How about a remake of Dead Space? In mid-January, Motive, a Montreal-based studio affiliated with Electronic Arts, unveiled a brand-new trailer for this remake of the classic survival horror game, due on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series on January 27, 2023. A launch trailer, to be more precise, showing a little more about the game.
What's the remake all about? First of all, a little background on the story: we play as Isaac Clarke, an ordinary engineer on a mission to repair a spaceship, theUSG Ishimura. But the mission doesn't go as planned, as the crew has been massacred and infected by Necromorphs, a kind of living, deformed corpse that you'll have to skin with your tools if you want to survive. You'll also have to find Isaac's missing girlfriend, Nicole.
On the gameplay front, a number of improvements have been made, starting with the skinning system. As Electronic Arts explains,"Necromorphs [...] have been recreated with the new skinning system, which revolves around multiple layers of flesh, sinew and bone that break, tear and shatter in an even more repulsive manner". You'll need to be ingenious and strategic to eliminate these monstrosities with your arsenal.
Another improvement is the revised Intensity Manager, which"dynamically adjusts what appears in front of Isaac, from Necromorph apparitions and the way they choose to attack, to environmental effects such as light, smoke, particles and sound". Note that Isaac's breathing and heartbeat adapt according to his stress level, giving you information on"his mental, emotional and physical state".
As far as your tools are concerned, theengineering experience has been optimized, since it is indeed without weapons that you embark on theUSG Ishimura and have to dismember the Necromorphs. The idea? Use your high-tech engineering tools to do so. You'll also have to solve puzzles, and use the ship's system malfunctions to defeat the enemies. Plenty of possibilities for completing your mission.
As for the map, there are no loading screens or camera blackouts to disrupt your progress. You'll also be able to explore new rooms, roads and obstacles, and benefit from a new map interface and improved plotter. A game entirely redesigned for the latest generation of consoles, with sound and graphics in line with their operating capabilities.
Our verdict on Dead Space Remake:
Dead Space Remake is a very good survival horror that has clearly not aged a bit! We played the game for a total of ten hours, about halfway through, but the jumpscares and other scary moments got the better of us... In terms of gameplay, there have been a few changes from the original game, adapted to the new consoles and allowing for smoother controls and narration. It's clean, it's good.
We also appreciate the game's diversity, with combat phases in the purest tradition, but also with weightless navigation phases, which are quite fun to play. Enemy dismemberment (the only way to neutralize them) is particularly well realized, and offers the possibility of devising various strategies, depending on the enemy or our own good will, to kill our opponents.
Graphically speaking, we recommend the performance mode, which allows you to enjoy the game in the best possible way, with more qualitative renderings and a rather well-realized play of light and shadow, making this remake even creepier than it already is. But it still suffers from its comparison with The Callisto Protocol, which is graphically prettier, but less accomplished from a gameplay point of view.
We also like the game's sound system, which plays as much on the sound of your TV as on that of the controller. The sound is constant, omnipresent in its small noises, and provides unparalleled immersion, even slowing us down as we progress, so attentive are we to every sound detail that could herald the appearance of an enemy. Isaac's heartbeats are also worth mentioning, raising the anxiety level to zero!
A game that will undoubtedly please fans of the franchise, as well as survival horror fans in general. As for us, we promise to try and finish it without hiding under the comforter... In any case, we'd love to go back!
Released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series on January 27, 2023. All you have to do now is get your hands on it!
