The plot for Dead Space 3 is a lot more engrossing than the previous two games, due to the imminent doom of the human race thanks to the Unitologists and their love for all things Necromorph. There is a sense of urgency in your actions and in true Hollywood style, Isaac Clarke is humanity’s only hope. You’re approached in your apartment by Captain Robert Norton and Sergeant John Carver of Earthgov. Norton has received a distress call and requires the talents of Clarke, however as Earthgov has been overthrown, escaping the Unitologist troops is not as easy as you may think.
You would be forgiven in thinking that Dead Space 3 had moved away from its shock factor scares, which bolstered the original game into a frenzy with the fans. While I stated back in my original DS1 review that Dead Space wasn’t scary, there were definite moments where the game shocked or startled you. This instalment feels more of a generic third person shooter in the opening hour or so of gameplay due to other people shooting back at you while you take cover before returning fire.
This new addition to the roster of enemies can make things a little interesting, with fully armed opponents utilising their machine guns, grenades and sniper rifles, you no longer just rely upon the trusted method of stasis and dismember. Ducking behind cover will become an essential mainstay of your combat which is, thankfully, not ‘Gears of War’ sticky wall central. You’ll also at times be thankful for the armed forces as you’ll encounter these taking on the Necromorphs, making your job a bit easier as you stay behind cover until there’s only a couple of enemies left before showing your face and taking the stragglers out. Thankfully fans of the original titles can rest easy as it’s not all run and gun in this game, you still have to explore the levels in order to find scrap metals and other objects in order to create med packs, ammunition and weapon upgrades. This exploration of the levels can come in the form of your own curiosity or via side missions, a new addition to the game, which explore sections of the levels you would not necessarily venture to; with the reward of either weapon frames, extra upgrades or just extra knowledge about the whole Necromorph scenario on Tau Volantis, the mysterious frozen planet where most of this game takes place.
The collection of resources is one of the major changes to the franchise as gone are the power nodes for simple upgrades and in come the metals and gels. These items are then used in the bench and suit shop in order to create upgrades to your hit points, armor values, new parts and weapon enhancements (such as increased fire rates), cooperative play enabled add-ons and more. The cooperative add-ons are items that attach to your weapons and affect both players, such as using a stasis pack to replenish your stasis tank, which will replenish the tanks on both you and your co-op partner.
Along with resources you will also encounter weapon frames, these will change the characteristics of an existing weapon or become the base of a customised gun of your own choosing. For example, if you were to take a military engine and attach it to a heavy frame, you essentially create an assault rifle which fires traditional cartridge-based ammunition and requires both hands to wield. If you were to take the same engine yet attach it to a light frame, the same gun becomes a one handed submachine gun with less room for upgrades and attachments. The majority of these frames can accommodate two separate engines,which allow you to create weapons with a primary and secondary fire, for example, the plasma cutter with a flamethrower or line gun with a grenade launcher. The only real limitations is your own personal taste in guns and how you want to attach them together.
Tau Volantis, as I previously mentioned, is the planet where you’ll be heading to in order to discover how, over 200 years ago, the population were able to halt a Necromorph uprising in its tracks and how they were able to keep them from rising again until very recently. Through your travels of this frozen planet you’ll encounter Necromorphs the likes you could have never imagined, along with crazed members of the humanoid population rushing at you with guns and assorted melee weapons.
This mix up of enemy types means Isaac is no longer a slowpoke in a clumpy suit of armour, in Dead Space 3 you feel a lot more agile, with the ability to roll and duck behind some cover so you can avoid the onslaught of weapons fire or Necromorph anti-Isaac stabby tentacles. It feels a lot more action oriented, which I feel keeps the game fresher for longer. Now, before you set foot on this ball of ice you’ll be in orbit of the planet, discovering what happened to the seemingly derelict space ships. Here you’ll come across Ellie Langford, one of the survivors of The Sprawl where Dead Space 2 was set. In the time between Dead Space 2 and 3 it seems Isaac and Ellie became an item, but it was clearly not meant to be as the tension between the two characters is apparent on their initial reunion. Ellie was on the hunt for what is possibly a machine that can control and stop all the markers around the universe. This search led her team towards Tau Volantis but the team ran into trouble and set off the distress call which Norton received.
The other major change to Dead Space 3 is the introduction of cooperative play, however this was a personal let down as the cooperative play is online only. Sorry splitscreen fans, this game is not for you. In co-op, player two will take control of John Carver, the hardened gruff stereotypical soldier with a dark past that you’re introduced at the beginning of the singleplayer campaign. Both Carver and Isaac must encounter the foes of Tau Volantis together in order to survive yet it’s never as simple as sticking together.
The co-op sections of the game will also breathe additional insight and dialogue between Clarke and Carver that would not have been experienced by players completing the SP campaign. You’ll also notice that the cooperative campaign will purposely split the two players apart with no indication of where they may be in relation to each other, giving each side a unique view of the overall story that the other party would not experience alone. By doing this the developers at Visceral hope to instil the fear of the original games with the sections where nothing happens before the obligatory “scare” is thrust into the faces of the players.
Those more fond of the original game will be glad to know that there are several modes in the titles New Game+ mode which hark back to how resource scarce and atmospheric the original title was. Allowing players to select different New Game+ modes will enable those who decide to purchase the game to get a lot more for their money out of the title. Having only two saves to go through the entire game on a harder, more challenging experience will certainly test the skills of gamers everywhere. In conclusion, Dead Space 3 has braved a new path for the franchise which fans of the original may disagree with. While a lot of the changes are in the realms of the unknown to fans of the series, in the context of this new title, all the changes that have been introduced in the game certainly work exceptionally well. The cooperative gameplay is a fresh and fun new addition, while the changes to the bench and its associated resource gathering forces you to think about your own personal upgrades or weapon modifications as items are no longer a single unit of currency to change.
There’s certainly a lot going for Dead Space 3 and there’s no mistaking that you’ll get a lot enjoyment from this instalment of the game.
Neil Hetherington
Platforms Available: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Date: February 2013
Genre: Third-person shooter
Publisher: Electronic Arts
