Dead Space 3 heading “towards a big showdown” – dev

By: Moses Abaortae

  |   September 11th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Isaac Clarke will have to brave the elements and the unseen as Visceral Games Steve Papoutsis, the executive producer of the game, explains how the setting and low visibility will provide plenty of opportunities to scare the living daylights out of players.

Dead Space 3 is now heading into its third instalment and after using similar tactics to scare players and build tension in previous game, Visceral Games is now looking to change things up a bit as the narrow corridors of the Dead Space 1 and 2 have been replaced with snow, snow a bit of civilization but that too covered in snow.

The game takes place on a remote icy planet, known as Tau Volantis, where Isaac Clarke has crash landed his transport. Dead Space 3 takes place after the events of the second game as the game’s protagonist finds himself marooned on a planet where a Marker has been set off and turned its inhabitants into necromorphs.

One thing that players will need to get used to is the snow and the cold in the game, which Steve Papoutsis, the game’s executive producer, points out, hides a few terrors of its own.

He said, “The snow planet immediately gave us ideas, like fear of the cold.” Before continuing, “But I think other ways that we can continue to scare people are triggered around the visibility.”

The executive producer elaborated, “You can’t see in the middle of a snowstorm. You can’t see what’s up ahead. You never know what’s gonna come shambling out of the mists towards you. That’s one way we get some tension and fear in.”

Steve Papoutsis also pointed out how the low visibility combined with the sound would add another layer of fear to the game. He said, “The crunching of the snow, and the breaking of the ice – those sounds are scary. I think that can reinforce it.”

It will be interesting to see how the mechanic works, but the Dead Space games always relied on the element of the unknown, and ventilation ducts and shafts, to have players jumping in their seats.

As for the story and where its heading, Papoutsis gave a bit of a hint as to what players can expect as the series seems to be approaching its climax.

Papoutsis teased that the series was “going towards a big showdown, towards getting answers for the questions that have been laid out.”

It seems a number of questions will now be answered, especially with relation to the Unitologists, which by the way, players can now dismember and punish for all the evils they have done in the previous two games, something that fans of the series will be looking forward to and new comers will surely be horrified by.