This is an interesting criticism because the back half comes across like you weren't "playing the game correctly". You are supposed to just release the scavenger bots and then keep playing, not stand around waiting for them. Rarely did I get to the next bench before the bots would return with resources,
I'm not sure how I implied I didn't understand this--but yes, that's what I did. When I said "wait a while", I basically meant "wait for the next bench or so". I don't feel like the scavenger bots added anything versus just picking up piles of garbage off every enemy corpse. There's no depth to the mechanic. Instead of finding a box of stuff or stuff off enemies, you find a ping point, drop a robot, and then a few minutes later have a bunch of stuff. It's all so superfluous. Constant stimulus to do something, but you're not really doing anything. Ooh, a ping, drop a robot. Ohh, a crate, stomp it. Ooh, a corpse, pick up yo stuff. Churn, churn, churn.
and not being able to obtain "90%" of the weapons until the midpoint is basically Survival Horror 101. At no point did I find the resource/crafting to be like an Ubisoft bar-filler (and I have a somewhat low opinion of that criticism given that bars are little more than pulling the curtain back from the spreadsheet simulator so many "old-school" games adhered to), and by the time I got to the ice planet I had the resources necessary to craft whatever new weapon blueprint I found.
I'm able to craft most of the new blueprints I find, but I'm not able to craft the 12-18 or so Dev Team Favourite blueprints that have been available since the beginning of the game. I do find the crafting to be pretty crummy because the game has universal ammo (so there's no reason to alternate from whichever weapon is working best for you), strategic dismemberment is significantly nerfed in all game contexts except the stupid repeating boss fight, so basically there's not much incentive to go through the game doing anything but having one gun that does a lot of shootbang damage. And again, there's four or five mechanics that all do the same thing: you can craft guns from blueprints, using resources. You can make guns from parts. You can add or remove from a guns stat using the components. At least at normal diffficulty, crafting items other than Tungsten bars (which are basically just an artificial way to deplete tungsten supplies once a chapter before Tau Volentis) is unnecessary because your inventory is constantly full.
I basically feel like Kinesis is weaker, Stasis is weaker, dismemberment is weaker, suit upgrades are less significant. The whole game to me boils down to shoot the dudes. Very very narrow and shallow.
I've been doing the side missions, but to what end? A few more text and audio logs suggesting that people are crazy, a few more rooms with enemies jumping out of grates, a few more upgrade widgets that I don't need.
My accusation that the crafting was built around the DLC is based on the fact that most of the DLC is literally just bar-filling for the crafting; either more powerful or numerous scavenger bots or resource components. So when you combine a very negative reaction to how the mechanic is built and a cash grab built around the mechanic, I dunno, the connection seems reasonable to me.
RE: Bar-filling, it's like accusing an RPG quest of being a fetch quest. Almost all game design is a "fetch quest", it's a matter of whether or not the content successfully maintains the illusion that there's gameplay or narrative accomplishment in doing it. Dead Space 3 feels like bar filling because none of the mechanics, IMHO, are actually leading to a different combat experience. There are other games that probably do basically the same thing but do it successfully for me... including, say, older JRPGs where you're literally just moving from Fire to Bigger Fire. I'm not sure I can identify what the distinction is except feeling. I don't think the game's audiovisual presentation or combat balance encourages experimentation. I'm playing Hitman Absolution at the same time as playing this and Absolution also has unlockable stat boosts at the end of every mission, and they feel equally unnecessary--wow, 3% increased walking speed, it's a whole new gameplay experience. :/
