EA recently announced a remake of Dead Space that will once again see players standing off against hordes of terrifying monsters known as Necromorphs. The Dead Space franchise has become a classic within the survival horror genre, and the reboot is great news for fans who were worried that the series was dead after the financial underperformance of Dead Space 3. However, the series has managed to maintain a large fanbase across its three games, tie-in comics, and movies.
With the remake announced, interest in the series has been understandably reinvigorated. Dead Space Remake is a massive opportunity both for the series and its fans. The remake has a lot of potential to modernize the original Dead Space, and many fans hope that it will act as a jumping-off point for a revival of the series. A remake of the original Dead Space also has the ability to attract newcomers to the franchise, some of which may have never played a Dead Space game before. New players coming to the series for the first time, however, will likely have a lot of questions about the game's universe and lore, including what exactly a Marker is.
RELATED: Dead Space Remake Will Have Content That Was Cut from the Original Game
The primary purpose of a Marker is to create more Necromorphs by spreading its influence like a virus. This is the entire base of Dead Space's themes of cosmic horror. The process begins with a Black Moon's arrival at a hospitable planet. Once there, the Marker emits an electromagnetic signal that influences the species within range. The Marker uses this signal to help those species evolve and develop their own civilization. The Marker does this to drive the species towards overpopulation and, eventually, to deplete its own energy sources. This makes the species desperate for a new energy source, which is when the Marker reveals its existence. This allows the species to discover that the Marker is a source of seemingly infinite energy that comes from an undefinable source.
Then, when the species has embraced the Marker, the device influences them to worship it and to develop new copies for easier access to its energy. This promotes the species willingly adding more Markers throughout their civilization, increasing the grip the Markers have over them. Once the Markers feel there are enough of them spread across the civilization, they begin to emit a new signal. This new signal drives people mad until they become either homicidal or suicidal. This is done to create a wave of dead bodies that the Markers can then turn into Dead Space's iconic Necromorphs. Once there are enough Necromorphs and the species is extinct, the markers draw all of them into what is known as a Brethren Moon, which is a planet-sized object made of flesh that further boosts the signal to more far-reaching Markers.
The origins of the Markers is still not known, but there is evidence of the Markers having successfully completed their cycle countless times before the start of Dead Space. As for the origins of the Markers on Earth, the first Marker came 65 million years ago with an asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. From there, its signal helped push primates along the evolutionary tract that eventually led to the rise of humanity. However, humanity did not notice the marker until the year 2214 when it began affecting the inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula and was collected by scientists for study. The marker originally killed those scientists, while the government killed the person in charge of the research and took the Marker, which eventually led to the Marker's creation of Necromorphs using humans across the Dead Space universe.
RELATED: Dead Space Remake Release Date Narrowed Down in New Report
From there, the government eventually worked to develop what are known as Red Markers, or constructed imitations of the Marker that were built from studying the original. As humanity began to expand to countless colonies across the stars, more Red Markers were built for their seemingly infinite power supply. However, in 2508, the first Dead Space takes place, and it sees Isaac Clarke being influenced by a Marker before destroying it. This instigates the Markers to increase their influence on humanity before they can be stopped, leading to the events of the second and third Dead Space games that see Isaac fighting for humanity's survival.
Luckily for humanity, the series has shown that there are some ways to destroy Markers. The first, and most curious, is simply battling the Marker's influence in one's mind. This tactic was used by both Isaac Clarke and Dead Space 3's John Carver, who were able to shield themselves from the Marker's signals after mentally defeating it. However, many humans have also tried destroying the Markers through more conventional means, such as blowing them up. These attempts are seen in both Dead Space 2's multiplayer as well as Dead Space: Aftermath, although it does not entirely destroy the Marker. Instead, it leaves the Marker intact as a number of small shards. Even the Marker destroyed at the end of the original Dead Space remains technically intact despite the fact that it exploded into tiny pieces.
This makes extreme heat the only true method to completely destroy a Marker. Again explored in Dead Space: Aftermath, it is revealed that Markers and shards of them can only be completely destroyed via methods such as sending them into a star or melting them in a ship's reactor. The extreme heat triggers an energy surge that completely destroys the Marker's physical composition. However, Markers and Brethren Moons are aware of their weakness, allowing them to fight back against those trying to destroy them with increasingly powerful hallucinations. This makes them extremely difficult to destroy, although it has been done successfully before. If Dead Space Remake does revive the series, it will be very interesting to see what other ways humans fight back against the Markers in the future. Hopefully, fans will get some more information on what to expect from Dead Space Remake soon.
Dead Space Remake is in development for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE: Why Dead Space is Perfect for a Dead by Daylight Crossover
