Dead Space 3 Producer: “We Weren’t Allowed To Make A Horror Game”

The Dead Space series had long stayed dormant until this year — when a full-fledged remake of the first Dead Space was released — and much of that has to do with the harsh critique that befell Dead Space 3, developed by Visceral Games and launched in 2013. Speaking in a podcast, the latter’s producer Chuck Beaver admits that if given the opportunity, he “would redo Dead Space 3 almost completely.”

Skip on over to the 34:40th part of the following video where Chuck talks to CaptainBribo about his feelings toward Dead Space 3, saying that he would recreate the title from the ground up while also retaining some of the game’s strengths, such as the co-op part, and the lore that it’s predicated on. Essentially, Beaver would prefer rewriting the entire story to assert more focus on Isaac Clarke—the protagonist.

It’s worth noting that Beaver is speaking in the context of a remake, given that’s what EA — the IP owner — plans on proceeding with for the Dead Space franchise. Just so you know, the industry giant has been surveying fan interest for Dead Space 2 and 3 remakes and a text log in the latest Dead Space remake has also hinted at the revival of Dead Space 2 in a similar fashion, so that’s that.

I think though now in this remake territory I would redo Dead Space 3 almost completely, except for what you said. I would keep the lore beat that it’s predicated on, keep the lore you find out, and I would have Ellie there but in a different relationship [with Isaac] and redo the entire main story. I would just throw away and rewrite.”

A little earlier in the podcast, though, Beaver expanded on the development of Dead Space 3 at the time, explaining how the people up high at EA shifted the plan drastically, making the game go from horror to something entirely else, losing its charm in the process. That type of decision-making is pretty much the game’s bane of existence that still holds to date.

The plan was that we would expand into other gameplay genres and stuff and I think all those bits together not only didn’t generate new audience, they lost old audience, the gun mechanic, the recrafting, missed a lot of the stuff that everybody loved about the old one and it created a whole bunch of exploration space. And then on top of that, we weren’t allowed to make a horror game from the beginning.”

That last bit is fairly interesting, as it goes on to illustrate what the developing team had to put up with during Dead Space 3’s time in the works. For those not in the know, though, both the first Dead Space and Dead Space 2, coming out in 2008 and 2011 respectively, are considered two of the greatest games of all time, but tragically, their successor couldn’t be on the same level.