Get your co-op out of my Dead Space

[GunSpartan]

While Resident Evil and other so-called "survival horror" games have gone the action route in recent years, Dead Space 1 and 2 stood as the last AAA bastions for "scared crapless" gameplay. But at E3, the developers showed of co-op gameplay and frankly, it did not look like the Dead Space we know and love. I'm curious what public opinion is on this matter. If I want to shoot stuff with a buddy, I've got games for that. If I want intense, scary gameplay I should be able to go to Dead Space, right?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Dead Space was never truly scary.

Not Amnesia scary, anyway.

If Amnesia is to games, what Alien is to film, then Dead Space is Aliens.

Tense, full of action, definitely a great experience, just not really that scary.

 

[Terratina.]

I just miss local co-op too much to care about Dead Space 3's online co-op anyway. Never been that interested in the series, just not my cup of tea, to be honest. I think there is a sliding scale of scariness v. amount of sequels with the amount of scariness dropping with the amount of sequels with triple A horror titles, just look at Silent Hill.

 

[TheCommanders]

I just miss local co-op too much to care about Dead Space 3's online co-op anyway. Never been that interested in the series, just not my cup of tea, to be honest. I think there is a sliding scale of scariness v. amount of sequels with the amount of scariness dropping with the amount of sequels with triple A horror titles, just look at Silent Hill.

Could part of that be that the first time (maybe the second) you don't really know what you're up against? I mean, take Silent Hill. Yeah it has secrets, but for the most part we know that any dude/tte entering that town without a squeaky clean past is fucked. Playing amnesia for the first time, not knowing what the hell I was so scared of was part of what made it scary. If they did a sequel, the loss of some of the mystery would probably negatively affect the horror. In dead space, I think we've pretty much figured out what's going on, who to watch out for, and what vents have monsters hiding in them. Not quite as scary anymore.

 

[daveman247]

Dead Space was never truly scary.

Not Amnesia scary, anyway.

If Amnesia is to games, what Alien is to film, then Dead Space is Aliens.

Tense, full of action, definitely a great experience, just not really that scary.

I dont think amnesia was that scary either :X

 

[piinyouri]

Dead Space was only ever really good at the very beginning of the first game.
After that they sought to thoroughly destroy any remaining atmosphere and tension with predictable jump scares, no subtlety, more jump scares, a mechanic that by it's existence makes the game an action sort of title, and more jump scares.

 

[teebeeohh]

except it's not your Dead Space, it belongs to EA and they are gonna milk that cow till they have to lock the shriveled dead husk in a closet with C&C. and after they tried MP they go with coop, the 4. one will have twitter integration, day one dlc and motion controls.

personally i never liked two player coop that seems to dominate the industry, i always prefer playing with more people. 4 player coop is perfect for me, i have been playing that with the same three people for over ten years now.

 

[Zhukov]

Except Dead Space was never particularly scary.

It was a fun alien-blasting romp, but it wasn't horror.

Granted, the new one isn't exactly getting me moist with anticipation, but the previous two weren't good enough for me to get outraged about it.

 

[SilverBullets000]

I don't like the idea of co-op in Dead Space either. Someone said it wasn't scary already, and while I agree with that, I will say that it was tense. You were always low on ammo and always expecting something to jump out at you. The monsters were always after you, no one else.
Adding another player will take away from that experience. They won't just be after you anymore, they'll be going for your partner too. Less tension, less of a reason to even play the game.

 

[Zhukov]

You were always low on ammo...

No you weren't.

I was always having to sell off my ammo because my inventory was overflowing with it.

The only time I ever had to put any thought into ammo was playing DS2 on the harder difficulties. Even then, I always had more than enough money to ensure that I never even came close to running low.

 

[scar_47]

The dev explained that you can still play the SP without co-op at all ie no AI partner, he devled into it a little saying they wanted to include co-op without interfering with those that wished to play alone, and they'd even made alternate cut scenes for non co-op and co-op. So theres really no reason to worry, I actually think it's a damn fine work around for adding co-op without pissing anyone off.

 

[Dogstile]

While Resident Evil and other so-called "survival horror" games have gone the action route in recent years, Dead Space 1 and 2 stood as the last AAA bastions for "scared crapless" gameplay. But at E3, the developers showed of co-op gameplay and frankly, it did not look like the Dead Space we know and love. I'm curious what public opinion is on this matter. If I want to shoot stuff with a buddy, I've got games for that. If I want intense, scary gameplay I should be able to go to Dead Space, right?

The co-op is a replacement for the multiplayer. There is still a single player mode. With no AI partner. This keeps being said around the forums, how are you missing this?

 

[Kae]

I'm so sorry but that game was never even remotely scary, it was annoying because you could tell that it was trying to scare but it's completely worthless when you only have 1 trick up you're sleeve and you use it every 5 minutes, besides it always felt like more of an action game to me so I can't say I care, but if it bothers you, I believe it still has the option for solo play without AI partner, so you should be covered.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

I personally didn't find Dead Space to be the least bit scary, but if you are scared by the game and want to play it by yourself, why not simply play it single player? I'm not sure how this feature is meant to affect you. But if you truly wish it removed, you could follow through with your convictions and not purchase or play the game in protest--bottom lines and player counts speak volumes louder than forum posts.

 

[karloss01]

There are no AAA horror games, Jim sterling hit it on the head that they are just too beautiful to be scary anymore. And Dead space has been the most predictable horror game to date, either it?s coming from a vent or it?s playing dead on the floor.

 

[Don Savik]

Ok, so despite all these internet tuff guys saying "horror games aren't scary cuz I'm a tuff guy" I would classify Dead Space as scary as the Alien Franchise. It can be equal parts action and horror depending on the scenario.

Yes I thought Dead Space did a good job of horror, and even though it has jump scares (like all horror games) it still does a good job of atmosphere and sound. It wasn't holy shit scary, but it was still quite scary in some places. What the third game seems to have which I LOVE is massive lovecraftian Necromorphs. Why is this awesome? Well, we've fought enough people zombie necromorphs, that deviating into fighting an uncontrolled marker-made god-beast is a nice step forward.

Yea I don't want to play it coop, but it at least sounds like they're trying to make the game partner almost non-essential.

And can we stop with the "hurr hurr EA milks all its franchises till they die because evil! I am so smarts about business"? I mean, Mass Effect 3 was still an amazing game despite the ending, so lets not be so quick to judge because hating EA is cool right now.

 

[nu1mlock]

If I want to shoot stuff with a buddy, I've got games for that.

I don't. At least not any game that we haven't already completed at least once. There are way too few co-op games out there and I'm glad they added it to Dead Space 3, it was the only thing missing from the first two.

 

[Schizocorpse]

Edit for being an idiot.

I'm looking forward to playing Deadspace co-op, though it'll probably take the horror out and replace it with a fragging contest.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

While Resident Evil and other so-called "survival horror" games have gone the action route in recent years, Dead Space 1 and 2 stood as the last AAA bastions for "scared crapless" gameplay?

Dead Space 1 and 2 as bastions for survival horror? You have to be joking here. They are rehashes of Resident Evil 4 gameplay in every way. And apart from the odd jump-scare, there is very little actual fear. It's a 3rd person shooter with monsters and scary noises, not a survival horror. Don't mistake me, I did enjoy them very much.

If you want "intense scary gameplay" you seriously need to rethink your definition of survival horror. But I agree with you about co-op. It's uneeded, unwanted, unnecessary and a waste of developer time and resources when they could make a great single-player experience. But it's an EA game....it HAS to have multiplayer!