New Dead Space Game May Use Cut Content From The Original
It might be a cold and unforgiving abyss in the depths of space, but it's not as "dead" out there as you might think. Electronic Arts is resurrecting the Dead Space franchise in a big way, with a glossy next-gen remake of 2008's OG Dead Space.
The news that the frightening franchise was crawling back into our lives wasn't exactly a surprise, with the Dead Space remake announcement being spoiled ahead of time. More than just offering some glossy graphics, developer Motive Studios has teased that the remake could include content that was cut from the original.
How could the new Dead Space use cut content from the first game?
In an interview with IGN, Creative Director Roman Campos-Oriola explained how original developer Visceral Games had to change its plan for Dead Space due to "technical constraints". Jump forward 13 years, and Motive's revamp of Dead Space promises to deliver much more. Discussing what's on the way, Campo-Oriola said, "We started with the original level design of the original Dead Space. What's funny is that you can see some of the iterations that were made prior to ship by the team".
"In the first chapter, you can see some corridors that they wanted to do first in a certain way, and then you can understand why they changed it for technical constraints or [some other reason]".
Much more than just sticking the word "remake" on the end of 2008's game and being done with it, Motive's Dead Space is rebuilding the title from the ground up. "Then in terms of visuals, sound, gameplay, everything, we are rebuilding all of these assets", added Campos-Oriola.
"We are not porting them, it's not uprezzing the texture or adding more polygons to the model. It's really rebuilding all these elements, shooting all the animations, et cetera".
What else do we know about the Dead Space remake?
Apart from a brief teaser trailer, Motive is keeping us relatively in the dark about what's on the way with Dead Space. Even though there's no release date yet, we know the Dead Space remake will be one of those rare truly next-gen games. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are being ditched in favour of PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Campos-Oriola has also teased a seamless gaming experience where the use of the Frostbite engine will amp up the horror. There will be no loading screens because Motive doesn't "want anything to pull you out of the experience, and we don't want any cuts". He went on to emphasise how "you can play it from the start screen to the end credits seamlessly".
Senior Producer Philippe Ducharme confirmed Dead Space is "not a 60-100 hour game", with an emphasis on completing it all in one sitting. Whether players will be disappointed by a relatively short runtime or not, Dead Space is keen to amplify its credentials as an immersive survival horror.
After Visceral shuttered its doors in 2017, Dead Space has remained adrift after the disappointing sales of the third game. Although Dead Space 4 had been planned prior to Visceral's demise, EA put the series on ice. All of this has eventually led to the Star Wars: Squadrons developer taking over and charting this new era. Thankfully, Dead Space is back from the dead and ready to put our hairs on end.
