Dead Space 3 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Dead Space 3 is a horror/third person shooter developed by Visceral Games. Released in 2013, DS3 accurately depicts what it's like to go on holiday with your ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.
We play as Isaac, the unfortunate soul who keeps getting drug back into this whole "creepy ancient aliens want to turn us into spaghetti monsters" thing. Dude just wants to sleep in and I can relate.
Gameplay involves slowly plodding along and playing a drinking game of 'which hatch the jump scare monster will pop out of.' When not killing death noodles, you'll be patting your best boy little dumpster robot because he's so cute, yes he is!
The Good
The co-op has one of the best levels ever designed and I will die on that hill. I can't say too much without spoiling it but when my co-op partner asked me, "What's up with all the birthday presents?" and I had no clue what he was talking about, the next 30 minutes of my life were pure joy.
Futzing with the gun modules was also really fun. It took me a solid minute to figure out what I was doing but once it clicked I was always eager to see the next work bench so I could try a new configuration. Being able to take any weapon and strap a grenade launcher to it for kicks and grins made me giggle.
The Bad
The plot has long since been lost and most of the characters are obnoxious. "Would these two just fuck already and get on with it?" was a constant criticism and I don't mean Isaac and Ellie. Even Simon Templeman's legendary voice couldn't salvage this one.
More egregious though is DS3 abandons the whole 'limb cutting' thing that made the series popular. You still can clip limbs, but it's slower than just dropping an extra body shot in. Ammo is no longer scarce so conservation isn't a concern. This takes a lot away from the tense horror aspect. You're basically just Doom Guy but with a bad hip and depression.
The Ugly
One of the early game balancing aspects is supposed to be the ability to trade resource kits your salvage bot finds for more resources through the store interface. However, EA shut down the service for it you can no longer do so. Not a terribly big deal because soon you'll be drowning in tungsten anyways. It's another showcase in why tying in game resources to out of game web functions is a terrible idea.
Final Thoughts
It's a decent enough co-op experience. There's a lot of extra dialogue, events and areas that can be accessed and most of it is decent. Enough to at least recommend it if you have a regular partner to play games with. If you're ride or die solo though you're probably just better off reading the wiki if you wonder what happened after DS2.
Interesting Game Facts
You might reach a certain point and wonder why you need a fur coat when you have a space suit. This is because cold works differently in a vacuum than in atmosphere. In space there's no air to suck the heat out of us so no matter how cold it is, you can only lose temperature so fast. An ice planet would be far more brutal. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. GOOOOO JOE!
Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear about your thoughts and experiences!