Dead Space 3

This is a phenomenal game, yes there are some differences from the second game, which was a masterpiece, but this is a brilliant game in its own right, the story is great, as are the graphics and gameplay.

I truly love the Dead Space games they are so much better than people give them credit.

I'd love it if visceral returned and created a sequel, I'd buy it.

I came into this game not knowing anything about it, heck I didn't even know the release date and was surprised when I saw it came out. Dead Space was my favourite, Dead Space 2 was easily the best, but Dead Space three is a big let down. The game takes under 10 hours to complete, and I felt everyone of those hours. Towards the end I just wanted it over with. I didn't hate the game, it just didn't do it for me.

The Game: Having played a couple of chapters of Dead Space 1 before playing this game, I must say the controls have come a long way. Isaac is fast and can turn on a dime, feels more fluent than DS 2. Now Isaac can crouch and barrel roll, what is this Gears of War or Uncharted, it sure feels like it. Which brings me to this point. The first game got it right, it was pure horror. The second game mixed horror and action. The third game is just action, are you kidding me, there was only one part that I found generally disturbing, I'll get into that latter. The game is relatively easy in the sense that you will never run out of ammo or health, at least on normal difficulty. The hardest part of the game, which resulted in 85 percent of my deaths was a part where you had to climb up a mountain and dodge falling debris. With the mixture of broken controls and Isaac having a mind of his own, this part frustrated me. And the new revamped bench and upgrade system took way to long to get a complete understanding of it, the first two games you look at it and you got it. There is one part where you link up with your group and you have to climb a ladder. My first thought knowing this franchise was the ladder is going to break, and guess what it did break. I was mildly amused and dumbfounded that they actually put that in the game, I mean come on. This game even has you fight the same boss three times, they probably just ran out of ideas. They even make you fight the hive mind again. There was one part that I felt a little disturbed by, I'm going to make this as detailed as possible.

Highlight: At one point in the game you hear an audio log that says people were locked in a underground base or something like that, and you have to go down there. You feel like you enter this long forgotten place, the you see wrapped up bodies hanging from a meat hook, so you know something is down there. You enter a dark room, walk around, stop once you hear this clicking noise, I then looked over to a lengthy slim figure with glowing eyes, just hunched over looking at me. You then fight them, but one thing caught my eye, there was a wall where someone was counting the days, there was a lot of days, and then I came to the conclusion what happened down there. Just thinking about it, makes me feel disgusted. Any way this was the only mildly scary but more so disturbing segment.

I could go one about this games flaws, but that will all be for another time. I really can't say anything good about this game, it offers nothing new and treads over old water. It feels dumbed down with all the action, and it doesn't have all the same horror qualities as previous entries. I honestly would rather just play the first two games, they both had great replay value and where pretty unique, but this one just feels like your typical action and shooter game. I don't think I will be playing through it another time. This game is just average, play it if you are interested.

Third time is not a charm for long-suffering spaceship engineer Issac Clarke. Since he escaped the Titan Sprawl his life has been on a downward spiral, Ellie has left him, his landlord is kicking him out of his New Horizons bedsit, and he's a broken man. Wouldn't you be after facing the Necromorph menace twice already? In the meantime EarthGov has fallen and the Unitologists, led by the odious Jacob Danik, are bombarding what is left of humanity. Issac is seized by the last EarthGov battalion and hurtled to the other side of the galaxy to Tau Volantis, a frozen planet orbited by 200-year-old wrecks of the Sovereign Colonies. Ellie, convinced she has found the Marker homeworld, is somewhere amid the wrecks and has assembled a ramshackle plan to destroy the Necromorphs once and for all.

After a slow start, the game is sort of split into two halves as Issac explores the decaying, orbiting wrecks and solves the mystery of the frozen planet below. The first half feels a lot like the familiar Dead Space formula while the second half feels like a generic shoot-em-up in the vain of COD. The relentless wave after wave of Necromorphs is mind-numbing. The overwhelming sense of dread and gut-wrenching anxiety that permeated every square inch of the first two games is largely gone. There are still shocks and scares, and the sound of elevators arriving are still frighteningly similar to the shrieks of the Necromorphs but it feels stale at this point. I felt like logic and sense took a back seat here. How did the Necromorphs end up on the New Horizons colony? How did they end up on the CMS Roanoke or Greely for that matter? It's never clearly explained. Why did the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces panic so easily and opt for mass- murder/suicide instead of pushing for further research into the alien machine? It seemed like such a mindless and heavy-handed reason to have Tau Volantis scattered with body parts.

It seems like it goes on forever, even if you ignore the optional side-quests. Upgrading your weapons and suits never feels like it has a noticeable effect but the weapons crafting feature can lead to some fun inventions. The co-op gameplay comes across like a last- minute addition (and it was) and it is not the kind of thing Dead Space fans want from this series. Online play is necessary for the Platinum Trophy but there's no way I can get it as the Hardcore trophy is just too difficult and time-consuming, especially since you cannot skip the cut-scenes.

Dead Space 3 was a best-seller, but not best enough for Electronic Arts who have put the series on hiatus, though they insist that Dead Space 4 WILL happen, we'll just have to wait and see. It is a shame that a groundbreaking horror experience has been reduced to a generic shoot-em-up bore. The amount of DLC offered on the PSN for this game is outrageous and proof that EA are only out to exploit the fanbase rather than give them their money's worth up-front.

DEAD SPACE 3: AWAKENED - 2/5

The "final chapter" DLC is over very quickly and gives us a confusing, though interesting, insight into what becomes of Issac and Carver after the climax of the main game. I know for a fact that Dead Space 4, when/if it ever happens, will retcon this stupid ultimate ending as "it was all a dream". Worth playing once just for curiosity though.

I am a big Dead Space fan like most of you reading this. I speak from gaming experience and I typically know what makes a game good as I have been playing ever since I was in diapers, in the NES days.

That being said, I am writing this in-depth review for you — the customers — especially the ones thinking of buying this game. I think it's worth the price but I think Visceral and EA went in the wrong direction with storytelling in their new instalment.

When Electronic Arts and Visceral Games released their first two Dead Space games they received rave reviews for their Survival Horror series, it was a commercial success. When the studios announced Dead Space 3 was arriving, fans expected the best.

My play through of Dead Space 3 didn't feel like the classic Survival Horror; ammo and health is more plentiful in casual to hard difficulties, the necromorphs feel easier to dismember and kill in these difficulties, and the story doesn't seem to fit well with the rest of the series. I felt compelled to switch my difficulty from normal to impossible due to the sheer advantages in the prior difficulties, which I did. This would be a tough call for most average casual gamers as the impossible difficulty is pretty hard, even on Co-Op. So the typical causal gamer won't get a "fair" play through until they finished the game once, on any difficulty — I am referring to New Game+.

Secondly, the amount of action scenes compared to the original instalments of the Dead Space series is noticeable, being the atrocious ending, character death and boss scenes/fights, and more. Multiplayer has been removed in place of Co-Op which is a serious back-step in my opinion. Co-Op should have been an addition to the Multiplayer, not the only option — just my opinion. When Dead Space 2 introduced multiplayer to the series it was a great idea, it gave the game replay value, not only that but multiplayer was damn fun. Not that Dead Space 3 does not have replay value, indeed it does, in the form of new game modes, and co-op, which adds an additional 6 hours of gameplay which you would not get from single player.

My verdict: EA and Visceral have developed an excellent game, overall. It just may not be what they are saying it is. Those who are expecting vast changes will be disappointed, again. The introduction of micro-transactions in which time-sensitive players can pay real world money to further advance their character earlier in the game seems somewhat unnecessary, but is understandable as EA is doing this as means to gain additional income to meet their bottom line, just like any other company.

Though the story can be convoluted, Dead Space 3 has a beautiful environment, with an improved combat system, and improved gameplay. Dead Space 3 should not be ignored just because it does not hold up to its predecessors.

Please don't listen to the extremely negative comment left by the other user. This is in no way awful.

Graphically it's very impressive and like its predecessors it upholds the atmosphere, the first 1/3 of the game its typical Dead Space through and through, with echos of being back on the ISHIMURA. Moving onto the Ice planet Tau Volantis, which has its ups and downs (can't decide whether I liked it or not). Game play wise it is more of the same, but if it's not broken, why fix it? It is more action orientated than what people may be used to, but it makes sense, if you put it into perspective you're on the marker home world there's definitely going to be a lot more nasties waiting to take your face home to their parents.

There seems to be few (and less impressive than DS2's) set pieces and a few new elements have been added to it, such as the vertical climbing, which was something critics moaned about. But I thought they were a nice touch and thankfully there isn't too many of them. And the additional quests although fun are slightly repetitive, I would have rather they just made them compulsory. But they do give more incite into what's going on. A couple were almost IDENTICAL in layout which I thought was lazy but there are a couple (country music and reapers, vague but you'll see what I mean) which were actually quite good.

The new bench and suit systems are a welcome addition, the bench system takes a few attempts to get your head around, but in no time you'll be making some both amazing and deadly combinations. Sadly though this does detract slightly from the atmosphere, I made a weapon relatively early on in the game that saw me through to the end. It was so powerful it took away the "edge" the game has. The suit system is slightly different, you wear whatever suit you like with no bonuses (like in DS2) but instead you upgrade your rig (armor, stasis, health etc) which works, you won't upgrade everything first time round, but with new game+ you can have some re-runs getting the best gear and fixing up the rig to maximum stats.

I can't really speak for CO-OP as I haven't really bothered with it, to me dead space is about isolation, atmosphere and fear. Sadly I feel this is lost with the aspect of CO-OP, and with this, the new addition to the game Carver seems like he's just an after thought. Whilst in single player he inexplicably turns up right next to you in certain cut scenes and it detracts from the flow of the story (where the hell did he come from). They should have worked it so he wasn't in it at all unless you played CO-OP adding to the story if you play it this way.

Overall, if you liked the previous Dead Space games you can't go wrong it's more of the same with a tad more action. The story is actually easier to get a grip of (in terms of the whole marker/unitology thing). Brilliant voice acting and motion capture Isaac is slightly more of a personality in this one with some one liners making me cringe. But anyway, the only thing this game is lacking is tension..but you have the choice to keep a crap weapon and keep the tension for yourself. 8.5/10

Also to clear up where someone (IGN I think) says Ellie miraculously has her eye back, you find a note at the VERY START of the game stating they found a new eye for her but a different colour as it was all they could afford. How a reviewer both criticised and overlooked the note I don't know.

Hope you found this helpful.