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LTTP(?): Dead Space 3 - This isn't so bad...

L

Luminaire

Member
After knocking out DS1 and 2 last year, I decided I might as well finish off the trilogy. Now, I've been playing DS3 and am currently in Chapter 12
after going inside that big spooky dead centipede looking things.
. Not sure how far I am from the end (think it's 20 chapters?) but I have a few thoughts and questions so far. I know the game is considered frozen garbage to most people for losing its way in the survival horror genre, and I can see why people think that. However, I think I'm enjoying it for what it is so far. It has a lot of flaws and problems and some of the big story stuff has been spoiled for me. The planet is pretty intriguing to me, the inclusion of human enemies has made me realize just how god damn horrific my plasma cutter is, and the story is a bit of a mess overall, but it's been that way since the first one.

Familiar Horror
It doesn't feel as scary as DS1 or DS2, but I'm ok with that due to Isaac being familiar with the enemy, knowing how to handle them, having done all this before. When I see a necromorph, it's less fear and more "How fast can this new gun kill you?" rather than "How do I stop you trying to tear my face off?!". I've felt more confident against enemies, especially with the crafting system. I've also watched as my enemies fight my enemies...and for a few brief moments, I feel like I have an ally. I've had some scares here and there, but I've been more...unsettled and disturbed by some things. Especially
those giant frozen centipede spider things
and that
massive Lost Planet style monster that you fight like three times and runs away.
To the former, I really just stared and thought "I...don't think I want to be on this planet any more..."

Side Quests & Monster Closets
The sidequests started out great. The CMS Greely was so creepy and unsettling. I really enjoyed The Mid Tower too, it had so much...personality. The two I've done on the planet so far....not so much. They've just been monster closets. I've lost count of how many times I've touched a door only to get POWER MALFUNCTION and 20 enemies breaking in through vents. I did find myself groaning at another wave of enemies. But I do feel a little satisfied with the loot at the end...even if it cost me 150 rounds of ammo.

Carver
So I know co-op was touted for this game as some big selling point. I bought this used for $6 on PS3 and don't plan on spending $10 for their stupid online pass. However...I've noticed I'm missing out on side missions because I don't have a co-op partner. I'm also curious what the hell Carver is up to. I was told (back when the game came out) that the person controlling Carver often goes through different events than Isaac. Is there any way to play as Carver after I beat it? Or should I just try to watch some Lets Play of the co-op? I want to know what's going on over on his end. If I do need to watch an LP, any recommendations that aren't full of screaming 12 year olds?

So far I do have some pretty memorable moments/areas. The space segments have been great, the snow area is different and lonely, and the frozen bases seem eerie. Especially the basements. I find myself more intrigued by "what the hell happened here back then?" and "I hope Norton dies the worst death imaginable" and "What the hell did they do to you Ellie?". Perhaps my opinion may take a sharp dive into the center of the planet once I get to the end, but I think I like it so far. It's...different, I guess. Yes I know about the
moon
, but I haven't seen it yet. Perhaps my expectations were drastically lowered by peoples complaints. I could see how coming off the high of DS2 into DS3 might be a slap in the face with the move to more action. I'll try to beat it today if I can but I have no idea how long chapters are.
 
S

Springy

Member
Didn't EA drop the price of all their online passes to zero when they dropped the program? I can't even see an online pass - free or otherwise - on the PS Store when I just checked.

I enjoyed DS3 just fine, but I feel like there was a much greater game potentially there if they'd focused entirely on the fleet in orbit that constitutes the first third of the game.
 
I

IcyRhythms

Member
I just can't agree with anyone that thinks this is a solid entry. 1 and 2 are much better games. 2 is less survival horror, but the best game of the three IMO.
 
S

SkullHydra

Member
IcyRhythms said:
I just can't agree with anyone that thinks this is a solid entry. 1 and 2 are much better games. 2 is less survival horror, but the best game of the three IMO.
Click to expand...
2 is the Aliens to 1's Alien. Both are amazing in different ways.

3 is... Alien Resurrection or something.
 
A

AwShucks

Member
GlamFM said:
Good game solo and a great game in co op with a buddy. Waaaaaaay underrated.
Click to expand...

Agree. It wasn't as good as DS1 or DS2 but it was decent. The old abandoned ship was fantastic. The crazy co op stuff was great, where one person is seeing things that the other isn't. Sure I missed the old upgrade system and Elton John was annoying, but it was enjoyable overall.
 
I

IcyRhythms

Member
SkullHydra said:
2 is the Aliens to 1's Alien. Both are amazing in different ways.

3 is... Alien Resurrection or something.
Click to expand...

That's a good way to put it, yeah. lol

3 is definitely not Aliens 3. That movie caught a lot of shit too, but I think diehard fans appreciate it a lot more now. DS3 is Res or...one of those AVP movies or something.
 
L

Luminaire

Member
Springy said:
Didn't EA drop the price of all their online passes to zero when they dropped the program? I can't even see an online pass - free or otherwise - on the PS Store when I just checked.

I enjoyed DS3 just fine, but I feel like there was a much greater game potentially there if they'd focused entirely on the fleet in orbit that constitutes the first third of the game.
Click to expand...

Oh really? I had no idea. I'll have to look into this in that case.

IcyRhythms said:
I just can't agree with anyone that thinks this is a solid entry. 1 and 2 are much better games. 2 is less survival horror, but the best game of the three IMO.
Click to expand...

1 and 2 are far better games, but I don't think that makes this one a bad game on it's own.

AwShucks said:
Agree. It wasn't as good as DS1 or DS2 but it was decent. The old abandoned ship was fantastic. The crazy co op stuff was great, where one person is seeing things that the other isn't. Sure I missed the old upgrade system and Elton John was annoying, but it was enjoyable overall.
Click to expand...

He does look like Elton John....

....isn't Elton John a scientologist....?

Maybe I'm wrong but it feels like Unitology is an analog for Scientology.
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
A decent game. I never found the urge to re-play it but I had a lot of fun with it. I also played with about 3 or 4 different people online which definitely made the game more enjoyable. Always asking people "what did you see?" resulted in some pretty funny responses.


edit: The bad guy does look a lot like Elton John lol

IcyRhythms said:
3 is definitely not Aliens 3. That movie caught a lot of shit too, but I think diehard fans appreciate it a lot more now. DS3 is Res or...one of those AVP movies or something.
Click to expand...

Alien 3 is actually my favourite.
 
R

RoKKeR

Member
Never played it solo, only in co-op with a buddy. That could by why I look back on it more fondly than others might.
 
O

olag

Member
Disagree. There are many reasons why I hate the game, but what they did to Ellie Langford is reason enough for me to call the game abysmal.
 
Strangelove77

Strangelove77

Member
It's a REALLY good game, but not really a good Dead Space game. It discarded most of the horror and dread and while the writing in the other two wasn't the best thing ever, they really dropped the ball with DS3. Shoehorning co-op in there pretty much meant it wouldnt be scary or written well. That's just the drawback of co-op. That's why RE5 is also so much worse than RE4.

Everything is worse in 3 than the 2 previous games, but it still makes it leagues better than most games. Weapon crafting is fun and they did co-op the best as far as not fucking up single player too badly. Still would have been better without either of those things, but they did the best they could with it.
It's still an exceptional game to me.
 
C

chancellor

Member
When I got it on PS Plus a few years ago I thought it was pretty decent. Never played it since but I also remember wondering what the fuss was about. The only thing I did not like was the push for co-op but I still found it a worthy entry in the series.
 
E

E-flux

Member
Some of the co-op sidequests are pretty fun, the game is definitely the weakest of the 3. I really liked the beginning of the game where you could choose which ship to tackle first.
 
K

kurahador

Member
I hate how useless most of the old weapons are and how cutting off limbs mechanic doesn't really work most of the time.
You better off just using the assault riffle kind of weapon.

And most of the encounter just become tedious later on what's with all the samey approach to them.
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Worst of the 3 by a mile. So many things wrong with it, and it just wasn't scary.
Click to expand...

I never found any Dead Space game scary, mostly because you are a walking tank with an arsenal that rivals that of the Doom Guy.

The 1st game especially has amazing atmosphere but to be afraid I need to be in danger which you just aren't if you are a semi-competent gamer. Most enemies walk super slow and go down in a hit or two while you can take hits like nothing.

kurahador said:
I hate how useless most of the old weapons are and how cutting off limbs mechanic doesn't really work most of the time.
You better off just using the assault riffle kind of weapon.
Click to expand...

The pulse rifle in the 1st game is monstrously powerful. It was always good.
 
D

Dec

Member
This game is shiiiiit. Played it coop for like 5 hours so far and man it is awful. Controls like shit. Can't think of a single good thing to say about it.
 
B

Bergerac

Member
I'm currently replaying 3 at the moment, honestly I think the only thing that spoils it is the nightmare of finding decent guns amongst all of the blueprints. The first two games - along with RE4 etc - succeed so well on a weapons basis because you're given static weapons with character, that you upgrade. DS3's guns are all just thrown at you and you mix and match without knowing what the results will be.

For instance, the trip mine secondary function of the Line Gun in DS2 has the ability to disarm the mines you've set one by one, in most recent order. Whilst DS3 has the trip mine gun, the ability to disarm purposefully is gone. You can disarm mines but only by setting more, like there's a limit to how many you can have set at one time. Any you've fired and left are lost.

There's also the cliff climbing section which is annoying as fuck.

The game looks fantastic in 21:9 though.
 
B

boltz

Member
mcz117chief said:
I never found any Dead Space game scary, mostly because you are a walking tank with an arsenal that rivals that of the Doom Guy.

The 1st game especially has amazing atmosphere but to be afraid I need to be in danger which you just aren't if you are a semi-competent gamer. Most enemies walk super slow and go down in a hit or two while you can take hits like nothing.

The pulse rifle in the 1st game is monstrously powerful. It was always good.
Click to expand...

Were you playing DS1 on the hardest difficulty setting? I remember when I first played it, anything less than that made it too easy and took all the tension out of the atmosphere since ammo was more plentiful and enemies did less damage.

As for DS3, overall I enjoyed it but the game really dragged for me towards the end since it leaned on throwing waves of enemies at you.
 
B

billythemule

Member
I played this game with a friend of mine. I'm pretty sure we didn't finish it but we got at least 3/4 way through the game. I can't say it was a great game. We got it for free, I think because of the EA Games debacle surrounding Sim City. They gave everybody who bought Sim City the game for free. I suppose Dead Space 3 had a lot of fun abilities but the game was extremely repetitive and seeing everything explode around you gets old after a while. It was too over the top and crazy for my taste. I didn't care for the story at all either, in fact I don't remember a single thing about it.
 
JimmyRustler

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
The only thing I remember about this game is how bad it was. Especially the ending. Holy shit, what were they thinking?
 
M

Mike M

Nick N
Echoing the sentiment that it wasn't on par with 1 or 2, but wasn't a mechanically bad game in its own right. The sweet spot of vintage DS experience is after you get off Earth but before you go down to the ice planet where you're exploring the derelict flotilla.

Narratively, the game is a mess. There lore was a confusing mess, but instead of introducing some much needed clarity, it just made things worse.

I still love Dead Space and want DS4, though : (
 
T

The_Spaniard

Netmarble
While I enjoyed the game for what it was, and probably enjoyed it more for having played through the entire thing in co-op with my ex, I understand and agree with most of the hate that it gets. If this was the first game in the franchise it would have been looked back upon far more fondly, as it could have been judged by its own merits, and you could have seen the linear improvement of the series. As it stands, the game is a far, far, step back from the quality of the first two, and instead of improving on the series, introduced issues that the others never had.

I could spend all day talking about its issues, but I'll just go with the first one that jumps to mind, and that's the cut and paste level design. I know that most of it was in the side areas, but when you are playing through an area and you recognize, for the dozenth time, that you are in the exact same place, yet again, with just some minor changes of shuffled geometry/assets, that's crap. In a series that sells itself on, and is based upon building masterfully crafted atmosphere, this isn't a crime, it's a sin.
 
Malio

Malio

Member
While not as good as DS1 or DS2, I really enjoyed it. It got way too much hate. Most of the areas are solid and the gameplay is still there. That crafting crap though....
 
S

scitek

Member
It's awful because it's nothing but tedious enemy encounters. It's like they took the end of Dead Space 2, which was the worst part of that game, and just turned it into an entire game of its own. On top of that, the characters and struggle over Ellie were just the worst.

Strangelove77 said:
It's a REALLY good game, but not really a good Dead Space game
Click to expand...

Sorry, that doesn't work with this franchise, this is just a bad game.
 
G

geomon

Member
This was a pretty good game that a lot of people thumbed their noses at because of the micro transactions (which I've never used once) and the pointless love triangle storyline.
 
T

Tecl0n

Member
It's not bad, but you have to consider it is a sequel to Dead Space 2, you expect something better. The difference from Dead Space 2 to 3 is like falling into a chasm.
 
S

spindoctor

Member
The game was fine while it was still in space. It went to shit on the planet. Now that you're there, keep an eye on the level design. They will send you up and down the same paths over and over again. And there will be a million doors to go through for some reason. There are puzzle rooms that are 100% video game design with no realistic sense of place. The finale sequence is pure padding through and through. And then you'll reach the truly shit ending and you'll look back at the game wondering why they even made it.

There's a reason this game killed the franchise.
 
Lord Phol

Lord Phol

Member
Enjoyed this one as well, a bit different than the rest but still had great gameplay and some scares. Really liked the space station part and the The thing inspired planet wasn't too bad. Great trilogy of games.
 
D

Donniewahlberg

Banned
I definitely liked the game. Fantastic atmosphere and visual presentation, really puts you in the world. My main gripe was it felt like the ai was tuned to move and act at a speed often to try and push you to use the more assault rifle like weapons. As someone who did the plasma cutter rub on both 1 and 2, it felt like they really didn't want you to do that anymore. It's possible sure but whatever. Otherwise than that and the horrible twist, I actually think all three games are incredible. Great gameplay, locations, audio, storytelling and a few memorable likeable characters.
 
R

rtcn63

Member
For what they are, I like DS3 more than RE6. DS3 seems more like a successor to RE5, with the item farming and storage.

(I've played DS3 at the hardest difficulty a few times, singleplayer)
 
E

eshwaaz

Member
There are aspects I liked, but I hated how co-op compromised the solo experience. Even side quests that could be played solo had no save points because of co-op, and the narrative was ridiculous if playing alone. Carver appears out of nowhere during cutscenes, delivers exposition, walks just out of frame, then vanishes once you regain control. It's jarring and sloppy, and I resented its inclusion.
 
mcz117chief

mcz117chief

Member
boltz said:
Were you playing DS1 on the hardest difficulty setting? I remember when I first played it, anything less than that made it too easy and took all the tension out of the atmosphere since ammo was more plentiful and enemies did less damage.

As for DS3, overall I enjoyed it but the game really dragged for me towards the end since it leaned on throwing waves of enemies at you.
Click to expand...

This is not an argument. The game isn't designed around being played on the hardest difficulty. That is not the way the game is meant to be played, it is there for players who enjoy the game and want greater challenge. Still, I did finish the game on the hardest difficulty and it still wasn't that difficult.

FUNKNOWN iXi said:
First time I've seen someone say this. And people say opinions can't be wrong..
Click to expand...

I have met many people who also find the 3rd movie to be their favourite.
 
T

Tobe Tobusch

Member
Speaking of DS ONE, I would love a 1080p or even higher res version of dead space 1 on my pro.
I remember that sound design to be absolutely fantastic!
 
T

TheSpaceBetween

Member
It was a return to form after the somewhat, disappointing DS 2, but that more had to do with Dead Space just being so Goddamn incredible that it was very hard for them to live up to it. As always, Visceral is spot on with art direction and music/sound design here.
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
Felt like quantity over quality. Sort of like RE6 in a sense.

It's not horrible it's just bland, poorly paced, and limply designed.
 
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