Dead Space Remake developers are terrified of their own creation
As Dead Space Remake approaches launch, developers at Motive Studio say the horror game is so scary they can’t bear to play it at night with headphones, promising news for Isaac Clarke and Ishimura fans — and the adult diaper industry — as we rocket toward its release date for Dead Space.
When was the last time a horror game made you literally too scared to play it? I personally had a hard time with Alien Isolation – there’s a part, right towards the end, where the lights are out and you’re in a nest of corridors with about five open ventilation shafts above you, and it feels like every little movement your mate can summon Xenomorph.
Horror in games is a tricky balance. Frighten us too much and we may decide to just walk away. Play too fine, and the whole effect is shot.
One of the best old games, the original Dead Space had a solid mix of action and horror. However, the upcoming remake apparently treads much more heavily on the fear pedal, to the point where its own producers are afraid of what they’ve brought into the world.
“When I play it at night, I can’t play it with headphones,” says Dead Space’s technical director, David Robillard, in an interview with Play, published via GamesRadar. “It’s just too damn scary. Just the amount of realism and, again, atmosphere. Not just visually, right? They really add a lot to this kind of genre and make the whole experience come together even more.”
The scariest part of Dead Space is definitely the medical bay, which judging by gameplay trailers will return in the Remake. However, some parts of the original game have been changed and reworked, with Motive aiming to improve any weaker parts or elements.
“The first part of the game, if you play them side by side, they’re extremely similar,” says Motive’s senior producer Phillipe Ducharme. “But when you go through some of the chapters, there are some goals that weren’t as popular.
“We wanted to make sure that if we made a change, it was actually reflecting on one of our main pillars … not just making changes because we thought we knew better than the original team, because they did an amazing job.”
When you head back aboard the Ishimura, if you want to avoid getting hacked to pieces, check out all the new Dead Space weapon upgrades. You might also want to know who’s in and who’s out of the entire Dead Space cast, or maybe get the full Dead Space system requirements before the game starts.
