Dead Space 3 Player Feedback

Once considered the heir-apparent to the survival horror genre (after the Resident Evil series moved toward increasingly action-heavy combat), it now appears as if Dead Space 3 has taken a number of pages from Capcom's recent zombie franchise installments. While co-op was long rumored for the next Dead Space, recent footage has shown that the subsequent experience utilizes a greater focus on large scale action events (not to mention large scale environments) - at the expense of the nerve-wracking atmosphere in the first two games.

While it might not please longtime survival horror fans, a recent video interview with Dead Space 3 producer, John Calhoun, reveals some intriguing new details - hinting at yet another blockbuster horror-action experience with enormous environments and monsters.

In the video interview, courtesy of VG24/7, Calhoun offers-up new information regarding Dead Space 3 co-op and enemy types - not to mention the "open world" of frosty planet, Tau Volantis.

Check out the full interview below:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvxgAWfH2E

The new Dead Space 3 footage (not to mention words from Calhoun) will be a mix of highs and lows for fans of the franchise (and survival horror genre, in general).

Enormous enemy types (like the Tau Volantis Hive Mind) will certainly get hearts pumping with anticipation - and, even though diehards might be skeptical, it's easy to imagine players logging hours and hours of co-op play (especially on higher difficulties). That all said, it is (by comparison) hard to ignore how much cover based shooting with rapid-fire plasma rifles in a wide-open field differ from the tight Ishimura halls and core dismemberment gameplay of prior installments. There will still be plenty of tight and gripping gameplay (and Necromorphs to dismantle) but a number of design choices have major implications for how the game will play-out.

Even if gamers go it alone, they will still be playing through an experience that has been designed with co-op in mind (think of the annoying and underwhelming final boss fight in Resident Evil 5 - which was heavily influenced by co-op mechanics). Not to mention, Isaac's solo character journey in Dead Space 2 was, for fans of narrative in games, very interesting - a plot line that will be difficult to juggle with another person (series newcomer, John Carver) onscreen most of the time. In addition, the "open world" design choice is especially confusing - since we've seen some pretty underwhelming open environments in recent years. While a massive alien expanse is certainly intriguing - if it's not done right (think Dead Space 2 multiplayer - which will not return in the sequel), it could undercut one of the series' greatest strengths (dark and twisted atmospheres).

Regardless, EA is mindful of Necromorph lovers - and recently asserted that they did not want to "piss off fans" with Dead Space 3. At the very least, the developers are aware of the risk involved in attempting to spread the series to an even larger fan base.

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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates on Dead Space 3 as well as other movie, TV, and gaming news.

Dead Space 3 is set for release during Q1 2013.

Source: VG24/7