'Dead Space' Remake: More Details About Upcoming Game Revealed

Electronic Arts finally revealed the highly-anticipated “Dead Space” remake, and fans couldn’t be happier. The game will take fans back to the nightmare-infested USG Ishimura in a brand-new engine, with most of the original game’s best parts exactly where they were back in 2008.

Motive Studios’ Phil Ducharme and Roman Campos-Oriola spoke with IGN to reveal more of the smaller details of the “Dead Space” remake. Here’s what they had to say.

Technology

Senior producer Ducharme noted that they are developing the game’s technical capabilities with next-gen consoles in mind. He said that they will be making full use of advanced graphical and audio techniques like raytracing, 3D audio, fluid simulation and more. They will be remaking the game on the Frostbite Engine, the same tech they used for the “Battlefield” series.

Story And Level Design

Creative director Campos-Oriola said that level design will remain mostly intact. They took some liberties regarding design aspects that were cut from the original game due to technological constraints at the time. This means that the remake will feature more fleshed-out versions of the original environments, all of which are remade in a modern engine.

Visuals, sounds and gameplay assets will all be rebuilt. Nothing will be ported, and everything will mostly be faithful to the original “Dead Space.” However, Campos-Oriola said that they will be improving on certain aspects of the game such as combat, horror, immersion and other elements that they might deem necessary.

Regarding the actual gameplay experience, Campos-Oriola said that they are putting immersion at the top of their priorities. The entire game will still be experienced through the perspective of its protagonist Isaac Clarke, and the developers are going through great lengths to ensure that player immersion is uninterrupted until they reach the end credits.

He also mentioned that they are refining the story so that everything is more cohesive. The developers won’t be making any major changes to the original story, but Campos-Oriola said that they are going to make improvements for parts of the game’s narrative that didn’t make sense or wasn’t iterated properly.

Combat

“Dead Space Remake” will retain the core dismemberment-focused combat of the original trilogy. This will remain mostly the same, but the developers said that they want to enhance the dismemberment aspect. However, they did not specify exactly what type of improvements they want to implement just yet.

To make sure they aren’t overstepping their creative liberties, Motive is working with a group of “Dead Space” fans who helps them decide whether or not they’re making the right choices for the remake. The developers are working to ensure that the essence of the original game is preserved while still implementing small changes to make the “Dead Space” the best it can be.