Dead Space 3 Hopes For New Horror

[Karloff]

Dead Space 3 Hopes For New Horror

Negative fan feedback made no difference to development, producer claims.

The icy slopes of Tau Volantis are going to be Dead Space 3 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/ginx/6177-Dead-Space-3-Preview]'s ticket to scare, associate producer Yara Khoury hopes. Closet scares are passé; what's needed now, Khoury says, is environmental terror, to create new horror.

"You can't really see what's ahead of you," Khoury says, "there's the snow that can, you know, hide some things." The developer has also played with sound - bludgeoning the player with wind effects - hoping, through sensory tricks, to create a new kind of horror. "The ice planet that worried players at first because it's an external environment," says Khoury, "actually turns out to be one of our allies in terms of creating new ways to scare our players."

Negative feedback isn't something that the development team spent a lot of time worrying about. "I think what happened is that people started talking about it without really knowing what we were going for," Khoury claims, alleging that people were inventing an idea of Dead Space 3 that doesn't resemble the finished product. Fan feedback didn't persuade the developer to make any changes, which may - or may not - prove to be a wise decision.

"I think it just takes a little bit of time for people to understand and accept change when they're so very much invested in a product," Khoury says. Well, you'll soon find out whether she's right. This one launches for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 February 2013.

Source: OXM [http://www.oxm.co.uk/49464/visceral-dead-space-3s-controversial-elements-let-us-create-new-kinds-of-horror/]


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[Falterfire]

Well, you can create as scary of an environment as you like, but in a horror GAME it will ultimately come down to how effectively the player can deal with threats: As long as the player never feels like they're in danger of running out of bullets or facing a foe they can't shoot down, their attitude will still be a resolute 'come at me bro' instead of horror.

As an example, I present Minecraft: It can be incredibly tense and scary going spelunking when you only have iron weaponry, no armor, and can't afford to replace any of it. Once you have diamond everything, the tension is gone even though you're performing the same actions in the same atmosphere.

 

[Therumancer]

Seems to me like they are wanting to rip off.. err pay homage to, "The Thing" with the setting.

I'll also say that I'm not a huge fan of games that use gimmicks like genuinely poor visibility to carry themselves. For a few like "Silent Hill" it worked, but in most cases I find it more annoying than anything. Especially when it's a tacked on element. To be blunt I'd expect a suit of armor like Issac's to have one heck of an optics suite, including being able to deal with cold/icy enviroments and mists and such, since this is armor designed to do things like crawl around in ship cooling systems and the like. I suppose they could do some ham fisted thing about how his armor has the one kind of sensor that would counter this damaged, but even then it would only make sense until he reached his first armor upgrade, then you'd have to wonder why armor he obtained on this planet, allegedly in storage to work on this planet, doesn't have optics configured to the enviroment.

I'll also Lol hard if at some point they have him in armor dealing with body heat issues while in an enviromental suit able to deal with the cold vaccum of space.

That said, I'll probably play Dead Space 3 (actually saving a few Slim Jim wrappers to get DLC for it), whether or not I get it on initial release is undecided. It DOES seem like the dev team is having some issues here, which I've said before. Simply put, using hostile enviroments as the new "terror factor" directed at a chartacter whose survival as a protaganist has largely come from the fact that his gear has been designed specifically to counter very diverse, incredibly hazardous enviroments despite his lack of military training. Dropping Issac on an Ice Planet might slow him down a bit (winds, deep snow, etc..) and he might starve to death or dehydrate if far enough away from any kind of settlement, but as far as problems with visibility or cold... no, I just don't see that if he was in his armor.

 

[VanQ]

These claims will need to be seen to be believed. But a white snowstorm blasting you with super loud environmental sound doesn't sound as Dead Space as a giant fission reactor overheating and blasting super heated flames into the cabin of a ship. Environmental choices aside, they lost my money when they decided to make the campaign co-op oriented. I don't want some retard on the net to be present during my horror game. Dead Space 1 and 2 are both some of my favorite games of all time and I'm absolutely not going to buy this game on day one.

I'll probably pick it up for cheap down the line as long as they don't force me to use Origin to play it on PC. Gladly I don't even have to worry about being Kinect trolled by a roommate while trying to play. I live alone and don't own a Kinect but I can just see some guy shooting at a Brute and his mate walking past and saying "reload" giving the Necromorph time to close in and kill him.

Seems to me like they are wanting to rip off.. err pay homage to, "The Thing" with the setting.

I can kinda see what you're getting at there, but the large majority of The Thing was spent indoors if I remember correctly. It seems like they're implying most of Dead Space 3 will be spent on the ice planet's surface.

 

[Alcaste]

As scary as an ice planet can be, there's no way its topping the vast emptiness of space as you move further and further away from precious, breathable air, watching a little timer tick down to your doom.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'll probably pick it up for cheap down the line as long as they don't force me to use Origin to play it on PC.

Well, it would seem neither of us are buying Dead Space 3, since EA hasn't released single non-Origin reliant game in a while.

 

[jackpipsam]

since EA hasn't released single non-Origin reliant game in a while.

The Secret World and WARP if I am not mistake didn't need Origin.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The Secret World?

Secret world account IDs run through Origin, even if you don't have the Origin client installed.

Try it, it's creepy as hell.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Environmental choices aside, they lost my money when they decided to make the campaign co-op oriented. I don't want some retard on the net to be present during my horror game.

Well then you're in luck, because it looks like it's optional. They need to sell 5 million copies because they made a real single player version where Isaac and dude get separated, and the co-op is a somewhat different campaign. Even if you don't like fuckheads jumping in your game, it looks like you don't have to babysit an AI player either (thank God).

http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3268774

 

[jackpipsam]

The Secret World?

Secret world account IDs run through Origin, even if you don't have the Origin client installed.

Try it, it's creepy as hell.

The Secret World uses Funcom accounts, not Origin accounts.

Sure The Old Republic uses Origin accounts (but Origin account is the exact same as EA account so I don't count that as like the client).

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

Doesn't bother me. I'm still going to buy Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, still shit my pants, still revel in what true horror is meant to be, and dutifully ignore this sorry excuse for a horror game.

Monsters aren't scary if you've blown their heads off, guys.

 

[VanQ]

Well then you're in luck, because it looks like it's optional. They need to sell 5 million copies because they made a real single player version where Isaac and dude get separated, and the co-op is a somewhat different campaign. Even if you don't like fuckheads jumping in your game, it looks like you don't have to babysit an AI player either (thank God).

http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/3268774

Oh good, maybe this won't turn out so bad after all.

I'll probably pick it up for cheap down the line as long as they don't force me to use Origin to play it on PC.

Well, it would seem neither of us are buying Dead Space 3, since EA hasn't released single non-Origin reliant game in a while.

Welp. I guess it was never meant to be.

 

[Skeleon]

Sounds like they're going a bit for a Silent Hill approach of low sight distance? Might work, might also make it look ridiculous. I saw some pictures of outside areas and they frankly weren't frightening at all; they were bright, open areas. Not claustrophobic and oppressive. Add to that the Coop-mode and/or AI-helpers and things seem... very off for a spooky game. Maybe it'll work but I sure as hell remain skeptical.

 

[Smolderin]

Ya....uh huh. I watched the Dead Space 3 demo's, your not fooling anyone. They are just cheap jump scares that don't even remotely become frightening throughout the entirety of the first level. Throw in the fact that it's basically Lost Planet and it's shoe horned Co-Op mode, makes for a game I won't be touching for a very long time.

 

[The_Darkness]

So long as the co-op is, as promised, optional, then I think me and DS3 are going to get along fine. I'm idly curious what exactly Mr McNewGuy is doing whenever I'm playing single player.
Still, I see potential in the new icy planet setting. We'll see if the potential pans out.

 

[Callate]

...having abandoned virtually all hope of any sort of success in "old horror". Or as we used to call it, "horror".

 

[loa]

Yeah when those necromorphs in the demo jumped me out of the snow, that was truly scary since I'd never expect things jumping at me in a dead space game.
Way to shake things up. Well played.

 

[Farther than stars]

I don't care how good (you think) your game is. Even if it is as good as Portal, Fallout and Mass Effect combined, there is no acceptable reason for talking to your player base so condescendingly. It's like EA doesn't even have a PR department anymore these days.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Well, you can create as scary of an environment as you like, but in a horror GAME it will ultimately come down to how effectively the player can deal with threats: As long as the player never feels like they're in danger of running out of bullets or facing a foe they can't shoot down, their attitude will still be a resolute 'come at me bro' instead of horror.

This. It doesn't matter how terrifying the world is when you can gun down anything. I've felt genuine terror in non-horror games when I've run out of ammo and have no way to survive.

Wasn't the whole schtick of the original Dead Space the fact that Isaac was an engineer rather than a badass space marine? Plasma cutting tools were your only defence. Except they were kinda effective weapons too, so that didn't really last long.

Silent Hill does this best in my opinion. You're a useless douche with personal problems and zero weapons training. You're dumped in an evil, psychic town that knows your deepest, darkest insecurities. Oh and the combat mechanics suck so, good luck with that! Why can't we have games like that again?