Carver’s introduction to Dead Space 3 handled “with care” – dev

By: Musa Afridi

  |   December 29th, 2012   |  

News

Steve Papoutsis talks about how introducing Carver was as risky as giving Isaac Clarke his voice in Dead Space 2 and how the studio is working to ensure fans are not left disappointed.

Dead Space 3 is taking the road away from multiplayer and down the path of co-op. Many series have gone this way in the past and some have seen more success than others. Killzone 3 finally saw a co-op feature added and fans appreciated it while the Call of Duty series have seen their co-op modes, both Zombies and Spec Ops.

At the same time, it did not go down too well in Resident Evil 5, which is perhaps a more direct comparison to the Dead Space series. Many fans felt that the introduction of a shared horror experience would make the game less of an intense experience.

However, Visceral Games have stood by their decision and explained that they are approaching co-op differently to what has been done before and even gone as far as saying that Dead Space 3’s co-op is more experimental in terms of horror.

At the same time, Steve Papoutsis, the executive producer, has also attempted to allay fans’ fears over the introduction of another playable character in the series. Fans of the series have grown rather attached to Isaac Clarke and his story and the concern is that Carver may be more tacked on and not as deep as the main protagonist, which may bring take away from the overall experience.

And Steve Papoutsis admits “That was one of the things everyone on the team was worried about – just like when we gave Isaac his voice.” “How do we do this without making everyone freak out?”

The executive producer of Dead Space 3 continued, “The answer is we’re going to do it with care, and we’re going to be sensitive to what our players want and we’ll make sure the character is integral to our universe, has an interesting and compelling back-story, has strengths, has weaknesses, and throughout the game goes on a journey where we see him grow.”

Those points seem to form the ethos of what Visceral is trying to accomplish with the co-op mode and Steve emphasised on it again when he said, “We felt as long as we followed those key tenets of good story-telling that people would enjoy it.”

This will not be the first time Dead Space fans will be seeing Carver as Steve added, “He’s actually in another Dead Space graphic novel, too.”

So what is your take on Carver; does he have the potential to become an icon or not? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.