Dead
Space is a series I’ve grown quite fond of in recent months, as I
finally got the chance to play through the first two games in their
entirety not long ago. What I love about those games is that they
understand survival horror; they realize that what makes a video game
scary is the sense of dread caused when your character feels
underpowered. In an era where gaming is constantly evolving to make
players feel more and more powerful, Dead Space brought us back to a
time when scavenging every dark corner and constantly counting and
recounting your bullets actually meant something. And I will always love
that. So, having played through Dead Space 3, can I honestly say that
it preserves that special horror sauce I crave? Well, the short answer
is not really.
Now, I played the first section of the game about a month ago, and there
were a couple things that irked me about it back then. If you want the
detailed report,
but the short version goes something like this: Dead Space 3 just isn’t
a horror game. It’s not scary. That sense of feeling underpowered is
gone, as Isaac Clarke has been transformed from a lowly engineer to an
all-out badass who mows down space marines as if they were mere
dandelions on his proverbial lawn.
Part
of this is that you’re given absurd amounts of ammo. I’m not joking
here: At one point, I had over 2,000 rounds in one of my guns. That
eliminates the scavenger element that was a hallmark of the first two
games. Here’s an example: Do you remember that scene in Dead Space 2 where you
were in a storage warehouse filled with crates and Stalkers (the
fast-moving, hidey, jumpy Necromorphs)? Because your ammo supply was so
low, that scene was terrifying. Dead Space 3 has a scene that replicates
that almost exactly, only this time you’ve got so much ammo that you’ve
been going around shooting cans and computer monitors willy-nilly, just
for the hell of it. Even though Dead Space 3’s version of this scenario
is almost exactly the same as Dead Space 2’s, 3’s isn’t the slightest
bit scary because you can run in and stasis the things, then blast them
away with your godly piles of bullets.
And
I should probably talk about microtransactions for a moment, because
Dead Space 3 has those. Here’s an example: You can spend five of your
hard-earned, real-world dollars on what’s essentially a personality core
for your scavenger drones. Yes, that’s five smackers to essentially
give your drones the ability to talk smack to you. How is that even a
thing?
Now, I know people are pointing out that micotransactions aren’t new to
the Dead Space series, but that doesn’t make them any more acceptable. I
mean, say someone broke into your house and stole your TV. Would you
find that person any less reprehensible if they tried to claim that you
shouldn’t feel bad about it because they had stolen your last TV two
years ago? Of course not. You’d probably tell that person to go to Hell.
Now, at this point, it’s starting to sound like I completely hated Dead
Space 3, and that’s not true at all. I actually found myself quite
impressed with a good deal of the game.
For example, there are optional side missions now. These play out as
non-essential objectives that send you exploring sections of the game
you’d otherwise ignore. And these are pretty massive. In fact, most of
the side missions are about as long as a full game chapter, which means
that if you try to tackle every side mission, you’re essentially adding a
half dozen or so hours to your game experience.
And this isn’t a short game, by any means. Those who complained that
Dead Space 2 was too short are going to be prancing around their living
rooms like unicorns of happiness, because Dead Space 3 is almost twice
as long. There’s just a ton of content here.
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