Dead Space 3

Utnayan_sl said:

Edit: As an aside, I never played Dead Space 2 through to completion. I just hit Chapter 13 last night and am having a blast with the atmosphere. I have heard good and bad about the atmosphere in 3. What's the verdict?

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Its bad. Necromorphs popping out of the snow are the most 'creative' scares they have going for them. There's no real scenery that makes me think we're either in a sci fi or a horror genre once you get to the planet. I'm beginning to think they chose a snow planet so they could do the bare minimum of work on the scenery required to get the game out as quickly as possible. Atmospherically there's nothing that will creep you out like the Dead Space 1 or Dead Space 2 areas.

If you want a subpar action game with coop, then this game is for you. If I'm considering calling Resident Evil 5 a better co-op game than this one, then you know this game is pretty terrible. But I'd still rather see Chris punch a boulder all day than watch Isaac Clarke degenerate into what he did in this game. He was like the new era Gordon Freeman for a sci-fi horror genre. And even giving him a voice in the sequel didn't really take away from that. The third game though is like a punch to the testicles for those who loved his character.

Foggy_sl said:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...deo-games-meet

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Homeboy bought 35$ worth of health packs through the cash store, thus I cannot really bother to read anything written by him ever again, much less take it seriously =\

Ronne_sl said:

Homeboy bought 35$ worth of health packs through the cash store, thus I cannot really bother to read anything written by him ever again, much less take it seriously =\

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I'm not sure why. Even on the hardest difficulty those things drop like motherfucking rain. You literally can't run out.

And here I thought that dude's "review" of Witcher 2 was as retarded as it gets.

So I need a consensus, is coop worth installing the aids (Origin) and buying the game? Otherwise I'm just gonna yarrrrrr through it.

Ronne_sl said:

So I need a consensus, is coop worth installing the aids (Origin) and buying the game? Otherwise I'm just gonna yarrrrrr through it.

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No, this game is absolutely not worth installing Origin for.

Nope. And EA's servers are even worse on Origin for Co-Op than any Steam game ever. I swear to God me and my partner disconnected from EA's servers about 6 times the other night. Given that their checkpoint system is awful we had to redo about 4 seperate side missions and half a chapter multiple times.

I made it to the snow planet. I got stuck inside of the buildings between a pole and a workbench. I turned the game off and don't plan on playing it again.

I don't know what the fuck I played, but it sure as shit wasn't Deadspace.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...1-Dead-Space-3

And Yahtzee nails it.

This game isn't that different from Dead Space 2 except that they introduced a bunch of annoying EA DLC faggotry and mini games. People overrate the frozen planet gimmick. Yes, there are encounters with human enemies. Yes, they are terrible. But they are a small segment of the game. The bulk of this game is still spent crawling through dimly lit corridors with necromorphs popping out of vents and ceilings. The people saying it's become a standard action game are talking in hyperbole / playing co-op. What creates the Dead Space feeling of anxiety is a combination of clunky maneuverability, claustrophobia, 'dead time' between encounters, limited resources, effective monster design, and solid audio design. Dead Space 3 has all this so long as you play on a difficulty level suited for you and don't candy yourself up in DLCs.

The main problem I see is that this is the third game. The sheen of newness has fallen off. You're used to the environment and the atmosphere of the Dead Space games. You know what happens when markers are activated. You know how necromorphs are made and how they move. You know where things are going when unitologists show up. The insanity and the madness no longer faze you. Reading the text logs and people's diaries gives you a 'yet another marker breakout, I know where this is going' feeling. Heck, I think the devs are aware of this, because Isaac acts the same way - the old 'wtf is happening omg omg' Isaac is gone; the new Isaac is confident, assertive, and acts the way a veteran of necromorph killing ought to. Yeah, the love drama is pretty bad, but Dead Space was never all that great for drama and hey, Isaac stuck to his character of being a sucker for women.

Of course, none of this detracts from the criticism. It IS the third game - and every dev knows that you don't want to milk the same cow for too long. But this is EA, whose standard practice is to milk a game till it's a pile of dust. There's nothing to do here except to shake it up, but shaking it up requires that the existing formula stop working, which requires people to stop clamoring for a return to Dead Space 1+2 and to stop purchasing EA sequels. The question is, are you doing that?

EtadanikM_sl said:

This game isn't that different from Dead Space 2 except that they introduced a bunch of annoying EA DLC faggotry and mini games. People overrate the frozen planet gimmick. Yes, there are encounters with human enemies. Yes, they are terrible. But they are a small segment of the game. The bulk of this game is still spent crawling through dimly lit corridors with necromorphs popping out of vents and ceilings. The people saying it's become a standard action game are talking in hyperbole / playing co-op. What creates the Dead Space feeling of anxiety is a combination of clunky maneuverability, claustrophobia, 'dead time' between encounters, limited resources, effective monster design, and solid audio design. Dead Space 3 has all this so long as you play on a difficulty level suited for you and don't candy yourself up in DLCs.

The main problem I see is that this is the third game. The sheen of newness has fallen off. You're used to the environment and the atmosphere of the Dead Space games. You know what happens when markers are activated. You know how necromorphs are made and how they move. You know where things are going when unitologists show up. The insanity and the madness no longer faze you. Reading the text logs and people's diaries gives you a 'yet another marker breakout, I know where this is going' feeling. Heck, I think the devs are aware of this, because Isaac acts the same way - the old 'wtf is happening omg omg' Isaac is gone; the new Isaac is confident, assertive, and acts the way a veteran of necromorph killing ought to. Yeah, the love drama is pretty bad, but Dead Space was never all that great for drama and hey, Isaac stuck to his character of being a sucker for women.

Of course, none of this detracts from the criticism. It IS the third game - and every dev knows that you don't want to milk the same cow for too long. But this is EA, whose standard practice is to milk a game till it's a pile of dust. There's nothing to do here except to shake it up, but shaking it up requires that the existing formula stop working, which requires people to stop clamoring for a return to Dead Space 1+2 and to stop purchasing EA sequels. The question is, are you doing that?

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Oh and Sean, negging everyone who 'defends' Dead Space 3 because you hated the game is petty and shows how close minded you are. This despite you yourself saying you had 'mixed feelings' about the game is lulz worthy.

Tramddark_sl said:

There's no real scenery that makes me think we're either in a sci fi or a horror genre once you get to the planet. I'm beginning to think they chose a snow planet so they could do the bare minimum of work on the scenery required to get the game out as quickly as possible.

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It's obvious what they were going for:



It's not obvious what being set in a snow planet has to do with the game lacking atmosphere, because blizzard, fog, and mist all serve the same function in horror: to limit visibility and thereby create the equivalent of 'white darkness.'

Besides which, Dead Space 3 has you crawling in tunnels the bulk of the time even when you get to the planet.

Silly arguments of this sort is why bandwagoning nerds are just as bad as paid off reviewers when it comes to being terrible at reviewing games.

I hear your opinion, and that is great if the 3rd game hit on all the same marks for you that the first two did... but for me, it was a big swing and a miss.

From the start, the game never had a sense of dread, uneasiness, or fear about what might be lurking behind the next corner. The game was much more "action, bam, pow, zap!!!" and less about building the environments, mystery, and horror. I thought they made a bad decision when they gave Isaac a voice in Deadspace two. Isaac's hopelessness and loss just did have the same impact and the game felt less personal. In 3, they expanded his personality, social circle, and story arc all to the games detriment. Sometimes, the less you know, the better.

It felt like different studios made the games. Different visions, different talents, and that the game was made for different audiences. The 3rd iteration just felt nothing like the 1st, which was a disappointment.

EtadanikM_sl said:

It's obvious what they were going for:

It's not obvious what being set in a snow planet has to do with the game lacking atmosphere, because blizzard, fog, and mist all serve the same function in horror: to limit visibility and thereby create the equivalent of 'white darkness.'

Besides which, Dead Space 3 has you crawling in tunnels the bulk of the time even when you get to the planet.

Silly arguments of this sort is why bandwagoning nerds are just as bad as paid off reviewers when it comes to being terrible at reviewing games.

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Which would be great....if the survival horror aspect and monsters actually backed up and added to the atmosphere.

It did not. There are no areas on the planet which evoke the same sort of horror that many areas of the Ishimura did. If you can name a single area on the planet which made you even uneasy, then I'd be suprised.

Its not just nostalgia talking which made me feel otherwise. Run through Dead Space 1 again, and there are many parts of it which still make me at the very least, feel uneasy. There are still areas which make me jump. And there are scenes which still chill me, like the above mentioned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star area. I don't feel that way ever in Dead Space 3. I just don't. Even the 'Oogie Boogie' jump out and get you scares just aren't there in 3. And I'm suprised people are telling me they feel otherwise.

like colonial marines,don't fucking understand why you have to fight mercs.are trying to appeal to COD fans or what?

Tramddark_sl said:

Which would be great....if the survival horror aspect and monsters actually backed up and added to the atmosphere.

It did not. There are no areas on the planet which evoke the same sort of horror that many areas of the Ishimura did. If you can name a single area on the planet which made you even uneasy, then I'd be suprised.

Its not just nostalgia talking which made me feel otherwise. Run through Dead Space 1 again, and there are many parts of it which still make me at the very least, feel uneasy. There are still areas which make me jump. And there are scenes which still chill me, like the above mentioned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star area. I don't feel that way ever in Dead Space 3. I just don't. Even the 'Oogie Boogie' jump out and get you scares just aren't there in 3. And I'm suprised people are telling me they feel otherwise.

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Survival horror games that attempt to maintain a coherent world and storyline through their sequels always end up degenerating in their horror elements. From Resident Evil, to F.E.A.R., to Dead Space, there is not a single series that managed to avoid this fate. Sequels, less direct sequels, do not fare very well in this genre the way it does in feature positive genres such as RTSs and RPGs.

Familiarity breeds security: the better you know, the less uneasy you become. The Ishimura worked because you had no clue about the Dead Space universe and everything from necromorphs to markers to the combat system and encounter style was new. Fear of the unknown is a basic human instinct which pays ample dividends for first time horror developers. But that same instinct dooms their franchises to an ignominious end as they try to repeat their success in sequels. The same logic that applies to horror directors applies to horror developers: tricks that induce horror the first time around become gimmicky and lame to their desensitized audiences after just a few repetitions.

Dead Space 3 is no different in this regard. Haunted space ships and necromorphs jumping out of vents no longer scare you, I get it. Secret societies and marker conspiracies no longer intrigue you, I get it. What I don't get is why you continue to buy Dead Space games thinking it's going to be different from the dozens of other survival horror franchises that went down the same direction. You want to make a statement about EA's sequel-itis, make it by not purchasing further sequels in this genre because that's the only way to do it.

As for the comment about nostalgia, this is not about nostalgia. This is about a very simple piece of logic, which you experience again and again in the process of playing a Dead Space game:

Go into a new area. Get jumped by necromorphs and die. Reload. Go into the same area. Get jumped by the same necromorphs. Do they still induce the same terror in you?

No, they don't, and that's why this whole business about Dead Space 3 not being 'as scary as Dead Space 1' is inane. You've fought gnarly necromorphs and crawled dimly lit space ships a hundred times now. Why do you still think they ought to be as terrifying as when you did it the first time?

I don't enjoy the Dead Space franchise becoming action horror, but it bugs me when people don't understand why this is happening and brush it off as a lack of 'atmosphere' which, together with 'immersion' and 'fun,' has a cozy place in weasel word hell. But no, Visceral didn't betray you. The bulk of Dead Space 3 is 'moar of the same,' but 'moar of the same' just doesn't cut it when it comes to reproducing the primal horror of a first time experience.