Yesterday we finally got a glimpse of the upcoming revival of the Dead Space franchise from EA Motive and EA, after months of speculation. They rounded out their EA Play Live with a small teaser to announce the game. While the teaser offered very little in the way of information, the team has behind the game opened up about what we can expect in an interview with IGN.
Senior producer Philippe Ducharme and creative director Roman Campos-Oriola spoke with IGn, giving a better idea of what the game will have in store. For fans worried that the remake will remake too much, they assured fans that they have the original vision in mind. That being said, this game will feature more than a fresh coat of paint, being completely rebuilt using the Frostbite engine.
When discussing referencing original assets, even those that never made the original launch, Campos-Oriola stated:
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].
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.
The two confirmed that the game is still early on in development, which has allowed the team to commit to the next-gen hardware offered by the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. This has allowed them to make the immersion “even deeper” plus more “fully interactive” than it has been in the past. An example of this is that the game will feature zero loading screens, stating “there’s not going to be any moment where we’re going to cut your experience.”
Campo also discussed the look of the world and how the new tech has helped, saying:
What was really important was to be able to capture the unique look of Dead Space. That unique sci-fi look, but it’s gritty and dirty and you feel that everything has been used for a long time. Capturing that dirty, industrial look, but with the level of detail that we can afford now, was something important during the production of that atmospheric benchmark.
The duo also went on to confirm that the game will feature NO microtransactions and that there were never any plans to add them to the game. This concern that the game might feature them was not without merit. Previously Dead Space 3 added them, a decision met with backlash and considered one of the turning points for EA as a company. EA would later have multiple microtransaction blunders, with its largest being Star Wars Battlefront II.
Talking about microtransactions it was stated:
We want to make games that deliver the experiences our players are looking for. Sometimes that is a single-player story-focused experience, where players can immerse themselves in another world. Other players want us to show up every day with new content and events in our live services like Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, The Sims, Apex, and FIFA to name a few. We want players to choose an EA game or experience, and that means we need to make the type of games they want to play. Focusing on just one genre or model limits the number of players we can reach. We want to meet the players where they play and commit ourselves to impressing our fans with games that continue to surprise or delight them.
There is currently no release date set for Dead Space. Based on what they said we might be waiting for a few years.
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