During its last livestream, Dead Space Remake confirmed that it will not be released in 2022. Motive Studio also illustrated the advances in sound design with gameplay extracts.
Dead Space Remake had promised to bring fresh news and it is clear that it did not pose a rabbit for us. As one might assume following the teaser, Motive Studio reserved the recent developer diary for sound design. Reworked ambient and weapon sounds, exit window, we go around the announcements with a small summary.
A whole new soundscape
We’ll blow the bad news: Dead Space remake won’t land on PS5, Xbox Series X | S and PC in 2022. As journalist Jeff Grubb had announced earlier, Motive Studio is aiming a release for early 2023.
But the developers were mainly there to explain to us in detail sound design changeswith in-game comparisons between the original and the remake. The team returned to the concepts of audio occlusion and obstruction, as well as 3D audio. The overall idea behind this was to illustrate how sounds can be perceived or not, depending on the position of the hero, an obstacle or the types of materials used by the elements of the scenery.
For example, when Isaac walks through a thick metal door, but there is an adjoining window, the sound/music continues to propagate through the glass. Conversely, an armored door with walls around it will block out any noise. Despite the few excerpts, we can already see that the spatialization is much more precise than before.
Then we also had a brief topo on weapons, including the Plasma Cutter and the Assault Rifle. Like the general soundscape, the rendering of the two guns has been modified. On the Plasma Cutter, we can precisely distinguish the plasma part better when Isaac shoots.
Dead Space presents the ALIVE system
The last big chunk of this dev diary has to do with ALIVE. which will reflect the mental and physical state of Isaac, the game’s hero. This system contains all the elements of the character’s breathing and heart rate, as well as the dialogues and other spoken sounds, which are affected by external components. Running, fighting a tough fight, losing oxygen will affect Isaac. If he survived a jumpscare, you’ll hear the dread in his voice.
As for spatialization, Motive Studio wants to revisit dated effects today, like what happened when Isaac lacked oxygen. In the 2008 version, the character only had to consume a refill of oxygen or return to the interior of the ship when confronted with it, in order to resume normal breathing in one fell swoop. But there, he will catch his breath gradually and therefore in a more natural way. Finally, the dialogues themselves will have three variations depending on Isaac’s state – normal, tired or injured.