Less than two months remain until the Dead Space remake releases, and developer EA Motive is touching up virtually every aspect of this survival horror classic.
During an interview with IGN, Dead Space senior writer Jo Berry explained that certain narrative elements are getting a do-over.
“Overall, it was to give the narrative the same kind of glow-up that everything else had. As a player, generally what you want is to have the same feeling again, feel like you’re playing it for the first time,” Berry said. “And so some of it was looking at how do we tell this story for people who are newcomers to the series.”
“But for veteran players, we wanted to give them a little bit of a surprise, of like, ‘Oh, this is a little different’ – you change that direction very slightly, and it can take you to a very different place,” Berry continues. “So it was kind of that sort of dichotomy between making sure that newcomers feel welcome but also veteran players are going to be kept off guard, because if you’re not off guard, you’re not scared.”
Berry didn’t specify what scenes might be different, but that’s probably for the best. However, the most obvious change is how Isaac Clarke speaks now instead of being a silent protagonist – a change EA Motive took from Dead Space 2.
“There was a lot of looking at Dead Space 2,” Berry explains, “and looking at key scenes. ‘How does he react in this moment? What’s his sense of humor like? How does he react under pressure verbally? What’s his speech pattern like?’ – And it was just trying to get that personality correct. Trying to make sure that he feels like Isaac, he doesn’t feel like another character. You always just want to have a player character who you want to be, so Isaac is this very smart, savvy guy who’s got empathy for the people around him. He’s got salty language, and he’s pretty fun to write, actually.”
The Dead Space remake comes out on Jan. 27, 2023, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Thus far, early impressions are glowing.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
