As with the ‘remake’ of Resident Evil 4, we are not entirely convinced of the need to return to the Ishimura ship . It is true that the fantastic horror game from 2008 cannot compete graphically against current titles, but it still looks pretty good, its terrifying atmosphere is incomparable and it has great gameplay. Can’t we play the original again instead of resorting to a new version? But here it is Roman Campos-Oriola, creative director of the ‘remake’ of Dead Space in Motive Studio, to convince us otherwise by telling us about its changes and improvements.
most horrible horrors
Roman’s love and respect for the franchise can be seen in the way he talks about it. He insists on making it clear that this is not a remastering. He and his team remade the game practically from scratch in the Frostbite engine. He showed us a video comparing the new title with its predecessor and the truth is that the improvement in visual quality and details of the scenarios is quite remarkable.
So that the ‘remake’ of Dead Space faithful to the original experience despite the changes, Motive Studios maintained three pillars: immersion, escenario (nave Ishimura) y strategic action. With these three ideas as the “bible” of the project, they seek to keep the player immersed in the action all the time without interruptions to access menus, without loading screens or video sequences that take away control. All sections of the Ishimura ship are interconnected and going through them will be a “one shot” experience as it was in the God of War of 2018.
They also intend to relive the terrifying experience of facing the horrors that inhabit the ship with the dismemberment system that made the original special. To improve it, they introduced the curiously named peeling system. Thanks to this, when attacking the enemies we will see how it affects them visually at the level of skin, meat, tendons and even bones.
old is new again
For Roman, fidelity to the 2008 game is very important and he says that they managed to maintain it despite adding new elements to the game. He’s not just talking about new objects and sounds, but an “improved” plot that fits better into the mythology of the necromorphs and the Markers. This will not only be revealed through dialogue, but also from new activities and optional quests.
Horror is also part of the immersion that the game aims to achieve. In the ‘remake’ of Dead Space, the protagonist Isaac Clarke will be more human. He will have more dialogue than in the original title—in which he is practically mute—and his expressions will reflect his level of fear and stress thanks to the ALIVE sound system.
Roman also told us about the intensity manager. This is a new enemy spawn system that dynamically adjusts how many and where creatures spawn throughout the game along with environmental effects and events, especially when traversing places we’ve been to before.
Made for ‘fans’
If we look back at the franchise’s past, we know that its fan community isn’t too happy with the direction it’s taken. Dead Space 3 it was heavily criticized for focusing on action and multiplayer in a way that many felt deemphasized the horror elements. Its microtransaction system was also universally despised. But that shouldn’t be a problem with the ‘remake’ of Dead Space
Roman revealed that they have worked with a “group of consultants” made up of fans of the franchise since the conceptualization stage of the ‘remake’. He assures that they have been completely transparent with them and received very good feedback on the game. He also says that the multiple videos they have shown about the features of the ‘remake’ during development they are the result of an interest in being transparent with the players.
Other details that we learned in the chat is that we will have new puzzles, the voice acting of all the characters will be new and the weapons will have new alternating fire systems.
We will be able to prove all this when the ‘remake’ of Dead Space It goes on sale for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Friday, January 27, 2023.
