Dead Space 3 Review

[Asuka Soryu]

I watched the Game Grumps video on the demo, before playing the demo. It kind of ruined any shock the game could have. lol But boy was it fun.

"Ooooh, that dead body there is sure dead. I better just walk towards i--Die!! (unloads clip)"

xD Then the Crab/thinga-majig Necromorph attacked and when I beat it, I was yelling at it to get back here and calling it a coward.

Later I was screaming: "stasis the drill!" Ah, good times. The times when you fight other humans made me think I was playing a regular third person shooter, rather then a Dead Space game. Well, until the Necromorphs show up.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Not scary? What's become of the world? Horrible otherworldly beasts flying at you trying to kill you, and it's not scary. Huh.

Maybe what really needs to be said is that most (>90%) of our games are scary games involving killing, monsters and zombies and that we've become desensitized to it all.

I don't think it's that.

Fear needs build, it needs atmosphere and it needs to be handled right.

A monster in real life like this would frighten a lot of people, no matter the surrounding. Except, the problem is these are games, and are brains can tell fiction from reality, so when we have no build up, our mind easily spots these as fake and doesn't give in to being scared as it would've if it was seeing them in the right mood, the atmosphere, your mind itself being taken in and playing tricks on you.

It's why the monsters from that one really popular survival horror game look funny when seen out of context, but when you first seem them in the game with the build up, it can scare the hell out of you.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Not scary? What's become of the world? Horrible otherworldly beasts flying at you trying to kill you, and it's not scary. Huh.

Maybe what really needs to be said is that most (>90%) of our games are scary games involving killing, monsters and zombies and that we've become desensitized to it all.

I don't think it's that.

Fear needs build, it needs atmosphere and it needs to be handled right.

A monster in real life like this would frighten a lot of people, no matter the surrounding. Except, the problem is these are games, and are brains can tell fiction from reality, so when we have no build up, our mind easily spots these as fake and doesn't give in to being scared as it would've if it was seeing them in the right mood, the atmosphere, your mind itself being taken in and playing tricks on you.

It's why the monsters from that one really popular survival horror game look funny when seen out of context, but when you first seem them in the game with the build up, it can scare the hell out of you.

I just wonder if that says more about us than it does about games.

As for fear, if we were really scared by scary games, and i emphasise REALLY scared, we wouldn't play them at all. Not in a million years. Anyone who has experienced fear in its strongest incarnation will testify to this statement.

 

[Milanezi]

No review so far has tackled the subject of spending real money in-game. Why is that? Is it a non-issue after all?

It's basically a non-issue. It's on a sub-menu in the work benches that is not obtrusive at all. While it does net you pre-built guns and some suits, as far as I can tell it's stuff you could make in-game with the right materials, and suits seem to be purely cosmetic, at least from what I can tell from the suits given by the limited edition and the N7 suit. They are a shortcut for people who want to have some of the guns without having to wait to scavenge materials over possibly multiple playthroughs.

This is my impression anyway from a few hours of play.

Thanks for the info. It's actually the sort of thing I might do then ahaha, buying avery powerful weapon just to make things easier hahaha

 

[NLS]

Saw the QuickTime event in the video. That alone, regardless of the rest of the game, is enough to put me off of it.

Are you kidding me? These random quick time events that may occur like once every hour or so of pure gameplay have been in the series since Dead Space 1.
So you never played the other two games, and you swoop in by this thread and say you're not gonna play this one either, because it features a totally random quick time event.
Good thing I can enjoy 99% of the rest of the game, plus the 1% of random quick time events.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Not scary? What's become of the world? Horrible otherworldly beasts flying at you trying to kill you, and it's not scary. Huh.

Maybe what really needs to be said is that most (>90%) of our games are scary games involving killing, monsters and zombies and that we've become desensitized to it all.

That, and tearing off their limbs whilst armed with a flamethrower chainsaw is a kind of catharsis thats less, "frenzied violent fight for survival" and more, "GET YOU SOME!"

I think Visceral missed a golden opportunity to really amp the creep factor with the enemies; now was the golden opportunity to wheel out the the giant centipede made of human torsos, the zombified pregnant ladies with weaponized fetuses, and whatever the hell that giant bear-shaped...thing that appeared in Dead Space: Downfall was.

 

[nexus]

Microtransactions are pretty lame. I'm okay with "special DLC" that adds little extras like the suits and what not. It's a bit cheap to see but acceptable. However, the resource microtransactions and the like.. not okay with that.

Basically, unless you're running an MMO and have massive overhead costs and a huge ongoing development team. Then you really shouldn't be considering MT's. It's not like EA needs to scrape enough cash together to release annual expansions for Dead Space 3, or that they have to pay a ton of money to refresh the license rights to their IP, like Turbine has to do with Lord of the Rings Online.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

To me Dead Space never really was a horrorgame. It's an action-game with some horror elements. I haven't played DS3 yet but i always liked Dead Space 2 more than it's predecessor. I mean, yeah, they toned down the horror elements but these didn't work too well to begin with. And while i would have appreciated if they tried to improve them i didn't miss them in DS2. That's why the game as a whole seemed much more focused to me. It was a perfectly decent, dark and gritty SciFi shooter with a pretty nice atmosphere.

 

[jovack22]

I played most the first (haven't tried the second or prequel yet), and it wasn't scary at all, so the whole "going more action and less scary" is fine with me. Need to get around to trying DS2.

Dead space 2 was very good, and has a lot of parts that will put you at the edge of your seat, whether or not you scare easily.

I can guarantee that anyone who has played it has been nervous at some point during their first play through.

 

[jovack22]

About Isaac's proficiency with guns - at first I thought the same thing many people are saying - "after so many encounters with necromorphs he better know how to use a gun", or something along the line. But when you think, if he only used tools all the time, how could he have learned to use guns? So he either got some training before going to find this marker doomsday machine(don't know much about the story and premise of the third game yet) or he just practiced with the pulse rifle that was available to him the first two games and we can just assume that other firearms operate in a similar manner.

It doesn't take a genius to operate a weapon, especially at close quarters like is often the case.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

The Dead Space games have been widely lauded for their immersive HUD design, which has changed little in three games. Instead of information being displayed in a regular HUD, Isaac Clarke can open a 3D HUD that exists within the game world, not outside of it. This was a much-talked about feature before and after the release of the original Dead Space. It was one more step forward on the road to Immersion. Well done Visceral. Let's all have a beer.

So it seems strange to me, Susan, that you would hand-wave the inclusion of "unobtrusive" micro-transactions within that HUD. Very strange indeed.

 

[schwitz]

Saw the QuickTime event in the video. That alone, regardless of the rest of the game, is enough to put me off of it.

Are you kidding me? These random quick time events that may occur like once every hour or so of pure gameplay have been in the series since Dead Space 1.
So you never played the other two games, and you swoop in by this thread and say you're not gonna play this one either, because it features a totally random quick time event.
Good thing I can enjoy 99% of the rest of the game, plus the 1% of random quick time events.

So, after reading my comment, you immediately assume that I simply swooped in on this discussion and that I have played neither game before. Both of which are wrong. Look, I have a lot of respect for the series and 1 & 2 where great games, the one thing I despise in ALL games, is QuickTime events.

I play PC and console and no matter the platform, I still feel they break the mood by making you mash or quickly press a button at a moments notice.

Now, back to my comment; I am aware of the QuickTime events in the first two, I just didn't enjoy them and wish that they were removed as a game-play mechanic. I don't expect anyone to share or agree with this opinion, but it is my own and I am entitled to it.

 

[V3rtig0]

About Isaac's proficiency with guns - at first I thought the same thing many people are saying - "after so many encounters with necromorphs he better know how to use a gun", or something along the line. But when you think, if he only used tools all the time, how could he have learned to use guns? So he either got some training before going to find this marker doomsday machine(don't know much about the story and premise of the third game yet) or he just practiced with the pulse rifle that was available to him the first two games and we can just assume that other firearms operate in a similar manner.

It doesn't take a genius to operate a weapon, especially at close quarters like is often the case.

No, it doesn't take a genius to OPERATE a weapon, but it does take some practice to operate it at the proficiency Isaac does. I've only fired a real gun once, and I'm pretty sure I would be able to operate handguns, but I don't think I'd be able to reload weapons as fast and seemingly easily as he does. As I said, we can assume he had some weapons training (wasn't it mentioned in one of the text diaries that Isaac was in the military briefly?). I hope my point is clear, but arguing about video game logic is quite pointless.

 

[Susan Arendt]

The Dead Space games have been widely lauded for their immersive HUD design, which has changed little in three games. Instead of information being displayed in a regular HUD, Isaac Clarke can open a 3D HUD that exists within the game world, not outside of it. This was a much-talked about feature before and after the release of the original Dead Space. It was one more step forward on the road to Immersion. Well done Visceral. Let's all have a beer.

So it seems strange to me, Susan, that you would hand-wave the inclusion of "unobtrusive" micro-transactions within that HUD. Very strange indeed.

But it's not in the HUD, it's when you're using a bench. Also, you can't see the microtransactions from the regular bench options, you have to hit Y to enter a completely separate menu.

I consider that to be very unobtrusive.

 

[duchaked]

I've a friend who has the first 2 games, so I'll def try to finish both first lol

 

[Kopikatsu]

Review

So...how'd you feel about the post-Convergence Necromorph and the revelation that the Necromorphs are the Reapers?

Spoiler

Leave behind 'technology' that causes a species to evolve/develop in a certain way, then offer a solution to their problems (FTL travel in ME, limited resources in DS), but what they left behind also allows them to return and gather the species they built up in order to create more of themselves?

Edit: Also, about how they handled the co-op missions. The first one I did was the second, the 'elevator' one from Isaac's perspective. Then I went back and did it from Carver's perspective. That was...interesting.

 

[jovack22]

About Isaac's proficiency with guns - at first I thought the same thing many people are saying - "after so many encounters with necromorphs he better know how to use a gun", or something along the line. But when you think, if he only used tools all the time, how could he have learned to use guns? So he either got some training before going to find this marker doomsday machine(don't know much about the story and premise of the third game yet) or he just practiced with the pulse rifle that was available to him the first two games and we can just assume that other firearms operate in a similar manner.

It doesn't take a genius to operate a weapon, especially at close quarters like is often the case.

No, it doesn't take a genius to OPERATE a weapon, but it does take some practice to operate it at the proficiency Isaac does. I've only fired a real gun once, and I'm pretty sure I would be able to operate handguns, but I don't think I'd be able to reload weapons as fast and seemingly easily as he does. As I said, we can assume he had some weapons training (wasn't it mentioned in one of the text diaries that Isaac was in the military briefly?). I hope my point is clear, but arguing about video game logic is quite pointless.

Agreed, wasn't trying to incite any sort of pointless online argument

In my mind, if I were being left hopeless in his situation, I'd spend 5 minutes practising quick reloads before going out into the unitologist hq... so Isaac (being an engineer.. which are usually smart people) would be able to be proficient especially by the second game.

For myself I have no weapons training or use of weapons in my life, but recreationally when I have used one I never really had too many issues hitting my targets/reloading/handling.

Like you said, we're discussing a game where reality is more not really ranked too highly on the list.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

The Dead Space games have been widely lauded for their immersive HUD design, which has changed little in three games. Instead of information being displayed in a regular HUD, Isaac Clarke can open a 3D HUD that exists within the game world, not outside of it. This was a much-talked about feature before and after the release of the original Dead Space. It was one more step forward on the road to Immersion. Well done Visceral. Let's all have a beer.

So it seems strange to me, Susan, that you would hand-wave the inclusion of "unobtrusive" micro-transactions within that HUD. Very strange indeed.

But it's not in the HUD, it's when you're using a bench. Also, you can't see the microtransactions from the regular bench options, you have to hit Y to enter a completely separate menu.

I consider that to be very unobtrusive.

Your saying that the bench is not part of the HUD (a debatable and pedantic claim IMO) and therefore doesn't need to be immersive?

As for the part about it being unobtrusive, I'll just quote the Destructoid review:

"Being given a constant DLC option every time you open a crafting bench, and being reminded to do so whenever you try to build something you can't afford, undermines the previously flawless atmosphere of the series, letting real life bleed into a game that's always been about building as believable a world as possible."

 

[Susan Arendt]

The Dead Space games have been widely lauded for their immersive HUD design, which has changed little in three games. Instead of information being displayed in a regular HUD, Isaac Clarke can open a 3D HUD that exists within the game world, not outside of it. This was a much-talked about feature before and after the release of the original Dead Space. It was one more step forward on the road to Immersion. Well done Visceral. Let's all have a beer.

So it seems strange to me, Susan, that you would hand-wave the inclusion of "unobtrusive" micro-transactions within that HUD. Very strange indeed.

But it's not in the HUD, it's when you're using a bench. Also, you can't see the microtransactions from the regular bench options, you have to hit Y to enter a completely separate menu.

I consider that to be very unobtrusive.

Your saying that the bench is not part of the HUD (a debatable and pedantic claim IMO) and therefore doesn't need to be immersive?

As for the part about it being unobtrusive, I'll just quote the Destructoid review:

"Being given a constant DLC option every time you open a crafting bench, and being reminded to do so whenever you try to build something you can't afford, undermines the previously flawless atmosphere of the series, letting real life bleed into a game that's always been about building as believable a world as possible."

I'm saying I didn't found it broke my immersion and that I didn't find it obtrusive. You're welcome to disagree, naturally. But Destructoid having one opinion doesn't negate my own.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear.

In previous games the bench was operated using the same in-game 3D holographic interface as the HUD, the store, and everything else. And for exactly the same reason: immersion. It was actually possible to be attacked while operating a bench. So I really don't see how your bench/HUD distinction is relevant.

The Destructoid review mentions (in the bolded part) something that doesn't sound to me like the user "pressing Y for DLC".