While joining MMGN for an interview, Dead Space 2 producer Shereif Fattouh assured fans that the sequel will be "pretty scary" without being a "hardcore action game".
Developer Visceral is introducing a number of new weapons and combat elements into the gameplay, prompting concern from survival horror fans that the game was heading down a similar path to that action game, Resident Evil 5, which many believed offered more combat and action than actual horror.
[Dead Space 2] is by no means a hardcore action game, where you have heaps of ammo and stuff. There’s nothing like that," explained Fattouh.
We really thought, 'How much ammo can drop an enemy?' There are a lot of elements put into the difficult settings. So if you’re after a true survival horror experience, you want to up the difficulty a bit. If you want more action, and don’t want to worry so much about the scary elements, you can put it onto Casual. But there’s no Arcade mode or anything. There are a variety of gameplay modes to suit people’s style."
Fattouh went on to discuss how genre staples Resident Evil and Silent Hill helped the development team in coming up with ideas and keeping the experience tense in certain areas.
"Most of the development team, myself included, grew up with Resident Evil, Silent Hill, so obviously we’ve done a lot of research and we played all of those games, and referenced those things, to try and learn about what made them great," said Fattouh.
However, Fattouh acknowledged how frustrating the gameplay can be in some survival horror games, insisting that a game doesn't need restrictive gameplay to be tense and scary.
"It’s frustrating for players, but it factors into making you feel a little more helpless. Developers are finding ways to scare people more, while still having really good controls. I don’t think that’s an impossible feat.
"We have proven through Isaac’s different mechanics that you can still have that sense of fear and horror with accessible mechanics. The genre is heading in a way where you shouldn’t limit the experience for the player by restricting the way the character in the game moves, because you can use other ways –with enemies, inventory, with situations of atmosphere, with music, with tension. There are other ways you can scare people rather than just restricting the gameplay."
Be sure to check out the rest of MMGN's interview with Dead Space 2 producer Shereif Fattouh.
Dead Space 2 is out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and PC on January 27, 2011.