Awakened Review: That's No Moon
My friend Darkshark74 and I blasted through Awakened last night, and had a blast. However, we left with mixed feelings and a sour sense of cynicism. On the one hand, I think the add-on did a few things right, on the other hand, it seems like more of the same Dead Space 3, which is both a good and bad thing. In fact, it seems to take the best and worst of the game and cranks it up to eleven. If I could summarise this entire add-on adventure with a single phrase, it'd be "Déjà vu".
Lets' take a tally of all the mistakes and unanswered questions, shall we?
- How does Isaac get his helmet back, when he clearly tore it off?
- How does Isaac survive in the vacuum of space without a helmet?
- Why isn't Isaac's face bloodied any more?
- What are the odds of Isaac…
How Dead Space Still Scares Me
Dead Space 3 wasn't scary. To be honest, it wasn't trying to be. You can take that for what it is, but is this simply the natural progression of the franchise? Or is it just an attempt at homogenisation and an appeal to a wider audience?
I can certainly understand the argument for the former. It's been three games now, and Isaac's probably used to this, as is the player. Is this a good justification for the franchise's more action-oriented focus? As a Dead Space veteran, I figured the reason Dead Space 3 fails to scare me is simply because I'm not scared of Necromorphs anymore.
Then I played Dead Space again on Impossible. Oh, how wrong I was.
If there's one thing in which this series has always excelled, it's atmosphere. The snowy cliffs of Tau V…
Improving Dead Space 3
Dead Space 3 came out not too long ago, and I've already sunk about 50 hours into it. It made its share of missteps, but my overall assessment of it was that, despite corporate meddling and a clunky story, its core mechanics have never been more refined, which turns out to be the game's saving grace. It's a game with a lot of potential, but there are some real head-scratching moments that make me think something is missing. With the power of patching, there are plenty of ways Visceral can make this amazing thrill ride twice as good. So without further ado, here are my quick fixes for Dead Space 3.
I love the crafting in this game. I've spend more time creating weapons and thinking about how I'm going to dismember Necromorphs than I do actuall…
More Fun with a Friend
A couple of days ago, I wrote a quasi-review for Dead Space 3. This was written around the time I was just getting started with New Game+, just after beating it, and just before getting to experience co-op. So, as a follow-up to my last blog, I decided to talk about what I did and didn't like about co-op in this game.
It was a unique co-op experience, because each of us were playing different roles. Another example outside of Carver's co-op missions is when the player must pilot the USM Crozier down to the planet's surface. During this time, Isaac pilots, and Carver shoots, whereas the player would normally do both. This gives players equal responibilies. When Isaac has to repair the ship, Carver takes over and does both. It's not quite as i…
Dead Space 3: The Good, the Bad, the Horrifying
Dead Space 3 is an interesting beast of the game. In spite of corporate meddling, the core experience remains refined. At the same time, one could say the core experience is tarnished by meddlesome microtransactions and half-hearted attempts to appeal to a more mainstream audience. It's certainly multi-faceted, so I wanted to cover as much I can, both the good and the bad.
For the first few hours, I was both impressed and confused. The prologue was very well done, and served as a great introduction to the story. Soon after however, much like Isaac's life and the rest of humanity, the plot dropped off and went to shit. Suddenly, we're expected to believe that the Earth Government has been overthrown (or at least crippled) by Unitologists. Whe…