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If there’s one thing you can be sure of, it’s that Empty space remake will be full of blood, guts and gore just like the original game. But thankfully, Electronic Arts has added an extra feature that will help the faint of heart find their way to Isaac’s research friend, Nicole, without losing eight of their nine lives.
Before you even step foot in the USG Ishimura, you’ll get a content warning that reads: “Empty space features explicit violence, including explicit depictions of dismemberment, impalement, gore, gore, vomiting, and death. Gameplay and movie scenes depict numerous traumatic events and depict harmful behaviors related to mental health. Topics include self-harm and suicidal ideation, the death of colleagues and relatives, claustrophobia, psychosis, visual/auditory delusions, and obsessive behavior.”
This warning isn’t the only effort EA has made to help players through all the messy situations. There’s an in-game switch that warns you before horribly disfigured necromorphs jump onto your screen or if there’s a disturbing scene of self-harm.
If that’s not enough for you, EA has gone even further and added a second toggle that exists to hide disturbing incidents. By turning this on, you will no longer see the mutated monsters, as they will become blurred. Isaac Clarke’s death animations will also not be visible, replaced by a black screen. This is perhaps for the best, given how confused some of them are. No one likes to see a knife slice through someone’s ribcage or see a tentacle burrow into the back of someone’s head and burst through their mouth.
There also is a external website (opens in new tab) that catalogs each chapter with warnings about suicide, amputation, needles or medical malpractice. For those who don’t want these spoilers, remember that these are all optional and off by default, so you can happily enjoy all the unadulterated dismemberment the game has to offer if you choose.
Enable the features
For fans who need this censored version, enabling the features is easy. First, go to the pause menu, go to Settings and Accessibility. If you look down the list, the fourth or fifth option relates to content warnings.
The next step is to enable “Show content warning”. This will make the in-game alerts appear in the top right corner of your screen. The “Hide Disturbing Scenes” will do just that and blur graphical content.
Not for me
For all the good these features can do for my mental well-being, I won’t be turning them on. This is not a humble boast. I can assure you that once I land on the necromorph-infested station, I’ll probably turn into a blubbering mess that can’t turn a corner without having an existential crisis. Twisted as I am, the constant horror and fear are one of my favorite parts of the Dead Space series.
At this stage, there aren’t many horror games that can make me squirm with fear and dread dead space 2 did. So I’m actually pretty excited to see what this remake has to offer in the horror department.
I also recognize the fact that the Dead Space Remake is a survival horror game so I want to play it like that too. As someone who plays and enjoys a lot of horror games and thankfully doesn’t count the listed events as anxiety triggers, I don’t need these features. If I turned them on, I’d feel like I’m stripping the necromorphic nightmare of its essence.
However, these features are an excellent addition for those who need them and allow Dead Space to reach a wider audience. However, I’m the kind of person who wants to see how long I can face the game’s gruesome horror before my eyes fill with tears and I have to physically step off my monitor. But with all the graphical improvements in the remake, I might find the experience so terrifying that I have no choice but to enable these content warnings.