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Dead Space 3
An ongoing series like a
good story that should be wrapped around it, expands and changes with
time. Visceral Games the developers behind Dead Space 3 bring their” A”
game with them here. It’s a danger for developers to tilt too far off
course one way or the other. They stay the exact same in game play and
the story. This makes the story and the gaming experience less than
inspiring for players. Or there is such a radical change that it has no
ties what so ever to the franchise that even gave the series life in the
first place. The essential formula is so screwed with that it’s a bust.
Those
developers that get it know to keep the core elements of the original
and enhancing and tweaking in new elements. The game evolves in a more
natural feeling way. Visceral Games gets it and they deliver it to the
gaming consumer big time by moving the series forward and evolving with
its players (Old and New) and fan base.
Other franchises who thought to change to keep up
with the times and keep things fresh fell a little short. Not so here.
Visceral Games and EA have thrown some curves at us all for the best.
The story continues and brings in new slants; the game play while
familiar has been pumped up with some welcome tweaks. The scares are
still there, but the action set pieces have been ramped up with tense
and very welcome jaw dropping surprise moments. Again, like any
entertainment medium there will be lots of opinions on the choices and
direction of the game. While the game may have some moments of stumbling
here and there in what it delivers, the good far outweighs any gripes
the less than forward thinking elements may manifest. The game delivers
on a bang for your buck good length of game play. No idiotic 7 or 8
hours here, you get some full hours on hours of emersion here.
Isaac Clarke is back, and just like any good movie
there is yet another number stamped in after the title. Our bad luck
hero, and let’s face it, to have this stuff keep happening to you is
nothing but bad freaking luck. Dead Space 3 seems to be brining
everything together from the other games and Isaac gets the answers to
so many questions, including the dark secrets of the Necromorphs… in
this latest adventure.
There are awesome new locations, including a very
inhospitable world wracked with snow and ice. We also get a few romps in
space, and of course deep dark places terrorizing us with the
atmospheric tight darkness and creepy sounds. Things just out of view of
our flash lights skitter about rushing in to rend us into death.
Really good franchises have really good stories, The
Dead Space franchise is one of those that have some great stories to
tell. As we know though a great source for stories does not necessarily
translate well if the director does not deliver the full range of what
needs to be placed on screen. If they do not deliver those essential
elements of drama if it’s even present in the script, things just fall
flat. Dead Space 3 brings the elements of story duality and conflict,
great new set pieces of action and thrills and of course a mix of scares
and surprises to get the adrenalin flowing. Story, visuals and sound
elements both in sound effects and music join to make a deliciously
sensational experience all around. Some may argue it has dipped into
more of the adventure horror, rather than survival horror. That’s ok,
the right mix is there and adding in the new weapons customizations and
the drop in drop out coop play involving the whole campaign, the game is
going in the right direction for me.
Cause and effect is truly the foundation of
storytelling, the developers created the story, the back story, the
characters and each characters motivations. You feel like they are
unique individuals with their own unique psychological and emotional
baggage. Thankfully the characters actions and the line deliveries from
the voice actors resonate with truth.
My friends if you have looked over my writings in the
past you know I do my best not to give anything away when it comes to
story and events that transpire in the story. I feel to do so is a spit
in the face of the developers, the publishers and is a sneer and kick
between the legs of us the gamers, and I am a gamer. So, there will be
no spoilers and no giving away plot and events.
I can say that Dead Space 3 goes to wonderful lengths
to fill in the blanks for all the questions we have had about events,
and how things came to be the way they are. Beginning with a prologue
that sets things up nicely, not only explaining to a point on what has
happened over the past few games, but essential history of The Markers
and the dark past.
Dead Space 3 is a Third-Person Shooter with a mix of
action-survival-Horror elements. The game gives us decent enough
challenge either in single player or the drop in drop out game play with
a friend. Better yet, it’s all in campaign mode, which is well, let’s
face it pretty awesome. As noted the weapons bench is back also, though
this time around there are some pretty intensive tweaks to it. Previous
games focused on our hero having access to various tools as an engineer
that was used just as efficiently as weapons. This time around the
breath of fresh air is the customization and weapon creating.
The weapon/work benches are where players can create
some truly inspired and devastating weapons. There are a myriad of
different parts that are included in guns, such as frame and the
different attachments. Though in order to craft weapons you had better
make sure to have plenty of the resources on hand to do so. These
include semiconductors, tungsten and scrap metal. In a pinch some items
can be broken down for their resources.
During game play you have access to scavenger bots,
you can send them out to hunt and bring back resources.
With Nine chapters and an ending chapter to adventure
through on your own or with a friend, Dead Space 3 is a worthwhile ride
to horror and adventure. Oh and like some cool movies these days that
have a bit more to tell in the story after the credits finish up, stay
through the credits and check it out.
Locations are not to bad, they are a welcome change
of pace, though after a time you are longing for something to happen, or
some other cool area to be found on the savage blizzard encrusted ice
world. When you are in a vaster place like outer space, the grand vista
of it, while pretty awesome begs for something more to happen. Like any
story, it has its moments, and then also it has its grinding down
moments as well.
While I did enjoy the campaign on my own, I would say
that the best overall experience of the game is playing with a friend.
Have fun play games
Edwin Millheim |
