The more I look at Dead Space 3, the more I'm starting to worry about the Horror genre of games. For those who don't know, Dead Space 3 will have drop-in/drop-out co op for the campaign portion of the game. The co op will feature a separate storyline involving the second character called John Carver. Together John and Isaac Clark (the main character) will be battling necromorphs and unitologists on a snow planet's surface and (of course) in space. For those new to the game series, Dead Space was a single player only survival horror game that involved Isaac trying to survive against the aforementioned necromorphs on a damaged ship. The story continues in Dead Space 2 inside a city with a similar situation. Dead Space 2 also had a single player only campaign, but it added a team vs team multiplayer feature. Now Dead Space 3 will be the first game in the series to have a co op feature. My question is: why now? I'm getting a strange feeling of deja vu because the F.E.A.R. (a horror shooter game) series did the exact same thing last year with its third installment. By doing so, the co op and point system took away from the fear factor of the game (no pun intended). What makes horror games work is creating the feeling isolationism for the player, which will make him or her feel more tense and susceptible to fearful moments throughout the game. The co op in F.E.A.R. 3 destroyed that feeling and made the game more like any other shooter that's out there today. I'm afraid that Dead Space 3 is heading down the same path. The more I look at the gameplay of Dead Space 3, the more it is looking like a tactical 3rd person shooter, than a horror game. What are you thoughts? Am I overreacting or am I right to worry for the horror genre may be in danger of being absorbed by the standard (and overpopulated) shooter genre of today?

I think it's weird that they have co-op. It looks like the new Silent Hill game for Vita is going to have it as well.

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There's no reason why horror and co-op can't work together. Just see well.. any horror movie ever that has multiple protagonists, getting picked off one by one. They're just doing it wrong. They just need to find scary ways to separate the two of you, turn you against another, etc. instead of just putting you with someone else in same game, which only makes things easier and less scary.

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There's no problem with having Co-Op in a Horror game. Just like Burr said, They just gotta figure out how to seperate the two. They would have missions where both players need to do something to finish the stage even if it means going to different areas separately.

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As far as Silent Hill is concerned, each person has their own individual experience. I don't know how that makes sense with multiple protagonists.

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TC and Burr, you both make excellent points. The problem is that many horror games are usually action based lately. When you mix action with co-op it becomes more of a competition or a shooter fest, which reduces the tension of the game. Without that tension, the chances of you even getting startled are slim at best. I agree that the game should separate the players to create some form of isolationism, but one may have to ask, "what is the point of co-op if the players are going to be on their own in the game?" I think that co-op could work if they're implemented in horror games that don't rely on action such as Amnesia. Amnesia would be the perfect horror game for co-op because of the feeling of helplessness and terror that surrounds the environment. Not to mention the puzzles in the game can be so complex that you would need two players to complete them. Add the terror factor with the puzzles and you have two very scared players who will be stressed to complete the objectives in the game. Let's face it, even people who watch Let's Plays of Amnesia get scared. It will be interesting if Frictional Games adds co-op into their next installment of the series (Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs).

Should horror games have co op? I mean , why not? You could build a good game with co op. However, I do not agree with taking a historically single player game (like dead space) and adding co op to that.

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