Picked up the first issue of Game Informer Australia the other day. It featured a cover story on Dead Space 2. Its a great article (in fact its a pretty impressive magazine) and it shed some light onto the thought process of the creative folk at Visceral Games. The article served to further heighten my respect for this studio.
It was so refreshing to hear a studio speak about narrative structure and plot pacing. It mad a nice change from the typical "and we have developed this cool new weapon". It is reassuring to hear that a studio puts that much emphasis on character and plot. After all, video games are often touted as being an interactive and cinematic experience, and therefore you would think that plot and narrative pacing should be crucial elements. Kudos to Visceral for recognising this.
The first Dead Space was amazing. It gave a stiff kick up the pants to the waning survival horror genre. It introduced a game that was genuiinely scary, unrelenting, had good controls and had a story that made me want to play till the end. To hear the direction they are going with the sequel just makes me hungry for the next game even more.
