Despite the franchise’s absence from the marketplace for nearly a decade, EA’s Dead Space collection continues to be revered in excessive regard by followers of survival horror video games – however it’s coom for any dialogue round Dead Space to revolve round entries 1 and 2. The final recreation within the collection, Dead Space 3 was launched in 2013 and whereas it was nonetheless a very good recreation by all accounts – the sport is unanimously thought of to be the black sheep of the household.
But is that the case? Was Dead Space 3 actually that unhealthy – or was it a misunderstood experiment that’s a lot better than collection followers initially thought it was? Was it an underrated gem? Of course, the reply to that query doesn’t boil all the way down to a single sure or no – and there are a lot of issues that have to be considered earlier than drawing a conclusion. All that mentioned, let’s dive in and have a look again at Dead Space 3 all these years later.
The situation surrounding the event of Dead Space 3 was an fascinating one. In spite of Dead Space 2 boasting rave critiques, the sport didn’t hit its projected gross sales numbers – and at one level, EA even had plans to outright cancel the third recreation as per a number of stories of the time. To keep away from the identical failures, the group felt that the sport wanted to enchantment to the bigger lots slightly than the survival horror area of interest that the primary 2 video games focused.
(*3*)
So the group took inspiration from the likes of Uncharted and Gears of War – each of which had been raking in nice gross sales figures with every entry, and the builders got down to create a recreation that will incorporate motion parts into its survival horror method with high-stakes set-pieces and shootout sequences amongst different new parts – and we received the Dead Space 3 that we all know immediately.
But whereas Dead Space 3 upped the ante when it got here to gameplay, it took a step again by way of its plot. The first two video games showcased a deeply disturbed protagonist as he does every little thing in his may to outlive and study extra concerning the Necromorphs. Dead Space 3 flips the method on its head because the story primarily revolves round him making an attempt to cease a Necromorph an infection from spreading on Earth, which may have been a pleasant change of tempo from standard survival horror – however finally ends up feeling compelled with many characters and occasions not contributing something significant to the narrative proceedings which finally ends in a padded-out expertise. That mentioned, it’s not all that unhealthy since a few of the newer characters like Carver are well-written with fascinating character arcs which might be value seeing by means of to the tip.
Over on the gameplay entrance, Dead Space 3 feels rather a lot higher than its predecessors due to clean animations that mix properly into each other. The core gameplay revolves round taking pictures your means by means of Necromorphs as you strategically dismember their limbs by making judicial use of your ammunition, and it’s simply as enjoyable because it was earlier than. You may additionally take cowl to cover from incoming hearth, since there are situations the place you’ll come throughout fights towards different human troopers who would clearly use ranged weaponry.
The recreation contains a first rate assortment of weapons to select from the likes of Plasma Cutter, EG-900 SMG, Evangelizer amongst others – and so they all really feel fairly distinct from each other. The ammunition is consumed from a typical pool, so that you all the time have numerous choices in the way you select to go about encounters. You even have particular skills resembling kinesis which lets you manipulate objects, and also you additionally get Stasis which permits Isaac to decelerate a goal’s motion quickly – permitting him to simply goal weak elements to dispatch enemies.
Players may also improve their weapons throughout their travels, which was one thing that was presumably finished with an intention of including some RPG-esque character development to the gameplay. Furthermore, Isaac may also undertake a number of side-missions at many factors all through the story – which might offer you further rewards that will go in the direction of making Isaac stronger. Hell, there’s even a brand new recreation+ choice that lets Isaac wreak havoc on his adversaries along with his high-level endgame gear. There are additionally action-heavy cinematic sequences together with however not restricted to zero-g sections – and all of it culminates to make Dead Space 3’s gameplay loop extra empowering than its predecessors.
Briefly speaking concerning the visuals, Dead Space 3 additionally supplied a noticeable bump in graphical constancy from Dead Space 2 – which was additionally a reasonably lovely recreation for its time. But Dead Space 3 improved on these foundations with a thicker sense of environment, lovely vistas, and loads of sprawling ranges full of nice consideration to element. Suffice it to say, it was simply one of many best-looking video games of the technology – and it did all that with out sacrificing on efficiency.
Once you’re finished along with your single-player adventures, you possibly can hop again into the sport with a buddy for some co-op motion which lets the second participant assume the function of Carver. Playing that means reveals further story beats with various cutscenes, and you possibly can additionally partake in particular side-missions that wouldn’t be accessible in any other case. All in all, Dead Space 3 performs and feels rather a lot completely different from its predecessors regardless of having been reduce from the identical material.
Ultimately, the sport’s tonal shifts and variations from prior entries grew to become essentially the most divisive components in relation to Dead Space 3 – and the developer’s makes an attempt to seize a bigger viewers with these modifications bit them again within the foot because it alienated collection followers. Sure, there are some goal shortcomings with the expertise resembling repetitive encounters and uninteresting stretches of story, however taken on the entire – it’s a stable expertise with loads to love as nicely.
We even have to think about the truth that EA purposefully added microtransactions right into a single-player recreation, which additional added gasoline to the fireplace – leading to an viewers that received annoyed with the writer’s enterprise practices and all of it finally hampered the sport’s reception. EA as soon as once more didn’t hit its projected gross sales numbers when it got here to Dead Space 3, and any plans of a sequel had been promptly dismembered and the developer was diminished to a assist studio till 2017 when it lastly closed doorways.
Now that each one that fuss is over and the smoke has lastly cleared out, Dead Space 3 truly is an effective expertise – one which neatly trades the franchise’s survival horror roots for some high-stakes motion, however makes positive that you just put sufficient effort into a way of energy fantasy with upgraded weapons and talents. The co-op and new game-plus modes are additionally nice methods of re-experiencing the sport from a recent perspective. Sure, it’s nothing that may blow you away – and it’s on no account an underrated gem (a 78 rating on Metacritic appears only for the type of expertise that it provides). But you probably have a hankering for some extra Dead Space motion, entry quantity 3 may not be a nasty choice all these years later.
Note: The views expressed on this article are these of the writer and don’t essentially characterize the views of, and shouldn’t be attributed to, GamingBolt as a corporation.
