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Dead Space 3 Review Thread [Up: Embargo Up]

Rapstah

Member
The usage of the words "roller-coaster ride" has to be an internal joke or a bi-product of the Metacritic summary translation, right? I can't believe someone would use that term to refer to anything in a review anymore, regardless of how much they think it fits.

Edit: This is the last part of the summary translated (although they could refer to it as a visceral roller-coaster somewhere else in the review, my Spanish isn't good enough to read a three-page review and understand what I'm seeing):
Sigue habiendo sustos e intensidad, pero también más secuencias épicas, momentos frenéticos y muchos más combates. No es el mejor episodio de la serie por algunas adiciones intrascedentes y otras más bien flojas, pero sí es un producto que mantiene sobradamente el estándar de calidad Dead Space.
Scares and intensity remain, but there are also more epic sequences, frenetic moments and much more combat. It's not the best episode of the series because of some intranscendent additions and some sloppy others, but it is a product that richly maintains the high standard of Dead Space.
 
Well, Amnesia definitely scared the shit out of me.

But elements of Dead Space 1/2 were definitely tense and could cause decent jump scares. I think I would more frequently scare myself into it though (dark corridors and horrible noises; then enemies attack and I jump) then the game actually having particularly novel scares. But being tense and a little frightening was always part of the appeal, for sure.

the dark doesn't really scare me, but body horror does... and amorphous things. the sense that something really fucked up happened in the place I'm in before gets me good too.
 
But elements of Dead Space 1/2 were definitely tense and could cause decent jump scares. I think I would more frequently scare myself into it though (dark corridors and horrible noises; then enemies attack and I jump) then the game actually having particularly novel scares. But being tense and a little frightening was always part of the appeal, for sure.

You will still get plenty of this in DS3. Yes the action setpeices are pretty intense. Yet it still retains that good mood horror as well. Eager to see your thoughts after playing. :D
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Worked out pretty well for Resident Evil 6 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

There are obvious exceptions and high profile misfires, but there's also no doubt that a certain kind of sleek, polished, expensive, and safe production can fairly consistently achieve high review scores.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
There are obvious exceptions and high profile misfires, but there's also no doubt that a certain kind of sleek, polished, expensive, and safe production can fairly consistently achieve high review scores.

I don't disagree, but I do also feel that 2012 and onwards has been notably harsher by about 3-5 points on average at least looking at games like Halo 4, Assassin's Creed, Need For Speed, Black Ops 2, and of course the real outliers that are way down.
 

Spookie

Member
To be fair they have a lot of modes to make the game harder or change how it feels when replaying it: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=510547

Meh, I'd agree with Derrick for once. For me they have changed the core of the game what use to be a tense survivor horror complete with things like ammo and inventory management to a sci-fi jumpy third person action shooter. Hell even look at the tag line it was (E3 last year): "More Terror. More Danger." now it's a more dude bro, manly: "Take Down The Terror."

I don't think they are appealing the game to the horror fan any more. Regardless if I was deciding to pick up the game day one. They turned it in to a £5 pick up when they couldn't be fucked to put any effort in to the PC version again.
 

ymoc

Member
Honest question, did Dead Space 2 scare you? I found parts of it very scary, and other parts not so much, but people are always going on about it around here like it wasn't scary at all. Conversely, Amnesia did nothing for me. What I've seen of the single player of this, I think it's still going to push some of my buttons. Obviously it's impossible to tell from the videos what the balance is going to be until I play it, but I'm interested to know if 2 scared other people. I think the section in 2
on the ishamura
was the scariest part of either game.

This is really interesting. I'm completely opposite. Amnesia scared the hell out of me, but Dead Space 2 did absolutely nothing for me. Sure some places were a bit tense, but most of it was merely expecting another jump scare.
I was really disappointed by the action focus of DS2, and to be honest, the game kinda dragged. The level design was not on pair with the original which really killed any wish I might have had for replay.

I have low expectations about DS3, since it apparently goes even further down the action line, and follows less and less the superb survival horror of the original.
On the other hand kudos to all the action fans out there, I'm sure you'll love it. I'm actually happy for you.
Meanwhile, I'll just go back to my dark corner and wait another 5 years for a new IP to blow me away like DS1 did.
 
Meh, I'd agree with Derrick for once. For me they have changed the core of the game what use to be a tense survivor horror complete with things like ammo and inventory management to a sci-fi jumpy third person action shooter. Hell even look at the tag line it was (E3 last year): "More Terror. More Danger." now it's a more dude bro, manly: "Take Down The Terror."

I don't think they are appealing the game to the horror fan any more. Regardless if I was deciding to pick up the game day one. They turned it in to a £5 pick up when they couldn't be fucked to put any effort in to the PC version again.

I don't think the Dead Space series was ever true survival horror. Both are scary action games to me. Like RE4. That's the vein the series has always been in. I'm sure playing this on one of the harder difficulties out of the box will leave me with very little to no ammo from time to time, as happened in Dead Space 2 on occasions (I had so little left after that elevator sequence, for example).

I think the marketing has been really bad at reassuring fans of the first two, that it's still the franchise they love, but obviously if they already lost you with two, three isn't going to be your bag. The reviews sure make it sound like a game fans of Dead Space 2 would love, even if it isn't quite as good. For me, action and horror are not mutually exclusive. Aliens wasn't as scary (or as good) as Alien, but it was still scary, and it was still great.

This is really interesting. I'm completely opposite. Amnesia scared the hell out of me, but Dead Space 2 did absolutely nothing for me. Sure some places were a bit tense, but most of it was merely expecting another jump scare.
I was really disappointed by the action focus of DS2, and to be honest, the game kinda dragged. The level design was not on pair with the original which really killed any wish I might have had for replay.

I have low expectations about DS3, since it apparently goes even further down the action line, and follows less and less the superb survival horror of the original.
On the other hand kudos to all the action fans out there, I'm sure you'll love it. I'm actually happy for you.
Meanwhile, I'll just go back to my dark corner and wait another 5 years for a new IP to blow me away like DS1 did.

fear is a very subjective thing. if you are afraid of being hunted in the darkness, I can see Amnesia scaring the shit out of you, but I need a game to have consequences for it to scare me. The creepiest looking enemy isn't going to scare me if all it does is knock me unconscious, drag me to a nearby room, and then it leaves the level. I need a penalty to go along with death for a game to scare me. That's just me personally, although I know others feel the same way. Now Justine, the Amnesia DLC, that scared me real good.
 
Any word on how the pc port is? I know it's not "optimized" but I'm guessing it's got some options?

cross posting this for you from the OT.

Recorded first ~17 minutes of gameplay.
PC, max settings and 1080p
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmsyiYy7bB8

you can see the settings right at the start of the video. basically as many as Dead Space 2 had. maybe one or two new settings. still vsyncs to 30 fps if you enable vsync in game. haven't seen it confirmed that it'll go higher than that if you vsync through your graphics card drivers, but presumably it will (just like the first two). and both DS1 and DS2 ran great on relatively low end PCs, so again, I'm imagining this one will too even if it won't show off a high end rig.
 
Any word on how the pc port is? I know it's not "optimized" but I'm guessing it's got some options?
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DigiMish

Member
I think of the "Take down the terror" headline as more of a "finish the fight" - finally solve this whole marker / necromorph deal.
 
cross posting this for you from the OT.



you can see the settings right at the start of the video. basically as many as Dead Space 2 had. maybe one or two new settings. still vsyncs to 30 fps if you enable vsync in game. haven't seen it confirmed that it'll go higher than that if you vsync through your graphics card drivers, but presumably it will (just like the first two). and both DS1 and DS2 ran great on relatively low end PCs, so again, I'm imagining this one will too even if it won't show off a high end rig.

Hmm thanks, it looks reasonably good in that video. Still on the fence about springing for this now or waiting. 12 hours is a decent amount of time but I'm having a hard time justifying single player only games these days at full price.
 

ymoc

Member
fear is a very subjective thing. if you are afraid of being hunted in the darkness, I can see Amnesia scaring the shit out of you, but I need a game to have consequences for it to scare me. The creepiest looking enemy isn't going to scare me if all it does is knock me unconscious, drag me to a nearby room, and then it leaves the level. I need a penalty to go along with death for a game to scare me. That's just me personally, although I know others feel the same way. Now Justine, the Amnesia DLC, that scared me real good.

I agree, it is most certainly subjective.
I guess it really boils down to what kind of mindset you tackle a game with.
Obviously Amnesia loses all scare factor if you look at it from that point of view.

I think DS2 made me feel a lot less isolated and vulnerable, it gave me a bigger arsenal and a brighter locale, which all contributed to making this game less scarier to me.

Oh and the action "rollercoasters", as fun and awesome as they might be, are probably the biggest horror killers for me.
 

Amir0x

Banned
You will still get plenty of this in DS3. Yes the action setpeices are pretty intense. Yet it still retains that good mood horror as well. Eager to see your thoughts after playing. :D

I hope so, but I just prefer games will let me meaningfully play through moments and not just watch things play out... for me, that removes all tension from moments.

Uncharted is a perfect example, without getting too distracted from the subject. Scenes where you're running away from bodies of water; falling out planes... and do I care? am i tense? No, because it's all just playing itself out with barely any input from me; I know I'm in no actual danger.

That said, I hope it is good and it doesn't seem like there's too many of these moments in DS3. I really like Dead Space 1 and 2, they're fun and there's not too many games out like them right now, and i hope the 3rd can at least be pretty good. Those hardcore modes Nirolak mention give me some hope... I definitely want to play in Classic Mode and Hardcore mode.

the dark doesn't really scare me, but body horror does... and amorphous things. the sense that something really fucked up happened in the place I'm in before gets me good too.

things hunting me in the dark scare me, though, especially when I have no recourse to fight against them...

...or, crazy invisible water monsters that suck my soul dry >:0
 
Oh man, Dead Space was incredibly tense!
It caused me to get nightmares and to wake up in the night while screaming 'Help, Help!'.

I haven't played a horror game since....
 
Uncharted is a perfect example, without getting too distracted from the subject. Scenes where you're running away from bodies of water; falling out planes... and do I care? am i tense? No, because it's all just playing itself out with barely any input from me; I know I'm in no actual danger.

There are indeed plenty of moments like these in DS3. More so then in the first 2 I think, but they still have plenty of moments where it's you fighting for your life, things jumping out, in the dark. I won't lie I've jumped quite a few times. One time I went in a room, was just exploring and an enemy litereally jumped right from above me. I don't know if it was scripted but I just wasn't excecting it in the slightest.
 

Amir0x

Banned
well I look forward to it. As long as the game mostly retains the same DS feel, it won't be a huge loss if they give up a little to the mainstream trend of the moment. But only a little :p
 

mujun

Member
I find it weird that we are discussing metacritic score trends but usually when the subject of review scores come up most people seem to say that they should mostly be ignored and it's better to rely on the opinion of someone you know has similar taste and/or review text.

Is this because of a split between the major opinions on review scores and metacritic (one side putting stock in them but seeing a "conspiracy" in the fact most sites give similar scores for any given game vs people who think they should be ignored completely) or is there just one major opinion and it suffers from a severe case of wanting to have its cake and eat it too?
 

ymoc

Member
I find it weird that we are discussing metacritic score trends but usually when the subject of review scores come up most people seem to say that they should mostly be ignored and it's better to rely on the opinion of someone you know has similar taste and/or review text.

Is this because of a split between the major opinions on review scores and metacritic (one side putting stock in them but seeing a "conspiracy" in the fact most sites give similar scores for any given game vs people who think they should be ignored completely) or is there just one major opinion and it suffers from a severe case of wanting to have its cake and eat it too?

When I was younger I was a big gaming journalism fan. I had to had that PC Gamer magazine every month! I loved that shit!
Then I started realizing that the scores and reviews started deviating more and more to my perception of the games. I don't believe it was me that changed though.
One of the biggest turnoffs for me is when a reviewer who clearly doesn't "get" the genre goes and reviews a genre game (same situation with movie reviews).
Second is that most big sites have a shameless bias towards the AAA titles and publishers which they give a LOT of slack when reviewing. I remember back in the days, most games never got to the score above 92%. Today? That's basically your typical monthly AAA game.
And I even wouldn't mind this if all games were treated the same way, but they aren't. When you've got AA games being generally praised but ultimately bashed for having a few "gamebreaking" bugs (which usually isn't even true) and given a mediocre score, I tend to give up on mainstream gaming journalism and stick to my gut feeling or opinions of fellow gamers.
 

mujun

Member
When I was younger I was a big gaming journalism fan. I had to had that PC Gamer magazine every month! I loved that shit!
Then I started realizing that the scores and reviews started deviating more and more to my perception of the games. I don't believe it was me that changed though.
One of the biggest turnoffs for me is when a reviewer who clearly doesn't "get" the genre goes and reviews a genre game (same situation with movie reviews).
Second is that most big sites have a shameless bias towards the AAA titles and publishers which they give a LOT of slack when reviewing. I remember back in the days, most games never got to the score above 92%. Today? That's basically your typical monthly AAA game.
And I even wouldn't mind this if all games were treated the same way, but they aren't. When you've got AA games being generally praised but ultimately bashed for having a few "gamebreaking" bugs (which usually isn't even true) and given a mediocre score, I tend to give up on mainstream gaming journalism and stick to my gut feeling or opinions of fellow gamers.

I guess I just don't get the anger that is often associated with review scores.

People get so riled up about scores (my favorite game should have gotten more! 9 out of 10 for that game, but the ending sucked!) despite the fact it seems pretty clear that the reviewers only assign them because many readers clamor for them (a common sentiment heard on podcasts when reviewers talk about scores) and even often say that they wish the audience would pretty much ignore the score and just read the review text. Most of those people also acknowledge that a review is only a general indicator.

Given all those things it seems to me that controversy around review scores is pretty much on the readers and not the reviewers.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
DS3 is a review-proof day 1 purchase for me, DS1 and 2 bought a lot of faith from me. It might be my favorite new IP this gen, tied with Bioshock. Always nice to see your favorites get good reviews.

I loved Dead Space 1, got the platinum trophy years ago and even finished a play through on the 360 today, but skipped DS2 because it sounded like EA was ruining it. I haven't paid any attention to this game either, but wonder if I should give the franchise another chance. I similarly bailed on ME3 because I didn't like what EA did with the franchise.

I want my Dead Space to be survival horror and not co-op cover shooter for the masses. Can I enjoy the newer games?
 

DocSeuss

Member
Meh, I'd agree with Derrick for once. For me they have changed the core of the game what use to be a tense survivor horror complete with things like ammo and inventory management to a sci-fi jumpy third person action shooter. Hell even look at the tag line it was (E3 last year): "More Terror. More Danger." now it's a more dude bro, manly: "Take Down The Terror."

I don't think they are appealing the game to the horror fan any more. Regardless if I was deciding to pick up the game day one. They turned it in to a £5 pick up when they couldn't be fucked to put any effort in to the PC version again.

Dead Space is not, nor was it ever, survival horror. When the fuck did you play a Dead Space game that was survival horror? NEVER. Because it has never existed.

Dead Space is action horror, like Aliens (y'know, one of the highest-rated horror films of all time?).

Terror = that creeping feeling of dread when you think something's going to happen
Horror = that feeling you get when you experience the thing that was giving you terror

Horror movies (and, thus, games), are horror because of the reveal. That's why 28 Days Later is a horror movie. That's why Aliens is a horror movie. That's why Dead Space is a horror game.

If you want survival terror, then by all means, go for it. But stop whining about how an action horror game that was never survival terror still isn't.

I loved Dead Space 1, got the platinum trophy and even finished a play through on the 360 today, but skipped DS2 because I sounded like EA was ruining it. I haven't paid any attention to this game either, but wonder if I should give the franchise another chance. I similarly bailed on ME3 because I didn't like what EA did with the franchise.

I want my Dead Space to be survival horror and not co-op cover shooter for the masses. Can I enjoy the newer games?

Dead Space 2 is like if Dead Space 1 had significantly better mechanics but kinda sucked at the regenerator a bit and didn't have quite so many big bosses.
 
Reviews look solid, can't wait to buy it. I hope Isaac finally catches a break at the end and the studio can move onto another solid IP.
 

Lime

Member
I don't disagree, but I do also feel that 2012 and onwards has been notably harsher by about 3-5 points on average at least looking at games like Halo 4, Assassin's Creed, Need For Speed, Black Ops 2, and of course the real outliers that are way down.

Stump already covered the aberrations that were RE6 and MOH:Warfighter - i.e. cases were the flaws were too apparent and/or fundamentally broken as to assign high mark to the game, but I have to add to your post that it does seem like the reviewers in the last couple of months has been a bit tougher on the usual blockbuster games, yet it is still only a couple of points (an 8 instead of a 9, or what have you). Thus, the games in question are still lauded as high-quality AAA experiences and some of the reviews still remain superficial in their criticism and assessment of these games.

Given all those things it seems to me that controversy around review scores is pretty much on the readers and not the reviewers.

You cannot be serious. To some extent, some gaming sites are driven by hits, so you could probably argue that they are striving for getting the first review with the biggest amount of exposure and hits, but in no way are the many flaws and problems associated with the critically bankrupt reviewers caused by the readers. The general trend seen in the review field of the games industry is that the writers seem to prefer high-budget, sleek, polished experiences, even if these experiences have very few creative risks and/or innovations, or are incredibly homogeneous.

It is true that some of the readership might become angry if their fanboy/-girl opinions aren't validated by an almost arbitrary review score, but I don't see how that should in any way influence the reviewer. In any case, if they don't have to spine to formulate and state their own well-argued critical assessment of a product, then they shouldn't be reviewing games at all.
 
I will probably be picking it up when it launches here on Thursday and reviewing it by the end of this week.

It could go either way.

Dead Space is not, nor was it ever, survival horror. When the fuck did you play a Dead Space game that was survival horror? NEVER. Because it has never existed.

Extraction was pretty heavy on the atmosphere despite being a light gun game. Or maybe because of it. Anyway, atmosphere wise, it's easily the best Dead Space game.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
Dead Space is not, nor was it ever, survival horror. When the fuck did you play a Dead Space game that was survival horror? NEVER. Because it has never existed.

Dead Space is action horror, like Aliens (y'know, one of the highest-rated horror films of all time?).

Terror = that creeping feeling of dread when you think something's going to happen
Horror = that feeling you get when you experience the thing that was giving you terror

Horror movies (and, thus, games), are horror because of the reveal. That's why 28 Days Later is a horror movie. That's why Aliens is a horror movie. That's why Dead Space is a horror game.

If you want survival terror, then by all means, go for it. But stop whining about how an action horror game that was never survival terror still isn't.



Dead Space 2 is like if Dead Space 1 had significantly better mechanics but kinda sucked at the regenerator a bit and didn't have quite so many big bosses.
DS1 sure felt like survival horror on hard mode. But to be fair, I didn't plan my upgrades well.
 

mujun

Member
You cannot be serious. To some extent, some gaming sites are driven by hits, so you could probably argue that they are striving for getting the first review with the biggest amount of exposure and hits, but in no way are the many flaws and problems associated with the critically bankrupt reviewers caused by the readers. The general trend seen in the review field of the games industry is that the writers seem to prefer high-budget, sleek, polished experiences, even if these experiences have very few creative risks and/or innovations, or are incredibly homogeneous.

It is true that some of the readership might become angry if their fanboy/-girl opinions aren't validated by an almost arbitrary review score, but I don't see how that should in any way influence the reviewer. In any case, if they don't have to spine to formulate and state their own well-argued critical assessment of a product, then they shouldn't be reviewing games at all.

I am serious.

I'm not referring to the incestuous nature of the relationship between pubs and reviewers. I'm just referring to the validity of any game's given score, like the examples I gave.

I also think that the vast majority of the people working for big sites try to honestly give each game they review the score they think it deserves. They all claim to do that and I suppose it makes sense as they seem to take their integrity seriously (again there are numerous examples of people talking on podcasts about how their companies split marketing and writing teams so as to avoid looking like they are in the pubs pockets, etc).

The stuff you are referring to seems to be the nature of the business, I thought it was common knowledge that game "journalism" isn't really a thing because the sites that do reviews (big ones, anyway) are dependent on the pubs for info and because of that they consider themselves to be "enthusiast press".
 

AwShucks

Member
I simply do not understand people saying they liked DS1 but didn't play DS2 or that they liked both of them but aren't sure about buying DS3. Same team, same core theme, mostly same gameplay. Wtf people?
 

Massa

Member
I simply do not understand people saying they liked DS1 but didn't play DS2 or that they liked both of them but aren't sure about buying DS3. Same team, same core theme, mostly same gameplay. Wtf people?

You said it yourself... same, same, same.

I'll definitely still play Dead Space 3 when I find some time, but I'm not dying in anticipation or anything.
 
I can't wait to buy and play it tomorrow!!!! Game Informer is the best place for reviews, I ALWAYS agree with them. Just short of the "10" :( it would stand among game informer's elite reviewed "10" list... Still i know I'm going to love it. I'll have to re-subscribe while I'm down there as well.

:D
 

Instro

Member
I simply do not understand people saying they liked DS1 but didn't play DS2 or that they liked both of them but aren't sure about buying DS3. Same team, same core theme, mostly same gameplay. Wtf people?

Because the worst parts of DS2 are seemingly being expanded upon in DS3.
 

antitrop

Member
Jeez, is that ban worthy? I understand being upset at a game going in a different direction, but spreading false information like that to sway hype is pretty fucking low.
Now that we see a true 9.75 from GI it does make him look like a huge scumbag. If not banworthy, then at least tagworthy to carry around as a mark of shame.

Honestly, I never want to engage in conversation with a person that goes about business this way.
 
Now that we see a true 9.75 from GI it does make him look like a huge scumbag. If not banworthy, then at least tagworthy to carry around as a mark of shame.

Honestly, I never want to engage in conversation with a person that goes about business this way.

Trust me, I was just going off information I had and thought would be interesting to share.

My intention was not to shit on the game in any way, I'm buying this game tomorrow and have made many positive comments toward it.
 

spekkeh

Banned
So did any of the reviews so far even mention microtransactions, or have the sounds been conveniently muffled under the weight of the moneybags?
 
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