Beloved sci-fi horror video game franchise Dead Space is set for a resurrection, according to publisher EA. A next-gen remake of the 2008 classic has been announced.
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>> UPLOADING…Dismember your worst nightmare – limb by limb. Revisit the first #DeadSpace, rebuilt from the ground up by @MotiveStudio. pic.twitter.com/gTm2rb4AaO
— Dead Space (@deadspace) July 22, 2021
The original game was developed by now-defunct Visceral Games, then known as EA Redwood Shores, and was released for the PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Now, EA Motive, the studio behind Star Wars Squadrons, will be remaking Dead Space “from-the-ground-up” for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
So far only a brief teaser trailer of in-engine footage setting the mood for EA Motive’s remake has been revealed. According to IGN, the devs at EA Motive are taking steps to stay faithful to the original while modernising it.
Senior Producer Philippe Ducharme and Creative Director Roman Campos-Oriola have said that the remake will be more than just a polished-up version of the original game. The developers are completely rebuilding and remaking the game in EA’s prestine Frostbite Engine.
Campos-Oriola explained that the team is referencing all the original assets of Dead Space, and not just what shipped on disc.
“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],” Campos-Oriola said.
“Then in terms of visuals, sound, gameplay, everything, we are rebuilding all of these assets. 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.”
While development is still quite early, the team at EA Motive are already planning how next-gen tech can improve upon the original experience. The restraints that existed in 2008 no longer apply.
“We want to make that immersion even deeper with a fully interactive experience, from the start screen to the end credits. We don’t want anything to pull you out of the experience and we don’t want any cuts,” Campos Oriola said.
“[The faster SSDs of new consoles mean] there’s not going to be any loading. There’s not going to be any moment where we’re going to cut your experience, where we’re going to cut your camera. You can play it from the start screen to the end credits seamlessly.”
The team has also confirmed that microtransactions will not be shipped with the game with Campos-Oriola saying “We’re also learning from mistakes such as microtransactions, which we will not have, for instance, in our game.”
Dead Space now joins other classic games that were given top-down next-gen remakes, including Demon’s Souls and Final Fantasy 7.
By Luis Monzon
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