We bet that most of you were puzzled while watching the first gameplay footage of Dead Space 3. It didn’t look like the Dead Space you knew and loved, right? In fact, it looked more similar to Lost Planet than Dead Space and that’s a bad thing in our opinion. What’s even worse is that Electronic Arts is aware of this change and claimed that it was an important change: a change that was made in order to appeal to more gamers.
In a huge interview with ComputerAndVideogames, EA’s Frank Gibeau revealed that Electronic Arts and Visceral Studios embraced the idea of broading their fanbase and tried to open up the accessibility of the IP a little bit by adding a little bit more action. That’s also why Dead Space 3 will feature a co-op mode, a mode that was added in an attempt to attract even more gamers. And yes, that was also the reason why Dead Space 2 featured a multiplayer mode, even though that mode flopped in a couple of weeks.
Frank Gibeau added that they are pushing Dead Space 3 in areas such as environment, co-op, while at the same time they ‘definitely do not want to piss off our fans by taking it too far from horror‘. Really curious here but how can you not piss off your fans when you are not offering what made them love the original game?
Frank then implied that Dead Space 3 will be to Dead Space, what Prometheus was to the Alien film:
“Prometheus film launch is an interesting one because the appeal is much broader than a traditional space horror because of the casting and some of the imagery”
Ironically, the original Alien movie was better – in pretty much every area – than Prometheus. And that’s precisely why games (and films) should not try to appeal to every gamer or movie-fan. Both games and movies should offer variety. In fact, if it wasn’t for that specific focused horror vision of Ridley Scott (back then), we wouldn’t get one of the best sci-fi movies.
In other words, do you prefer a mind-blowing niche experience or a more casual experience that would appeal to more gamers? Well, we’d take the first one any given day. After all, that’s why we love the Amnesia games. Imagine if Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs featured co-op with guns and other features to appeal to more gamers. Yeap, it would be awful for its original fans. And in this particular case, Electronic Arts is interested in their revenue instead of the gaming experience. And that’s what is really disappointing here!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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