Why Dead Space 3 is My Most Disappointing Game of E3 2012

When the Dead Space launched on October 13^th 2008, it impressed a lot of people, because for once survival horror was coming back in a good way. It’s what Resident Evil 5 should have been which was released a few months later on March 13^th 2009. Dead Space had a lot of influence at the time for creating its horror, the biggest one being the film Alien and this shows with the tight corridors with the flashing lights, the build of tension and scares. It was my favourite game of 2008 and I believed that this franchise could be the next big IP in the survival horror genre.

Then along came Dead Space 2 on January 25^th 2011, which saw some big improvements to both the graphics and the gameplay and although it may have had some action moments, it still provided scares and was a worthy successor. Think of it as the Aliens to Alien, providing more thrills than scares. EA at this point was obviously looking at the sales of Resident Evil 5 and as of March 31^st 2012 it has sold over 5.8 million copies worldwide (more than the first two Dead Space games put together).  It was rumoured for a long time before E3 2012 that Dead Space 3 was going to happen, this got me very excited… until co-op was mentioned.

Let me explain why I feared the mention of co-op in a Dead Space game. Back in 2005 when Resident Evil 4 was out, I was hugely excited by the prospect of it, the gorgeous graphics, the intense shooting and the contextual actions. I can’t remember how many times I watched the beginning village fight over and over again until I bought the game on the Nintendo GameCube. I loved the game and everything about it was exciting at the time, it’s one of the best third person shooters out there. Shortly after Resident Evil 5 was announced and it looked incredible and of course I was excited to get my hands on it, co-op was going to be in it but at the time I was not worried as I still thought it would provide the scares and thrills from the 4^th one. I was so very wrong though, the whole co-op experience ruined the game and ended up just being a mindless shooting gallery, no excitement and more importantly no scares. It might have been a good laugh with a friend, but it should also be the same with an AI partner and it wasn’t.

At this year’s E3 Dead Space 3 was officially announced and yes co-op was there too and yet again it looks like it will ruin the single player campaign. The two players enter a drill room where enemies ambush them and we see the two protagonists mindlessly kill them. It’s not just the co-op feature that makes the game look unimpressive, the engine is dated so the game is looking dated and some environmental textures, mainly the snow just looked terrible. It looks as though the weapons have multiple firing modes too, which surly means that ammo won’t be as scarce as it once was in the first two games. The only point in the demo that gives me some hope, is whereby Isaac is separated from his partner. Even at this point it didn’t seem scary and by the looks of it, the whole confrontation could be ended with just a few shots from your trusty plasma cutter.Not only that it seems as though the series has lost it’s magic from the first one, it doesn’t seem to excite me seeing Isaac Clarke dismembering foes like it once did. Let’s hope Visceral Games can change my views on Dead Space 3 when it hits shelves February 2013.

Below is the E3 demo, which you can watch on Gametrailers YouTube channel:

 

Let us know your thoughts on Dead Space 3 in the comments below.