Visceral Games - You Suck!!! U ruined Dead Space for me. Horrid story, characters and over all feel of the game. Where is the passion????
Dead Space 3 Review
Game Emblems
The Good
The Bad
This is one awesome game! Players should stop comparing to past entries and enjoy the game for what it is. SUPER FUN!!!!
Dead Space 3 carries the series' standard admirably, thanks to deep weapon crafting and a wealth of exploratory possibilities.
The Good
- Excellent weapon crafting system adds flexibility to combat
- Outstanding sense of atmosphere
- Great amount of environmental variety
- Co-op makes for a fun alternate approach to the campaign.
The Bad
- Convoluted story
- Some gameplay sequences fall flat.
Dead Space 3 doesn't want to take sides in the debate over what constitutes a true survival horror game. It would rather leave the choice up to you. This is a game rife with options and flexibility, building on the strengths of the franchise with clever new ideas that let you tailor the experience to your liking. It hits a few sour notes in its story and struggles at times when it steps away from the core combat, but Dead Space 3 is a thrilling and worthwhile sequel.
Dead Space 3's story follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors. That is to say, it's nearly incomprehensible. Isaac Clarke, now caught in a confusing love triangle, has been sent off to the frozen ice planet of Tau Volantis, believed to be the marker homeworld. You remember every last scattered detail having to do with markers and their sundry effects on humanity, right? If not, you're out of luck: aside from a brief "previously on Dead Space" video buried in an extras menu, the game makes precious little effort to explain anything of remote importance. It's an issue compounded by a dearth of interesting characters, and this ultimately makes it difficult to feel attached to anything that occurs in the haphazard, quickly moving narrative.
But no matter: while Isaac's latest journey may not unfurl with the deftest of storytelling, it fully succeeds in ushering you from one incredible locale to the next. Whether floating in the starry abyss amid the vast wreckage of destroyed spacecraft or attempting to stay alive in a suffocating blizzard, Dead Space 3 keeps you on your toes with one expertly crafted environment after the other.
The game's opening chapters tend to favor loud and boisterous set pieces, but once you start digging deeper into the frozen hellscape that is Tau Volantis, a feeling of subdued terror gradually builds. Where atmospherics are concerned, developer Visceral is once again at the top of its game. Interior spaces are a terrifying stage show of light and shadows, and even some of the planetside vistas are capable of making a glowing sunset look deeply unsettling. Just as creepy is the game's sound design, which marries subtle audio effects with a restrained score to further build the tension.
Yet Dead Space 3 doesn't simply mimic what the series has already done well. With its introduction of a robust weapon crafting system, it takes a significant step forward in terms of depth and flexibility. Every classic weapon, from the plasma cutter to the ripper, has been broken down to its basic components, spare parts you can cobble together at a workbench to create the most surgical or bombastic weapon you can conceive. Scavenging for parts often feels like collecting loot in Diablo: a virtually endless stream of rewards you're constantly picking up from lockers and fallen enemies.
You start with a basic frame and then slot in tools that determine the primary and alternate fire--say, a plasma cutter coupled with a flamethrower, or a telemetry spike augmented with an underslung grenade launcher. You then add attachments that can further modify the weapon fire--goodbye vanilla grenades, hello acid grenades--and finally, plug in upgrade circuits to modify basic stats such as rate of fire and reload time. The only thing more staggering than the number of modular parts is the number of theoretical combinations. All of this weapon crafting takes a little while to fully comprehend, but this new feature adds a deeply satisfying amount of depth and strategy to the game's core combat.
This is primarily due to the fact that your creations are never set in stone. You're always combining new parts to meet the demands of the game's increasingly terrifying onslaught of necromorphs, a mutated collection of zombified somethings operating in collusion to ensure you never get too comfortable behind your current weapon of choice.
As in previous titles, Dead Space 3's combat is a methodical take on the third-person shooter that encourages aiming at the limbs of necromorphs as the most effective means of taking them down. But that roster of enemies is a wildly varied bunch, and their mutations require different approaches to combat. The basic plasma cutter works well early on against slashers and wasters, humanoid enemies who simply charge at you upon sight. But you need to modify your approach as the game mixes in different types of foes, like the chaotic swarms of feeders, those weak but agile necromorphs who attack you in massive numbers. For these, slotting in a powerful melee attachment like the hydraulic engine works well by smashing them down in wide, sweeping arcs of devastation. But later, you encounter immensely powerful foes like the snow beast, a four-legged necromorph roughly the size of a truck. This is when being able to slap a secondary grenade launcher onto your primary weapon suddenly comes in very handy.
By
Shaun McInnis, Editor
Shaun McInnis has always dreamed of an a open-world driving RPG based on Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Outside of video games, he enjoys photography and learning impractical coffee brewing techniques.
53 comments
the problem with reviewer is that there certain aspect of a game they tend to expose depending on whether they like the game or not.dead space 3 gets significant negative point for the story but RISING has a stupid story but most reviewer completely ignored it,the glorified MGS 4 also had convoluted story but yet most didn't pan the game for that.
i haven't played this game yet so i don't know much about it.i am not arguing with the score but i am just wondering dead space gets panned by critics because of its action paced style which is a valid point because i played dead space 2 and it was scary as hell.but RE5 was more or less an action game and less scary, infact RE5 just used the innovative game play of RE4 and pumped more action into it at least DS3 try to add 1 or 2 new element,and besides DS game play seems more vast then that in RE5. Don't get me wrong i like RE 5 it a very good game and i'm not trying to defend DS 3 short comings i just saying the scores sometimes tend to off.
oh my god!!I finished this game yesterday.it was FANTASTIC!!!!!the boss was really big...
This game deserves a 9.0 out of 10. I have had it since feb.20 and trust me it is fun. It's not as scary as Dead Space 2 or 1 but still i get creeped out at times. Atleast give it a 8.5
The game is great especially and offers an adrenaline rush from chapters 16 to the end in 19, not gonna give it away for those of you who have NOT finished it yet. In my opinion it gives you the feeling you had back in Dead Space 1 where you didn't know what would happen next and would scare the shit out of you. The weapons crafting in this game is awesome and has made playing on Impossible and other difficulties a breeze. I myself has always loved the Pulse rifle and this gave me the ability to make my own rifle in the way I enjoy it, a semi-auto rifle with a force gun attachment, crowd control and max damage.
Just finished it earlier today. I liked it a lot, especially the last quarter of the game. Solid addition to the series, almost up there with DS2 IMHO. I still love this series.
I have started to play DS3 and am enjoying the game. Definitely different that is for sure. But I kind of expected this. I am just a huge fan of the DS series that the changes are small compared the completing the story and seeing where it goes. I think that most people agree that DS 1 is still the best of the series but progession is a must and will always be part of the gaming community. You will always have players that love or hate the game. For me I just want a good story and have fun playing.
I like how Gamespot is making the storyline of the Dead Space series out to be really hard to follow, when honestly, it really isn't that complicated compared to some series. And besides, that 'Previously on Dead Space' video plays when you start a new game, it's not just 'buried' away in the Extras menu.
Anyway...
Up to Chapter 14 right now and enjoying it so far. I'll agree the story isn't as involving as the other games (DS2 probably has the best story in the main trilogy, IMO), and some of the characters aren't as fleshed out as before (Norton in particular starts off as a prick and ends as a prick). The main game play is still pretty solid though, and challenging- can clearly see where a co-op partner would make some sections a lot easier when you're being assaulted by four or five necros at a time- and the weapon crafting system has so much choice and potential behind it as well. Haven't played co-op yet so can't offer an opinion on that yet, but I've enjoyed what I've played so far.
1 Like Ok a little more informed opinion now by me. I'm currently in Chapter 9 (just hit the planet), and the game is great so far. It's not as creepy/scary as the first two but it's definitely worth playing. The story also gets a little better as you play.
What I don't like...
1) The game being made to reach a "broader" audience, original coke is still way better than Coke Zero.
2) The flavor of the weapons in general are a tad too military than the first two games. I love the fact that the weapons were primarily based on engineer tools in the first two games which fits with Isaac being an engineer, in this installment the weapons feel more military than tools modified to be weapons. I'm not gung ho about the crafting either. It would be a lot of trial and error creating weapons and wasting resources unless you look on the net for recipes.
3) The Plasma Cutter feels very weak this time around compared with the preorder weapons, it was my favorite weapon in the last two games, now it stays in my safe for nostalgia.
Overall 8.5 with me. Dead Space 1 and 2 would be 9.5 and 9.0 respectively. YMMV of course. :)
@Xanstation - I agree with all your point. I found the graphics to be fantastic but the look and feel is not original and tries to be too many things for too many people. Its a fail for me but I will buy form the bargain bin.
took me little over 15 hours to beat it and the ability to cuostimize your wep is pretty cool alot you can do i do like it alittle better then lvl up your wep. also the co-op is pretty sweet you got two choice do co-op or reg mission so it puts a twice on things. The graphs on the game is great keeps the flow thrugh out the game.
About 1.5 hour on the game and i must said, it's not a good 1.5 hour. I remember getting amazed by Dead Space and Dead Space 2 even on the first 15 minutes. One thing that i noticed very early is the character designs, they look like a cartoon! What's with the big eyes and funny nose? It's Dead Space, not Dishonored!
Another thing that really bother me is there is a slight delay between each shoot for the plasma cutter. I hope it's just because i'm still using a standard plasma cutter, not because of my ps3 because on xbox 360, i can fire the standard plasma cutter as fast as an FN FAL. Hope the game could get better the more i play because so far i'm not impressed.
BEWARE EVERYONE!! SONY FRAUD!!
@chun-IDGAF-li true-ish...just dont let your subscription lapse..also they claim ps plus to be a major point for their future system with no end of the service in the forseable future..3 month is set up to fail admitadly..
@chun-IDGAF-li Perhaps you should still be able to see Sky Movies even after your subscription has finished?
@ForceFedBullets @chun-IDGAF-li hes been trolling boards and articles for a while now using the exact copy/paste paragraph so you guys are conversing to a under bridge dweller.
1 Like @chun-IDGAF-li of course, you will be able to play them only while you are plus member... everyone knows that. for 4 bucks per month you will get 3 or 4 new games for ps 3 and 2 more for vita (expensive games like mortal kombat for vita batman arkham city for ps 3, or watch dogs this month). In my opinion that's very cheap.
if you buy the full games it would be much more expensive, my collection of ps plus games are around 30 in only 3 months of use so far, imagine how much you would pay for that...
1 Like @ptnull Did I miss something? Because last time I checked Watch Dogs doesn't even have a confirmed release date yet... Maybe you mean Sleeping Dogs?
It's a decent game, been an avid fan of the series and of horror genre in general, this game doesn't stir far away from its roots. It is worth mentioning however that ammo (so far I'm only few hours in the game) isn't scarce and I am playing on hard mode (2 had me out of ammo far more often, in DS3 I find my self being overloaded with ammo and health packs, that may change though). I'm currently playing solo and there are plenty of oh shit moments but nothing as scary as the Ishimura, sadly... :p
@RustedTruck650@Bhemont The sprawl had far more scare-factor than the ishimura(OPINION).
I fixed it for ya!
May be great but not so great like the 1st and the 2nd games judging by the score GS gave it. I'll still get it anyway, Dead Space kinda made an impression in the space horror genre.
i think that visceral overcame my expectations as it concerns technical specs (game mechanics/gameplay) and level design(graphics/sound) ...i must admit that as a fan of DS series i expected something to be missing but thank God i was wrong..the game is a complete experience (of course its mandatory as i see it to play DS1 and DS2) if you just pay attention to the game story by reading text or sound logs, or explore the whole environment without running to the next door (sometimes i did it ).Weapon Crafting is a welcome feature and takes a little time to get use of it...i could write a whole page for DS3 but reviewers do it better than me (sometimes) ..play the game without hesitation :)
1 Like Whoa...a linear game thats 15-20 hours long ? Haven't seen that since Half-Life and Far Cry.
I wish I could play deadspace trilogy so bad but I can't play 3rd person shooters or FPS if my life depended on it. I guess I'll only be able to play the on rail shooter one for the wii.
its cool co-op was in this one but if they start pumpin out dead space 4 5 6 7 8... LAME.. this one does look alil better then 2 tho wasnt crazy about 2
looking forward to friday when i buy deadspace 3 loved playing deadspace 1&2 will enjoy deadspace 3
2 Like The game's amazing -- packed with stuff to do, great graphics, neat new additions, and yes, the horror. It's all here. A solid 9/10 for me. Well done, Visceral!
@imrobish Have you played it yet? Check out the demo, and then tell me it's not a pretty neat system. Come on, you're buying into the conspiracy theory nonsense.
@Rambolike @imrobish It's not even a conpsiracy lol it's a tacked on activity to support the "pay to" so you can pay real money to buuy items
Never expected the story to be remarkable, but glad to hear the weapon crafting system is good, and collecting loot sounds cool. I'm sure it won't be a masterpiece like the original, but I'll pick this up.
@imrobish You do realize that you can go by the entire game without microtransactions holding you back?
While its true that the sheer idea that there exist microtransactions in an essentially Single-Player/Co-op game (Thanks for the BS EA), Visceral Games made sure you can build all the crazy stuff you want without paying a single dime.
Lets bash on EA all we want, they deserve that and more. But Visceral Games has made a great game here, and I salute them for that. Not so much the money grubbing EA forces them to implement.
great game. loving it so far. but yeah the story is a bit unbelievable... who cares. the atmosphere and combat are fantastic. and yes. its still quire scary. at least the first half is. im still on chapter 10 XD
@NTM23 Thats my exact reaction too. The Dead Space Universe has a great story from Animated Comics, to Books and Movies and even small viral parts.
So how can they mess this up in Dead Space 3?
@g0ddyX I also watched the quick look from Giantbomb, and Brad Shoemaker said that he didn't like the way they took it, because he saw the Unitology stuff as an aspect that has always been in the background. I guess it's going to be a subject of opinion, and I'm really hoping I don't agree, 'cause while they all enjoyed it, the negative talk about it is kind of worrying me.
With this review, I'm not sure how well versed Shuan is in the Dead Space universe, but if he think it's convoluted, could it be because he may have no read the books/comics or watched the films? I mean, like you said, there's a lot to it. On Giantbomb, Brad also said the acting is hammy, then he said in two it was the same way, but I absolutely loved it in two.
@gohangeorge @NTM23 @g0ddyX Eh, the story was OK. It's not 'bad', but some stuff can be considered badly constructed I loved, loved, loved the dialogue in the first and two; Isaac yelling at the marker literally sent chills down my spine.
Gunner Wright did a fantastic job then, but here, I don't really like it. And for once, I hardly cared for the characters; there was only one non-main character that I cared for when they died.
I'm going to go back to the game now; I hadn't played it in a while.
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Dead Space 3
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- Publisher(s): Electronic Arts
- Developer(s): Visceral Games
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
Dead Space 3 Navigation
