Wow...I don't think I've had this many mixed feelings about a game in a long while. I stated previously that I thought Dead Space 1 and 2 were really fun games but they weren't really scary at all, and with 2 leaning ever so slightly into more action-y set pieces, I was curious as to what a primarily action focused Dead Space would be like and...I kind of regret my statement.

To be fair there is still some amount of horror present here, but it's toned down drastically almost entirely thanks to EA's meddling because according to them, a horror game wasn't "marketable" enough and it needed to appeal to a "broader audience". Environments in the first 1/3rd of the game are remarkably bland compared to 2 and even 1. There's now a cover based fire system that feels so remarkably shoehorned in as an attempt to mimic other shooters at the time. Isaac also has this new combat roll you get by double tapping run but it's so miniscule in effectiveness that it's practically worthless. Enemies are either human soldiers that just kind of fire and toss grenades at you from behind cover, or are necromorphs that just kind of show up with loud obnoxious orchestra music blaring as they charge straight at you like a bull. The limb based combat system that was super satisfying in the previous games is now way less effective here. The game says shooting limbs deals more damage, but honestly I could barely tell a difference because the enemies in this game are giant bullet sponges, so the unique and engaging combat system of the previous games is now drastically worse and made way more boring. And I know EXACTLY why this is the case, so let's get to that shall we?

Introduced in Dead Space 3 is the crafting system, where you scavenge for supplies to build your own overpowered superweapon. A part of me likes the idea of combining a shotgun with a ripper blade and making both have acid or fire properties to them, but here's the issue: not only does this completely unbalance the game but the game absolutely drip feeds materials to craft more powerful weapons. I loved the feeling of constantly unlocking and trying out new weapons in 2 but here I got to play with maybe 4 weapons at a time and mess around with their customization, a vast majority of other weapons were simply unattainable. I don't know if you get more resources when playing coop but I had literally nobody to play with for my playthrough so I couldn't do that if I wanted. You get 3 scavenger bots that look for more resources for you but it's still an absolute drip feed, tungsten in particular is ridiculously hard to come by, and the reason this is the way it is has everything to do with EA shoveling microtransactions into this game. "Here's just an OPTION for you to SKIP THE GRIND", they seem to retort instead of actually developing a potentially engaging crafting system worth delving into. You also need materials to craft things like items, including a new torque thing that allows you to enter what was previously the power node rooms to get additional items, handles and materials. Also because every gun uses the same type of ammo I never even came close to running out, alongside my 10+ healing items I had stockpiled in case a necromorph so much as sneezed on me.

The bosses in this game are absolutely atrocious. You fight the exact same giant spider necromorph like 3 times, each more frustrating than the last, and the final boss in an absolute joke compared to all the other bosses you've taken on previously. Sprinkled throughout the stages are actually a numerous amount of puzzles and to be honest? These aren't half bad at all. I especially liked the circular circuit puzzles where you had to rotate and match certain ends of the circles to match with others to build a continuous circuit. You also perform a handful of chapter related gimmicks, like climbing up walls and using stasis to slow rocks falling towards you and...yeah these are terrible lol. The game makes it LOOK like you're supposed to jump to another part of the wall but Isaac never fully goes over there when you do, you need to just walk towards the gap and he'll jump automatically. I don't really get it. On top of all of these, you also get to participate in optional missions but sweet mercy, no thank you. I tried one and it was horrible, just dozens upon dozens of enemies that kept spawning over and over again as you traveled through bleak rooms over and over again. These in particular really felt like they were designed with co op in mind, and while I do think co op could influence my enjoyment of this game, again, I don't have anyone to play with lol.

Lastly I need to talk about the story because geez is it absolutely stupid. If I could make a strange Sonic comparison real quick, this very much feels like a Pontac and Graff situation, writers who just watched the previous source material on a surface level but didn't really understand why people liked it or why it worked. In Dead Space 3, the unitologists, previously seen as this delusional space religion cult mostly responsible for numerous necromorph outbreaks, have now been turned into this huge militaristic armada that took over Earth Gov...er, ok. They also now have a hilarious James Bond villain-esc leader who constantly hunts Isaac down because he kills markers a bunch. Meanwhile Isaac is dragged into an adventure with a jock and a complete a-hole who constantly gives Isaac trouble for the mere crime of existing. There's this mopey stupid romantic love triangle subplot over Isaac, his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend who is the aforementioned a-hole. I don't know how they did it, but they somehow managed to get me to hate every character in this story, like genuinely nobody is likable, it's crazy. The dialogue is also worse compared to the other games, I think my favorite (ironic) interaction was near the end of the game where Isaac told the main Unitology head honcho he was gonna turn on this machine to save the universe and the head honcho literally up and told him "WELL STOP IT!"

Dead Space 3 isn't a bad game, but it also isn't good either. It's just...bleh. Quite a shame Visceral had to die for this due to EA's constant meddling with everything.