Motive pulled an unusual move today for a major AAA studio and showed off pre-production gameplay and concepts from the Dead Space remake. The community live stream was intended to show fans their ideas for modernizing the classic game, and get feedback on if they are headed in the right direction as they look to evolve what came before while remaining faithful to the core of the classic. The stream showcased a new “flesh peeling system” that adds another layer to the dismemberment system, revealed original Isaac Clarke voice actor Gunner Wright returning to voice the character in the remake, and showed how they are updating the environment with added fidelity and details.
Updates to the dismemberment system was one of the central things the stream focused on, showing the concept motive has for enhancing how you’ll be cutting off limbs. Shots will now tear the flesh away, exposing bone. Hit a different spot, and you won’t cut the limb off, you’ll just remove more flesh. This makes it play even more tactically than the original, requiring a bit more precision with your shots to remove the limbs. Additionally, thicker sections of flesh left connected after a dismemberment could cause a limb to be detached, but still dangle by the attached flesh. While they didn’t showcase anything more than the “naked necromorph,” they hinted that armor and clothing could further create opportunities for tactical gameplay.
This also gives new life to other weapons besides the classic plasma cutter. You can now get a better sense of how much damage you are doing by seeing the flesh fall off the enemies, and even expose weak points that can then be shot be the plasma cutter for dismemberment. It’s opening up a lot of possibilities for new tension and exciting gameplay moments with increased visceral detail.
The stream also revealed another surprise detail: despite not having a voice in the original game (besides those grunts and yells as he stomped necromorphs), Isaac Clarke voice actor Gunnar Wright (from Dead Space 2 and 3) is returning to the role for Dead Space remake. Don’t worry, they aren’t suddenly going to have Isaac talking all the time and ruining those scary moments. In fact, they have a few core rules to ensure his talking doesn’t break tension. First is that he will primarily only speak when spoken to. The second rule is that anytime he speaks outside of the first rule, it’s only in places where it wouldn’t make sense for him to stay quiet.
Along with the return of Wright, the Motive devs confirmed an expanded story that will retain the focus of the original game’s iconic narrative, but offer more insight into other characters and will do more to highlight the fact that Isaac’s entire struggle is his goal of finding Nicole.
Motive used the stream to also show how they were improving on the environments and updating methods of getting around, like fixing the original game’s jarring zero-G jumps.
You can watch the full Dead Space community live stream video on demand on Twitch.
Dead Space doesn’t currently have a release date, but is headed to new-gen consoles and PC. Rumors put the release at the end of 2022 at the earliest.
