With the game being the main ticket, and Downfall coming two weeks later, the middle of the story won’t really be the middle for most people. As an animated movie bridging the gap between the Dead Space comic series and video game, its plot is mostly a foregone conclusion. Shake things up, I’d much rather have an expanded vision of the horror classic instead of a faithful to a fault remake, and with games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake setting the benchmark for such things, I have very high hopes indeed.There are a lot of problems with Dead Space: Downfall. With this knowledge on our hands, it’s safe to assume that a number of things shown this week will shift and change in the coming years, although the foundations of a voiced protagonist and combat that remains true to the original will not waver. The Dead Space remake is still in the very early stages of production, with EA Motive admitting that work on the project began roughly a year ago and full development is finally getting started.

Knowing that this reboot will expand on the Dead Space universe while incorporating elements from the entire trilogy suggests it could even be the start of a new series in itself, although the mythos is woefully convoluted, so I’d rather EA Motive recognises the strength of subtly and leaves just enough to our imagination. While a voiced hero might seem like a step backward, when you consider how it might be utilised, it starts to brim with potential. Horror can afford to bend this rule a little bit, and I hope it does while leaning into the psychological aspect of Isaac’s plight as he experiences visions of his deceased partner and falls victim to the Marker. Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn is a recent example that really took me out of the experience, with the heroine making reference to nearby enemies, objectives, and secrets in a way that hindered immersion. Some games have a habit of making characters speak in unnatural ways purely to communicate information to us.

Dead space animated story