Dead Space 2 director Wright Bagwell has reflected on the game's infamous needle scene that takes place near the end of the game's story, admitting how he could "barely watch it" himself. The scene saw gamers guide a needle into Isaac Clarke's eyeball in order for him to receive information on the creatures he had been encountering throughout the story.
Bagwell confessed he wasn't heavily involved with writing the game's dialogue or story before explaining how the needle scene takes its basis from children's nursery rhymes. In an interview with Polygon, he said, "[...] there was a producer, I think John Calhoun, who threw out the idea of the old children's saying, 'Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.' That came up." This idea stuck, exciting the team as they deliberated on how to implement it into Dead Space 2's story before they considered "What if you stick this needle into his brain somehow to extract information?"
The director took this idea and ran with it, designing what was referred to internally as the "eye-poke scene." He confessed he remembered the writing process vividly because it was such a fun narrative beat to work on -- one that fully encouraged uncomfortable player immersion. Bagwell stressed how the last thing he wanted was for the section to be turned into a mini-game that needed its own isolated tutorial, thus breaking the tense, horrific sense of atmosphere and immersion that the team had worked so hard on achieving.
He noted how the point of the needle scene wasn't to bog the player down with difficulty. Instead, he wanted it to be as intuitive and immersive as possible to hammer home the horror and anxiety of what was happening.
This was heightened all the more by the creeping realization of what was being asked of the player, something Bagwell believed was accomplished "from the fact that you are driving a needle into your eyeball" and by having the game's protagonist on-screen, his own fear and anxiety clearly displayed. Subtle color cues, sound effects and character reactions were also used, adding to the tension as players were forced to insert the needle into Clarke's eyeball.
He explained how the whole process was specifically designed to make the player perform the action "very, very slowly" and force them to commit it at an excruciatingly "slow pace" as the needle is plunged into Clarke. Bagwell shared how the eye-poke scene was the only Dead Space scene he worked on that never felt "lame or silly" as it established itself as one of the game's more horrific moments, helping the franchise to further assert itself as a firm survival-horror favorite.
According to him, the first time had had to watch the scene through, he could barely watch it. When the team had finalized the scene and watched it on a big screen, Bagwell recalled how "everyone in the room still was cringing" by the uncomfortable impact of the needle as he signed off on it. Despite becoming somewhat desensitized to the blood, violence and gore of the Dead Space franchise, Bagwell confessed how it remains the only thing he still has trouble watching.
Dead Space 2 is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Polygon