Jonathan Garcia / Staff Writer
“Dead Space 3” is a survival horror third-person shooter from developers Visceral Games and published by EA Games and is out for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. The “Dead Space” series defined the genre for survival horror, and after the fantastic “Dead Space 2,” EA and Visceral Games wonder how will they top the sequel.
When the game was announced at E3 and showed a preview of it featuring co-op mode, fans of the game wondered if the game would focus more on action and less on scares. However, Visceral Games assured players that the elements of the first two games were still there and that they did not want to “push any buttons.” The game is a good game, but it does have things that hold it back from being better than its predecessor.
Two months after the previous game, engineer Isaac Clarke has lived in secrecy on a lunar colony, but is shortly interrupted by Sergeant John Carver and Captain Robert Norton break in and tell Clarke that his ex, Ellie Langford, and her team has gone missing.
While escaping, they are attacked by a group of Unitologists led by Jacob Danik who activates a Marker and causes a Necromorph outbreak and they flee the scene. After escaping, Norton manages to trace Ellie’s transmission to near the planet Tau Volantis and there Isaac discovers that it is the Marker home world. Isaac and the team must survive and take out the source of the Markers and end the Necromorph scourge once and for all.
The game feels like the franchise has taken a turn where there is more action than scares. Although there are some scares, but there are not enough scares as in the previous games. It feels like the series is going in the same direction as the “Resident Evil” games have gone, more run-and-gun than survival horror.
The game does offer some unique features in which you can upgrade your suits and weapons like the previous games but they added a new feature on the work bench in the game where players can you upgrade their weapons by collecting circuits and can also collect certain resources and weapon parts to create their own weapon, make health power ups, and ammo. The game changes the ammo so that instead of collecting ammo for certain weapons, the ammo you collect is for both weapons players have equipped.
In addition to the single-player campaign, another feature in the game is an online co-op campaign where players take control of Carver. When playing the game in co-op, players notice certain scenes differ from the single-player campaign and challenges players to beat the game on co-op.
The story of the game is confusing at times, making it seem like certain sections of the game overstay their welcome. Because the game is published by EA, players must have an online pass to play co-op so gamers must purchase the copy of the game new. I they purchase a used copy, they must go on the PSN Store or the Xbox Live Marketplace to purchase a pass. This business tactic seems shady and makes gamers wonder why this practice seems necessary.
In the end, “Dead Space 3” is a good game that has focused more on action than scares, but there is some fun to be had with this game and it is worth purchasing for the co-op mode.