Dead Space 3 succeeds as a 3rd person shooter, but butchers the horror that the series is known for.
Issac Clarke, a man who has spent the best part of two games losing loved ones, and teetering on the brink of insanity just can't catch a break. For yet another time, he's going to have to head into space and face the monsters that are the source of all of his problems.
The game begins, oddly enough, with a generic soldier in a prologue sequence. Beginning on a snowy planet, the solider makes his way into a ship to recover something his superiors are adamant in finding. Naturally, he encounters Necromorphs, which, for those unfamiliar, are essentially zombies in bizarre shapes and sizes that like to scream a lot. After acquiring what he was sent to, he's killed. Big surprise, I know. What you're left with is something that sets the stage for the story, and has a rather ominous, yet ambiguous ending. This really isn't a bad place to start the game, as you'll be unsure of whether or not Lieutenant Generic was working for the good guys or not. It's now revealed that the first segment took place hundreds of years before the beginning of the game. Adding a sense of great importance to the prologue.
The true beginning of the game has Issac in an extremely crappy apartment, listening to voice messages from Ellie, a girl he met in Dead Space 2 and apparently fell in love with. They've also broken up in between the 2nd and 3rd game, so it's a little strange how we're told about this relationship, yet we've seen nothing of it, making the whole thing rather thin and unimportant.
Suddenly, two soldiers kick down Issac's door and try to drag him back to space to assist Ellie and her team. Why Issac? Because he now has quite a reputation for solving Necromorph problems, and it's pretty well deserved. Turns out that one of the soldiers is now dating Ellie. Having your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend smash your face into a table is pretty typical of Issac's luck, and he still loves her after all, so he doesn't seem too bothered by it, and agrees to help.
Shortly after, you're introduced to the main villain. The leader of the Unitologists, a cult based around Necromorphs. Now, I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that he's laughably nonthreatening. Probably because he looks exactly like Austin Powers and has a British Accent. One could argue that he's not supposed to scare you anyway, because getting to him involves hordes of Necromorphs; however, if I'm laughing in every scene he's in, it might be a step too far in the wrong direction.
The story in Dead Space 3 will take you, naturally, to space, but the latter half of the game takes place on a frozen planet. You'll generally be accompanied by, or at least in contact with, several members of a crew. In some ways, it kills tension. In others, it does the opposite. Ellie's boyfriend is such a colossal douche that he's the guy everyone loves to hate.
All in all, the story of Dead Space 3 throws out a lot of philosophical ideas, and can at times be somewhat hard to follow, but it's not bad either.
Sound--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sound effects in Dead Space are pretty much par for the course. The weapons sound good, but they also sound the same as they did in the previous 2 games. Necromorphs shuffle, scream, and bloody explosions are pretty much unchanged as well.
The music is fairly unmemorable, but it's not painful to listen to either, so take that for whatever it's worth.
Voice acting is fairly well done. There's one particularly annoying crew mate, but it has little to do with her voice, and more with her dialogue.
Graphics----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The graphics in Dead Space 3 are quite good. Areas where you're exploring space are littered with debris, and it gives a good sense of scale. The snowy planet has plenty of blizzards and low visibility. Character models, and faces in particular are well done as well.
Atmosphere/Horror--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is where the game falls down the stairs onto a glass table. While I am someone who enjoys the horror genre, I'm also extremely easy to scare. Whether that be more tense moments of great suspense, or simple jump scares, which Dead Space is basically known for. I must make this clear, I didn't jump, once. I wasn't afraid to proceed, once. Absolutely everything about this game's attempt at horror was so terrible that its attempts at scaring me were met with yawns. New enemies are now zoomed in on in cutscenes, so you can see exactly what they look like, and what gross noises they make. They even made changes to existing Necromorph designs to make them even worse. There used to be baby and children Necromorphs. What are they now? Dogs, and completely generic black creatures respectively.
Now, I've heard people argue that because Issac's character is now familiar with Necromorphs, naturally, the series should get less scary. While that may be the natural progression in a realistic setting, it's asinine for a game series centric to horror. Dead Space 3 clearly wants to be more action oriented, but it did so while also completely abandoning the genre style one expects it to adhere to.
Take for example, the original Dead Space. There's a moment where a slow, clanking sound can be heard. As you make your way through the corridor, you can see a figure in the distance. It's a man, slowly banging his head on the wall. When you get close enough, he hits his head one last time, and falls over, dead. Nothing attacks you, there's no screaming, there's nothing. Yet I still remember it as probably the most haunting moment of this console generation. There is absolutely nothing preventing Dead Space 3 from capturing this same feeling while still being heavy on the action. Yet it doesn't. It has Necromorphs pop up like popcorn as often as possible, and the experience is completely monotonous. There's even a Necromorph that wields hatchets, and walks like a normal human being. As every horror movie, novel, and game has taught us, irregularity makes things scary. A human figure that walks on all fours, or teleports like a static T.V, or spins its head around on the ceiling. These things are unsettling because they're not normal. Dead Space 3 just completely gives up on being scary in absolutely every way. 3rd person shooter action games are a dime a dozen, and Dead Space used to do its own thing. Now it's just a shell of its former self.
Speaking of shooting, Issac now has better weapons than ever before. They used to be simple, like an industrial Plasma Cutter fashioned into a weapon. Now weapons aren't happy doing just one thing. Every weapon can now do everything, and with such effectiveness that even if the Necromorphs were scary, they'd still be a joke in the face of Issac's overwhelming power. Playing as a Necromorph attacking Issac, now that's what's scary.
Gameplay--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dead Space 3 has made some pretty significant changes to the formula. Some simplify things, others complicate them to ridiculous degrees. Weapons crafting is a good place to start:
Despite my gripes with Issac's overpowered weapons, the method in which they're created both makes sense, and has a lot of depth. Every gun is now essentially two guns. You can put things on a top and bottom rail. They will each have a certain weapon type, and then the tip of each side can be changed to give it different properties. A Flamethrower, Plasma Cutter, and Pulse Rifle can be made to be vastly different depending on the tips used. In addition, all guns can be given attachments that give them special properties. The options are nigh limitless, and you can spend a lot of time just discovering new weapon types.
Earlier, I mentioned that the weapon creation actually made sense. This is because Issac is an engineer, and now makes weapons with random things he finds. Scrap Metal, Tungsten, etc. are all necessary to create Issac's weapons, as well as upgrade his suit. None of this is cut and dry like it used to be.
On that note, however, several other things have been simplified. Most notably, ammunition. All weapons now all take from the same source. Given the gunception thing Dead Space 3 has going, it's an understandable change. Suits are also now equal. All upgrades apply to all suits, so the differences are now purely cosmetic. Again, an understandable change, but some are bound to be unhappy with the change.
In response to the shared ammo and powerful weapons, Issac now fights a lot more Necromorphs as well. He takes a fair amount of damage from each hit, but there's yet another change in response to this. Issac now trips over ammo and health packs with such frequently that you'll never be running out.
In addition to Necromorphs, Issac now has to deal with Unitologists as well. While humans with guns are fairly boring, Necromorphs are always around. It creates a rather interesting three-way fight, although overall I'm glad that they're infrequent.
As you'd expect, there's still a heavy focus on dismemberment. The most effective way to kill a Necromorph is to take out its arms and legs. Despite being an old feature, it's still refreshing to this day. Head shots are always emphasized in the vast majority of games, so to see Dead Space 3 continue to adhere to that is a good thing. Granted, it's not unexpected either.
Despite my gripes, the gameplay itself is quite well done. It's a highly customizable, competent 3rd person shooter.
Cooperative Play-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the first time, the Dead Space series has Coop. I, like most others, were skeptical of this. After all, being alone is what makes things scary. Having a buddy along for the ride diminishes the horror experience.
However, I heard something interesting, and this was, in fact, what prompted me to buy the game. Issac's partner is slowly going insane, much like Issac did in Dead Space 2. He'll start seeing/hearing things that aren't there, and whoever is playing as Issac will not. I love cooperative games, and I love horror games. This idea sounded like a way to mix the two without ruining the experience. Unfortunately, I was swindled. These moments total 4 times in the entire story, and they're clearly labeled as coop missions, killing any sense of an organic experience. I was hoping that throughout the entire game, perhaps I'd see or hear things that my partner didn't. After all, given the dark nature of the game, there are already times someone sees or hears something the other doesn't. What if you couldn't tell what was naturally happening, and what the game was doing to you intentionally? Unfortunately, Dead Space 3 does NONE of this. But I have to commend it anyway. This idea, while poorly executed, has so much potential for the genre. I hope another developer saw what I saw, and gets working on it right away.
Overall-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All in all, I'm incredibly disappointed with Dead Space 3. If all you want are hectic fights with monsters in a 3rd person shooter, you'll probably enjoy this game. If you've enjoyed the previous 2 games because of their horror element, and wanted to see more in the 3rd installment, then you're going to be disappointed.
As I am in the latter category, I cannot recommend this game to like-minded people. However, in the interest of an unbiased opinion, I must admit that the action is quite well done. This is not a bad game, it's simply a bad Dead Space game.