Breaking Isaac Clarke's Silence in Dead Space 2

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Breaking Isaac Clarke's Silence in Dead Space 2


Steve Papoutsis of Visceral Games says Isaac Clarke will do a little talking in Dead Space 2 [http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=76645] because it's only natural that he'd have a few things to say about all the "gnarly sh*t" he went through in the first game.

Dead Space was a tricky game to pigeonhole. There was an awful lot of shooting for a survival horror game, but it never crossed the line and turned into an actual shooter; the story, meanwhile, was a major part of the experience, yet the central character, Isaac Clarke, was a silent protagonist who spent the entire game (except for the end bit!) behind his anonymizing engineer's mask. It was a reasonably successful game if not exactly a runaway hit, but Papoutsis, who served as a senior producer on Dead Space, said that while Visceral plans on mixing things up a bit, the "atmosphere and tension" of the original will remain intact.

"A lot of people say that the first game was a horror-action shooter, and when we've spoken about action this time around, I think some people are taking that out of context," he told VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2010/05/13/interview-dead-space-2s-steve-papoutsis/]. "What I really want to be extremely clear about with everybody is that Dead Space 2 is a not a run-and-gun game, we're not turning it into that. You're gonna have to conserve ammo, you're gonna have to be cautious, you're going to have to look and listen in the environment in order to succeed."

"There are moments where the pace will change and that's important for any horror game," he continued. "You can't just maintain tension all the way throughout the game, because what happens is people get desensitized and then they're not scared. So you have to change the pace of the game to really set people up for scares and that's what we're really focused on doing."

Part of the effort to maintain the Dead Space ambiance and draw players deeper into the game can be seen in the decision to make Isaac a more active participant in the proceedings. "He's not gonna be busting off a bunch of corny one-liners or anything like that," Papoutsis explained. "We're not making him a 'Chatty Cathy,' it's just that we're giving him a voice so he can make some observations and speak to people from time to time."

"He went through some gnarly shit and he never said anything, so, we thought it's be silly if he never said a word in Dead Space 2," he added. "I mean, he's gotta have something to say about what happened."

Dead Space 2 is currently slated for release in early 2011.


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Deofuta

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Nov 10, 2009
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Bravo, I for one am not a fan of the Silent Protagonist idea, I find it a bit goofy, and I never really thought of it as immersible.
 

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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*Sighs* I wish this game wasn't pushed back to 2011.

I think it's good exploring his character more this time around, it'll make for an interesting change of tone.

I also think it's a fantastic idea having the first game be about surviving the horrors that he did and the sequel show what it did to him. As much as I loved Mass Effect 2, I couldn't help but notice that Shepard didn't react much to
Dying, in fact. Neither did most other people, which is odd considering Mass Effect seems all about choices and consequences.
 

Shockolate

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Feb 27, 2010
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I enjoyed the first and am looking forward to the sequel. Poor bastard. His pain/terror is my amusement.

Love that picture by the way. It could either be "My minds playing tricks on me, that monster might not even be there" or "Oh fuck me sideways".

I prefer to think it's the latter
 

KimberlyGoreHound

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Mar 17, 2010
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Sounds cool. Silent protagonists work well sometimes, but it's always good to see a game break the trend. Will take a look at this one.
 

Mantheron

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Jul 10, 2009
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Gnarly sh*t & gnarly shit; I don't really get censorship...

OT: Ah, that gives me plenty of time to finish the first one again.
 

mexicola

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Feb 10, 2010
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Not every game can pull off a Gordon Freeman on it's main protagonist, so this sounds ok to me.

"I mean, he's gotta have something to say about what happened."
Does that mean he'll do a recap of the original game at the beginning of Dead Space 2? :p
 

Mr.Pandah

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Jul 20, 2008
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Thank God. Thats the only thing I disliked about Metro 2033. Other than your character speaking through his journal between chapters, he never spoke in the game itself. When other characters asked him questions, it was ridiculous when they tried to have others speak for him. I don't know why they couldn't have given him a voice since they already had an excellent voice actor for the job.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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I think they are going in a good direction with the series and I am really looking forward to see what zissac has to say about it all himself
 

BlueTomfoolery

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The whole voice acting is all fine and dandy but i'm still cranky that it won't come out for the PC. I don't have a PS3/360 and even if i did I'm still surrounded by family and the game isn't very family friendly.
 

Xanadu84

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Legion said:
*Sighs* I wish this game wasn't pushed back to 2011.

I think it's good exploring his character more this time around, it'll make for an interesting change of tone.

I also think it's a fantastic idea having the first game be about surviving the horrors that he did and the sequel show what it did to him. As much as I loved Mass Effect 2, I couldn't help but notice that Shepard didn't react much to
Dying, in fact. Neither did most other people, which is odd considering Mass Effect seems all about choices and consequences.
The key there is that what happened to Shepard was not the players choice. It set the tone for the story, sure, but putting more emphasis on it would have lessened the importance of the players choices.

Anyways, I just wanted to point out that while you do have to conserve Ammo, and it was scary...its a shooter. It clearly crossed the line into shooter. If it moves, you have to shoot it. Yes, it's atmospheric, its scary, its survival horror, but it is also a shooter. at its very core. Not a criticism, just is.
 

Jack and Calumon

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Dec 29, 2008
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Maybe this will make this guy more relatable than last time. I found him more closer to my cheese sandwich than to me.

Calumon: His wife was really weird. Why didn't she just sit and talk to him rather than screaming and falling over furniture.
 

Doomsday11

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Apr 15, 2010
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm interseting I wonder how they will explain is lack of voice...or emotion in the first game.
 

Brandon237

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BlueTomfoolery said:
The whole voice acting is all fine and dandy but i'm still cranky that it won't come out for the PC. I don't have a PS3/360 and even if i did I'm still surrounded by family and the game isn't very family friendly.
No, EA has announced that it will in fact be released for pc, I suspect it is a marketing ploy to get pc-ers attention so that they all buy it when they hear that it is out for pc. /conspiracy theorist.
 

GoldenRaz

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Mar 21, 2009
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As long as he'll keep his talking to a minimum, I see no problems with this direction. He shouldn't go all Nathan Drake "witty remark about friggin" everything', but having him say a few, well-chosen words every now and then seems promising.
 

BlueTomfoolery

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brandon237 said:
BlueTomfoolery said:
The whole voice acting is all fine and dandy but i'm still cranky that it won't come out for the PC. I don't have a PS3/360 and even if i did I'm still surrounded by family and the game isn't very family friendly.
No, EA has announced that it will in fact be released for pc, I suspect it is a marketing ploy to get pc-ers attention so that they all buy it when they hear that it is out for pc. /conspiracy theorist.
http://kotaku.com/5536643/dead-space-2-will-haunt-the-pc

The world is at peace. The new status quo is GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Setsuhen

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Apr 14, 2009
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It's good to see them breaking away from the Silent Protagonist nonsense. Althought it works in certain games, most of the time I feel like I'm controlling a robot with ketchup under the synthetic skin.
 
Mar 26, 2008
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Is that Steve Papoutsis, the former bass player from "No Use For A Name" I wonder?

Poor Isaac is becoming the John McLaine of the video game world, minus the wise-cracks.