With the abrupt closure of Visceral Games last year died every hope at ever seeing another Dead Space game again. The space-horror adventure was an incredibly beloved series despite the third entry’s not so hot reception. Still, EA’s decision to close the studio for good gutted fans, but at least we have one more glimmer at the well-known franchise – that is, what Dead Space 4 could have been before they were forced to shut down.
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Dead Space Creative Director Ben Wanat recently sat down with Eurogamer to talk about the early concept ideas they had for the next step in the sci-fi adventure. Though we won’t ever see it come to fruition, the basic idea actually sounds really cool so we’re just going to imagine it really, really hard and pretend like it was a thing.
“The notion was you were trying to survive day to day against infested ships, searching for a glimmer of life, scavenging supplies to keep your own little ship going, trying to find survivors,” Wanat told the site when explaining how it was supposed to take off almost immediately after Dead Space 3.
It wasn’t just going to be a linear-based story, either, which is the mortal enemy of EA. The idea behind the could-have-been title was that it would have non-linear aspects thrown in, “We would have finessed a lot of existing mechanics,” Wanat said. “The flotilla section in Dead Space 3 hinted at what non-linear gameplay could be, and I would have loved to go a lot deeper into that.”
But what really sounds cool is the narrative concept they had during the game’s storyboard phase:
“I figured you’d start in a section of space, maybe following a trail of ship carcasses to an orbital station you think might have the parts and fuel needed to get your ship Shock-capable. You’d start to form a picture of what happened in that region while fighting through scores of Necromorphs from ship to ship. And you’d learn a new, critical bit of plot info along with the means to Shock to a couple of nearby sectors.”
Sounds awesome, right? Unfortunately, it’s not meant to be but Wanat did offer a glimmer of hope. He chose not to spoil what the ending was intended to be “just in case” EA decided to ever give the franchise another shot should there be enough interest.
It appears that he doesn’t have any hard feelings, though, and Wanat explained how sometimes executive decisions like a closure just have to be made,
“As much as everyone wanted to keep making Dead Space games, the cost of development was just too high compared to how much they sold. Nobody ever officially came out and said, ‘there will be no more Dead Space’. But for the first time in a while, it no longer appeared on any SKU plans.
“It would involve getting the development cost pushed way down. And I think you’d have to focus much more on a fantastic core experience: dread, horror, and great dismemberment combat – you’d also have to forego some of the ridiculously expensive one-off action moments.”
He added, “I don’t want to give away the lore, but I will say that we spent a bit of time working out the origin of the Necromorphs and what purpose humans held in this dark universe. Would players find a way out of the Necromorph apocalypse? I’d say yes, but they might be sorry they did. Sometimes you’re better off with the devil you know…”
For now, we’ll never know and as a huge fan of the original franchise – it is a bit heartbreaking to see the concept so fleshed out. In the age of reboots, I’m keeping hope alive against all odds that somehow this franchise will come back to life.
