Dead Space 3: 5 Ways To Improve The Sequel

Dead Space 3 has been a bit of hit and miss with gamers. While it does maintain some identity in relation to the old games, steadily the Dead Space series has been moving away from its initial survival horror roots. The games have tended to become more action oriented and this has spawned backlash over the recent outing, Dead Space 3. Rumors of cancellation of the series may have been premature, but it speaks volumes of how fans view the series and ultimately how fans view EA. This article will look to explore some ways Dead Space 4 can regain fans.

 5) Weaker Weapons

For someone who began the series as an engineer, Isaac Clarke sure manages to get his hands on a lot of weapons. That’s not that big a problem, except these weapons happen to be very good at what they do. This is made obvious by how useful the plasma cutter, the initial game weapon, is throughout the series. Sure it’s not always the best choice, but it gets the job done well 90% of the time. Such immense firepower really does decrease the feel of horror, whether action or survival oriented, that a game can showcase. Why be worried when you’ve got heavy-duty weapons to back you up? Granted, the game gets harder on harder difficulty levels, requiring use of stasis and kinesis, but more can be done.

4) Remove Shared Ammo

A weird addition to Dead Space 3 was the shared ammo feature between all weapons. I feel like this was made to compensate for customizable weapons. Even so, it made the game feel totally flat. Any ammo you picked up just got added to your weapons. Scavenging for stuff became less important because of this. No longer did you have to manage your inventory that well either. It just felt like a sloppy take on what should be important elements in normal games, let alone a ‘survival’ horror game. Dead Space 4 should revert to the former methods of dealing with ammo.

3) Less Action Oriented

Let’s face it, the Dead Space series has gotten more action oriented over the years. DS3 seems to take that step even further though, with numerous monsters practically everywhere you turn. This becomes boring because to combat these monsters, all you do is shoot from third-person perspective. Just like you would in any other TPS game. It becomes mundane. Add to that the fact that Isaac is a pretty heavy and slow character, thus you don’t feel like you are in good control of a character in an action game. It’s still above average for sure, but it becomes routine too easily. I’ve had to stop playing half-way through these games because of this. I’d tend to return around a couple of weeks later when the gameplay feels fresh again.

2) Feature A New Main Character

One of the reasons why games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill garner a lot of fans is because of the variety in characters that take part in those games. Those games tend to introduce new characters with new backgrounds to explore and learning about how they relate to the world of those games is exciting. With Dead Space, we’ve been trudging along with Isaac for just too long. We know his background and the fact that he is somewhat special. He’s no longer an enigma to the gamer who wants to learn more about the main character. His journey has become somewhat predictable, so a new main character would freshen things up a lot.

1) Utilise Sound

Oddly enough, for a horror game, Dead Space doesn’t utilise sound that well. In general, the gamer tends to hear monsters and such as they start attacking and all that, and the tense music during those times is cool, but that’s it for the most part. Sound is a powerful tool in horror games, and Dead Space doesn’t really take advantage of it. This should definitely be looked into in the next game. I’m not just talking about the way monsters behave and the sounds they make, but also how Isaac himself never seems to have to worry about making noises in his situation. If his situation was real, he’d be a lot more sneaky about things. As it is right now, it just doesn’t matter. Dead Space 4 should definitely improve on this further.