Dead Space Remake Gives Isaac a Voice

The Dead Space remake coming from Electronic Arts‘ Motive Studios will expectedly make a number of changes compared to what the original game offered, and on Tuesday, the creators of the remake showed off some of those differences in action during the game’s first dev stream. One of the biggest changes revealed there was that the protagonist Isaac Clarke would actually have a voice in this game with voice actor Gunner Wright returning to the role, though Motive said it’ll be using Isaac’s voice sparingly.

To be clear, Isaac did have a voice in the original Dead Space – it just wasn’t one that spoke actual words and held conversations with the creepy Necromorphs that prowled the USG Ishimura. Instead, we only heard Isaac uttering grunts of pain or screaming out in the original Dead Space. Dead Space 2 featured a fully voiced version of the character with Wright returning from the original Dead Space to give the protagonist a voice.

The same will be done in the Dead Space remake, though that exact kind of decision is what would normally raise concerns from fans about altering the core experience too much. Part of what made Dead Space so frightening was the limited interaction between Isaac and other characters and the fact that Isaac wasn’t chattering by himself so often which left players to explore in silence and take in the ambience of the game.

Thankfully, the Motive developers appear to have anticipated those concerns and prepared the outline above to show how and when Isaac would speak aboard the ship. He’ll primarily be talking only when someone’s speaking to him, and he’ll talk during times in which “it would feel weird if he remained silent.”

Those who remember Dead Space thoroughly may anticipate some of the moments where he’ll talk already, but we won’t know for sure when he’ll be speaking since those specific moments weren’t referenced in the stream. Some general examples were provided, however. Given that Isaac is supposed to be an expert in his engineering craft, moments where his expertise might be called upon will be accompanied by voice lines from the protagonist. The developers also hoped that these speaking moments would help add a sense of urgency to certain situations without breaking immersion.

The Dead Space remake does not yet have a release date, but people have an idea already of when the game might come out.