Dead Space 3

Dead Space 3 is a very solid action shooter that still delivers plenty of scary, survivor-horror frightening moments.

Even with Dead Space 3’s minor faults such as the psychological, personal terror being nowhere in sight, the human enemies being a terribly executed addition, and the graphics not making a huge leap, the game is simply fun.

Dead Space 3 brings back the most epic action in the battle against the terrifying necromorphs. Its increased dynamism contrasts with a somehow lessened fear effect, but nonetheless the setting quality of the franchise is maintained, and its essence preserved. Besides, co-op mode turns out to be a very interesting option and sufficiently original as to experience the entire game through a different point of view.

Dead Space 3 is no more Survival than Dead Space 2. The game is therefore capable to maintain high the nervous tension and to involve players in an interesting adventure.

A high quality sequel. It's not a revolution, but a stylish chapter in the series. Like Dead Space 2 before it, the game has survival horror segments and some more action-oriented moments, resulting in a varied and nicely paced adventure. The only misstep is to be found in a few missions on the icy planet, which are too long and not on par with the rest of the game. If you're looking for a pure survival horror game, look somewhere else, but if you liked the first two episodes, Dead Space 3 is a no-brainer.

Dead Space 3 has lost some of the typical horror but it's a spectacular blockbuster. The co-op mode is a gift, nicely finished and inviting.

Do yourself a favour and play DS3 like a raving masochist, straight off the bat. It’s a slick, AAA sequel that’s worthy of its place in the franchise. but only if you take the initiative and crank the difficulty. We didn’t think it possible, but Visceral has engineered a sequel that will appease old fans and entice new ones, too. [March 2013, p72]

At the end of the day the feeling that remains is that Dead Space 3 is a good game, but not a good Dead Space.

While by no means a bad game, Dead Space 3 fails to capture the same tension and atmosphere of the previous games. A woefully broken checkpoint system hurts cooperative play, which is a shame given how many modes there are to explore with a friend.

Even though EA and Visceral chose to focus more on full-out action and less on the creepy horror atmosphere which made you pause the game in tight spots just so you could breathe easily, Dead Space 3 is a worthy successor to Dead Space 2. It has a few new additions to the game like weapon crafting and cooperative play, which makes it all the more fun. Though Dead Space shouldn’t be fun, it should scare you sh.tless!

If you played Dead Space 2 you can get a clear idea of what you'll find here: scares, shootings, bizarre monsters and tons of gore. You can argue that Visceral could have been a bit more brave and that Dead Space 3 does not have as much ability to surprise you as before, but it's a really solid game nonetheless.

No doubt, Dead Space 3 stumbles—pretty hard—in some spots. But it also feels like this is Visceral honing its craft. The combat and pacing are the best they have ever been and some choices invest you in the experience, even if it’s a bummer the story doesn’t hold up.

For all the game's perceived flaws, you can't fault the development team for trying to give players more bang for their buck, something which is successfully achieved.

From its terrific weapon crafting system to its deep well of side content, Dead Space 3 is a massive game rich with options and personalization.

While human enemies detract and distract from the intense atmosphere and narrative, necromorphs still stand as the most entertaining things to shoot in gaming. Repeating some of the franchise's "epic" moments cheapens them somewhat, but nothing can deflate the sci fi-horror highs throughout Dead Space 3. This monster is well-equipped, even if there's one or two limbs I'd like to lop off.

An awful story is salvaged and ameliorated through exceptional combat design and an engaging weapon creation system - leaving Dead Space 3 weaker than its predecessors, but still an experience absolutely worth having.

This game features the roller-coaster effect that pr-people in the gaming industry love to show off. In other words: Dead Space doesn't have a single dull moment. The controls however, demand a more deliberate and slower pacing. [March 2013, p.68]

The environment is continually interesting and involving, the character and enemy designs are highly accomplished, the third-person action is reliable and responsive, and the deep weapon crafting system adds intricacy. But the subtler aspects, the slightly more artistic elements, the more cerebral parts of the production; they take a back seat to the insanity. Hence, the epitome of flash over substance.

The combat system and the world Visceral has crafted in Dead Space 3 is so expertly built and well-wrought, I found myself consciously overlooking my main criticisms, because I love playing it and spending time with it.

Dead Space 3 is in the unique position of being a fun game but a bad sequel.

The trouble is that, stapled onto what is a good game at the core, are a number of mishandled features that don’t add anything and occasionally detract from the experience. Co-op is a take-it-or-leave-it gesture that is only sometimes really interesting (in some missions, Carver hallucinates things the player controlling Isaac can’t see at all), but crafting can get fun, and many of the missions and a lot of the lore are stellar reasons to play the game. It is a fun time, despite a few failings.

All things considered, Dead Space 3 just isn’t made for those of us craving another horror experience. It’s far less scary and far more shooter-y than the previous games in the series. But for fans of set piece-based action games, Dead Space 3 has a pretty healthy buffet of amazing content. Just don’t spend any money on the microtransactions; EA needs to know that we’re not going to tolerate that sort of crap.

Dead Space 3's co-op mode ends up mirroring the single-player experience: slick, entertaining, with the occasional moment of brilliance, marred by a lack of tension, pacing and pant-filling scares.

With the third entry of the Dead Space series, Visceral Games goes in another direction than before. Horror elements makes space for pure action with the introduction of co-op, open landscapes and cover based shooting. As an action game it's pretty good but it's still the worst game in the trilogy.

Scored as a trilogy and compared to the first two titles, the game scores lower than the previous two. But this isn’t the same style of gameplay and we weren’t lied to about it being changed. It’s a different type of game and should be played like one.

A combination of an average shooter (that won’t appeal to shooter fans) and a (tension and atmosphere barren) survival horror game.

Diehard fans of the previous two games will have just as much fun this time around, assuming they aren’t expecting broad innovations. Everything is polished and this is clearly a title with a lot of funding behind it, but all the money in the world can’t buy innovation. By no means a bad sequel, it doesn’t quite offer a way for Dead Space to evolve as a series beyond its past two instalments, even if the formula here is still potent.

If you’ve played the previous games you’ll be able to spot the scares a mile away... and you’ll likely pine for the panic and purity of the original in the face of so many changes. But taken in isolation, Dead Space 3 is still an enjoyable and worthwhile experience: well-produced, polished and with enough narrative ups and downs (emphasis is very much on the downs) and set-pieces to sustain its ten-hour duration.

Dead Space 3 has moments in which it is just as exciting and tense as its predecessor and new additions, such as crafting your own weapons, are great. However, the boring human enemies, repetitive encounters with the necromorph, a weak story and the feeling that the game has been stretched, make sure that this trilogy ending doesn’t stack up to the first and second Dead Space.

Dead Space 3 is overlong – even bloated – larded with repetitive quests to fetch keys and alien artifacts, open doors and backtrack over the same terrain, on and on. Much of its 15-hour-or-so single-player campaign feels like a chore.

Near the end of the game, Isaac Clarke tells John Carver, “Good men mean well. We just don’t always end up doing well.” Ironically, the statement is exactly how I feel about Visceral Games’ work on Dead Space 3. The elements they chose to add were in hopes to attract a larger audience yet in a questionable direction. What’s left is a game that is mildly fun, but filled with flaws.

Misfires and all, it’s at least commendable that Dead Space 3 makes an effort to exhibit some fresh experimentation into what has become a truly bloated media franchise; plus the combat still shines for the most part. Sadly though, better elements like the crafting system are lamentably set against a mundane and lifeless backdrop that rarely excites, let alone spooks, on the grand level of previous games in the series.

Sacrifices have been made that really don’t give Dead Space 3 much to show for. Previous installments knew how to grasp onto players with the harrowing but tight gameplay, but in Dead Space 3 only the latter of these aspects remain standing. Along with the coöp those elements barely save the game, because other than that it feels like an illogical, bland and weak experience. Dead Space 3 is a game that doesn’t know what it wants to be and the player suffers for it.

I'm still glad I saw the Dead Space trilogy through to the end--and if you're invested in the series it's absolutely worth playing--but it's too bad this respectable series, which felt so exciting and fresh when it debuted just a few years ago, had to go out on a middling note.

Taken as a whole, Dead Space 3 is far more infuriating than it is bad.