Dead Space is a property that deserves a reboot based on the strength of its first game alone, but the likelihood of that happening any time soon seems fairly remote. In the meantime, though, an independent development team called Sunscorched Studios is making a spiritual successor: a tightly-shot, over-the-shoulder space horror game called Negative Atmosphere, which we got a first look at during EGX Rezzed earlier this year.
There's still not a lot to see just yet beyond the new teaser trailer above. In it, we get a lingering exterior shot of a massive space vessel, which is where the action of the game will be taking place. The action itself? Well, judging from the trailer, it's about getting violently maimed by horrible necromorph-type alien beings.
Now, admittedly, the trailer has some rough edges, and first among those is the main character's voice lines. It's mostly shouting vulgarities, like someone trying to recreate a scene from Starship Troopers from inside a tin can, and it kind of ruins the mood. Sunscorched has said they'll be toning that down, though, after getting some pretty negative feedback about it since the trailer dropped.
After the scathing feedback about the VA we are re-evaluating our approach to future teasers. We pushed him a little overboard here to test the waters for what people wanted, looks like the overwhelming opinion is tone it down, which we will do-Sunscorched StudiosSeptember 2, 2019
The monster itself though looks pretty brilliant. It's a long-limbed spidery thing built out of human remains, with reflective retinas and a strangely upsetting, birdlike quizzical stare as it comes around the bend in the hallway, intent on ventilating our foul-mouthed hero Samuel Edwards.
On Reddit, Sunscorched's founder says the game pays homage to Dead Space, System Shock, and SOMA, and will have randomly-spawning monster encounters to prevent players from being able to memorize an area and know exactly what they'll be up against when they head back in.
There's no release date set for the project yet, but it'll be one to keep an eye on, particularly if you're a fan of sci-fi body horror. Sunscorched is funding development through Patreon, so check that out if your interest is piqued.
