Dead Space 3

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JaySevenZero
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Dead Space 3

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Dead Space 3 for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Tolkientaters
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Re: 553: Dead Space 3

Post by Tolkientaters »

Dead Space is an interesting game, and on it's merits it's pretty solid. However it's the 3rd in a fantastic series of genre defining horror games, and in comparison to those it's a let down.

It sacrifices a lot of the pretty solid horror by going full co op, and letting you get creative with the weapons with you can make extremely overpowered pretty easily which takes away a lot of the tension and more methodical combat from the previous 2 games. The Story feels extra tropey and a little less interesting then it's predecessor. It's certainly not a bad game and it's a solid co op experience with a friend, but ultimately less interesting than the other games in the series.
Spoiler: show
I did like the extremely over the top reveal that evil space moons were the real antagonists.
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The_reviewist
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Re: 553: Dead Space 3

Post by The_reviewist »

Unlike many others out there it seems, I'm a huge Dead Space fan who actually liked Dead Space 3, and was actually disappointed that it marked the end of the game series at the time.

I'll happily admit that it lacks in some areas, most notably in that the enemies have become a little stale and
repetitive by this point. The Human foes aren't as much fun to fight as the Necromorphs, and the story beats feel like they're repeating a bit. And yet, the opening few hours, jetting around between the derelict space hulks, making repairs and fighting for your life is one of the high points of the franchise for me. I'd have happily played an entire engineering based game based just around that concept.

On the Ice planet, there were new challenges, and some nice set pieces, and the distinct but real influences and nods to John Carpenter's The Thing, as well as HP Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness were a joy to play through. The customisable guns were also a fun bit of tinkering, although easy to make so OP it broke the game.

I'd also commend the multiplayer mode, which did detract a little from the suspense at times, but was actually implemented best in the DLC. Especially if you played as Carver, and got to enjoy his weird tin soldier hallucinations.
I'd have happily played more of that, indeed more of any of it, be it more Isaac & Carver, Gabe and Lexy from even more from mobile game's protagonist, Vandal. But I guess, it just wasn't to be.
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Alex79
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Re: 553: Dead Space 3

Post by Alex79 »

I have a patchy history with Dead Space. I abandoned the first game about two thirds of the way through after getting fed up with it, but then I really enjoyed the second game when it was given away with PS+ a few years back. I'd never played the third game in the series, so when Leon announced it was to be featured on the show I thought I'd give it a go and downloaded it on Gamepass.

Unfortunately, I ended almost as soon as I'd begun! I got about an hour in, but for whatever reason - perhaps it was due to the FPS upgrade playing on backwards compatibility which made the game feel super smooth, the game made me feel awful motion sickness, the likes of which I've only ever experienced with a tiny handful of games. I don't think the shaky camera helped, and the way it lurched around so excessively at times.

This is a shame, because I quite enjoyed the opening sections, and the combat felt exciting, movement weighty and that stomp was as satisfying as ever. But I just couldn't shake the feeling of nausea and headache that came with it. Never mind!
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Our next podcast recording (21.1.23) - 553: Dead Space 3

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I picked this one up cheap and went in with an open mind. "Yeah, it's EA during their worst period, but it's Dead Space! Surely it can't be all that bad." After a pretty strong and narratively compelling intro sequence, you meet Isaac on a Moon colony, having completed the unasked-for metamorphosis from mostly silent protagonist to chatty 2010s sarcastic wiseass. You then have a big firefight with human enemies as everything goes bananas and the magic space rock gets up to its old hijinks.

While I do believe Dead Space 3 has its highlights, it is a tremendously stupid and boisterous game compared to those that came before it. Dead Space 2 went a bit harder on the narrative and action than the original, but it still felt appropriately isolating and oppressive. Dead Space 3, comparatively, feels like a direct to video knock-off, with horror and tension replaced with a toddler banging on pots and pans for attention.

On another note: The narrative that EA ruined Dead Space is interesting to me, because now that Visceral Games have disbanded and many of its key players have launched a game that tries very hard to be Dead Space, I can't help but see some of the same problems in The Callisto Protocol that exist in Dead Space 3. While no doubt that the corporate machine shares some of the blame, I can't say I continue to believe the narrative that Visceral were some flawless studio corrupted by big, bad EA... Even when made indie, they still continued corporate practices of crunch and uncrediting developers.

Three word review: Hollywood Dead Space
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: 553: Dead Space 3

Post by Magical_Isopod »

The_reviewist wrote: January 4th, 2023, 8:11 pm I'd have happily played more of that, indeed more of any of it, be it more Isaac & Carver, Gabe and Lexy from even more from mobile game's protagonist, Vandal. But I guess, it just wasn't to be.
I have an hypothesis that the Dead Space Remake is going to pull an FF7R and be a remakequel. They are giving away Dead Space 2 as a preorder bonus... That tells me that either the game is crap and they know it won't have a sequel, or that the remake is charting its own course. I think there's enough room with the magic space rock lore for that to be possible.
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GlobalSaturation89
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Re: Our next podcast recording (21.1.23) - 553: Dead Space 3

Post by GlobalSaturation89 »

Dead space 1 and 2 could be considered modern classics and are truly terrifying games. Dead space 3 tried to capture some of that essence but ended up feeling disjointed and unsatisfying to play. I can remember exploring the Ishimura and the sprawl vividly however I can’t remember much of dead space 3. The snowy setting seemed to suck some of the tension out of the gameplay.

The broken absailing mechanic was also very frustrating and often ended in me seeing the death animation more than I would have liked. The margin for error on these sections was unforgiving.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Our next podcast recording (21.1.23) - 553: Dead Space 3

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

Unlike I suppose a lot of people here, I actually wound up playing Dead Space 3 first, and played the 1st and 2nd games much later, thanks to the power of Games With Gold. I remember picking up Dead Space 3 on a whim, as I had gotten a bigger payout than expected on some trade ins and I was interested in the co-op sections (which I never really got to play, but that's a whole other story). Nearly ten years after its release, I can definitely agree with the others that it's the weakest of the main series... but paradoxically it's also my favorite.

While the previous Dead Space adventures were effective, creepy slow burn psychological thrillers spliced with freaky gore, Dead Space 3 goes for the blockbuster route. Everything in this game seems to be, for lack of a better term, more: the score seems more epic, All of humanity is on the brink of destruction, the story isn't confined to one place, it jumps from earth to deep space to the massive frozen wastes of Tau Volantis, and worst of all, Isaac's love life is in trouble.

This works initially, given how well paced the first section of the game is, as Isaac tries to avoid the villainous Danik (Simon Templeman was playing a sweet, goofy alien in a human disguise on the short lived sitcom The Neighbors at the time of the game's release , so this was a fun contrast), but the further the game goes, the more on seems to wonder- what's the point? What are Isaac and Carver even fighting for anymore, given how much humanity has been devastated? The Awakened DLC ends with a reveal that pretty much the entire universe is screwed- were do you go from there? The love triangle between Isaac, Ellie, and Norton is a non-starter, especially given the eventual revelations about Norton, so it's hard to get too invested in that. The story of what happened on Tau Volantis is half fascinating- i.e., the true nature of Rosetta and what happened on the planet- and half ridiculous- wait, they had a chance to stop this 200 years ago and it didn't happen simply because one of the higher ups didn't think it would work? Lame. Having to discover recording after recording of someone describing every step that was taken back then, which Isaac and Carver have to replicate, was mildly hilarious.

I do appreciate the attempt to go bigger, to create a more absorbing narrative, it's just that the narrative on display isn't nearly as strong as the previous two games, which are more grounded, so to speak.

So having said all that, why do I like it so much: simply put, because i found it a blast to play. the crafting system is pretty deep and fun, and I was able to come up with a gun that mixed knesis with regular bullets that quite frankly, broke the game, as I took down monsters with ease. The opening sequence, the awesome scenes searching throughout the ship graveyards, the endless bleak snowfall of Tau Volantis before it wears out its welcome. As cynical an enterprise as Dead Space 3 could be at times with its mictrotransactions, pyrothecnics, and Visceral and Electronic Arts' attempt to take away everything subtle, i had a good time. The previous Dead Space games may be better overall experiences, but the 3 is the only one I've played more than once. To put it another way, sometimes a big, sloppy cheeseburger is more memorable than a gourmet meal. Not aways, but sometimes.

That said the series pretty much painted itself into a corner, though the proposed Dead Space 4, with Ellie as the protagonist searching for signs of life in sequences similar to the ship graveyards, sounds enticing. I think starting from scratch with a remake was probably the best bet. While I'm not really that big on remakes, I'm looking forward to Isaac Clarke's new beginning.

--Dan
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