Today, new screens of Dead Space 3 surfaced on the internet (which are conveniently placed throughout this article for you to gawp at). As this is undoubtedly going to be one of the biggest games at E3, I decided to take a step back and reevaluate exactly what made the previous two Dead Space titles so special to the industry. Consider this my retrospective, if you will.
Originally described as a “monster of a sequel” by Andrew Reiner, January’s hottest release – Dead Space 2 – appeared in more than its fair share of 2011’s “Top 10” lists. It had some significant mileage to cover if it were to succeed as a quality sequel to 2008’s Dead Space, and not just flop around like a tired cash-in; as buoyant and flimsy as the thousands of dismembered limbs the game charmingly sports throughout.
Let me begin by saying that the original Dead Space did almost everything right by my standards. It featured a fantastic marketing campaign (including an unbelievably disturbing 10-second series of trails broadcast from 10pm onwards on UK television), a solid concept, disturbing enemies and incredible sound design – but it failed to withhold my attention for any longer than a few weeks due to some strange pacing issues and often irritating puzzle solving. Zero Gravity sections were a complete chore to play through and what were once beautiful graphics rapidly became a cacophony of discoloured mess; glaringly merging into one bland splodge on my TV screen. I’m sad to say I gave up on Dead Space before completing it. Do I regret that? Nope, not really.
Why? Because I didn’t have to, as the clever people at Visceral Games seemed to respond to my sort of criticisms pretty rapidly by manufacturing a high-octane thrill-ride of a game from start to finish, complete with a “Previously on Dead Space” featurette that allowed me to catch up with ease.
The sequel (as is to be expected) followed almost immediately from where the first left off, with Isaac Clarke (your iron-clad protagonist who seems to be merging into a Ghost Recon/Gears of War love-child in these new screens) waking up from a coma on a gigantic space station known as “The Sprawl”. After evacuating the USG Ishimura in the first game, Isaac had slipped into an “Alien-did-it-first” cliché of dementia, haunted by the visions of his deceased girlfriend. Not quite the original concept I’d hoped for, but facing a new onslaught of Necromorphs (villains that closely resemble the human centipede meeting the elephant man) proved to be immediately engaging. And by immediately engaging, I mean immediately engaging – the first cutscene has you run through a corridor teaming with Necromorphs ready to rip your balls off, weapon less and straight-jacketed. Nice.
The graphics in both games were simply sublime and while they haven’t seemed to improve drastically in these new screens, the eerie blood stained walls and shadow effects will always be Visceral’s most effective and significant tools into creating a truly horrific atmosphere. The level design in the sequel was also something to behold. In this day and age of videogaming I honestly believe that anything is possible; Cohen’s theatre in BioShock could easily have looked like the most convincing theatre in the world with the engine 2K were running it on – but what it substituted in authenticity it more than made up for in creativity; players provided with an entertaining, creative and unique level that will forever stand the test of time. Aside from the eerie linear corridors, Dead Space’s environments felt clunky, dull and lacked in creativity. I constantly felt cramped – and not in a spooky horror claustrophobia way – but in a “this game is terrible, I can’t move or see anything” kind of way. Whilst it may have lost some subtlety in the translation, every single set piece in Dead Space 2 is superb; a synchronization of convincing architecture and multiple paths, providing the player with non-linear ways to complete puzzles and dismember enemies. The graphics are clear, the settings are deceptively in-depth and the thrilling action all made Dead Space 2 one hell of a game to play through.
In regards to gameplay, Dead Space 2 is almost a carbon copy of the original. New enemies are introduced to provide you with some much-needed variety, but aside from a few new interesting boss-fights you’ll be carving through and dismembering your enemies in a similar way to the first. This is no criticism, however, as the gameplay mechanics work very well here – and the once frustrating save points become more frequent in this adventure. Zero Gravity missions have also undergone an extreme makeover, with the disorientating wall-jumping being replaced with jetpack boots – so that you can fly around huge vacuous areas. Whilst this means you can find your own hiding place to dismember Necromorphs from afar it also leads to more disorientation, despite the inclusion of a re-adjusting “Y” button.
Character development is generic and uninspiring in both entries, although the former definitely had a lot more balls on display. It seems the fans really got to the developers in regards to making Isaac no longer an anonymous bondage accessory (which is a shame – because having a mute protagonist searching for a lost loved one is something which really works in horror games) and subsequently you’ll see him remove his helmet more times than Royal Guard with dandruff. That’s not a gripe, by the way, it’s just the fact that humanizing Isaac means that he’s allowed to spout some of the worst dialogue I’ve heard for a long time in the gaming industry. The very first thing you do, as I’ve mentioned before, is run through corridors full of bloodthirsty Necromorphs. That is literally the first thing you do. When confronted with a colleague 15 minutes later screaming “Quick – they’re after us!” Isaac hurriedly replies (and I wish I was joking here) with “Who’s after us? Who is!?” I guess fighting your way off an evil ship in the first game really frazzles those brain cells…
Online was definitely a welcome addition to the sequel and I’m sure they’ll be replicating that multiplayer option in the third entry (in fact these screens make it look as if the game will feature some form of Co-Op with a fellow iron-clad partner). Dead Space 2 often played like a darker, broodier version of Left 4 Dead – with sets of players working as a human team and another set taking control of the Necromorphs. There was small variety in which villains you could be, however, with each one specializing in close combat melee, long range fire, wall-crawling etc. I appreciated the addition of a multiplayer mode to a game like this (despite EA’s ridiculous requirement for an Online Pass) however with no tutorial and real guidance except for a brief and unhelpful game manual I found myself testing the water and failing quite a lot before finding my bearings in the online matches.
Dead Space has always offered fans of action-horror a tremendous, thrilling experience and I’m sure the third will not dissapoint. Are you excited? What do you think of these new screenshots? Let us know below!
“It seems the fans really got to the developers in regards to making Isaac no longer an anonymous bondage accessory (which is a shame – because having a mute protagonist searching for a lost loved one is something which really works in horror games)”
Nope. Isaac talking might provide more space for screwing up, but Isaac not talking means we have no idea what kind of person he is and therefore can neither empathise with him or accept he has any of the skills he’s supposed to have. I’m not convinced he’s an engineer when he does nothing that he isn’t walked through step by step by someone else: if they didn’t *tell* you he wasn’t a generic space marine in that game you’d have no reason to assume he wasn’t one.
Silent protagonists are a crutch for modern game designers because they mean the player is the least important thing in the narrative, reduced to a useless drone who can only carry out the will of actual characters. In Half-Life 2 Gordon’s role is so small and pointless that you might as well be playing as Alyx, and in Modern Warfare 2 Ramirez is nothing more than a robot who exists to carry out Foley’s will. The sooner we get rid of the silent protagonist the sooner the story will start to involve the player and ask them to immerse themselves in the role of someone else rather than stick their head through a hole cut in the story.