Well, guess what? The latest slice of Dead Space 3 looks a whole lot more like the previous two games when you get hands on. Out with the snow, in with the dimly lit space station corridors. I’m not anti-snow, anti-co-op or even anti-cover shooter – it’s just that seeing all those new elements revealed at once in Isaac Clarke’s latest adventure was like discovering Black Ops 2 will be a text adventure set in NATO conference rooms.
Aboard the station little touches that made the previous games such delights – and were absent in the snowy Tau Volantis show – come flooding back. Like being able to flip your targeting reticule so that my projectiles come out either vertically or horizontally, depending on the angle of the enemy’s appendages. While those enemies stagger towards you at just the right speed: rapid enough to make you feel panicked and prone to mistakes, slow enough to be able to pick an arm, leg or tendril and sever it.
The cues come from their silhouettes and movements – they present easy dismemberment opportunities as they did in the scary old days, while rarely patronising you with glowing orange areas (a technique that the Tau Volantis section leaned heavily on).
There’s plenty of opportunity to make use of your telekinesis and cryo abilities now, too, as the area I’m exploring has had the power locked down – and to open doors I need to manually prize them apart using telekinesis. In previous games it was sometimes easy to forget you had those powers at all for hours at a time as you focused on improving weaponry and managing ammo. It was only when an enormous zero-G puzzle presented itself and required nifty use of one or both to solve it that they returned to your consciousness.
I haven’t laid eyes on that gigantic puzzle staple yet, but I get the impression that this level isn’t designed to blow us away with incredible set-pieces every four seconds – it’s just an example of the typical minute-by-minute experience to reassure everyone that the series hasn’t taken an irredeemable Dudes Of War: Bro Planet direction. And it demonstrates that pretty effectively.
"Don't shine that torch in my face mate, I've just lost a pint of blood."
I do stumble on a room-sized puzzle at the end, but gravity’s very much intact. In the centre of the room, a generator’s going haywire, spewing force lightning all over the shop. Getting past it is a matter of ripping off its door and disabling the circuitry inside with a couple of telekinetic flicks. Simple stuff, but the tangibility of the solution feels satisfying like popping space-bubblewrap (because zero-G can ruin a chaise lounge).
The devs at Visceral always maintained that sections like this existed, but until anyone outside the project sees it with their own eyes it’s just their word against your nagging suspicion. To a Dead Space fan, this new level feels like the most terrifying comfort blanket imaginable.
What it doesn’t feel currently is innovative, because right now Visceral’s keeping elements such as its massively expanded weapon customisation and a few other secrets locked behind. And even without the shiny new gubbins to catch my eye, I’m still happy. There’s been sufficient appetite for Dead Space until now for two feature films and three books to be gobbled up by fans like an Iceland party platter in the Katona residence, so it seems safe to postulate that a ‘more of the same’ ethos would go down pretty well to those fans for Dead Space 3. More of the same doesn’t exist on Tau Volantis, though. Either it burned up as it careered through the ice-planet’s atmosphere, or passed away in the freezing wind.
Alongside a fellow journo, I get to sample the co-op mode, unload copious clips from the new assault rifles into Unitologist soldiers and take on a few bosses. If ‘giant malfunctioning drill bit’ can be considered a boss, anyway. We’ve come a long way from Dr Robotnik.
Most striking is that the Tau Volantis sequence is much more fun to play than it was to watch. I was as skeptical as anyone when I saw the devs play through it in a pre-E3 sneak peek at EA Redwood Shores, but there’s an undeniable charm to cryo-blasting Necromorphs while your buddy fills them with lead. Fighting the snow-beast is much more enjoyable in a pair, and rudimentary tactics like flanking and covering each other’s reload times work a treat.
The drill sequence is an unexpected highlight, though. The formidable machinery needs to be manipulated to carve out a path forward – and doing so means avoiding its frenzied pinging around on the floor while Necromorphs shamble toward you, slowing its rotating blades with cryo and shooting a light in its centre. Yes, it’s a different tone to what I’m used to from the series, but it starts to win me over when I work with my partner to combine powers and push Necros into the blades, getting showered in the resulting viscera.
In gunfights, Isaac and Carver don’t snap to cover as it had previously appeared. There are certain obstacles that they can huddle up to for safety, but for the most part staying out of trouble is a matter of crouching behind crates and barrels. It feels like a mechanic that’s likely to change a lot by release, but it’s by no means broken currently.
I’m still on the fence about co-op’s implementation throughout the game, though. Firstly, Visceral needs to be really clever in figuring out how to incentivise joining someone else’s game and playing as Carver, rather than having someone join your session: if you’re half an hour into your solo campaign, then jump into a mate’s game and play for four hours, you still return to your game way back at the start.
I’ve also yet to see how easily the newly revealed corridor levels can host two players without them tripping each other up. Time’s on Dead Space 3’s side in this regard, and the team is likely testing different iterations on a daily basis.
You’ll recognise Dead Space 3 when you pick up the controller, and the tactics you used in the previous games will work just as sweetly. If you played the previous games, your inclination will still likely be to go through the whole experience alone to maintain the tension and avoid having to replay sections after joining someone else’s game, which is actually what executive producer Steve Papoustis recommends.
But it will be, at least in part, faithful to the established formula. Ironically, if that radically different gameplay was stumbled on organically rather than exposed at the game’s reveal, it probably wouldn’t have caused any fuss. Everyone would know the core experience was intact, and would likely appreciate the variety. As it is, they’ll likely pace through it like a Faberge egg salesman on the wrong side of town. It’s a warm welcome-back handshake for Isaac Clarke then, but still a reserved nod for John Carver.
Originally Posted by iPaul
(pfft as vrea eu sa fie posibil ) . Abia astept sa fac ravagii cu acea arma in Dead Space 3 .
)
Bookmarks