Currently Playing Dead Space 3
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Dead Space, alongside Naughty Dog’s Uncharted, is my favourite next gen franchise.
Needless to say I was a bit excited when a third game was announced, but that excitement started to turn to cautious optimisim and finally fear, as it became more and more obvious that this wasn’t the Dead Space I knew and loved.
I’ll give anything the benefit of the doubt though, particularly when it’s from one of my favourite series, so I picked up a copy of the game on Friday and started to plough some play time into it. So far, I’ve not been disappointed.
Dead Space 3 starts off with an opening that doesn’t really give a lot away, other than the location of one of the areas you’ll be visiting later on in the game. It soon moves on to the introduction of Issac Clarke, who remains as nutty as a Dundee cake and is trying to hold everything together as his world falls about around him.
The first level of Dead Space 3 starts with Issac escaping the Unitologist soldiers and it’s here where things start deviating from the usual Dead Space formuale. I like killing things, whether their necromorphs or crazy sect-following humans, so aside from the cover (which so far, has been nowhere near as intrusive as I was expecting) I simply got on with it, killing anything stupid enough to walk into my gunsights.
When that level’s out the way you move into space, and subsequently more familiar Dead Space territory. And boy is it lovely.
In space no one can hear you scream. They also can’t hear you gasp at the stunning lighting effects that Visceral Games has created. The world Of Dead Space 3 looks superb, with the fantastic lighting, juxtaposing brilliantly with the horrifically twisted designs of the necromorphs. Visceral Games has created an incredibly atmospheric game that captures the brilliance of the first two titles.
So far I’m only up to Chapter 5 and have witnessed none of the issues Dead Space 3 apparently has. Yes accidentally crouching in the middle of combat can be a pain, and the necromorphs now appear to be on steroids, due to the lightning fast pace at which they now move, but it still crucially feels like a Dead Space game to me. And a damn find one at that.
Of course I’ve only just started to experiment with the new weapon crafting system, and I’ve yet to experience co-op (unlike Resident Evil games you’re not joined by an idiotic team mate) or been hit by the need to use microtransactions, but so far so good.
Dead space 3 has an apparently impossible task, as the game has to sell over 5 million copies to ensure the success of the series. Something which I think is never going to happen. But hey, I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in the past, and I’ll most likely be wrong about this as well.
What I do know is that so far, I’ve been enjoying my time with Issac Clarke immensely. I hope the scares and pacing continue for the rest of the game. If not look for my The 10 Things That Ruined Dead Space 3 post in a few weeks time.
