First off, this is going to be a picture-less review for two reasons which is really just one. The first reason is that I played Dead Space 3 through EA's gaming client Origin and unlike Steam, pressing F12 while in-game won't take a screenshot and even pressing the PrtScr button only comes back with a blacked out image. Then I found out while playing the Mirror's Edge: Catalyst beta through Origin, that, I believe, if the game is in windowed-mode, the PrtScr function will work fine. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to rely on my slick words. Because I know words, I know the best words.
So I actually played and finished Dead Space 3 and the Awakened DLC back in March, and since it's the last M month of the year, I figured that putting the post up now would be a good thing. So let's do this in chronological order.
I acquired the soundtrack to Dead Space 3 back in February and after listening to the first eight tracks, I began wondering why I hadn't played the game yet. Most of the criticism I had heard about DS3 revolved around how the game had gone from survival horror to a more action oriented type of game. Similar to the Resident Evil games after Resident Evil: Code Veronica. For me, Dead Space 2 was considerably more action oriented than the first Dead Space so I found it difficult to see how "more" action was to be added; I mean I could see how, but I just didn't understand the descent considering how different I felt DS2 was compared to DS1. Then there was the online co-op aspect of the game that I wasn't sure if you either had to play co-op in order to fully explore the game, and the issue with micro transactions and being able to spend real-world money to buy components to upgrade equipment without having/needing to find them in-game.
But what really made me give DS3 a serious consideration was that on the soundtrack, one of the songs was titled "Mountains of Madness" as in the story by H.P. Lovecraft. That title alone made me rethink of the ice world setting in DS3 and compared it to the story "At the Mountains of Madness" and I immediately had a new appreciation for both the game and the composers (Returning Dead Space composer Jason Graves, along with James Hannigan) with the Lovecraft reference that wasn't Cthulhu related. Anyway, with all of those preconception in mind, I decided that I would give DS3 a shot with all intentions of hoping to not be somewhat disappointed.
The game started off well enough, with some unnamed (was he, I've forgotten) guy in a RIG on a snowy planet traversing down a mountain after some code/initiative was declared. That short sequence lead into a 200 year jump (of which I thought that it looked like the RIGs and other forms of technology hadn't advanced at a rate that I felt was believable; relative considering the story) and so began playing as our favorite engineering technician Isaac Clarke.
True enough, Isaac's sequence began with an attempted apprehension of his person by Unitologist soldiers and felt. . . not very Dead Space-y. It was exciting, in a way, but felt more like another action game with a Dead Space skin. However! I feel that by this point in Isaac's life, he's gone through two necromorph outbreaks, so one would think that he had become quite adapt at being in combat situations when up against horrible vomitations from the bowels of some alien hell. It's like Ash in Army of Darkness, he's dealt with Deadites twice already and knows how to handle them, which is why Army of Darkness is no longer a horror movie, but an action-comedy.
The rest of the game is made up of a couple of sections. There's a semi-open-world/space area where you are able to explore a number of derelict ships in which ever order you choose, that are in orbit around the ice planet of Tau Volantis, which felt more like survival horror than the second game and these areas I really liked. There was at least one area that was not accessible to me because I was not playing co-op and while somewhat miffed at having an area of the game closed off to me because I didn't want to be online sociable, I got over it by chalking it up to being an area that could be completed in about 30 minutes (I actually don't know, but that's what I told myself).
One other major departure that I actually found myself liking, was that there was a group of people with Isaac for a number of scenes. These people being present lead me to believe that others were capable of surviving in these situations and not just Isaac, which to me was a nice addition. Sure Ellie Langford (from DS2) was present and a connection to Isaac's recent past, but the character of Sergeant John Carver (whom Player 2 plays in co-op), I actually became rather fond of. His interactions with Isaac were. . .endearing, for lack of a better term. When they were together, he would often voice his disbelief at what was going on around them and would sometimes act as the voice of the player, calling BS when things would get out of control. And since this is Dead Space, it was actually frustrating/sad when some of the NPCs of the group died through various circumstances. That those NPCs served a function in the story and weren't just cannon fodder (well, they kind of were I guess, but not in a way that was obviously obvious).
The majority of the time spent on Tau Volantis, I actually very much enjoyed. There was a variety of environments (even the sub-zero temperatures played a role in a couple of areas), new types of necromorphs that didn't seem too far out of left field, and story-wise, I often felt like I knew what the objectives were, unlike one of my issues with DS2; issue being I often didn't know what I was supposed to do, but just followed the hallway and elevator down to the next level.
Taking a cue from the increasing size of final bosses in the Dead Space games, the final altercation, the boss here was ridiculously massive. I won't give any additional spoilers away about the boss, but I will say that if there ever is a Dead Space 4, Isaac (or whomever takes the helm) will need to be piloting something the size of the Enterprise-D.
Now a brief statement about the Awakened DLC. It was amazing. If the entirety of DS3 had been what the short two hours DLC had been, it may have even rivaled the amazingness of the first Dead Space. Awakened also felt like it took some cues from Dead Space Mobile by integrating sanity-effects to a greater degree than either of the three main games (DS, DS2, DS3).
I admit that I was surprised by how much I liked Dead Space 3, and I know that I am very much in the minority by saying that I liked it better than Dead Space 2. I don't know if I will ever get around to playing the co-op portion of the game, and I'm a little sad at that, but I know that if I ever want to play, there's a pretty good population of people over at /r/DeadSpace that will probably take me up on a playthrough.
In the end, Dead Space 3 took me about 23 hours to complete (even with all of the dying I did, more frequently in areas of Tau Volantis, but nothing as volatile as the ADS in DS1; although the fights against the Snowbeast often left me depleted of health packs and willpower to continue playing). I would definitely say that I would recommend Dead Space 3 (even over Dead Space 2) and I highly (HIGHLY) recommend also getting the Awakened DLC. It's a great action game, a pretty decent survival horror and I did have a lot of fun surviving yet another necromorph outbreak (and then some).
-JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
P.S. I know that there is a lot about this game that I didn't cover, such as the crafting system, various story elements, lore elements, the use of Isaac's dementia (of which I am still irritated at that use of a "diagnosis," but I previously covered that) and the sometimes respawning of enemies in extra areas or in one case, an item that would respawn every time you closed a door.
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