Dead Space 3 is a third person shooter developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It's the third instalment in the Dead Space series. You can expect the same survival horror elements featured in the previous games. Except Dead Space 3 incorporates a bit more to the story and characters. Driven by the will to save one of the only people left he cared for, Isaac Clarke sets out on a mission to find Ellie. The team then decides to end the Marker, and the necromorph madness for good, as they head for Tau Volantis. Throughout your progress, the game will shed light on the unanswered questions about the origin of the marker. The story isn't too spectacular or gripping in any way, but for the most part, it makes sense. For a deeper insight into the story, you may want to collect as much audio and text logs as you can. There are a handful of characters that are introduced, and quite a few cutscenes for a Dead Space game. But you know what's lacking? what? Character personalities. I felt the developers could have given more...variety, to make things less stale.
The game takes you to many locales which include space ships, an icy planet, the interior of a huge necromorph, laboratories, and more. The environment in each of these places look amazing. There's a huge concentration to detail...from the debris within a planet's rings, to the lighting effects inside of an abandoned space ship. Paired with suspenseful music and sound effects, Dead Space 3 will give you an amazing survival horror experience just like it's predecessors. As for the voice acting, overall, it was well done.
Now lets talk about the gameplay. So...does Dead Space 3 live up to the immersive experience the previous titles give? Well, I felt the bar was already raised really high after Dead Space 1, and even higher after Dead Space 2...So Dead Space 3 definitely had a lot to live up to. The developers had to be careful what to change or add, and what to keep. For starters, you have a locator that will point you to various points of interest. Isaac's RIG menu is live as usual, to give the player an urgency while managing items. As for the controls, you have your basic line gun that's given to you from the beginning. And you're able to rotate it to maximize precision when shooting off necromorph limbs. On top of the basic line gun, you'll get a chance to construct a load of different weapons at any bench you find. The new crafting system is deep, and allows for more creativity. You can either use a blue prints to construct weapons or create your own custom weapon from scratch. Each weapon can be upgraded using components you find throughout the game. You can even send out a scavenging bots to help you find items. Not only can these components be used to upgrade your weapons, they can also be used to upgrade your RIG and buy consumable items. The game gives you the trade-off decision as to how you spend your components. For example, you can either spend it all on health packs or you could spend it upgrading your suit for increased armor.
Isaac has new evasive abilities which include a barrel roll...ok, no..DO A BARREL ROLL..NO..DO A BARREL ROLL...(quick look to the side) Phew, actually, Isaac does a dive roll. But..while on topic, try typing in "Do a barrel roll" in google search and see what happens. Anyways getting back on track... Dead Space 3 also has a ducking system. The ducking behind cover system isn't automatic. For example, in Gears of War, your character will automatically be in a very protected spot behind the wall, the moment you press the cover button. In Dead Space 3, your level of protection will depend on the location and position you duck in. This does give the cover system an organic feel, but not a very effective one. I'd say the dive roll is a lot more useful, since you're constantly moving, plus you get some invincibility frames.
Throughout the game you'll encounter a few mini-games here and there. They're fairly straight forward and don't take much brain power at all. For most of them, you have to use Isaac's kinesis to move objects into the right places. Some other puzzles involves matching and aligning things. One neat aspect about the kinesis module, is that you can use it on all kinds of objects in the game, from necromorph arms to explosives, which is useful if ammo ever runs low. The stasis module also makes a return, and it works exactly the same as the previous Dead Space games. From time to time, Isaac will be thrown into a quick-time event. These mostly involves mashing a single button, nothing complicated.
The game features some returning enemies and new enemies such as the nexus and unitologist soldiers. A: The creepy thing about Dead Space that separates it from other survival horror games is that the enemies are not only hideous looking, but they're also unpredictable. P: Yea, and I mean vents are located almost everywhere, and anywhere you go. A necromorph can pop out at you anytime. It just keeps the player at the edge of their seat.
After you're finished with the solo campaign, there are a few reasons to go back to the game. The biggest attraction would be the co-op campaign, where one person controls Isaac Clarke, while the other controls John Carver. Through this co-op mode, you will get a chance to get more of an insight on Carver's character. A very cool feature is that whoever is controlling Carver will see his hallucinations, while whoever is controlling Isaac, will witness the mental break down. New game plus modes can be unlocked after completing the solo campaign. These extra challenging modes include classic, pure survival, and hardcore.
- If you're looking for a solid survival horror experience, then you'll enjoy this. The controls are responsive, and the combat is exciting. I'll give gameplay and controls an 8.5
- The atmosphere is very nice and creepy when it needs to be, from clever lighting to unexpected necromorph attacks. I'll give graphics and atmosphere a 9.
- The story isn't very strong, and the characters' personalities lack depth. But none the less, I'm glad questions from the previous games were cleared up in Dead Space 3. I'll give story and characters a 7.5
- Eerie music came in at the right times, keeping you at the edge of your seat. Plus the sounds effects were creepy. I'll give sounds an 8.5
- The game has a fun co-op mode and extra challenge modes, which adds decent replay value. I'll give replay value an 8.0
Overall Dead Space 3 gets a score of 8.3