Motive Studio’s remake of the sci-fi survival horror classic dead space is excellent, filling in the gaps and fixing the shortcomings of the original 2008 game. It also adds to the original dead spaceincluding a secret “alternate ending” that provides stronger connective tissue following the original game, 2011 Dead space 2.
dead space players who’ve taken a look at the remake’s achievements and trophies know there’s a secret ending, but it takes a lot of work to get there. For those who are curious — or just don’t want to play, like, 30 hours of dead space remake – here’s what’s different about the alternate ending.
[Ed. note: Spoilers for Dead Space follow, naturally.]
At the end of the game, hero engineer Isaac Clarke faces a heartbreaking reality. The woman he loves, the person who brought him to USG Ishimura in the first place, Dr. Nicole Brennan, was already dead by the time he arrived. The woman he’s been talking to throughout the game isn’t Nicole, but someone else entirely; Isaac hallucinated, a condition brought on by The Marker, the alien technology at the heart of the Necromorph infection and mass hysteria that consumed Ishimura’s crew.
In the original ending, Isaac appears to come to terms with Nicole’s death and escapes the Aegis VII colony in a shuttle. He rewatches Nicole’s last video message, seeming to be in control of his loss. He then hears Nicole’s ghostly whispers once more, and a bloody specter of the undead Nicole rushes at Isaac from the co-pilot’s seat. The game goes to a black screen. It’s just one more hop in the long train of dead spacethe jump is scary.
In the alternate ending, things essentially play out the same way. Isaac realizes he has hallucinated Nicole’s face and voice, and he escapes Aegis VII. But Isaac behaves very differently on the shuttle. He looks crazy and detached – almost happy. Nicole appears behind him, seemingly in good health, and says, “The Ishimura really was a big ship.”
“Yeah, we were lucky to see her in her prime,” Isaac replies.
“Are we going home, Isaac?” There is so much work to do,” says Nicole. “Soon, I promise,” Isaac replies. “I have to build a little something first.”
“To me?” said Nicole. “What is that?”
“It’s a surprise, honey,” Isaac said smiling. “But I think you’re going to like it.”
The camera then pans behind them and we see Isaac’s helmet lying on the ground. The deck of the escape shuttle turns out to be covered in Marker symbols — you know, the bloody graffiti scrawled all over the Ishimura — implying that the Marker affected Isaac more deeply than haunting him with his dead ex-girlfriend. .
The dead space the remake alternate ending ties the first game’s ending more strongly to the events of Dead space 2. In the sequel, Isaac wakes up in a hospital in a colony called Sprawl with no memory of the past three years. Dead space 2 reveals that a new necromorph infestation plaguing the sprawl was caused by Isaac himself – in the years since, Isaac has built a new marker, and the Church of Unitology wants him to build more .
Unlock the secret alternative ending with the dead space remake bolsters this narrative, as it requires finding 12 Marker Fragments scattered around the game in New Game Plus mode. This mode only unlocks after completing dead space once, which means players are set for a long journey to see the remake’s secret ending for themselves.
EA has yet to say anything about a remake of Dead space 2but the alternate ending is a hopeful sign that the sequel is next for Motive Studio.
