Dead Space 3 is the conclusion of the series, now defunct due to the closing of the studio after the game's release because it didn't hit sales targets.. damn, it was that bad?! Nah, EA is just expected insane sales. But how is the game itself???

I have only recently gotten fully into the Dead Space series as of last year (see my 2 reviews of Dead Space 1 and 2) however things I always read about the series was how it took a SHARP dive off a cliff in the third entry, so that's what I was expecting walking in and... it was pretty good? I think I say this mostly because I knew to keep my expectations low but the things that people say sucked in this game DO suck - but frankly aren't present that much.

So yes, there are human enemies now! This isn't quite so weird as the ENTIRE franchise we've known that there is a human faction out there (the religious nuts) who are going to be opposed to us and while they've never been involved in gameplay segments they have attacked us in cutscenes I believe in both games? Certainly in the second game they were a major antagonist.. However they're not in the game very often until near the end and I didn't find them annoying to fight. By that point the horror and tension are already cut pretty thoroughly so I don't think it damages the game in that sense. In general there's much more of a bent towards action over horror even over the second game which is pretty unfortunate, and I do think the new enemy types feed into that. There are some new gameplay sections that are kinda boring and overused - the winches on the ice planet aren't terribly original or fun and just as you're about getting "done" with them they stop.... until the last bit of the game when they come back with a vengeance! And then they get pretty tiresome.

Speaking of disappointments though - wow the story is pretty garbage in this one. The game of course dumps us right into the action of Issac still being a hot mess and being sad that Ellie left him (...were they together at the end of DS2? Was I supposed to assume that just because they were a man and a woman who talked to each other in a video game?). Isaac also is much more of a disaster as a person and spends the entire game being a shit to everyone but has a nice moment at the end with Ellie showing his 'growth' over the series but it frankly comes pretty fast.. The antagonist is done by the inestimable Simon Templeman who can DO NO WRONG but man he is given shit in this game to work with. He's the boiler-plate crazy religious fanatic who always gets away and ALWAYS monologues at our heroes rather than just fucking shooting them (3 times in this game I believe) and his motivations could have had some weight to them if the writers worked a bit harder but they fucked up and he's just a weird crazy person with a cool voice. There's a very interesting point he raises near the end of the game - since the markers were found Earth and we know that markers drive psychological and physical growth... isn't it very possible that humanity was made what it was by the marker?? This would be a great point to follow up on - too bad it isn't!! Oh, and literally the worst part of this game - there is a love triangle with Ellie's new boyfriend that dominates the story in the first two thirds of the game??? And sweet jesus it is fucking terrible. Ellie's new boyfriend is a captain in the Earth navy trying to 'save' Isaac and acts like a petulant child in EVERY interaction with him because he's threatened by Isaac and Ellie's former relationship? Why the fuck do we or they care about this right now? The galaxy and entire human race are facing extinction how does the game expect us to be interested in this???? EVERY time this is brought up (half the scenes in the first section of the game) I groaned audibly at how bad it was.

So the good stuff: gameplay is pretty much a clone of Dead Space 2 and is still great to play. There's an added mechanic of building our own weapons now and splitting the resources into more generic categories rather than items directly which lets you customize your loadouts a great deal which I thought was pretty cool - my shotgun rocket launcher with stasis bullets helped carry me through the second half of the game NGL. This also is another of the changes that reduces the "survival" bits to this survival horror series but frankly the second game was generous as hell with its resources too so I'm not sure this minor step in continuing it really ruins anything. What this game also does still extremely well is setting a proper mood - at least for the first two Acts of the game. Act 1 isn't even on the planet in all of the marketing - there's a bit on a colony Isaac is hiding out on that kicks off the plot proper and shows off human enemies (boring!) but very soon we get to space and IT. IS. GREAT. You're in orbit around the planet which you'll head down to for Act 2 + 3 and there's a wreckage of a whole fleet out here - and you need to visit various ships to get them working so you can get down to your objective on the planet. There's lots of Zero G sections here which I LOVE (that 100% have the Alien theme) as you're floating around in near silence occassionally popping some enemies and just feeling a great mood of loneliness but also dash of wonder and it is just great. You're also trudging through busted up old star ships and isn't that really where Dead Space does its best work? Act 2 you're on the frozen planet which is proper spooky and the white of snow contrasts very nicely with all the horror around it and it makes liberal use of whiteouts that abruptly end to show you some fuckin cool vistas.

Unfortunately, Act 2 is where the game kinda stumbles and keeps stumbling. The outdoor planet sections drag on for too long and the bad story bits are concentrated here pretty strongly. There's a whole gaggle of side characters who come along with Isaac and Ellie but other than Carver and Capt. Who-Gives-A-Shit they have basically no characterization and when they DO die it is almost always pretty abrupt and I have to ask if we're supposed to care at all? And then Act 3 has a neat science lab which unfortunately ALSO outstays its welcome by a half but then we go to a sweet underground Alien city (oh hi at the mountains of madness!) which is a solid ending bit but the parts before it draaaaaaaag.

Okay last bit - CARVER. This game is designed with a co-op campaign and I see very clearly that was their intent - and BOY did they fuck up the single player campaign. Carver is basically NOT in the game except for some cutscenes - he just walks off screen as the scenes end and PRESUMABLY he's somewhere out there helping out buts its just like a weird ghost character? Also in the last Act he shows up WAY more often and I'm really curious if I would like him a lot more if he was actually.. ya know... there? I was half expecting him to be a hallucination of Isaac's honestly!

Overall I am glad that my expectations for this game were set QUITE low - I do think it is ultimately a pretty good game, the gameplay is solid (until the bullet-sponge enemies attack you from every angle at the last couple hours...) and the changes to resource management gives an interesting change to the core loop. The atmosphere is really well done for most of the game and is exceptional for small but significant parts of it. The story and characters are... a hot mess I guess, but the ending itself is solid and fine horror trilogy send off for our boy - Isaac Clarke.