Quick Impressions of Dead Space 3

I just recently wrote my review of completing Dead Space 2 and it was around the time that Dead Space 3 was being shown off at E3.  One of the big new features that they were touting was co-op.  I explained in my Dead Space 2 review my thoughts about the relationship between power and horror.  While many horror movies do employ a group and it works well in that context by having the character’s fears play off each other, I don’t think the same effect extends to games.  While games can be a very social environment and playing together is something I think games should allow more of, I think that with horror it runs into some major roadblocks.  Typically in games in order to keep people engaged when playing together there is a simple revive mechanic when one player goes down the other player can walk over and get them back on their feet.  I don’t know if this is the case for the newest installment, but I would imagine there would be something similar.  In horror movies, it is scary because once a character dies, they generally remain dead, and so the overall group has lost power.  In a video game setting, it would just be a temporary setback (though I suppose that thinking could also be extended to the notion of reloading a save game).  Not to mention that I find when playing with someone else it gets a lot harder to be truly immersed in the game, which makes it hard to convince yourself that what you are seeing is something to be afraid of.

In addition, Dead Space 3 also appears to also take place on a planet with some wide open areas and feature more in the way of gun play which is more typical of a mainstream action game.  I think this focus on action over horror will diminish the potential fear and terror that the game.  While I will wait and see and read several reviews before making up my mind as to whether to play this game, the impression that they are giving about the direction of the franchise is not giving me much confidence.