A new patch for Electronic Arts and Motive Studios’ remake of Dead Space was just issued, and it seems to have fixed many of the graphical issues of which players were complaining. On the whole, the title appears to perform well on a technical level—particularly when compared to some of the other AAA releases that debuted over the last few months—and the new Dead Space patch should help to further refine what was already a pretty polished experience.
Founded in 2015 as an EA subsidiary, Motive earned quite a bit of ire early on due to its involvement in the development of 2017’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2. However, opinions softened following 2020’s Star Wars: Squadrons, and reviews for 2023’s Dead Space remake, the developer’s first foray beyond the Star Wars property, are very positive. That said, the release was marred by a few minor bugs, the nastiest of which was a VRS/FSR texture issue that made many visual elements appear to be unnecessarily jagged—a less-than-ideal look for a remake banking primarily on graphical fidelity.
While not all Dead Space players encountered this issue, and it was apparently most prominent on console, a patch was issued for PS5 and PC that seems to have squashed the bug. A side-by-side comparison posted by u/WakkaX on the Dead Space subreddit showcases both how abrasive the issue could be and how much the new patch helps to correct the problem. EA also posted a tweet confirming that a similar patch will soon be rolled out on both Xbox platforms and the EA app.
In the modern gaming era, the stability of a new AAA release is never guaranteed, but optimization issues seem to be a particularly pervasive problem in the PC space lately. Square Enix’s high fantasy RPG Forspoken launched with a plethora of issues, Gotham Knights was brought down by optimization problems, and, most crucially for Dead Space fans, Striking Distance Studios’ The Callisto Protocol was a downright technical nightmare. While AAA titles often receive patches that boost performance shortly after release, the launch-now-patch-later mentality is beginning to weigh on many PC players.
With that sense, the Dead Space remake managed to buck that trend, and there’s a chance that it could actually revitalize a franchise that’s been in stasis for roughly a decade. Motive recently discussed its interest in continuing the Dead Space series, though it seems like the decision is ultimately up to EA. Dead Space occupies a relative niche genre, but, with the publisher’s other franchises like Battlefield and Need for Speed struggling somewhat at the moment, perhaps it's time for EA’s survival horror series to return to the limelight.
Dead Space is available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.