Gears of Dead Space 3

Hello there friend,

So as you probably guessed from the title of this post, I have just seen the first look at Dead Space 3.  Being a huge Dead Space fan, this has actually caused my physical pain to watch. 

Dead Space 3 Reveal

First thing's first.  Co-Op is a fun little addition that has many games popular and brought about good times had by all.  However, the tone that naturally comes with Co-Op is opposed to the heart of Dead Space, namely Horror.  Though games such as Left 4 Dead have made great use of a co-op mechanic, the game itself is not particularly scary, and that's often because you know if something goes wrong, you or your friends are able to pull your backside out of the fire.

This makes Dead Space particularly difficult to make a Co-Op game and still keep the horror alive.  In fact, I'd dare say the game seems to have more in common with Gears of War and Resident Evil 5 than it does any previous Dead Space. 

I'd like to be proven wrong.  I'd LOVE to know there was some innovation to having horror work in a multiplayer situation, but thus far it has not.  The best horror games, the survival horrors in general, have always been one person against the overwhelming unknown. 

Dead Space 2 has a remarkable scene where nothing happens for almost half an hour.  It's your imagination that is pushing on your nerves as you walk through the empty husk of the Ishimura.  I cant see a second player in that situation improving it.

And yet here we see co-op in large set pieces with no pacing really found (or wanted) in a horror game, however commonly found in Action games all the time. 

Particularly, it reminds me of Gears of War with it's modified cover mechanics and pacing. 

Now, the particular issue I have with it becoming Gears isn't because I think Gears is a terrible game (Far from it), but I feel it's an abuse of brand recognition to push titles for a completely different game.  I am not particularly hard to please in games, hell, I aboslutly loved the rail-shooter Dead Space Extraction for the Wii, which though had some clumsy pacing, it felt rewarding and sometimes would offer a good jump and frayed nerves. 

I will admit when I wrote about Dead Space 2 I had simular issues, and they proved themselves right with a poor Vs mode that was inspired by Left 4 Dead that just did not mesh well with what the game was capable of being, and the same went for Bioshock 2's multiplayer component. 

I am assuming that it was a push by producer execs to make it have a multiplayer/Co-Op component, but this is probably one of the most inappropriate places to do it.  As it stands, Horror is rarer and pushing titles to become action orientated only creates a vacuum, for another title to do the same thing Resident Evil and now Dead Space do.  It's honestly feeling like moving a Survival Horror title to the Action genre is putting it out to pass.  It's a shame, because I have a lot of faith in Visceral games.

I am hoping they offer up more gameplay footage, something to make me know this is the Dead Space I've grown to love over the years.  But as it stands, I guess I should just load up Gears of War 3 and play that in the dark, because I am feeling the experience will be the same.

Until next time,

- D-Pad Duke