Electronic Arts and Visceral Games' Dead Space 3 takes a different approach in its attempt to terrify gamers. The environments are different and there is cooperative play, but have these added element changed tormented core of the franchise?
The answer is no according to Visceral Games' Steve Papoutsis, who says that fans will still find the nerve racking fear that they have come to know and love.
In a recent interview with the New York Daily News, Papoutsis explains some of the changes and tells us why the game is still creepy.
"We started first and foremost on this game with the story," Papoutsis told the Daily News. "Throughout the series, we've always had locations that really felt like they had character. When you look at the Ishimura, there was definitely feeling and emotion and tension. With Dead Space 2, the Sprawl had this weird feeling of "hey, people lived here just moments ago."
He continued, "With Dead Space 3, we were excited about a couple of different things. A lot of people were concerned about a still planet, an ice planet, this isn't Dead Space. For us, what it means is little visibility, subzero conditions, snow drifts that creatures could jump out of, but also just the inherent feeling of survival that just comes from being in a place like that. It just really felt natural and smart for us."
Papoutsis also says that the cooperative mode depends on the player and he compares playing it to going to the movies with a talkative friend or someone who watches the film intently.
"I think it's ultimately up to the players to decide," Papoutsis told the Daily News. "Our single player is going to deliver (solitary experience) that for you. If you're the type of person that has a friend that you want to play games with, coop's there for you. I think it's like a movie. If you go to a movie with a friend that's a friend that's a true fan of film, they're going to intensely focus on the film. That experience is going to be different than if you go into the movie with somebody who's joking around."
Papoutsis explained that the coop mode was added after the development team started to fully expand the story.
"When we started making the game, the first thing we did was sat down and worked on story Papoutsis said. "Then we started then we started talking about features and the cast. And then we got to that point we realized that doing coop would be really fun."
He said that the team decided quickly that they were not going to have an AI follower and that they didn't want to ruin the single-player experience.
"Where we landed was our coop would be additive," Papoutsis said. "We would create a character who would go on a journey, and you would experience that journey. It would give you a different perspective."
You can read the rest of the interview here on the NY Daily News. The game is out today Feb. 5, 2013 for Windows PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Read our review of the Dead Space 3 demo here. You can check out some new images in our slideshow here and learn more about the game here.
