Dead Space 3‘s Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis recently gave an interview to  in which he discussed how exploration is supposed to blend in with the main experience of the campaign.

 

Papoutsis explains:

 

“Think of the game having a variety of hubs, and then there are spokes that come off those hubs. Some are required for your alpha path or your A to Z progression through the game. You might find an audio, video or text log that motivates you to go find this place; you might be just exploring because you want to see what’s over in that corner of the world and find an interesting-looking door that could lead to a dungeon, so to speak, of stuff to do. There will be other paths available through the game just for you to go out there and find, and figure out what’s going on.”

Supposedly the infamous coop mode influenced the developers decision to add more exploration, as it simply offered more space to cover with a partner. As if this was not already hinting at the fact that players will run through the levels more carelessly, when accompanied by a friend Papoutsis went on to say:

“When you choose to go off the rails and explore stuff off the A to Z path, now you’re into an area that’s not that tailored, scripted, authored experience because we don’t know you’re going to be walking through this door at this exact moment, like in Dead Space 2. So it is a little bit different, but the trade-off is we’re allowing players to experience more game, and experience it with friends. And hopefully that trade-off is a good one for players.”

Nonetheless Papoutsis tried to defend the fact that Dead Space has not moved away from its horror roots and that following the game’s main goal will still deliver an experience fans are accustomed to.

It sounds like EA is trying to please everybody instead of focusing on a single demographic.