TheDead Spaceremake delivered on its promise to modernize the original classic, leading to a fun and frightening campaign experience. However, once the credits rolled, there was little else to do but replay the campaign, causing the title to come and go from the spotlight. The series' next iteration, which could bea remake ofDead Space 2or an entirely original entry, will need to find a way to extend its lifespan, modernizing even further. Luckily the series can look to other classic survival horrors to see how they’ve adapted over time.Resident Evil, which has consistently attempted to adapt across its 27-year history, is experiencing a heyday as of late, and one feature, in particular, could give the nextDead Spacegame a longer life span.
Dead Spaceis among the most revered survival horror franchises of all time, despite ending on a lackluster entry. Nearly a decade after the original trilogy concluded, a remake of the original title was released, to critical and commercial acclaim. This success has seemingly revived the series, leading many to speculate whether another remake or a brand-new title, may be on the horizon. Regardless, fans hope that the next entry will continue to honor the original trilogy while adding new features that set the series' future apart from its past. One way in which the series could do this would be to add one of theResident Evilseries' most successful features, competitive challenges.
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Resident Evil’s Competitive Challenges Extend The Experience
Resident EvilandDead Spaceare both renowned for their horrifying single-player campaigns, which offer a thrilling experience, but limited long-term appeal to casual gamers. Over the years,Resident Evilhas introduced various competitive modes and spin-off titles, in an effort to grow the series beyond its solo restrictions. One feature that has found significant success is competitive solo challenges.Resident Evilhas introduced various forms of this feature over the years, but two of its most successful modern forms are unique campaign challenges and the popular Mercenaries Mode.
Resident Evil’s Mercenaries modepresents players with a high-score challenge, in which they attempt to achieve a high score by surviving and eradicating waves of progressively tougher enemies in a closed space. Players are presented a score and rank upon completion of a round and are able to compare their scores with others around the world, creating a competitive scene. This idea of competitive single-player has become so embraced byResident Evilthat its single-player modes are now built upon the concept of replayability, with players rewarded in-game for completing unique speed-running and weapons-based challenges, as well as being featured by Capcom itself on its website’s leaderboards.
While theDead Spaceremake is getting attention from speedrunners, its long-term appeal to casual gamers was lacking. The series' next entry could adaptResident Evil’s approach to single-player competitive challenges in a variety of ways. Developer EA Motive could attempt to channelResident Evil 4 Remake’s unique campaign challenges, such as completing a new game, not new game plus, on the hardest difficulty with the highest rank, or requiring the game to be completed in a short time without using the Store.
Perhaps the nextDead Space, could even feature its own take on Mercenaries mode. The originalDead Space 2featured a multiplayer component, which was not well received. Its remake could replace the mode with a solo challenge, during which players must survive specific scenarios while attempting to achieve the highest score, tracked by online leaderboards. There is no telling when the nextDead Spacewill release, but fans hope to see theDead Spaceremake’s excellence carried forward and grown upon as the series becomes fully revived for a new generation.
Dead Spaceis available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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