Dead Space 3 Writer Would Redo Story ‘Almost Completely’

Dead Space 3 writer Chuck Beaver would redo the game’s story “almost completely” by focusing on a mentally broken Isaac Clark if he was ever approached about a potential remake.

As reported by VGC, Beaver told YouTuber CaptainBribo he would keep some of the key lore elements of Dead Space 3, such as Tau Volantis and the enormous necromorphs known as the Brethren Moons, but would refocus the narrative on the travails of a mentally broken Isaac in the wake of the traumatic events of Dead Space 2.

“I think though now in this remake territory, I would redo Dead Space 3 almost completely,” Beaver said. “Now we’re in the consequences of him being broken, and I would make it like a Tyler Durden [from Fight Club] thing [with] an unreliable narrator, and you’re like ‘what happened?’, and the player doesn’t even know, Isaac certainly doesn’t know, is it him? Is it really him?”.

Beaver said he would keep this cerebral element of the plot alive for the majority of a remake of Dead Space 3. Near the narrative’s conclusion the player would discover that Isaac’s confusing visions of himself had been real after all, and that the necromorphs had manifested another version of the protagonist, a “dark Isaac”. The game’s climax would see the two Isaac’s battle one another, with dark Isaac eventually coming out on top and setting the stage for Beaver’s vision for Dead Space 4.

Dead Space 3 instead launched in 2013 to a mixed reception, with players generally considering it the weakest of the trilogy. The industry was blending single and multiplayer games at the time, Beaver said, and this caused some problems to the development team.

“One of the biggest narrative challenges I’ve ever faced is that we didn’t have co-op as a feature until a year into Dead Space 3, so we had not written the story to do that,” Beaver said. “By the time they figured out that co-op had to get in, there was just enough time to get the feature in on an engineering schedule.”

The design shift required Beaver and his colleagues to adapt many scenes to account for the presence of a second player or AI character. “We were like, ‘that doesn’t even make sense’, and everyone’s like ‘don’t know, don’t care’, and [director Ben Wanat] and I were like ‘oh my f***ing god, how are we gonna solve this?’”

A remake of the original Dead Space released in January 2023 to positive reception from critics and fans (IGN said it was amazing), seemingly prompting EA to ask fans if they wanted the second and third games remade too.

It’s therefore possible we’ll see Dead Space 3 remade one day, though whether or not it would have a story as different as Beaver wants remains to be seen.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer