Summary
Despite being a relatively new studio - having only been founded in 2015 - EA Motive has proven itself to be capable of delivering some first-class gaming experiences, and last year’sDead Spaceremake is the perfect example of that. A pretty challenging sophomore solo project, Motive’sDead Spaceremake had to strike a perfect balance between staying faithful to Visceral Games' original work, while also adding in its own set of new and innovative features, and by all accounts, Motive managed to strike that balance expertly.
It seems as though EA has realized just how capable Motive is, as the studio is not only working ona new AAA Iron Man game, but also on a major component of the next mainlineBattlefieldentry. WithBattlefieldbeing a completely different type of game from what Motive is used to, it poses another sizable challenge for the developer, but Motive already has plenty of tools it can use, and there’s one groundbreakingDead Spaceremake feature that should make its way toBattlefield: the ALIVE system.
All the way back in March 2022, when marketing for theDead Spaceremake was starting to really ramp up, EA Motive held a set of livestreams in which it shed more light on some of the remake’s innovative new features, and the ALIVE system is the one that ended up really sticking out. An acronym that stands for Adrenaline, Limbic System Response, Intelligent Dialogue, Vitals, and Exertions,Dead Space’s ALIVE systemwas designed with the express purpose to make its central protagonist more life-like.
The ALIVE system was used throughoutDead Spaceremake to evoke natural reactions from its player-character, Isaac Clarke, and thus reinforce the player’s connection to their avatar. For instance, when a Necromorph bursts out of a grate and jump-scares the player, Isaac Clarke experiences the same adrenaline spike, causing his breathing to grow faster, which is shown via his body movements and more exasperated tone. Whilegames likeMarvel’s Spider-Manoffered two separate voice tracks for relaxed and non-relaxed scenarios,Dead Spaceremake took that to the next level with its ALIVE system, with emergent in-game events naturally affecting Isaac Clarke’s expressions, voice, movements, and body language.
How ALIVE Can Be Used in The Next Battlefield
Immersion used to beBattlefield’s bread and butter. WhileCall of Dutywas dominating the arcade-y military shooter scene,Battlefieldwas able to stand out by offering realistic destruction physics, immersive audio, and groundbreaking presentation. In order to reclaim its spot at the top of the FPS pyramid,Battlefieldis going to need to embrace its immersive roots once more, and borrowingDead Spaceremake’s ALIVE system could be just the thing it needs to stand out from the crowd.
WithDead Spacebeing a third-person game, a few changes would obviously have to be made to the ALIVE system to make it work withBattlefield’s first-person gameplay, but those changes would be more than worthwhile. Though most modern shooters play audio of exasperated breaths and fade in a black-and-white screen before death,the nextBattlefieldgamecould offer more diverse and more frequent moments of immersion with the ALIVE system, such as players being able to hear different audio tracks and see different camera movements based on where their character was shot, or deliver more specialized voicelines based on the action happening around them. And those are just a few examples of how the ALIVE system could work inBattlefield.
Dead Space (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
