Intensity Director Explained

The Intensity Director is a new feature which causes Necromorphs to spawn around the Ishimura in Dead Space Remake (2023). Learn how the Intensity Director works and how to take advantage of the new system.

Intensity Director Explained

Randomizes Spawns of Monsters

In the original Dead Space, Necromorphs would sometimes appear in areas the player had already visited in scripted events, but would not newly spawn otherwise. However, Dead Space Remake allows the player to freely roam around the Ishimura, necessitating a system where Necromorphs can spawn randomly in a way that feels natural. Enter the Intensity Director.

In a pre-release writeup about the Intensity Director,, Senior Systems Designer Dan Kim describes the tool as a content organization, spawning, and pacing control system. In essence, it controls when and how enemies spawn.

When Do Necromorphs Spawn?

The Intensity Director keeps spawns of Necromorphs paced, so the player will experience a balance of dangerous rooms and safe rooms to keep them on their toes without overwhelming them.

“There might be an easy room with just a few sounds here and there, but that’s it— ... But then you might go into another room ... and suddenly, there’s a Slasher spawning from a wall vent, plus the lights turn off, plus there’s fog in the environment, and it becomes a lot more intense. But then we give the player a break. Because we do essentially track the peaks and valleys of tension, to make sure that it’s not just back-to-back-to-back high-intensity events. Because that would be emotionally exhausting; you’d be like, ‘I can’t take this anymore.'”
Source: Dead Space official website

The Same Room Can Give Different Results

Based on our testing while playing the game, it seems that the Intensity Director's chance of spawning monsters is more determined by the number of rooms entered than the specific room. This means that the same room can have a spawn even after you've just left it and reentered, so even if you've already cleared a space, you'll always be in danger as long as you are moving between rooms.

How Do Necromorphs Spawn?

The Intensity Director tries to keep players surprised by giving different results. Instead of just having monsters appear from the same location every time, the game offers multiple variations on spawn methods to make it harder to guess how to handle potential spawns. Audio Director Olivier Asselin suggests that there can be as many as seven variations on how a spawn might occur.

“But it’s always about putting the player in a place where they don’t know what to expect ... So say you hear a Necromorph in a vent, then hear the vent break, then the Necromorph spawns. If I hear it again, but it doesn’t spawn, I’ll go to the vent and expect something to happen that doesn’t. If I don’t hear it in the vent, but I hear the vent break and it spawns, suddenly I’ve got a jump scare, because I didn’t expect that. And if I have the vent break without a spawn, then I’m adding something else. So for one possible outcome the player is thinking of, we have five, six, seven ingredients, or recipes, that could lead to something else.”Source: Dead Space official website

Environment is Also Affected

The Intensity Director also utilizes the lights, fog, and other atmospheric aspects, sometimes even without a spawn occurring. This adds to the atmosphere even more as it prevents players from knowing when they are actually in danger, and when a disturbing shift in tone might really just be a trick of the light.

“What I find almost equally powerful is when you’re heading down a dim, steamy hallway and it's almost dead quiet except for the buzz of the flickering light halfway down the hall…and you’re sure you’re about to get jumped—but nothing happens! This is when you know you have a scary game, when that pacing is just right.”
Source: Dead Space official website

How to Exploit the Intensity Director

Use to Farm Credits and Ammo

Due to the Intensity Director's tendency to balance safe and dangerous rooms, Necromorphs become more likely to appear each time the player changes rooms, and this works even for leaving and reentering the same room repeatedly.

If you're running low on credits or ammo, you can farm more by repeatedly visiting a room until a Necromorph spawns, defeating it with sparse ammo, picking up the drop, and repeating. You'll just have to be careful not to use too much ammo or take damage, as it could have the opposite effect if you do.

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