While the Dead Space remake brings general improvements across the board, making for a modern, smooth experience with lush ray-traced lighting, Sony wants you to know that the sci-fi horror game runs a little bit better on PS5.
It all depends on them DualSense controller on PS5 and how its unique technologies, like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, are used to create it Empty room even more insistent. the PlayStation Blog (opens in new tab) describes all of the different ways the game uses the console’s hardware, but what I’m most excited about is what this will mean for dismembering Necromorphs aboard the USG Ishimura.
By using DualSense’s adaptive triggers, the remake lives up to that Empty room‘s legendary plasma cutter. That’s because, through localized vibrations, you feel the kinetic nature of the plasma energy, rising in the trigger before unleashing the full power of the beam. After you fire, the triggers quickly kick in again, allowing you to charge up another shot and fire at the enemy Slashers, Hunters, and Wheezers.
If there is anything to know about this space survival game, precision is the key to panic. True to the nature of the genre, you’re never full of ammo, which means you’ll have to carefully choose when to fire your shots and which limb you’re aiming for. That’s because bullets (largely) don’t work to slow down the horrors that haunt the deck of the spaceship you’re exploring Empty room.
The more traditional weapons in Dead Space also get the full treatment of the PS5 controller hardware. A largely straightforward automatic weapon, the Pulse Rifle features precise weight and recoil through a mix of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. This is reflected in the weapon’s sway, the suitably powerful kick on each round, and the feel of the weapon after each bullet has left the chamber. It’s the blunt sledgehammer from Isaac Clarke’s arsenal, after all, that lacks the surgical precision of the engineer’s more technical inventory. I’m glad to hear that the remake is just as messy as the original game.
Haptic feedback is just as important to the experience as triggers, especially when it comes to Issac’s suit and other survival tools. One of the smaller touches I look forward to is the zero gravity moments and the air lockers. That’s because not only can you feel the atmosphere evaporating when those hangar doors open via the PS5 controller, you can also feel a heaving weight of Clarke’s boots magnetizing onto the ship’s steel.
Your Kinesis and Statis tools have received the same DualSense treatment. Vincent Wang, Motive’s senior brand manager, says you get “real-time feedback” when you’re slowing down environmental objects and enemies, or throwing things around. Dead Space isn’t the first PS5 horror title to use this technology in this way, the game’s spiritual successor, The Callisto Protocol adds an additional layer of violence Thanks to the PS5 controller. In this deep space horror game you have a tool called GRP that allows you to levitate objects and throw them through the environment. There, too, you can feel the energy boost in the device and the change in weight of objects that you pick up.
Tomb of the Mutilated
Most deliciously, EA has completely redesigned Motive for how you can dismember the various undead creatures found throughout the game’s corridors and crawlspaces. A look at the Dismemberment & Body Destruction Tech Demo reveals what’s in store for the villains you’ll encounter, and it’s not good news for them.
Just as the rig on your character’s back displays their health, stat, and kinesis reserves, Necromorphs have their in-world way of displaying information. It’s a lot less high-tech, but as you damage your enemies you’ll see bones snap and brutally tear away layers of rotten flesh. This prepares you to dynamically see where vulnerabilities are in real-time for top-notch dismemberment, without the need for an elaborate HUD or anything that breaks the immersion.
Necros can even be reduced to a mess of skeletal remains only to continue their undead attack in a weakened state. It is new in the world of Empty room, and should go the spooky extra mile to make you feel even more vulnerable in the doomed mission to find your girlfriend and get out alive. Make sure to stomp those corpses to death because they can only be mostly dead, and I can’t wait to see what surprises are around the corner when the game launches on January 27th.
