Dead Space’s accessibility options contain an amazing tool

Real dead Space is a classic survival-horror experience, thanks to its gratuitous use of guts, blood, and highly disturbing imagery. The 2008 game doesn’t back down with punches, and that’s part of the draw for its supporters — the stranger and scarier the scene, the better. And in the new remake, which will be released on January 27, developer Motive Studios has added some accessibility options that keep the bite of the original game while broadening the appeal.

dead Space Begins with a content warning: “dead Space Contains graphic violence including mutilation, crucifixion, blood, gore, vomiting and explicit depictions of death. Gameplay and cinematic scenes depict multiple traumatic events and portray harmful behaviors associated with mental health. Topics include self-harm and suicidal thoughts, death of co-workers and relatives, claustrophobia, psychosis, visual/auditory hallucinations, and obsessive behavior.

That in itself is a pretty good content warning! compare and contrast mediumA 2021 horror game that opens with a brief trigger warning: “medium It was designed and developed by a diverse team of different faiths, political views and ideologies. It touches on highly sensitive subjects with no intention of taking them seriously. Despite this, some players can trigger certain scenes and themes.

It’s well-meaning, but essentially useless—the equivalent of an allergy warning on a food product that says it was prepared by a diverse team of chefs. OK, I guess. But it doesn’t really tell me whether the product is safe to consume or not.

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Image: Motive Studio/Electronic Arts

The inspirer and publisher Electronic Arts goes even deeper than that initial, specific warning, with an in-game toggle that shows content warnings before various scenes. in the infamous moment where Isaac hears a drone thud, thud, thud In the distance, you can rightly assume it’s a nasty animal, only to get a poor Ishimura employee to slam his face in the window. If you turn on the accessibility toggle, you’ll see a warning that says, “Upcoming section contains depictions of self-inflicted death.”

In addition, there is a second toggle to “hide disturbing scenes”. This will blur these scenes (although the audio is not affected). It also blacks out the animation of Isaac Clarke’s death, which can be really graphic and gruesome. While some fans are horrified at the sight of Isaac being pulled limb from limb or brutally dismembered, others may find that a little too spicy for their tastes.

Electronic Arts has an external site that lists the system and even includes a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of every in-game warning and content involved. Some alerts are for obvious things like suicide or dismemberment, while others are for more specific triggers, like medical malpractice or needles.

These options are completely optional, and it’s likely that most players won’t even be looking for these toggles – for them, killing, mayhem, and mayhem are all part of the fun. but dead Space Apart from the gory aspects is a great game absolutely dripping with tension, atmosphere and suspense. Now, more players will be able to locate the Ishimura and help Isaac escape; I haven’t seen this before in a game of this scope and scale. And that’s great.

How to turn on content warnings in Dead Space Remake

In the pause menu, go to Settings and then Accessibility. The fourth and fifth options are related to content and warnings. Toggle “Show content warnings” on for in-game warnings to appear in the top right of your screen, and “Hide disturbing visuals” to keep the window that hides the game’s most graphic content. Both of these options are disabled by default, and can be turned on at any time during playthrough.