Space will have a bright future.

I’d say yes due to the added degree of player agency on Isaac’s part, the much more visible degradation of sanity among the Kellion crew, the spacing between Chen’s and Johnston’s deaths, shedding more light on the nature of Isaac’s relationship with Nicole, and the revisions made to the ending.

You know, during the two character side quests (Nichole and Mercer), I kinda believe that Unitoligy ordered Issac's mom to kill herself and husband. To retaliate to Nichole about her actions on the Ishimura and to cover Mercers activities.

I think my biggest critique so far has been of Hammond funnily enough. The 2008 version of him had him acting more militaristic, more gruff and definitely a bit more serious. He's definitely a bit more tame in the remake. I'm sure most people won't really care too much about that but it was always nice to be able to see someone in more of a leader role who was able to make decisions regardless of how sure he felt about them. Not only that but to have subtle hints that he might have an ulterior motive made him a nice foil to Kendra.

In regards to the rig showing the wrong thing the marker can actually effect what you see in computer screens. At first this is just other screens you find in the environment, but once you get to the crew quarters it actually starts to scramble what you see from the rig as well. At certain points if you try and use the nav system the objective will be in marker language or gibberish. So yeah i can see the issues with the rig not lining up being dismissed by Issac and Cross for that reason.

I liked that the original had a more desperate feeling and was less movie-like. Isaac's silence, the brutal truth about Nicole and the betrayal made the story very cold and hopeless. Like when Isaac figures out the truth and instead of thinking Cross was Nicole, he straight up hallucinated the whole thing which is even more crazy. The game itself was cynical almost.

Remember the marker's hallucinations also appear on screens, like in the original Nicole would appear on some screens speaking, maybe Isaac's perception was altered and showed "unknown caller" to him when in reality it said "Cross"

The reason Mercer can stasis issac for as long as he did is explained in one of the side missions. Issac has the option of getting a supped up Stasis module and the audio log or text log next to it says that Mercer was developing a better stasis module

Bravo yet again Gingy. Wonderfully made video and answered all the questions I had about the remake which I won't have time to play for myself. It's appreciated. Also, the view counts your videos are now getting is well deserved. Onwards and upwards. Thanks again for your hard work.

I’m so glad you did this comparison review. I was hoping you’d do it, and O can’t wait to see what you have to say about RE4 remake!

Gunnar Wright sure knows how to curse lmao. His reading of Isaac's anger and sass feels just like in Dead Space 2 and it's so good. "FUCK THIS SHIP!" "Oh thank altman you're alive." "FUCK ALTMAN, TOO!" lmao

Graphics clearly have improved, but I noticed that there's quite a bit of I'm guessing oversight going on. Audio is pretty inconsistent where sometimes the music is incorrectly leveled, and sometimes it's hard to make out the ambient music from everything else going on, that wasn't a thing in the original. All the new Necromorph sounds stupidly mix with the music and other clutter going on when tension starts and you can't make out heads or tails, that isn't a thing with the few original sounds that were left in. Ch12, they completely removed all of the Hive Mind foreshadowing where it smashes into the building you're in and appears for couple of seconds when you go outside, plus all of the iconic sounds it made are no more (except for one scene where they forgot to remove an event related audio clip from the original). When the Brute first appears in CH4, the music starts playing before it even is finished breaking the door down and I noticed it's pretty annoying to fight as it can rotate while it's in the air, plus I barely heard any of its old sounds either that they did left in anyway, especially when it's supposed to announce its presence. A lot of unique Slasher models from the original are missing and are replaced with the default model from the beginning but just with clothing on. When the Divider first appears in the original, the low howls can be heard echoing throughout the room it appears in (as it is not a sound coming from the actual NPC but scripted ambience). In the remake, I thought they replaced the Divider sounds as well, but they actually didn't, but you barely can even hear the sounds the non-divided Divider makes. When it first appears in Ch8 I think, there isn't even the howl heard before it appears. I also noticed it's very easy to put down on Hard but in the original, it took quite a lot of shots to make the components scatter. And talking about the components, the sounds they make are much louder than what the full Necromorph makes which is weird. Menu looks very cheap, it's just a black screen and some buttons. When you load the game from a save, it doesn't even put you on the menu, it just throws you right in the game and for me, it spawned me right in front of the Regenerator in Ch10 fight around the Marker and it hit me until my health was in red before I even regained control. This is pretty sad coming from Dead Space 2 and 3 where just the menus alone get you hyped. That's all I can think of now but there's probably a ton more if I replay the game, but don't feel like doing so until I can get a better PC and actually buy the game and not have it with EA Pass.

Loved one of the moments when I was fighting a necromorph and shot it with the canister from the flame thrower causing the wall of fire. Just seeing it walk through the fire stripped right down to the bone coming for me was a bit of a scary moment. It's only January and this may be my GOTY.

I don't know, man, you're complaining about the way they used Cross while simultaneously explaining why it made sense. It wasn't in the original, and that resulted in the weird things you mentioned before, with Nicole somehow managing to interact with the physical world despite not being there. Adding Cross helps make sense of this.

Hi, love the videos, you make great content bro! Have you played "Returnal" its seems like a game right up aisle! Id love to see the video about that game!!!

I just finished the game and did not see the Cross reveal coming at all, I knew something was up with Nicole, as she was acting obviously off, I thought for sure she was somehow mind controlled or something but this was much better, as it tied up the loose ends with Cross, and it draws parallels between Cross' and Isaac's goals. Seeing every character fail, and leaving Isaac as the sole survivor is satisfying, from the horror perspective. I don't know what the original did with Cross, but if it didn't have this nice bow on it, I think that would feel odd for not including. I can't speak from experience, but from how you described the differences, I think these are mostly positive changes.

I actually liked the Cross reveal. It made sense to me that it was a physical person there. I believe it also showed the marker's influence abilities. It was thinking far enough ahead to alter the minds of two separate people to accomplish its goals.

The spelling out of each chapters 1st letters was always something I appreciated during the original launch playthrough way back when. Such a nice touch thats ties into the symbols of the narratives themes

1 correction, I'd like to make (great video btw), is that at 3:00 you say Chen was the Necromorph that solely infected the Valor, but unless it was changed from the original, I remember that there was an unshown/offscreen mutiny that left , I think, 10 dead on the Valor, so those bodies on the ship came in the range of the Marker when the Valor shockpointed in. I think Chen was just the main focus so they didn't notice the bodies turning

Very cool bro🔥🔥🔥

Definitely. The remake expands on Nicole's character and gives a lot of context for the relationship between her and isaac. It also closes some plotholes.

Also like to point out that you can find a audio log or security log in the airlock where you do the ADS cannons about Vincent's Team getting killed its a reference to the dead space downfall animated movie

16:40 its a reference to dead space extraction, which is where Weller and Lexine made there debut. It was a wii game, but its not that bad and the story is pretty interesting in how it connects to the events of dead space 1.

Im only on chapter 7, but this remake may be one of my favorite games ive played in the past year or two

It's definitely a lot more immersive than the original. The sound design really makes you feel paranoid; the Whispering in the background, the grinding of metal, the rustling of movement, it all blends together to make very tense gameplay.

The stasis thing was explained in the game actually. You can find a modified stasis unit when you're investigating mercer's questline. He also says something about it in an audio log that he wanted to do surgery on a subject without knocking them out.

Great video, would love to see it as a full fledged series of yours

I liked Hammond's death in the remake better than the original. The original was more brutal with his death, but the remake made Hammond's state of mind known. He was clearly being affected by the marker like Isaac and everyone else was because he thought it was Chen.

I haven't fully finished it but a lot of the remake so far has been just as good as the original & some of the changes to the story have enhanced it imo. I'd say it is better but anybody preferring the og isn't wrong too.

Another issue is that in the opening of Deadspace 2 we see a video call between Isaac and Nicole where she had only recently transfered to the Ishimura and they were still together and happy, where as in the remake they are possibly broken up given the argument they had (depending on when that happened)

I enjoy comparisons about remakes, especially story focused ones so I'd love to see more like this. Also, first time commenting but I really like your approach to exploring content and appreciate your work.

I think you are too quick to re-defend points you were criticizing in order to save face against your own stance. You don't need to follow up with "let me be clear it's OKAY actually, my critique of this thing isn't in bad taste for you to downvote the video". Don't back out of being honest with yourself. If something sucks in comparison to the original, or vice versa, double down on it. It's a video about "if it's better" not "if both can co-exist".

Kyne killing the captain wasn't a screw driver it was syringe

I feel like they made the dead space remake as a recollection of the events during isaacs time building the marker. The new game plus option shows that Isaac gives in building the marker but snaps out of it in the regular ending knowing she’s dead

So as a note, the Nicole hallucination where she opens up the gate is actually Cross, in NG+ you can fly over to where she spawns and there is a Audio log where cross remakes that Issac is crazy as he states happness of Nicoles arrival

I was actually shocked and like the new twist with Cross. I honestly didn't notice the hints. I didn't pay much attention to the names on the audio calls, I never really looked at them unless it was a video call.

Having Chen become a Necromorph who stuck around through the whole game just added more emotion to the story. Also, if you go and check out your ship, after it blows up, in Zero G, you can find Johnson's corpse in the wreckage and she's still holding her hands up, trying to shield herself from the blast.

I recently completed my first play through and as someone who never really played/completed the other Dead Space game (because I would watch my brother play through the story and then play a bit of the story here and there and some mulitplayer) I thought the remaster was amazing, but I get and agree with your points about Mercer and Elizabeth Cross. And when you first see something about Nicole being alive and trying to gather survivors in medical, I immediately thought something was wrong about the entire message, the way it was weirdly cut and had different angles.. I couldn't help but feeling like she was already dead, and this was me when I had almost no memory of the original Dead Space story. But that message alone screamed to me that Nicole was dead and the message was a bait from someone.

3:40 that is also mention in a text log on in the first text log located on the Kelion (remake)

Dead space remake is now as good to me as 2 is and I think 2 is a near perfect game. Remake addressing certain plot points that weren't clear I like and I'm indifferent at worst to some scene changes. I'm damn impressed. Honestly isaac talking alone makes it better for me I'm a sucker for gunners acting.

I honestly think that Cross = Nicole was masterful. To me it actually made so much sense. In the original, I thought it was a bit weird that Nicole just comes out of nowhere and does things while we're in a completely different place with little to no indication that something is going on (like audio or video distortion). With the twist in the remake that loophole was fixed. And also it shows even more how the marker messes people up. It somehow gave me even more unease knowing that the other person was actually physically there but looked like and talked like someone else. All the while we were someone else to her.

Recently played the remake as my first dead space experience. I did find the ending a little confusing but understood it after a bit of thinking, which is when the story unravels and everything is explained. I didn’t quite guess the twist, my theory was that there was a pre-infection which made people do bizarre acts, such as the several people that kill themselves in front of us throughout the story. I thought Nicole was in this pre infection, but it turns out it was all the marker! Really great twist that I didn’t see coming.

This was hands down my favorite remake. THIS is how you do a remake. Ground up work, new dialogue to expand on the story, giving a voice to main where there was none to give him more agency in his story, adding content to expand not waste to time, and tying up plot holes because you have the chance to so why don't you? Love Love LOVE what they did with and extremely sad they won't be doing this for the rest of the series. Also the lighting choices in this game... Fucking chef's kiss.

I like the remake although I feel like kendra and hammond barely speak and take part of the story they just appear here and there and then die, especially with hammond since the majority of his involvement was removed

I think the way the story is presented is better and the gameplay improvements are awesome. I think its also a bit harder than the original. Necromorphs feel faster to me. The most important part is the horror though. I cant honestly judge the horror, because I played the original. I just got slightly startled so far, and I dont know if its because I am more experienced with horror now, or the game is not scary, or if its because I remember the original so well. Also didnt get scared in Callisto Protocol. Deadspace remake definitely feels scarier than Callisto. I am sure people who havent played Deadspace yet will be terrified, like I was, when I played the original.

In the remake Ch. 7 there's an audio recording you can find on the side "Nicole" opens the door for Issac that makes it sound like he is talking to himself and at points Cross

the remake is outstanding. imho it makes the story clearer and better paced. the changes don't detract from the main story and only better contextualise what we're seeing. if we give "game of the year" awards to remakes then this is it. simply outstanding.

I was originally wary of Isaac speaking in the remake, but I'm glad to have been wrong to worry. It really gave him more opportunities to flesh him out as a character and show his internal thoughts and reactions to what happens throughout the story. The scene early in the game where Isaac witnesses Johnston die when the Necromorphs attack their ship was surprisingly a bit gut-wrenching. Just hearing Isaac scream her name "Hailey! HAILEY!" gave me the real feelings that Isaac considered her a friend, despite probably not working together very long.

I might be missing the point in the stasis talk at 6:20 ish but technically in DS2, there's a stasis field that Isaac jury rigs to make his own modified stasis gizmo. So it doesn't have to be a suspension of belief but more on it depends on the stasis being used?

I like how in chapter 7 they tease its cross if you go and collect that log after picking up the beacon

He still let the monster loose. His lack of fear is elaborated on by audio logs in the remake, so seeing him stasis Isaac and completely disregarding his own safety, shows how he is losing it and then he continues to lock Isaac in the room with the hunter like the original. So I think it adds a bit more drama and adds to mercer’s psychopathy. Thought you may have saw that a bit wrong but that’s your opinion.

The amount of effort Gingy puts into his videos is genuinely insane

I was firmly in the "Dead Space doesn't need a remake" camp prior to the launch of this game. Over the 15 hours logged in my initial playthrough, I could not stop gushing about this remake. Everything -- literally every single thing -- that this remake altered and expanded made for a stronger overall experience. This remake was to Dead Space what the REMake was for Resident Evil. It is such a marked and profound improvement over the original to the extent that it all but eclipses the original title. This series is in VERY good hands and if Motive intends to remake Dead Space 2 and 3, they have my complete confidence.

Love the game though gotta say, i love that in original the moment you set foot on ishimura no sane person is alive in the whole ship the feeling is so awful surreal especially when you replay it and it suits the title dead space, not a huge fan of ghost ship crawling with unitologist and scientist all running their own circus kinda hampers the feeling of being isolated and alone when you keep having interaction with living people several time in a single mission.

The people these days that make remakes are allergic to attractive women

Now Nicole is an old hag and Isaac is Adam Sandler. I stay with the original Dead Space.

you're great at story storytelling. love it keep up the good work

Damn I'ma miss watching Hammond get ripped apart by space zombie gorilla.

Biggest problem for me is Issac face change 😑

The remake was my first time playing the game, and I was caught extremely off guard when it was revealed that Nicole was Elizabeth. I theorized that she was a being created by Marker or something, since she DEFINITELY didn’t speak like she was actually Nicole

Great video man, I found your channel talking about the Dark Souls Trilogy and ever since then it’s a pleasure to watch your content. I will probably be picking this game up in the coming weeks or so just because of how good this looks and I was a fan of the original game as well. Have a bless day bro 🙏🏻

i think the whole point with mercer etc is that , im not sure any of these people are necessarily evil or bad, the marker is poisoning their mind and manipulating them

Cross' further inclusion in the remake was something i liked. The reveal at the end was a genuine surprise followed by a major "Of course!" moment for me. It all clicked into place for me and i loved it.

I will have to say absolutely no. So many story additions or changes in the remake feel forced and often suffer from plot holes. A lot of it is trying to "hook you in" with all sorts of twists etc, it reminds me a lot of blockbuster movies these days. The remake seems to be made for casual audiences juding by other aspects as well, so this makes sense. The original game said what needed to be said but was okay with comparatively "little" story. And that is okay, not every game needs a strong presence of a story! But, I don't mind that stronger story presence in the remake if it weren't so forced... Of course Chen is the one neromorph that causes all sorts of things later, Hammond and Mercer see past their illusions before their deaths giving them a moment of redemption, Mercer has the mother of all stasis modules etc... There is so much "meaning" in every part of the remake's story that it just doesn't seem realistic. Plot armor is real... I much prefer the sheer meaninglessness of deaths in the original like when Hammond gets annihilated by a "simple" Brute, making the necromorph threat far more believable. Also, I much preferred finding out about unitology and Nicole yourself from little fragments instead of it being handed to you on a silver platter like in the remake...

The point about how the rig should say Elizabeth Cross is handled, i think. In the Crew chapter, after you start finally sharing the same room as the Marker, your HUD and objectives get corrupted. You start getting objectives written in the Marker's language, and you start struggling to determine what the game is telling you and what the Marker is influencing. I feel like this explains why it comes up with unidentified rig.

I'm a big fan of the OG game but when I found the audio log that reveals isaac was actually talking to Elizabeth instead of Nicole when she opened the door for him it gave me chills. So personally I really like how the remake treated it.

Absolutely nothing of value is added to the story in the remake.

I think that you're a bit much of a stickler for the original and that it's biased you a bit. Many of the changes you listed aren't necessarily worse, they're just different. In my view, several of them--like being next to people during scenes instead of Isaac seeing them through glass--is an improvement. I suspect that we saw so much stuff through a barrier in the original because they wanted to hide the lower quality textures of the Xbox360 back in the day; now, with our insane graphics standards, this was no longer necessary. I certainly felt a much more real and interesting connection with Cross and Temple now that we actually see them a couple of times instead of hearing them a few times in audio logs before they immediately (and, I gotta say, this is pretty contrived) die as soon as we meet them.

I think it helps that Kendra knows the effects of the marker beforehand. So while still being affected by it, she knows that what she’s seeing isn’t really there and can push on with her mission

My first play though was the remake, I actually really liked the Nicole-Cross twist, I knew Nicole was dead, but didn’t know the details, so the explanation that the things Nicole was doing was actually Cross but with Marker-vision I thought was a really neat explanation.

But his face, man Anything new to Dead Space will have the wrong faced Isaac now