In a recent interview with Rely on Horror, we sat down with developers Joel MacMillan, the Realization Director of the game, as well as Jo Berry, the Senior Game Writer at Motive Studio to talk about the upcoming Dead Space remake.
When asked about whether the team would be changing some elements of the story or fleshing out other side stories in the remake, Jo Berry said:
Yes, in fairly small ways that just help to flesh out all the various events that were going on surrounding the story of Dead Space 1. Things like, we know who the chief of security was, but she’s not around anymore, we know that Gabe Weller was doing things on the planet during this time and we know what Eckhardt was doing in Extraction, etc. This doesn’t mean you’ll be playing as these characters during this remake or anything, but I have updated the writing to include little tidbits from the other various lore.
Berry added:
There are even some Dead Space 3 references hidden as well, for the very observant player who recognizes them (laughs). Any references to the other media also need to be more than just fanservice nods or ‘Hey, remember this?’ They actually need to fit into and contribute to the story and be in its rightful place. Another example is that we know because of Extraction that there’s an entire water system on the Ishimura, and even though Isaac doesn’t go there, we can have a little nod as to why he doesn’t go there without hitting the player in the face with a deadpan lore explanation from another game. It’s been really fun to try working in all these other elements and we can’t wait for fans of the series to experience them when the game is out.
After hearing about all the different things Motive has in store for us with this remake, we can’t wait for it to come out. Will it do justice to a beloved horror classic while still being able to innovate and stand on its own? Only time will tell. But probably.
Dead Space launches on January 27, 2023, and is available to pre-order now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the EA App, Steam, and Epic Games Store.
