EA’s Scrapped Dead Space 3 Would Have Been AMAZING

Solving The Co-Op Problem

In their desire to open the game up to a wider market though, EA had a mandate that this sequel needed to include a multiplayer element. Reports vary on how the team reacted to this, with some suggesting they landed on co-op early on, while others suggest it was a late addition. No matter when it was concieved though, Visceral had a genius way to include co-op and still make a terrifying horror game.

Now, the closest analogue at the time for this shift was of course the Resident Evil franchise. The fifth and sixth main entries in that series added co-op, and it came under heavy scrutiny. In fact, it's the one feature many point to as being emblematic of publisher Capcom's desire to make the franchise appeal to a more mainstream action audience by sacrificing its horror roots.

Even worse, the secondary characters in these titles never felt like more than cyphers for a player two. Sheva was wholly under-utilised in Resident Evil 5, and Resi 6's secondary heroes fared even worse. I'd wager you can't remember most of their names.

To circumvent these issues and prove to players that co-op wouldn't sacrifice what they loved about Dead Space, Visceral were opting for an asymmetrical experience. Wanat explained that though the two players would start on level footing, they'd both experience alternate versions of the same set-pieces or story beats as the title progressed. Framed as hallucinations, one person might turn a corner to see a bloodbath in a hallway, while the other would see nothing noteworthy.