One of the most unique and promising aspects of the upcoming Dead Space remake is its new “Intensity Director” system which has the ability to serve up over 1200 dynamic events to keep players on their toes. Until now, most of the potential events described by Montreal-based developer Motive Studio have been fairly simple – flickering lights, creepy sounds, surprise necromorph attacks – but it seems there may be some more elaborate scares in store.

In a new IGN First video, Dead Space technical director David Robillard claims the Intensity Director will also be able to deliver “psychosis events.” While he doesn’t elaborate on what those are, throughout the Dead Space series characters suffer from “dementia” and disturbing visions brought on by the alien Markers that turn people into necromorphs, so psychosis events will likely be a play on that. For longtime horror fans, randomized creepy visions likely bring to mind Eternal Darkness and other classic games with “sanity effects,” which can be quite effective when used right.

“[The Intensity Director has] got sound bites, it’s got animations, it’s got environmental triggers. So, you’ll have a fan that’ll star up, you’ll have creaking from the ship, you’ll have lights flickering, you’ll have lights turning off, you’ll have psychosis events happening. So, it’s everything. Everything that happens in the [story] can happen with the Intensity Director and that’s how we manage to make sure that the lines are blurred and you’re never really sure what is scripted and what isn’t.”

It all sounds rather ambitious. It’s one thing to mix up enemy spawning and flicker a light or two, but to create moments that are indistinguishable from scripted ones? If the Intensity Director can actually live up to that promise, then players will really have something to sweat over.

Dead Space launches on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS4 on January 27, 2023.