There are narrative games where protagonists will comment on so much, and it brings a sense of levity and comedy to the experience, which is not what we wanted to do. I was able to look at it literally with a fresh set of eyes.” Advancements in technology in the gaming world and the actual production helped in a weird way by being so new to me. I relied heavily on Joel and the creative team to kind of help navigate that and ground it as if I were seeing it for the first time. “Isaac Clarke is a character who is just in circumstances, whether they’re extreme or normal to him … At the very beginning of the story, outside of his personal issues with his girlfriend, he’s just going to do a job. “I just kept it as an open book,” Wright says. Wright, being the physical manifestation of Isaac, went in knowing exactly how to deliver what was needed in the best way possible.
That meant adopting a new mindset to fit the setting, time, and tone. Wright would basically go back in time to complete the puzzle of Isaac’s growth seen in Dead Space 2 and 3. There were a lot of careful considerations and self-monitoring on the part of everyone involved. As we chatted, I found that giving Isaac a voice wasn’t as cut-and-dried as writing a script, getting Wright in a studio, and recording. Such a change wasn’t a simple task, but a complicated creative process for EA. I think that gives the player a little bit more engagement, brings the player a little bit more into the fold, and makes them feel like they’re capable and working with a capable protagonist.” He’s the space engineer that gets the job done. “Our version of Isaac is more solution-oriented. “We wanted to give him more agency and put him in the driver’s seat,” MacMillan said. That created a disconnect that the team felt it could solve. MacMillan notes that Dead Space now comes off as non-player characters telling Isaac what to do and having him go do it, with his lack of response making it feel like he’s being ignorant of the world around him.
While Wright was more than happy about returning to the role, what prompted the change in the first place? MacMillan and Motive Studio didn’t want him to come off as a “do-boy” as he did in the original. So it was a pleasure to go back and revisit that character.” “I’m so blessed to have a character like Isaac Clarke, who I feel I’m a lot like,” Wright tells Digital Trends with a chuckle. Giving Clarke more to say wasn’t a throwaway decision that was easy to implement it forced the team to think about where the original game’s silence doesn’t mesh with his final arc. In an interview with Wright and Dead Space‘s Realization Director Joel MacMillan, the two told me why it was necessary to revisit the past in this way.
0 kommentar(er)
