Dead Space 3 producer "would redo it almost completely"
"We weren't allowed to make a horror game from the beginning."
Dead Space 3 writer and co-producer Chuck Beaver says he would "redo Dead Space 3 almost completely" if given the chance.
That's according to an interview Beaver gave with the CaptainBribo podcast, in which he said that while he would "keep the lore beat it's predicated on", and "keep the lore you find out", he would "have Ellie there but in a different relationship [with Isaac] and redo the entire main story".
As transcribed by PCGN, Beaver talks with Bribo about how, if able to rewrite the third instalment of the terrifying sci-fi horror series, he would ensure the story focussed more tightly on protagonist Isaac Clarke, albeit retaining the co-op mechanic to illustrate how the two characters see the same things differently.
Interestingly, Beaver says the team wasn't "allowed to make a horror game from the beginning", so "the plan [with Dead Space 3] was that we'd expand into other gameplay genres".
However, "all those bits together not only didn't generate a new audience, they lost the old audience", too.
It's a fascinating deep dive into the third instalment that essentially shut the Dead Space franchise down for the best part of a decade. Head on over to CaptainBribo's channel for the full interview.
Back in the day, when we still scored out of 10, we awarded Dead Space 3 7/10, saying it "ticks most of the boxes you'd want from big-budget entertainment".
"Dead Space 3 is a contradiction. Gorgeous but scruffy; tightly packed yet stretched too thin; often frustrating, frequently thrilling and bursting at the seams with stuff, not all of which fits comfortably inside the boundaries the series has set for itself," Dan Whitehead wrote at the time.
"It's certainly not a great game, except perhaps as a poster child for the kitchen-sink development mentality of a console generation in its twilight months. But it does manage to balance out every misstep with something worthwhile. Sadly, newcomers with no preconceptions will likely enjoy this rollercoaster more than the series' fans."