Action Focus for Dead Space 3 was a 'Necessary Evil'

[Shawn Zipay]

Speaking with NowGamer, Antony Johnston, the writer on the original Dead Space says that Dead Space 3's increased emphasis on action was a "necessary evil."

"I’m personally a big fan of old-school survival horror," said Johnston, "and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to work on Dead Space. So the greater emphasis on big action in the sequels means they’re not really for me."

Johnston then added that Dead Space 3's focus on action is "a necessary evil in order to broaden the fan base," admitting that "it’s a very difficult balancing act to pull off. So far, I think Visceral has done an admirable job of maintaining that balance.

"I know the developers always wanted to go bigger, in terms of scope. And I’ve mentioned before that the universe we created was huge, with lots of elements, which simply didn’t make it into the first game.

"So to get that story told, to round out the universe, it was inevitable the settings and environments would open out a bit, become a bit more epic in scale."

He continues on to say that if there wasn't a slight change in direction, it would have ended up just being the "same game on a different ship each time, and that's pretty dull." I do believe he has a point there.

[cikame]

So don't set it on a ship, there must be environments in the Dead Space universe that arn't future corridors and space bases, isn't there an Earth type planet?
Countryside, barn houses, vehicle factories i don't know... beaches :P

[K-16]

Mr. Johnston meant science-fiction themed environments that invoke claustophobia. And somewhere in there, space (as in outer space) needs to be incorporated, but mostly the claustophobia part where escaping from the necromorphs is nigh impossible. For a sequel that asks for more variety in environments, it's a bit difficult to keep it scary, and relying on parallel worlds to make it look scary would be ripping off so many games (Silent Hill, Eversion, F.E.A.R.). I mean yeah there's hallucinations, but not at rip-off levels yet. Honestly, the game would have to turn from survival horror to a Japanese-style psychological horror if they wanted variety for another sequel, while targeting only the hardcore audience.

Still, it seems high budget games do not equate to the best horror games for me. So far I haven't played anything scarier than Alone In The Dark (1992), Eversion and Exmortis; Amnesia came close and had the right design, but their audio/visual indicators toned down the intensity of fear for me (I would've preferred no blur and only monster screams to tell me to haul ass and hide). That said, I'm too scared to play horror games in general so I don't expose myself to much (we'll say nervous disposition as my reason).

I wonder how many sequels will Dead Space take until it reaches Biohazard levels of action? Slowly feels increasingly diluted for an immersive horror.