Grave Gamer News & Views — dead space

Dead Space 3 Demo Hitting Consoles Next Month

Taking into consideration most people are lounging around their homes amongst confidants and family alike, bellies stretched by a lethal combination of rum doused eggnog and honey glazed ham (because fuck you if it’s not honey glazed), video game news is on the thin this week.

But, alas, a blip on the radar comes courtesy of Visceral Games’ third bout of sci-fi horror in Dead Space 3, which will be seeing a playable public demo next month, available for download from both PSN and XBLA on January 22nd.  Dead Space 3 will be the first installment in the franchise to feature multiplayer within its story campaign, a choice that has sparked derision and vitriol among ardent survival horror fans that believe the best gaming scares are had alone in the dark.  It hasn’t been confirmed if co-op will be an option offered in the demo, but rest assured, it’d be stupid as hell if it wasn’t [Ayuh, the demo allows you to play as Mr. Clarke in single-player or his necromorph-stomping bro, John Carver, in co-op. - Ed).

If you’re anxious to throw engineer-turned-male-Ripley-surrogate Isaac Clarke into harm’s way a little earlier than most, EA is doling out a limited amount of codes which will allow Xbox 360 users to download the demo as soon as January 15th (with the offer set to expire the day prior).  Check back here for rum doused, honey glazed impressions once the demo drops.

Dead Space by Daniel Oldenburg

17 Minutes in the Void with Dead Space 3

If you have a fraction of an hour to spare and don’t mind the horrifically macabre, you absolutely have to check out this gameplay footage from next year’s Dead Space 3.  Hosted by the game’s Creative Director and Senior Audio Artist, we’re given a backseat view of famed space engineer Isaac Clarke’s latest trek through the bowels of hell.

Focusing on the...

Dead Space 3 (PC/PS3/X360 - February 5th)

EA and Visceral want you to wholeheartedly believe the classic Dead Space formula that has attracted horror junkies to the franchise is still well and true.  But that’s not quite the entire picture.  Moving away from traditional alone-in-the-dark design, you’ll find a large dose of third-person shooter mechanics injected into the controls.

We’re talking a dedicated dodge ability, a new cover system that activates when it’s “appropriate for the given situation,” and – most notably – the addition of a co-op partner to help thin both tension and enemy ranks.  There’s enough damning evidence here for any tried n’ true survival horror veteran to want to close the book on Dead Space 3, writing it off as another casualty in the tug o’ war between action and horror in gaming.

But can’t there be compromise between the two genres?  Underneath the “upped action” red flags and claims from EA that people found the first two games “too scary,” I’m hearing a real investment from Visceral in increasing Dead Space’s playability in order to take focus off of the controls and place it on the horrific shit happening to you.  And if you feel co-op diminishes scare factor at all, the developer has promised going solo will be catered to in the campaign, shifting the gameplay and story organically rather than punishing you for your solidarity by implementing a suicidally stupid AI partner.

Maybe horror and action have no place together in a game meant to keep you on your toes for eight to ten hours…But hopefully, as I’m sure Visceral is betting, we won’t think that after February.

Official box art for Battlefield: Tau Volantis.