After a great current-gen remake, it looks likeDead Spaceis back on the shelf for now.EA Motive will instead be tacklingBattlefieldandIron Man, a shift that will hopefully bear good fruit, though the fact that there won’t be aDead Space 2remake, nor aDead Space 4anytime soon, is sure to come as a disappointment to fans of the iconic survival horror franchise.
At one point, it seemed as thoughThe CallistoProtocolwould be carryingDead Space’s torch, but with the project floundering both critically and commercially, this doesn’t appear to be the case. This is particularly devastating not only becauseCallistoappeared to have so much initial promise, but also because it was being led by Glen Schofield, the creative mind behind the originalDead Space; in the eyes of many gamers, if anyone could make a spiritual successor toDead Space, capturing its tone, spirit, and gameplay, it was Schofield. With bothCallistoandDead Spacedormant, players hungry for more terrifying deep space survival horror might be starving for quite some time.
ThoughThe Callisto Protocolwas a disappointment, it’s not without its strengths, and some would argue that its release date being just a month ahead of theDead Spaceremake played a significant role in its negative reception.
Sci-Fi Horror Is Rife With Potential
AsDead Spacefans mourn the loss of the series for the second time, it’s important to remember that science fiction horror games can go beyond just one series.Even inDead Space’s wake, a number of incredible horror games have leveraged science-fiction conventions to great effect. Such games include:
What sets these games apart from other horror titles is their deep connection to science-fiction themes. While a horror franchise likeResident Evilmay feature sci-fi elements, the exploration of these elements isn’t the central focus of the narrative. This stands in contrast to titles likeSignalisandSoma, which use theoretical tech and science to delve into psychology and philosophy, rather than as justifications for gameplay. In this way, they are likeDead Space, which leverages space-faring sci-fi conventions to induce cosmic dread and pose existential questions.
Dead Space’s intimate narrative, stunning visual design, and satisfying gameplay solidify it as a masterpiece of sci-fi horror, but it doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of the genre in gaming. If anything,Dead Spaceought to serve as inspiration for how to handle sci-fi writing in a horror story, as games can learn from its strengths without trying to be aCallisto-style spiritual successor.
Video games are uniquely suited to science-fiction storytelling, as players can investigate themes and narrative concepts via interactivity. For example, a story likeSoma’s, which seeks to interrogate commonly held beliefs about consciousness and identity, is able to get a lot of mileage out of its nature as a video game, as it nurtures a very specific type of connection between audience and protagonist. Another example: thoughnot explicitly a sci-fi game,Bloodborneshares Lovecraft’s obsession with perception and forbidden knowledge, and the game’s Insight mechanic is utilized to this end.
Put simply, video games have access to narrative devices that other mediums do not. Interactivity, the key factor that separates games from other media, is especially powerful when it comes to science fiction and horror stories, which tap into psychology and philosophy more than other genres. As such, games that blend hard science fiction and horror need to stick around, regardless of thestatus ofDead Spaceand its inheritors.
Dead Space (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
