Dead Space Remake Could Be Procedurally Generated Open-World

With the massive success and appeal of Resident Evil 2 Remake, which prompted Capcom to work on more remakes, we might be living in a golden age of horror games and remakes. However, when talking about seminal horror games, one can’t possibly not talk about Dead Space. Released in 2008, the game sent shivers down everyone’s spines, and rightfully so. Innovating on Resident Evil 4’s over-the-shoulder gameplay, Dead Space dialed back on the action and cranked up the horror to eleven, with its amazing and haunting sound design, survival gameplay, and general immersion.

Dead Space took the world by storm and the series had a few follow-up titles, but it has since been silent ad dormant. With so many classic horror games getting the remake treatment, it is no wonder if fans thought that a Dead Space remake was overdue, and their prayers were announced. A Dead Space remake was announced to be in development by EA‘s newly formed Motive Studios, inspired by the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 2 Remake.

The original game and the series overall were all linear games, so many players speculated whether the remake would also be a linear game. However, according to a new job listing on the EA website, that might not be the case. The job listing for the Senior Open World Programmer position at Motive Studios states that the company is “looking for a Senior Programmer to guide the development of procedural open world technology using the Frostbite Engine.”

The description for the job listing mentions the game as an “exciting project where open-worlds are important to the experience.” The requirements further demand experience with “procedural content creation algorithm and techniques.” While this very strongly implies that the Dead Space remake is an open-world game, the same can not be said of the procedural generation allusions, as details regarding it are scarce, so we’re left to speculate.

Developers often use procedural generation to create assets for their games to speed up the development process. Another implication could be that the game may have a separate gameplay mode with procedural generation, akin to rogue-like games, such as Returnal, or the game itself may be a rogue-like game similar to, again, Returnal.

Much secrecy and mystery surround the Dead Space remake, so nothing can be said with certainty. With the massive universal appeal of the original game, expectations are very high and the developers have a tough job ahead if they wish to surpass the original game. Whether it proves to be as successful as the Resident Evil 2 Remake it is supposedly inspired by, much like how the original Resident Evil 4 inspired the original Dead Space, only time will tell.