Dead Space 3’s Lack Of Split Screen Co-Op Was A Big Mistake

Dead Space 3 is far from the most beloved entry in the horror video game franchise, and the lack of split screen co-op was one of its most bizarre mistakes. The original Dead Space arrived to much fanfare in 2008, and could best be described as a mix of Resident Evil 4 and Event Horizon. The game followed silent protagonist Isaac Clarke as he tried to survive a spaceship overrun by creatures known as Necromorphs. The game featured gory action, a rich atmosphere and was sold by publisher EA as the start of a major new franchise.

This included Dead Space comics and an animated prequel called Downfall. It also spawned a very well-received Wii spinoff called Dead Space: Extraction, which unfortunately didn’t do great business. EA wanted a splashier experience with Dead Space 2, which featured a greater focus on action and large scale setpieces. That said, it still received great reviews and sold twice as well as the original. It was also accompanied by a range of tie-in materials like another animated movie, but EA was still disappointed by its financial performance and wanted to broaden the franchise’s appeal even further.

Around this era survival horror games like Resident Evil were putting an increasing focus on action and co-op play, despite the fact horror titles are often best played alone. Thus, EA forced developer Visceral Games to add a strong co-op element to Dead Space 3, in addition to ill-fitting elements like cover shooting against human enemies and microtransactions. These additions weakened the horror aspects of Dead Space 3, which was greatly disappointing to fans. The game also sold below EA’s expectations, which essentially killed the series.

While co-op fundamentally works against the core of survival horror, titles like Resident Evil 5 showed it was at least possible to make a solid action experience out of the idea. The Dead Space 3 co-op mode pairs Isaac with gruff EarthGov Sergeant John Carver, with the story mode being broken up in such a way that it works for both single-player and co-op. The latter mode unlocks certain story details involving Carver’s past, with both characters also witnessing or hallucinating events unique to a certain character. It’s not the greatest addition to the series, but it at least gives fans who want to experience the game with other players the option.

Bizarrely, however, Dead Space 3 lacks local, split screen co-op between friends and is online only. If players want to experience the co-op mode it surely made sense to let two friends have the option to play together in the same room, but this choice isn’t available. It could be argued the nature of Dead Space 3′s co-op doesn’t quite suit split screen, but it’s still annoying the option isn’t there. It’s hardly the biggest flaw of the Dead Space franchise, but it was still a mistake.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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