Dead Space 3 Review

[Tomo2000 60]

Now, I've been a fan of Dead Space since the first one came out with it's irritating, clunky controls and constant jump scares, and I've always liked it. There are a lot of space-aged horror games, but I think Dead Space really took the cake. It was a really new concept, to take Zombie games and future, space-age games and find a way to merge them somehow. I've only ever had very few things to really dislike about this game series, but I still find them incredibly enjoyable..

 

My main complaint is that, throughout the entire series, there is no real horror atmosphere. The entire 'atmosphere' that makes you scared in this game is your fear of a jump-scare. And those silent parts with little music and no sound at all? You're still scared of a jump-scare somewhere. I actually played an indie horror game where there was no monsters, nothing to actually make you scared like that, but a creepy-as-hell atmosphere, some well placed objects and really nicely written descriptions and areas. That's a horror game scenario that I bring up a lot when talking about horror game reviews, because that deserves an award; a horror game with no actual scary things to make you scared... Like, that sounds a little stupid, but until you play the game, you don't know what I mean. Another excellent example of something similar to this is Theresia on the DS.

 

This jump-scare created atmosphere went through all three games, and I sort of don't like that... If you ever played The Walking Dead, in Ep 4, there's a really elegantly done jump scare. After I finished shitting bricks, I was like, 'Wow, that was really well done...'. I won't go into details just because of spoilers, but the jump-scares in Dead Space are rather predictable, and it's just, loud sound, and Necromorph coming right at you, and that's all there is to it, really... If you ask me, that shouldn't really be considered horror, if that's the only thing that really has you 'scared' of the game.

 

I also hate the damn Ubermorphs, as they are called... The ones that regenerate when they're dead, all the time, and chase you. They made me so mad, you don't understand.. It just frustrates me... At least, in Dead Space 3, there weren't a hundred of them chasing you through the finale like in Dead Space 2.

 

Now, with the actual series itself, there is always one other thing apart from this that changes each game, but that still annoys me quite a bit... Dead Space, the original, was it's clunky controls, and inability to aim and look around a corner... That really made me mad. In Dead Space 2, it was that you were given an objective to work towards, and then something would explode, and it would ruin the entire thing, and then you had to walk in damn circles until you got to the next thing about to explode. That really got to me...

 

In Dead Space 3, however, there wasn't really an aspect that made me angry. There was quite a bit of running around, but that was alright. I think the thing that I didn't like so much about Dead Space 3 is that it's purely jump-scares now. I thought it was creepy in Dead Space 2 where your world would distort and turn against you in some parts, but in Dead Space 3 it's nothing but jump-scares, and a lot of the aspects of the game tend to turn more towards an action game than a horror.

 

But there has always been one amazing thing about Dead Space, which will always have me buying more of the series, and that's it's mystery. They have this amazing ability to make you keep guessing, and just when you think you know something, they turn it around in your face. Plus, there's always little easter eggs and hidden things here and there, and I really like that.

 

But, Dead Space 3 did a great many things right. First thing, which is really obvious, is the Co-Op. Damn, the Co-Op makes it less scary, since there's two people, but it was a fantastic feature. I don't think it would have done so well if it was only single-player again. This is something they did really right.

 

Another thing was the weapon customization system... Oh my, this was amazing. There's so many things unlocking all the time, and the level of customization you could do. I really loved this feature, and I had a lot of fun. If you were new to Dead Space and didn't know what things did, there was still a Blueprints section with dozens of pre-made weapons that you just needed the parts for. I'd go more in-depth with the weapon customization system, but I fear it's just a waste of time, since you need to really play the game to understand it. I think, however, that three weapon slots should have been a must.

 

Another feature I really loved was the resources system, and the Scavenger Bots. With the resources, you can build items from weapons instead of relying on finding the parts, and you can use these resources to build weapons from your blueprints. Each resource has a rarity, although most are pretty common. The rarest one is called Tungsten, and at the start you never have enough, but by the end you have quite a nice chunk. Your Scavenger Bots are real great; you can just put them down anywhere and after a certain amount of time they'll return to your weapon customization station with some resources for you. If you do side missions, and when you kill bosses, you also find Spare Parts boxes, which have lots of resources in them.

 

I liked how long the game was, too. I believe I won Dead Space 2 in about a day, playing from about 10am to 6pm or so. So about 8 hours of campaign, give or take. I've been playing Dead Space 3 on and off for a few days now, but really started to hammer it the last two days, so if I had to estimate, I'd say... I'm not sure, I would say it took me at least 12-14 hours to complete it, although I had a few issues with it jumping me back a little at some save points.

 

Dead Space 3 is also the first Dead Space game to have side-missions, which are pretty damn fun, rewarding, and give you a really good look at the entire universe of the game, really. There's text logs everywhere and recorded messages, too, which give you a real insight into what was going on at the time.

 

One thing that I'll put a lot of effort into talking about is the Necromorphs... Man, they did really good with the Necromorphs, and I have a lot of fun seeing how they've 'evolved' them, so to speak, over the cause of the series. If you remember shooting the Necromorphs in half at the waist with the Plasma Cutter for a virtually instant-kill in Dead Space 2, that trick will no longer work, and will probably put you in a worse place now. Most of the Necromorphs, when cut in half, will grow tendrils and will continue after you. There are also some rather-intelligent Necromorphs that can talk, somewhat, although heavily distorted, but that can also carry weapons, usually axes and stuff. There are some head-like things which can attach themselves to dead human corpses, and attack you from that body. These are a pain in the ass, but a good design, also. There are some Necromorphs that actually spoil the story, if you'll believe that, so I can't talk about those, although they are awesome and creepy as hell.

 

One thing I loved about the Necromorphs is that, as you got closer to the end, they got harder to kill. They got a black appearance and became much more resistant to your weaponry. I went with a precision weapon that, up until about 3/5ths of the game, was a 1-hit-kill, for the most of it, until this happened. Even if you have a kick-ass gun, you will have to be cautious near the end.

 

There are also human enemies, too, now. These are the Unitologist Fanatics from Dead Space 2. One thing that they did flawlessly in this game that I wish Operation Raccoon City did properly, is Necromorphs VS Unitologist Fanatics VS you, and that was pretty awesome. You could choose to focus on the Necromorphs while they were distracted by the Unitologists, or vice-verse, so the Unitologists can't shoot at you. This was a really nice feature to the game.

 

There are also some parts of the game that, I won't talk much about due to spoilers, but there are sections in the game that super-boost your Kenesis. One allowed you to lift incredibly heavy objects, and one uses your slow ability that, while slowing them down to almost a stand-still, allows you to Kenesis parts off them and launch it at them while they are still alive. I thought this was really awesome.

 

But, as always, Dead Space 3's greatest strength is it's mystery. Every single game has an element where they will reveal something, or explain something, and by doing this opens up a whole new section to the universe that you want to learn about. I wish I played this game six months from now, just so I didn't have to wait so long for the sequel, which will happen, by the way. The ending is open-ended, and you could possibly think that it's all over, but there is a hint in the chapter names that reveal there will be another Dead Space game.

 

I found Dead Space 3 really enjoyable; more-so than Dead Space and Dead Space 2. Although it's leaning towards the action genre, these improvements really to enhance the quality, re-playability and, well, the fun of the game. There were very few things of this game I didn't like, and it was a very enigmatic journey. I hope EA keeps improving the series as they did from Dead Space 2 to 3, instead of fucking a good game series like Command and Conquer 3 to 4... The improvements from Dead Space 2 to 3 were really well done, and for that;

My Rating: 8.5 - 9 out of 10

[chigoo 3]

nice review, I'm playing DS3 right now(not now cause I'm in school but...) and I love it. also love how you can make your own gun, but it could be better with more variety of things to add to the guns

[NoxieNation 0]

I haven't gotten a chance to try this one out yet. I have actually only played the first, is it mandatory to the story to play the second? I kinda just wanna play this one.

[Tomo2000 60]

I haven't gotten a chance to try this one out yet. I have actually only played the first, is it mandatory to the story to play the second? I kinda just wanna play this one.

Well, I played the start of the first one, and the clunky movement just really angered me after an hour or so, so I jumped to the second one. The intro to the second one really explains what happened in the first one, essentially, which wasn't all that much. However, in order to play the third one, I do suggest you play the second one first. There's a lot of storyline in the second that you'll need to understand Dead Space 3. You can completely skip Dead Space 1 if you want, though, as the intro to 2 sort of explains all the main points of what happened in Dead Space 1. There's also a part in Dead Space 2 where you go back to the Ishimora (or, at least, I think that's how it's spelt, and it's the planet cracker class mining vessel that was in the first Dead Space), and that also gives you a good idea of what happened in the first. But, yeah, pretty much, you should really play Dead Space 2 before 3, or at least watch a Let's Play of it on youtube or something. There's lots of storyline that are Incorporated in Dead Space 3 from Dead Space 2 that you really need to know.

[NoxieNation 0]

Well, I played the start of the first one, and the clunky movement just really angered me after an hour or so, so I jumped to the second one. The intro to the second one really explains what happened in the first one, essentially, which wasn't all that much. However, in order to play the third one, I do suggest you play the second one first. There's a lot of storyline in the second that you'll need to understand Dead Space 3. You can completely skip Dead Space 1 if you want, though, as the intro to 2 sort of explains all the main points of what happened in Dead Space 1. There's also a part in Dead Space 2 where you go back to the Ishimora (or, at least, I think that's how it's spelt, and it's the planet cracker class mining vessel that was in the first Dead Space), and that also gives you a good idea of what happened in the first. But, yeah, pretty much, you should really play Dead Space 2 before 3, or at least watch a Let's Play of it on youtube or something. There's lots of storyline that are Incorporated in Dead Space 3 from Dead Space 2 that you really need to know.

Okay cool, thanks.  Dead Space 2 is a lot cheaper anyway :)