We have some new information to share with you today for the upcoming Dead Space remake. Not only are there a few new screenshots out there today, courtesy of the Xbox Store (images since removed) listing, but there is a little bit of new information from a new developer blog that went live today.
In the blog post, the developers at Motive explained a bit about some of the changes they are making. What isn't changing here is the core Dead Space experience. Motive says that are adding in some additional lore from the original game's sequels as well as the Dead Space comics. Part of this includes giving Isaac his voice, which he did not have in the original but did in the sequels. Another part are making some secondary characters have a bigger role this time around.
Motive says that they are adding in "narrative side-quests" into the game. This will provide some of those secondary characters a little more room to grow as part of the overall story. Characters, such as Dr. Cross, who only "appeared" in audio log format will now have some actual screen time. Aiding in this idea is the fact that the USS Ishimura is now a "fully interconnected" ship. This means that you will be able to backtrack to many parts of the ship that you previously worked your way through in order to pick up missed items or perhaps to work on some of these new "narrative side-quests" that are being added.
Senior producer Philippe Ducharme says that Dead Space will also be viewed as "one sequential shot." This means there won't be any obvious loading screens. Ducharme notes that "there are no camera cuts or load screens - unless you die." This also seems to include the tram rides that took players to and from chapters in the original release. I'm interested to see how they incorporate these rides and have them not feel like an obvious loading sequence though.
Motive says that everything has been rebuilt for the new engine, that being Frostbite.
“And with the computational power we have now, we’re able to push lighting much, much, much further, “ David adds, “both from a pure lighting perspective and also a shadowing perspective. And the ‘peeling’ and dismemberment system we have now is really cool and it adds quite a bit to our gameplay; it feels more dynamic, more strategic.â€
“Right, when you start shooting, you see the skin and the flesh getting ripped from the enemy’s body,†says Roman, “and then you start to see the bones underneath, and then you can cut the bones and it cuts the limb, and so on. It looks amazing—but it also gives direct feedback to the player about the amount of damage they’re doing.â€
“And we’re doing a lot with volumetric effects like fog,†says David, “and how that plays with everything: with our shadowing, with our lighting, and also with our physics. We would not have been able to push that at the same level before.â€â€‹
“Right, when you start shooting, you see the skin and the flesh getting ripped from the enemy’s body,†says Roman, “and then you start to see the bones underneath, and then you can cut the bones and it cuts the limb, and so on. It looks amazing—but it also gives direct feedback to the player about the amount of damage they’re doing.â€
“And we’re doing a lot with volumetric effects like fog,†says David, “and how that plays with everything: with our shadowing, with our lighting, and also with our physics. We would not have been able to push that at the same level before.â€â€‹
