Dead Space Remake

Today at EA Play Live a special surprise was revealed at the end of the show. EA is bringing back Dead Space with Motive as the development studio. It will be a remake of the first game and will be available for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is currently no release date.

Motive is a studio out of Montreal, Quebec and its most recent release was Star Wars: Squadrons.

Dead Space was a popular survival horror trilogy released back in 2008 for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. EA Redwood was the initial developer before Visceral Games took over for the remainder of the series. Dead Space 2 was the critically acclaimed sequel released in 2011. Unfortunately, it was decided to chase trends and Dead Space 3, released in 2013, became an action shooter and lost much of the survival horror roots that had helped make the series so popular. Additionally, there was Dead Space: Extraction, an on-rails shooter for Wii and PlayStation 3, and Dead Space Ignition, a visual novel released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. During the course of the series a book, comic, and two films were released.

Set in the sci-fi rich future, Dead Space evoked a design aesthetic and feeling of terror not felt since Event Horizon was released in 1997. Players step into the engineering boots of Isaac Clarke as he is sent on a rescue mission for the planet-cracking mining vessel, the USG Ishimura. Once onboard, Isaac discovers the ship has been overrun by the murderous Necromophs. It is up to him to survive the vicious creatures, repair the ship's many systems, and find a way to escape.

Dead Space was unique in its approach to survival horror. Rather than shooting the heads or torsos to take down an enemy, players would need to remove the limbs of Necromorphs as they had regeneration capabilities. Through the use of stasis, Isaac could slow enemies, machinery, and move objects to solve puzzles. Zero-G environments added another layer to this with spacewalks and exposed sections of the USG Ishimura.

I absolutely adored Dead Space and was saddened when it was revealed EA was shutting down Visceral Games and shelving the series following poor sales of the third game. While Visceral Games may not be bringing it back to life, I have cautious optimism as I never expected this series to see the light of day again.