Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rrp: £7.99 (Origin)
Released: 5th February
Available on: Origin
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Controller
Approximate game length: 15 Hours
It seems that Isaac Clarke just cannot catch a break, if its not necromorphs gunning for him its a government agency trying to kidnap him. That is until now, now a religious group called the Unitologists want him, or more specifically, want him dead. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg that are Isaac Clarke’s problems…
Dead Space 3 is the third, and thus far final, major instalment in the Dead Space franchise. Once again you take control of Isaac Clarke, a man whose job title might be ‘Engineer’ but might as well at this point change it to ‘Necromorph Exterminator’.
This time the game kicks off on a lunar colony… actually, no it doesn’t. The game actually starts you off not playing Isaac Clarke at all but a Marine (who’s name I don’t remember) on a ice covered planet. This bit is short lived and is basically just a tutorial for the more basic controls as well as being a sort of premise setter.
Dead Space 3 has gone for a more… cinematic feel in this instalment, and I don’t mean by limiting the frame rate, it has far more cutscenes than the previous games. Most of them are well executed and don’t outstay their welcome, but at the start of the game it can start to feel a little insufferable. I quickly became annoyed when a cutscene ended and I literally was given control to walk through a short corridor (is in only a few steps) only to have control wrested from me again by yet another cutscene!
Its pretty standard practice that with each new release of a game franchise that some new mechanics are brought in to keep things fresh, and Dead Space is no exception. Between the first Dead Space game and the second there were a few idfferences but nothing that felt out of place. Dead Space 3 however brings in a whole slew of new game mechanics, as well as something more… underhanded.
I’ll start with the first mechanic that appears and was possibly the most jarring to me, the cover based shooting. That’s right, yet another game with cover based shooting, which is stupid because the cover mechanic isn’t used all that often and is pointless against pretty much all the necromorphs. What’s more is that the crouch action is bound to the same button as the waypoint tool. It feels a bit.. tacked on, like it was more of a enforced boardroom decision than one the designers had planned.
The stores that were in the previous games are gone with the Benches acting as a one stop shop for buying, selling, crafting, storing and upgrading your weapons and items. That’s right Dead Space 3 has crafting elements, of course at the time when this game was originally released crafting within a game was still a somewhat novel concept.
Many things can be crafted at a Bench, from weapons and their upgrades to items and ammo. This crafting takes up resources that you’ll find throughout the game (or buy via micro-transaction, more on that later). What’s actually kind of impressive is that you can create custom weapons and save the blueprints of them. Its actually a fairly robust system, do you want to make a semi automatic rifle that sets enemies alight and has a underslung rocket launcher? Well you can, and if you decide you don’t like the weapon anymore you can dismantle it and reuse the parts.
This high level of customisability essentially fixes something that I would generally have an issue with in this game. You can only hold two weapons at a time. Of course, if you can create a weapon that’s basically two weapons in one that kind of negates the problem.
Now among all this talk of crafting and upgrading the more veteran players out there may just be wondering about what is possibly one of the most important parts of the series, if not one of the most iconic, the suit. Not to worry your suit is also fully upgradable, just not at a bench. Suits are upgraded and changed at suit kiosks. Again, no sign of power nodes, instead you use materials found in the game (or purchased via micro-transactions) to make the wanted upgrades.
Another new mechanic is the Scavenger Bot, when you eventually find these you can send them off to find more crafting materials for you. It takes them a little while and there are certain area’s that are rich in material. Not to worry though EA has a way to part you with more hard earned cash. You can buy a DLC to decrease the wait time, and another to increase their carrying capacity. It’s almost as if EA are just trying to anger me.
All weapons now operate from a single ammo type once again this removes some of the tension the Dead Space series had for me. Part of the fun was scrambling for the right ammo for your weapon when you’ve run out. It added to the fear of the whole thing. Now that I can just get any ammo clip that sense of danger has been defused.
Ooh! This is just egregious to me. So, while exploring the Bench system I see that I’m given the option to upgrade my weapons. Of course, I take a look and
notice that my starting machine gun only has two available upgrade circuit slots. The rest are blocked off in silver (meaning they are completely unavailable), all bar one in a bronze colour. Being curious, I take a look at it and find that I can unlock this upgrade using material I find in the game. A pretty standard way to gate content and keep the game balanced, that all seems fair. I didn’t have enough of the materials required but click anyway because ‘why not?’. As expected I’m informed that I don’t have the resources, however I do see a ‘Downloadable content’ option there. Still curious I go take a gander. This is where my ire started to rise. What do I see before me but an offer to purchase a micro-transaction which will give me not only the material I need to make the upgrade but also a bunch more materials plus a guaranteed super-charged weapon part and a 50% chance at a second bonus part… WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK EA?! YOU PUT MICRO-TRANSACTIONS IN A MAJOR RELEASE AAA TITLE!
I bought this game years after it originally released and I’m angry, I can only imagine how people must have felt when they bought this game at the time of release. These micro-transactions can also be bought through ‘Ration Seals’ that can only be found using the scavenger bots.
So I took the plunge and bought one of the ‘packs’ using the ration seals. As I suspected even buying just one made the game much much easier. The super-charged component that was mentioned was so powerful that once I attached it
to my weapon I almost never had to change out again. I was so disgusted by this
practice I quit the game and played something else for a whole just to calm down.
Ok, now that I’ve calmed down lets get back to it…The new upgrade system has
done away with the power nodes from the previous games. This time you have upgrade circuits that you can find within the levels, or craft for yourself once you have the resources. These upgrade circuits come in various shapes and sizes but they all relate to one of four stats for your weapon; Damage, reload speed, clip size and rate of fire. While this does make upgrading your weapon less straight forward than the previous games it also allows for greater variance in gameplay style. I, for one, tend to prioritize high damage and clip size but others might focus more on the rate of fire etc.
Upgrade circuits aren’t the only way to improve your weaponry, you can also craft attachments which can have a wide range of benefits to you (or your co-op partner).
Hang about. Co-op? In a survival horror game? Yep that’s right Dead Space 3 has two player Co-op, so now you and a friend (who also has the game) can play together in this tense horror game…In case its not clear, I’m not impressed by this. To me having Co-op in a horror game removes much of the actual horror.
On top of there being Co-op missions there are now optional side missions that can be completed, doing so doesn’t effect the game in anyway beyond giving the player access to more upgrades and materials as well as expanding the story a little. The missions themselves tend to be quite short but challenging often ending with you being swarmed while in very enclosed quarters.
As is to be expected with a sequel within the Dead Space franchise there are even more new necromorphs to fight against. Actually in one case its not so much a new necromorph as a rehash of one. I don’t know what the name of them is but in the first and second game it was a baby that fired darts at you and could climb the walls and ceiling. In Dead Space 3 the babies have been replaced by dogs. I can only assume that this replacement this was a tactical move on EA’s or Visceral’s part to make the game appeal more to the mass market, probably a good idea as those babies were pretty disconcerting to say the least.
As you may have noticed everything I’ve written above is, well, its essentially just a list of mechanics with a few scattered complaints rather than discussing anything about the way the game plays. There is a reason for this which is very simple… I have nothing new to say. Seriously the gun play is damned near the same even with the modding mechanic. I may as well copy and paste what I said about it from my Dead Space 2 review.
Is this one to recommend? At the price that its at now its an easy recommendation to make, even with all the unscrupulousness of EA’s micro-transactions its hard to argue that this game isn’t worth a look at. I won’t say its the best of the franchise, that title is held by Dead Space 2 for me.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Prey
Resident Evil 4
The Evil Within
