The Dead Space remake massively expands optional side quests to create a deeper and more rewarding experience for players. Completing these multi-part narrative missions uncovers dark secrets aboard the USG Ishimura while testing combat abilities across ever-shifting environments.
A New Level of Immersion and Storytelling
Veterans of the 2008 original will notice wholly new side missions mixed organically into the campaign. These optional pursuits interweave perfectly with main objectives to foreshadow upcoming twists and add richness to the setting.
For example, investigating the chilling scientific experiments in "Premeditated Malpractice" builds intrigue around Head Scientist Dr. Mercer. This drives investment in the main story thread of discovering what truly happened to the Ishimura’s crew.
Side missions feel meaningful rather than tacked on, crafted with care to fit the disturbing themes of isolation, paranoia and body horror that define Dead Space.
Key Differences From the Original
Dead Space (2008) featured just one major side mission – finding Peng‘s audio logs across chapters. The remake expands this concept with three sweeping multi-part narratives interspersed with Isaac‘s main objectives:
- Scientific Methods – Investigate chilling experiments performed on patients.
- You Are Not Authorized – Hunt down crew RIGs to increase security access.
- Premeditated Malpractice – Uncover a sinister conspiracy behind a medical officer‘s actions.
These new missions feature custom story beats and cinematics tailored to side characters like Dr. Kyne. Cutscenes organically transition into interactive sections bursting with action and puzzles.
Developer Motive avoids repetitive fetch quests in favor of objectives propelling players into unfamiliar locales teeming with threats. Surviving these tests of skill and endurance offers narrative revelations not found anywhere else.
Walkthrough: Scientific Methods
This unsettling side mission spans five chapters, charting Head Scientist Dr. Mercer‘s dangerous experiments on a vulnerable patient named Brant Harris. Its objectives traverse the Medical, Engineering and Mining decks of the USG Ishimura.
MISSION FLOWCHART
SCIENTIFIC METHODS
START ----- INVESTIGATE ----- FOLLOW NICOLE‘S ------ DISCOVER THE --- FIND KYNE‘S --- INVESTIGATE
DR BRENNAN‘S HOLOGRAM AUTOPSY ROOM HIDEOUT MERCER‘S
OFFICE (CH 7) QUARTERS
(CH 10)
(CH 2) (CH 2) (CH 3)
Investigate Dr. Brennan‘s Office
Players can activate Scientific Methods early by collecting a key audio log in Chapter 2. Locate Dr. Nicole Brennan‘s Office in the Medical Deck Emergency Room.
Interacting with her recorded log triggers a holographic cutscene depicting Nicole operating on a mutated, cadaverous patient. Their body then horrifically reconstitutes, setting the stage for Mercer‘s human trials.
Follow Nicole‘s Hologram
Exit Brennan‘s quarters to automatically continue the recorded event. Nicole reactively flees from her reviving patient, phasing through a sealed door into a utility corridor.
Use stasis to halt pursuing necromorphs as you circle around through emergency shower valves. Time slow strategically to unlock pathways and reach Nicole’s final position by the autopsy theater doors.
Discover the Autopsy Room (Chapter 3)
Entering the autopsy chamber triggers a revealing scene – Nicole shockingly discovers the mutilated corpse of escaped patient Brant Harris.
She scans his remains and logs identity confirmation, though cause of death remains unclear. Investigating this theater hints at the greater mutated human experiments underway.
Locate Dr. Kyne‘s Hideout (Chapter 7)
A later log directs Isaac to search for Chief Science Officer Dr. Kyne‘s hidden laboratory, located past the hazardous excavation drones within the Mining Deck tunnels.
Navigate laser traps by using applied force kinetics to move storage crates into safe passages. Time stasis fields to freeze-frame continuous laser barriers while weaving around obstacles.
Eventually locate Kyne’s well-concealed hideaway and collect his encrypted audio log from a wall-mounted computer panel. Kyne and Mercer heatedly argue ethics, foreshadowing the doctor‘s profoundly unsettling actions.
Investigate Mercer‘s Quarters (Chapter 10)
Reaching his locked quarters after helping FAITH restore the tram system activates a fifth and final scene. A mostly intact Mercer records his latest triumph emulating organic matter regeneration.
He claims lifetime notoriety for enabling groundbreaking limb and tissue regeneration – an aspiration dependent on repeatedly harvesting samples from still-living subjects against their will or knowledge. This outlines the procedure that killed patient Brant Harris.
Completing all these interconnected events culminates by unlocking new story details about Mercer’s background and previous unethical endeavors. Players also earn special Key Items and the “Whole Again” achievement.
Walkthrough: You Are Not Authorized
This second robust side mission centers on uncovering seven different fallen crew members‘ RIG locator beacons scattered across the ship.
Activating and retrieving these worn, bloodied armatures boosts Isaac‘s overall security access tier. This allows him to unlock previously sealed areas in his tireless quest to escape the deep-space vessel overrun with horrors.
MISSON FLOWCHART
YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED
START ---- FIND RIGS --- FIND MORE --- MASTER
ON BRIDGE RIGS ACROSS OVERRIDE
DECKS
(CH 4) (CH 4 - 10) (CH 10)
Bridge Security Console
Isaac can active this multi-step mission during Chapter 4 by interacting with the authorization prompt inside the Bridge‘s central security booth. Doing so flags the first available misplaced armature for collection.
As players manually locate and gather these ID tags, their permanent offense/defense attributes incrementally buff. Simultaneously, Isaac’s security clearance tier rises to access a greater number of sealed zones harboring valuable resources and crafting components otherwise unreachable.
Retrieve All Seven RIGs
After initializing the assignment, refer frequently to your locator for tagged waypoints guiding players toward discarded staff corpses. Backtrack through various established zones like Flight Deck, Hydroponics, and Mining to uncover hidden corpse stashes.
Beware – accessing new rooms in previously explored wings also introduces new enemy spawn triggers and battle types. For example, a brute charger may barrel through after grabbing Voelker’s badge near the Flight Deck‘s aft oxygen recharge bay.
Master Override
Once uncovering all ID badges across an estimated 10 hours of dedicated hunting, return to the Bridge security tower. Now interact with its console to input codes and activate Master Override across the entire ship.
A cinematic plays of Isaac authorizing and leveraging full clearances to potentially stabilize USM Valor communications – an emergency measure necessary to ultimately escape imminent doom.
Walkthrough: Premeditated Malpractice
The third and final unlockable side mission spans three chapters, beginning and ending on the Medical Deck while navigating players briefly through the Mining tunnels down to Hydroponics.
Its central narrative exposes Head Scientist Dr. Mercer’s unauthorized, unethical experiments mutating human specimens while consciously violating patient rights and safety.
MISSION FLOWCHART
PREMEDITATED MALPRACTICE
START ------ SCAN ------ VIEW ------ SEARCH ---- INVESTIGATE
TISSUE BRANT‘S ORE HYDROPONICS
SAMPLE RECORDS STORAGE
(CH 6) (CH 6) (CH 6) (CH 7) (CH 7)
Analyze Brant Harris‘ Tissue Sample
This unsettling affair begins by collecting a severed limb tagged as classified evidence from the Medical Deck morgue. Interact with the tissue sample analyzer to confirm its donor – Brant Harris – matching records of Mercer’s escaped prior test subject.
New orders now direct Isaac to locate Brant’s intensive care unit chamber one floor above to potentially uncover more information regarding his demise.
View Brant Harris‘ ICU Recordings
Accessing footage records at Brant’s former care suite plays back disturbing procedural clips. They show a (seemingly) unconscious patient writhing during surgical mutilations with their life signs dangerously fading.
Dr. Mercer then deviously suggests harvesting additional organ samples. He proceeds to carve into helpless Brant’s exposed abdomen despite lacking consent, formally moving from researcher to remorseless killer.
Search Ore Storage
Isaac must fight through the excavator drones within the Mining tunnels to reach this next dark, unexplored evidence scene. Manipulate kinetic energy to rearrange delivery crates, forming safe passages beyond deadly laser barriers.
Eventually uncover the isolated ore storage antechamber. Inside, locate an incriminating audio log left by Mercer himself. He definitively declares plans to extract various tissue samples from Brant Harris while technically still alive.
Investigate Hydroponics
Now navigate floor by floor up through Hydroponics’ overgrown vertical gardens. Survive ambushes by regenerating enemies until hitting the top “Diagnostics Wing”. Inside lies one final particularly disturbing account from Mercer.
This last tape captures the doctor‘s twisted feelings of triumph having successfully enacted dangerous, lethal procedures on Brant. Mercer remains wholly absent empathy for unsanctioned human trials, cementing his villainous role orchestrating Ill-fated events plaguing the ship.
Conclusion
Optional side missions may represent Dead Space‘s most enticing new feature. These engrossing multi-act adventures organically align with campaign events while introducing unexpected twists.
Players determined to uncover added narrative depth and earn specialty upgrade schematics will benefit greatly from attempting all available branches. Just be sure to finish investigating before Isaac launches toward the Ishimura’s final orbit!
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