A recent rumour suggests that EA Motive is the developer responsible for work on a new Dead Space game. The thing is, it doesn’t sound like it’s a remake. Instead, it sound like the company is reimagining the Dead Space series. This has me thinking that the game might not be all fans want it to live up to be. Instead, this is going to be EA Motive’s version of Dead Space, a game that doesn’t resemble the original, and may simply use the name and that alone. While there’s a good chance that it could still be good, I worry for the fan base and what EA is thinking right now.
Dead Space has a lot of lore around it. There’s the development of technology as it has been, which sets the tone for why everything looks quite industrial, then there are the mad religious zealots who worship the aliens that want to transform everyone into fleshy moons. Finally, there’s the careful way each game was crafted to be both spooky and intriguing all at once. There’s a dreadful beauty to them all that all fans adore, and I don’t know that any other developer could do the universe justice.
EA Motive is, of course, perfectly capable of making a horror game in space. The company has proven itself with many titles, and handling a Dead Space reimagining would probably go quite well. But for the purists who adore the franchise, making any sort of change won’t be good enough. Having Dead Space lore rewritten for the sake of a new title that’s similar isn’t what we want. For me, and probably a number of fans, it’s Dead Space 4 or nothing.
None of this is to say that I won’t play whatever Dead Space title EA Motive does make. I think I’d probably really enjoy it. The thing is, the gameplay was fantastic already. Any innovations the company makes will be on the same level as Resident Evil 7, and that seems like a direction that’s incredibly dangerous for such a franchise. Hopefully, the developer proves me wrong and puts out a stunning game. If not, at least Dead Space is apparently living on in some form.