Dead Space 3 brings Isaac Clarke and merciless soldier, John Carver, on a journey across space to discover the source of the Necromorph outbreak. Crash-landed on the frozen planet of Tau Volantis, the pair must comb the harsh environment for raw materials and scavenged parts. Isaac will then put his engineering skills to the ultimate test to create and customize weapons and survival tools. The ice planet holds the key to ending the Necromorph plague forever, but first the team must overcome avalanches, treacherous ice-climbs, and the violent wilderness. Facing deadlier evolved enemies and the brutal elements, the unlikely pair must work together to save mankind from the impending apocalypse.
This review may contain spoilers
Dead Space 3 is not a bad game but it's worlds apart from the two previous installments. It lacks the horror elements, the mystery, the isolation you felt in DS1 and DS2.
-I liked how Clarke was a man of few words. I liked that you did not come across many NPC's and were most of the time alone. But, in DS3 they've turned Clarke into a totally new character. He comically commented on everything and he was roaming around the planet's installations like it was a ride in the park. I mean, come on. He survived two absolute horror scenarios, how can he be so apathetic? They could at least have kept the visions as part of some horror flashbacks he had from all the horrors he has gone through, rather than the Marker's influence on him. I loved DS1-2 Clarke, but I didn't feel 'attached' to this one. In some cases, I even liked his partner more than him.
-The story was the less intriguing of the three games. Many things were overly explained or explained in a very early stage. There was no climax for certain news or events. Like, in the end, where the bad guy was explaining everything to you. It was like the writers had so many things to explain and no clever way to deliver it to us, so they had the main antagonist explain everything at the end. And I don't think they worked on the characters very good. This love triangle made me think I am watching an episode of 'The Yound and the Restless', with some undead creatures thrown in. It just felt 'forced' and cliché. Also, I think they could have expanded the story a bit towards how the Unitologists managed to defeat EarthGov so easily. I thought the later one was much more powerful than the Church.
-The gameplay (and the levels themselves) felt repetitive. Same areas (especially on side-missions) and same objective: you find your team, talk a bit, get separated from them, find them again, they sent you on an errand, you find them again. This happens the whole game through. Also, DS3 based its gameplay heavily on scare jumps and countless waves of enemies. I was in an area, vents broke, and the only thing I did was killing Necromorphs the one after another, like it was a practice range. Sure, the previous games had scare jumps, but not so many. And the enemies were placed a lot more strategically in the levels.
-And universal ammo? Really? I think this change totally broke the continuity between the three games. How is it possible that everyone is using universal ammo now? It would make sense if they made the switch the years between DS2 and DS3, but this is not the case since you find them on the SCAF derelict ships/ planet too. Also, if you run out of ammo, your run out of ammo for all your weapons, something that got me in trouble many times. I know it's a game, and I know it is a practical feature , but it just doesn't make sense.
-Also, I do not know why they changed the save system. I was playing for 3 and a half ours on a side mission, clicked on the 'quit and save' option, only to find out that I have to replay the mission because you should wait for the 'saving' icon to appear, in order to get your game to save.
All in all, it was a good game rather than a bad one. I liked the new weapons system, the scavenge implementation, the new Necromoprhs and the setting itself. I just wish they had stick to some things that made this series what it is (horror, isolation, mystery), rather than exploring and implementing features that were not part of the games' series. The two first games made me think, search the web for answers, read the comics, see the anime. But not this one.