Dead Space – Everything We Know About EA Motive’s Survival-Horror Remake

Publisher Electronic Arts is bringing back Dead Space with a full remake, which is being developed by Motive Studio. From what we’ve seen, this new Dead Space seems to follow the original 2008’s game plotline and gameplay pretty closely. There are a few notable changes though, especially to how protagonist Isaac navigates zero-gravity environments and interacts with his fellow crewmates.

Below, we go over everything we know about EA Motive’s Dead Space, from when it’s coming out to what’s different this time around. Having played three hours of the game already, we think the Dead Space remake improves upon the already stellar original. But we’ll have to wait for the game’s full release to know how the latter half of the remake plays out.

Release date

Dead Space is scheduled to launch January 27, 2023. That gives you enough time to finish up this year’s The Callisto Protocol and Signalis if you’ve been planning to and creates some distance between Dead Space and Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake, which is scheduled to launch March 24, 2023. Survival-horror fans are feasting right now, that’s for sure.

What we know

In Dead Space, you play as Isaac Clarke, an engineer assigned to a crew that is responding to a distress signal from the USG Ishimura, a mining vessel. Isaac has a personal stake in the mission–his girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, is the Ishimura’s senior medical officer. However, the situation quickly spirals out of control, as Isaac discovers the Ishimura has been overrun with the mutated corpses of its crew. He sets about fixing the Ishimura in order to escape the nightmare while searching for any clue as to his girlfriend’s whereabouts.

A survival-horror game, Dead Space prioritizes careful precision in combat. Isaac isn’t a trained soldier or fighter and instead needs to rely on the armored protection of his spacesuit and the deadly lethality of makeshift weapons and engineering equipment to survive. The necromorphs taking over the ship aren’t your run-of-the-mill zombies, either–going for the headshot doesn’t slow them down, and in most cases can actually make them stronger. Instead, Isaac has to carve off the limbs of the mutations he faces, slicing away their ability to move and attack in order to defeat them.

In the original game, Isaac never spoke. That’s no longer the case, as he responds to those talking to him in the remake. Save for two established moments, Isaac doesn’t quip though. He really only speaks when spoken to, rarely initiating the conversation.

The remake also reworks how the zero-gravity sections of Dead Space work so that they more closely resemble how they feel in Dead Space 2. Instead of leaping from one spot to another, Isaac takes off into the air and has full control over his movement. Also, like Dead Space 2, the Dead Space remake is one, continuous shot–the tram segments have been replaced with brand-new gameplay sections, uniting the ship as one large space instead of separate levels.

“[Dead Space] is still a linear experience,” Dead Space creative director Roman Campos-Oriola told GameSpot. “But there are some things we added to build on top of that material. The first thing is actually how you progress through the ship and retrace your steps–and sometimes something like that was already built in that space, like in Chapter 5 when you come back to Medical… And on top of that, we’ve added some side content that you’ll be able to notice to let the player see what’s happened for some of the characters on the ship, and the number one thing for me, the number one motivation for Isaac is going to the Ishimura is to be reunited with Nicole.”

That motivation plays out in a new optional side quest in the Dead Space remake, allowing Isaac to trace Nicole’s path through the Ishimura during the days leading up to and during the infection that ravaged the ship.

“We’re going to have some fun, little surprises for the players, especially the ones that know about the lore, so I encourage them to keep their eyes peeled and look around the environment for some fun stuff,” art director Mike Yazijian told GameSpot.

Alongside these changes, Dead Space also ditches power node locks for doors, and instead opts for locks that require security clearance you earn by progressing in the story. Additionally, Isaac will now be able to mess with circuit breakers to redirect the energy of power batteries, creating new types of puzzles and combat scenarios that evolve depending on where you designate a room’s electricity. The remake ditches weapon schematics too, instead opting for Isaac to find his arsenal by exploring the environment.

“When we worked on [the original] Dead Space, there were a lot of things that we wanted to do for the game at that time that we couldn’t because of technical limitations of the engine and the tools that we had,” Yazijian said. “There’s this process that we went through at the beginning of the project and as hardcore fans of Dead Space we wanted to stay true to the original, and we have the utmost respect and love and care towards the original. So, for every single thing that we did, we waited, we thought about it. We had this long process where we go, ‘We don’t want to mess with it if it’s good, and only add something to it to enhance the experience, enhance the visuals.'”

Platforms

Dead Space will release for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

PC system specs

Dead Space’s minimum PC system requirements are:

• OS: Window 10 64-bit +
• Processor: Ryzen 5 2600x, Core i5 8600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD RX 5700, GTX 1070
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 50 GB available space

However, the recommended PC system specs are:

• OS: Window 10 64-bit +
• Processor: Ryzen 5 5600X, Core i5 11600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Radeon RX 6700 XT, Geforce RTX 2070
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 50 GB available space

Trailers

Below, we’ve embedded the gameplay trailer for the Dead Space remake, which showcases a few of Isaac’s new speaking parts, as well as the changes to zero-gravity environments.

Multiplayer details

Dead Space will not feature multiplayer.

DLC/Microtransaction details

EA Motive has not announced any DLC plans for Dead Space. The original game didn’t, so it feels unlikely that this new one will.

That said, there are additional editions of Dead Space and the more expensive ones come with digital add-ons. If you buy the Digital Deluxe Edition or Collector’s Edition, you’ll unlock three exclusive suits and two unique skins you can use in-game. Additionally, the EA Play Pro Edition comes with six suits for Isaac to equip.

Preorder details

If you’re already set on playing this game, you can preorder Dead Space right now. There are no preorder bonuses, however.