Motive’s Dead Space remake makes a number of surprising changes to gameplay and storytelling, but still manages to succinctly tell the same narrative. This is precisely how remakes should be developed and perceived, as modern reimaginings that are still faithful but have quality-of-life improvements in every nook and cranny. The changes that the Dead Space remake instills make it feel like a completely different experience, and all the technical bells and whistles players could want are present in it, even though there are still some technical bugs players have needed to contend with.
Substantial changes to the game include Isaac being able to talk and Nicole being given exposition, which greatly enhances the remake’s storytelling capabilities. But the narrative in Motive’s Dead Space is also given creative freedom in its New Game Plus feature. Here, players can achieve an alternate ending as opposed to the default one that was reprised from the original Dead Space, and it is well worth endeavoring through Dead Space’s New Game Plus playthrough because of its narrative implications and new interactions that fans will have during this playthrough.
Motive’s Dead Space Has an Alternate Ending in New Game Plus
Upon beginning New Game Plus, the game will inform players that they may find new secrets. This is a tantalizing incentive to play the game on New Game Plus, especially with the reward of 50,000 credits and 10 power nodes players are given upon completion. It is not clarified what players will be looking out for precisely, but as they progress through Dead Space’s narrative they will soon find purple-hued interactables that were not there before.
These are Marker Fragments, but their purpose and quantity are still not clear until much later. Continuing through the game, players will eventually find a Marker shrine with 12 candle slots in Captain Mathius’ room in the Crew Deck’s Executive Quarters. These 12 fragments are found throughout the game in a fairly sequential order so long as players are exploring thoroughly in each new section of the Ishimura, but players will need to backtrack to the Crew Deck after they have collected all 12 fragments.
Interacting with the shrine at this point slots all fragments into the candles, and players will then hear Marker whisperings to know that they have done their part. Players then need only complete the remainder of the game as they would normally, and the first instance where players know something crucial has changed is in Isaac’s line of dialogue that he shouts when the Hive Mind boss fight begins.
Dead Space’s Alternate Ending Ties Directly into Dead Space 2
Instead of defiantly shouting that he has nothing left like in the original ending, Isaac says, “It showed me what I have to do. You can’t stop me!” The boss fight then goes on as normal, but once Isaac is back up in space on the shuttle with his helmet off, players can see Marker symbols etched and painted throughout the interior.
He talks lovingly with Nicole, an obvious hallucination at this point, and he bears a sinister grin and red eyes in his expression. Isaac then mentions that he is going to build something before they head home—if fans are familiar with the opening of Dead Space 2, this alternate ending seems to directly tie into the amnesiac time gap between installments where Isaac builds a marker.
In that way, this ending is actually fairly coherent and could reasonably be seen as more canonical than the original game’s ending. Having a new ending such as this is an excellent reward for having played the Dead Space remake in New Game Plus, especially with new collectibles to search for and a tankier necromorph type to brace for.
Dead Space is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.