Finding the right balance between remaining faithful to the source material and changing things up to surprise fans tends to be quite tricky for most remakes, and as the remake to one of the best survival horror games ever made, the pressure on the upcoming Dead Space is even higher to make sure that it gets that balance right. Motive Studio has said on numerous occasions that it’s not going to deviate too much from the 2008 original, especially where the main story beats are concerned, but even so, the upcoming survival horror title is changing, adding, and looking to improve a lot of things. Here, we’re going to talk about some of the biggest changes between the original Dead Space and its remake.
ISAAC CLARKE
Let’s get this one out of the way first, not only because it’s one of the more prominent changes, but also because we’ve known for this some time now. Protagonist Isaac Clarke was a completely silent protagonist in the original Dead Space, but in the remake, he’s going to be a fully voiced character, just as he was in Dead Space 2 and 3. Gunner Wright, who voiced him in the two sequels, is returning to play the part in the remake, while Isaac’s face has also been updated to make it look more like Wright himself.
ONE-SHOT CAMERA
God of War (2018) has made the one-shot camera quite popular in video games, and doubtless, we’re going to see more and more games trying to do what it did. Dead Space seems to be first in that line, with Motive Studio having confirmed that the whole game will be a single sequential shot with no camera cuts whatsoever. Of course, this is a game that lends itself incredibly well to that sort of approach, so we’re excited to see how the remake implements the no-cuts camera.
NO LOAD TIMES
Going hand-in-hand with Dead Space’s no-cuts camera is a complete lack of loading times- which, based on what Motive Studio has said, will mean there are no masked loading times either (like, say, when you’re walking around on the World Tree in the God of War games while traveling from realm to realm). Of course, being a current-gen only game, you’d expect Dead Space to make better use of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S’ SSD than we’ve seen in most games until now.
ISHIMURA
The USG Ishimura is inexorably linked with Dead Space in more ways than one, not least because of its incredible design and atmosphere, so it’s going to be extremely important that the remake does justice to the Planetcracker as well. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, the entire ship will be entirely seamless in the remake, which should ideally make exploration and backtracking that much more engaging, while Motive Studio has said that it has also tweaked the ship’s layout in some places. How radical those changes will be remains to be seen.
NEW ROOMS AND LOCATIONS
In addition to the ship being a single, seamless map and having a tweaked layout, the Dead Space remake will also feature new rooms and locations. Players will now be able to find new locked rooms that weren’t there in the original, each bringing new loot and other rewards. Some rooms will even be locked behind higher security clearances, encouraging players to return to older areas of the game to open up those locked rooms one they do get the required clearance level.
STORY CHANGES
As we mentioned earlier, Motive Studio isn’t going to deviate too much from the original Dead Space’s story with the upcoming remake (which is good), though it will definitely be adding to it in an effort to make it richer and denser. For instance, the game is bringing in narrative elements from Dead Space 2 and 3 as well as the comics in order to flesh out the lore and make it more consistent with the series’ wider story.
SIDE QUESTS
While Dead Space’s remake will largely stick to the script where the main story is concerned, it will be adding in optional and secondary stuff to add to the narrative experience. This will come in the form of entirely new side quests that will come with brand-new story content. Side characters like Nicole will get fleshed out much more, while others who only showed up in the original game in audio logs will also get actual screentime this time around.
CHANGED SCENES
The Dead Space remake is also making some interesting changes to the story on a much smaller scale as well, in that it will be taking several scenes and changing the way they play out in an effort to make them more impactful. From what we’ve seen of the game so far, a perfect example seems to be the scene where the Ishimura’s captain’s corpse is transformed into a Necromorph. Rather than witnessing it from behind a glass screen, in the remake, Isaac will be in the room himself, and as he’s attempting to pull off the captain’s rig, an infector will bust in and infect the body, causing the transformation right on top of Isaac – which, in turn, will transition directly into gameplay.
WEAPON CHANGES
Moving on to the gameplay side of things, Dead Space is changing some things up in this area as well. For instance, you can expect to see several weapons being altered in new ways. For starers, weapons in the remake will have special upgrades and upgrade nodes similar to what you might remembered from Dead Space 2. Meanwhile, weapons will also have new alternate fire modes, with the Pulse Rifle, for instance, featuring a proximity mine launcher as the alternate fire. Some weapons will also see much more significant changes – like the Force Gun, which can now create a gravity well that pulls enemies to its center rather than simply being used to push foes away.
UI AND MAP
The original Dead Space still has one of the best UIs we’ve ever seen in a game, but the remake is looking to improve things even further. Motive Studio has confirmed that not only will the game have an improved Locator system (which, for those who don’t know, is a holographic line that can be projected on the ground to guide you to your next main objective), it will also featured an improved map. Speaking to Inverse, Motive Studio’s Joel MacMillan confirmed that the remake’s map will be 2D instead of the 3D’s original map, and will be much more readable and much easier to use and navigate.
ZERO GRAVITY
Zero gravity sections have been a thing in Dead Space since the very beginning, but it wasn’t until the sequels that those sections actually became somewhat decent to control. Sure enough, the remake is making improvements in that area, and taking plenty of cues from Dead Space 2 and 3 for those purposes. Players will now have full 360-degree control in the zero gavity sections, which, according to Motive Studio, has also led to “new ways to navigate, new paths, and new environments with new challenges.”
PEELING SYSTEM
Dead Space is synonymous with gore and horrifying violence, thanks in large part to its dismemberment system, and unsurprisingly, all of that will be cranked up to eleven in the remake. Specifically where the dismemberment mechanics are concerned, Motive Studio has introduced what it’s dubbed the “peeling system”- which is exactly what it sounds like. As you fight the Necromorphs, their tendons, flesh, bones, and muscle will tear and rip and disintegrate in much more detailed and visceral ways to illustrate how much damage you’re doing. And this won’t just be a visual thing either – Motive Studio says the peeling system will also make for “increased opportunities for creativity in how they utilize their variety of unique weapons and abilities”.
CIRCUIT BREAKERS
The remake is also making other relatively smaller changes on the gameplay front – such as the new circuit breakers. Players will come across circuit breakers at various points in the Dead Space remake, allowing you to reroute the ship’s power as something of a recurring mechanic. To do so, however, you’ll obviously have to route power away from other things, so you might, for instance, have to decide whether you want to play the next section without that area’s lights on or without oxygen, which, in turn, will impact how you play through that section.
INTENSITY DIRECTOR
One of the biggest and most exciting new features that the Dead Space remake is introducing is the Intensity Director. Though it might sound like Left 4 Dead’s AI Director on paper, Motive Studios promises it’s much more, and quite different. The Intensity Director will read gameplay situations, and based on how you’re faring and what sort of a situation you’ve found yourself in, it will dynamically trigger events or even combinations of events on the fly in order to ensure you’re always on the edge of your seat. The developers say there are as many as over 1200 of these events, and span everything from flickering lights and dense fog to audio cues, enemy spawns, and more.