One of the best horror games ever made, Dead Space, is reportedly getting a remake. Jeff Grubb of Venture Beat reported that Motive Studios, the developers of Star Wars: Squadrons is currently working on a remake of the first Dead Space game. He also hinted at a new game, but most of his report was in relation to the remake.
Electronic Arts has Star Wars: Battlefront II co-developer Motive working on a new Dead Space game. Eurogamer and Gematsu first reported the existence of the game, and GamesBeat can confirm parts of what each outlet has heard. While a new Dead Space is coming, Motive is rebooting the franchise with a full-fledged remake.
What this sounds like is EA is testing the waters on interest in Dead Space. Game companies will occasionally remake a game from a franchise that has been dormant to test the waters and see if further expansion could be lucrative. This could also be an excuse to get a new engine to build off of by remaking a game with familiar material on the new engine and then re-use that engine for new games.
Whatever the reason, a new Dead Space would be welcome news for fans of horror games, especially big budget horror titles. Resident Evil is currently the dominant force in that category, but with rumors of a new Silent Hill, and a reboot of Dead Space we could be witnessing a return of the AAA horror game.
The game would recreate the terrifying story of Isaac Clarke responding to a distress signal to a space station that has gone dark. Not only that, but Clarke’s girlfriend Nicole Brennan was among one of the many people on that space station. The last message Clarke received from Brennan was a distress signal of her own. Clarke’s motivations are clear, figure out why the space station has gone dark (spoiler: it’s monsters) and find Brennan.
Dead Space was new and innovative at the time. Horror stories had been told in space before, but everything about Dead Space was refreshing thanks to a cool weapon, some fun physics, and a silent protagonist making everything feel even more eerie. The game was popular enough to get two sequels, but after that it was never heard from again. After the development studio, Visceral Games, was closed in 2017 it was assumed that the franchise would not be returning. Maybe that assumption, however, was a bit premature.