The upcoming Dead Space remake has changed certain scenes and horrifying moments from the original game to make them scarier.
In an interview with NME, EA Motive senior producer Philippe Ducharme confirmed that some parts of the original Dead Space have been tweaked so that instead of watching something happening from behind a screen or glass, players will either see it in the same room as them or actually have protagonist Isaac as the victim.
“The original Dead Space had a lot of things happening behind the glass, but now we tried to have some of them happen to Isaac instead,” explained Ducharme. “So if you [go] to the end of chapter two, that scene plays out differently to the original game, where instead of happening behind glass, it happens to Isaac.”
Ducharme added that “there’s a couple of times that this happens through the game,” but noted that Motive knew certain scenes from the 2008 version of Dead Space had to remain identical.
“There’s some that were like…it has to stay the same timing, the same pacing – the headbanger, for instance,” explained Ducharme. It was a moment that was like, when you opened that door and you hear it, you’re like…what the hell is that? And so when you walk over to the timing for it, we tried to nail it identical to what was there.”
In comparison, Ducharme pointed out that for other scenes, “it was important for me that we took Isaac and we put him in that moment, in the middle of it, versus behind the glass a little bit further [back], while making sure we didn’t break immersion.”
“It was always a fun line we were trying to keep, so there’s a couple of places where we did that throughout the experience to make sure that the re-enactment, or the re-recording of those lines, or these moments, make sense in the case of a remake.”
On the subject of why Dead Space needed a remake, Ducharme suggested that many horror fans “missed out” on the original release, and the success of mainstream horror shows like Stranger Things has increased the game’s potential market.
Additional reporting by Jake Tucker.
