There's just a few hours left till Isaac Clarke's Arctic adventure goes under our microscope. Is Visceral's latest a travesty of a once-great series, a frostbitten action game wearing an unconvincing survival horror hat? Or has the studio successfully blended in new features like co-op, weapon crafting and micro-transactions without scuppering the feel?
I'm sure you're as bored as I am of journalists posing these questions, so rest assured that this is the last time I'll pose them. Having taken receipt of our Dead Space 3 review code, OXM spoke to associate producer Yara Khoury for a few post-match thoughts.
Not all of them - I worked on Dead Space 2.
How do you feel about this Dead Space? Any particular thoughts in hindsight, now that you're done?
I feel great about Dead Space 3. I'm really proud of what we've been able to accomplish. I think it's the best game we've made so far, you know, it's so much deeper, longer, it's super fun - and we've innovated it in a lot of ways while still keeping the integrity of our franchise. I think people are going to love it.
Would you say you've left all the upset over the setting and action-heavy trailers behind?
Yeah, I think... I think we have, and now that people have started playing the demo we've seen very very positive feedback - people who took issue with the game because we're more into exterior or because we've added co-op are kind of vanishing, because they've seen that we've been able to conserve the Dead Space element of our game.
Have you made any changes based on the initial feedback?
Oh absolutely not. No, we didn't make changes. I think what happened is that people started talking about it without really knowing what we were going for. So we introduced co-op, and we made sure to mention that the single player experience was still there - that there would be no AI follower - and people still imagined things, you know: that there would be no horror, that you would have an AI follower and things like that.
I think when you introduce so many changes you need to let people kind of adjust to everything that you're showing. And at E3 we introduced so many new things: new enemies, Tau Volantis' exterior, cooperative play - it was a lot for players to not be scared about it, you know?
But I think with Gamescom we really brought it home, showcasing everything that makes Dead Space 3 a Dead Space game, you know - horror, claustrophobic tight corridors, and so on. 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 to a product.
Well, something that we wanted to do was to push the limits of everything, in terms of any aspect. I think our game looks so much better than the others. I mean, can you imagine when you look at Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 3 that they've been made for the same console? It's really crazy when you see it - how different they look, I think.
13 comments so far...
TippiestRook99 on 4 Feb '13 said:
Were there any features you didn't implement because they were too much of a departure, or because you wanted to save them for a future release?
Well we did have plans for day 1 DLC.But maybe we can put that in Dead Space 4.
Plamsa wing on 4 Feb '13 said:
Oh for the love of god stop saying "you know" in every other sentence. It's not nice.
How would banana like it, if I banana said banana every other banana word? It's not very banana ncie is it? Banana.
Speaking of co-op, I wonder if we still get the full story in single-player, if it's one thing I hate about co-op, it's when I have to play it to experience the full game.
Banana!
OXM ETboy on 4 Feb '13 said:
Truth be told, there are a fair few "you knows" I edited out...
ChillieBonBon on 4 Feb '13 said:
I will admit that he did go a bit overkill on the "you know" front.
But, you know, it could be his thing.
Droidsbane on 4 Feb '13 said:
You know heres a drinking game, drink every time you read "you know" you come across when reading th article
You know I shouldnt be making fun fun of that, someone could easily make a drinking game out of every time i use the words 'technically' or 'specificaly' in a conversation.
comabob on 4 Feb '13 said:
"You know" is a filler phrase - what they call it in Customer Service anyway - its what rubbish customer services drone say to a customer when they are trying to think of what to actually say.
SOrry - i work quality monitoring in a CS - like environment and "you know" has negative connotations to it supposedly...
Anyway -
I take issue with this -
So one player is going to experience some things - he's going to have visions. The other player is not going to see them, and players are going to interact with each other, you know - "What's going on? What the hell?" Isaac is not going to see the same things Carver does, he's going to be like, you know, completely confused about what's going on, and that's how also we've furthered horror in Dead Space 3.
Does that mean that playing it in Single PLayer would lose alot of these "horror" elements? Seeing a random silly "vision" in a game and having an NPC tell you that he/she didnt see anything is hardly "horror". (see: FEAR for eg)
That said - Dead Space 1 was and is the closest these games will get to horror. Being a gory action game with aliens and jumpscares does not a survival horror make
Ill still play it. Definitely. But any hopes for a survival horror game died with Dead Space 2.
PCG The_B on 5 Feb '13 said:
If the demo's anything to go by, if you don't have a co-op partner then they're not directly "around" so to speak - as in, not controlled by an AI, rather he's more like one of the 'peripheral' NPCs so he doesn't directly interact with you all the time. I believe as well, that on single player you only play as Issac, so you probably won't see any of Carver's hallucinations either. Again though, this is just from my experience with the demo, I'm sure we'll find out for sure come the review.
FishyGinger on 5 Feb '13 said:
It's not just him, I've seen interviews with other game developers and they're all at it like a goose to honey. It's quite annoying. And the would 'like'. It's like, totally overused.
Anyways wasn't a great interview. Not the questions, just the general answers. I know he has to say this is the best game ever made but come on, best co-op this gen? Micro transactions are good? We copied mass effects kinect but we didn't copy it? You might as well, you know, interview a monkey in a fez and smoking jacket.
CunningSmile on 5 Feb '13 said:
Given the chance you should always interview a monkey in a fez and smoking jacket
OXM ETboy on 5 Feb '13 said:
Challenge Accepted.
Yara's a lady, by the way
OXM Jonty on 5 Feb '13 said:
In fairness, I can think of few subjects or situations where this would not be the case.
CunningSmile on 5 Feb '13 said:
Did a monkey in a fez and smoking jacket apply for Matt's job then?
FishyGinger on 5 Feb '13 said:
How was I to know. Yara's short for....Bob after all.
I want a pet monkey now.