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Co-op won’t ruin Dead Space

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When the co-operative element of Dead Space 3 was shown off, fans were up in arms, decrying the action-oriented degeneration of the space-bound survival horror. Since all the fan rage, EA has been doing its best to convince gamers that the game hasn’t just become another cover-based third person shooter. It latest attempt at that is by telling you that you don’t have to play it in co-op at all.

Speaking to the PlayStation Blog, Dead Space 3 producer Steve Papoutsis said that gamers wouldn’t be missing out any of the story by playing along – they’d just miss out on the social aspect of it all. thankfully, it won’t be going the Resident Evil route by throwing in a useless AI co-op partner. (I still want to stab Sheva in the face with a spear.)

“That wouldn’t feel like Dead Space,” he said. [We wanted to] create a co-op mode that felt additive to the experience. You don’t have to play it – you can play Dead Space 3 in single-player and it plays out in very similar way to what you’ve experienced in the past, and we needed to create a character that fit into the universe and didn’t feel like a throw-away character.

“We first announced John Carver through a graphic novel, so he has his own unique personality and backstory. So when you get into the game he actually brings value to what’s going on. You learn about him and his own personal demons. That’s very different, and we feel it’s very innovative.

If you play it alone, you’ll still be playing a psychologically scarring survival horror, Papoutsis insists.

“As for being alone and walking down a corridor on your own – you still have that in Dead Space 3. You can play the single player and you still have that. But now when you have another character in the scene with you, it’s a different approach to the horror – it’s more psychological. That’s a new feeling that you’ve never had in a Dead Space game. That’s how we’re injecting horror into the co-op.

“There’s a lot more to horror than things just popping out at you. There’s the atmosphere, the sound, the events, the things that you see in the environment – those all have different impacts on people. You can still have all that when you have two people walking around the environment. So, if you want to have the intense single play experience you can still do that.”

“If you’re playing single player you’re choosing to have that solitary Isaac experience,” said Papoutsis. “If you’re interested in learning about Carver, you’re playing with a friend and you’re getting that additive information, but it’s not changing the end of the story. It’s impacting Carver’s story.”

I’ve had a bit of time with Dead Space 3…and even though the videos and trailers so far would have you beleive you’re playing Gears of War, it certainly feels like Dead Space.

Last Updated: November 9, 2012

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