For some of its most passionate fans, Dead Space 3 wasn’t born into the same open arms that welcomed Dead Space 2. Check the buzz on Twitter or your favorite forum and you’ll encounter the same series of gripes; co-op and/or a divergent setting have purportedly un-Dead Space’d Dead Space. Perhaps this is why our closed-door demo of Dead Space 3, handled directly by representatives from Visceral, opened with an emphasis on Dead Space’s core philosophies. The intensity, tension, and tight corridors Dead Space is known for would apparently be in no short supply for Dead Space 3.
The demo opened with protagonist Isaac Clarke doing his best impression of Empire’s Luke Skywalker; hanging by his feet and apparently trapped on some sort of ice planet, Isaac soon freed himself and set about conquering the frozen wasteland. These opening environments were the areas where Dead Space’s familiar thrills and chills were most visible. The all encompassing snowstorm hampered visibility, and when Necromorphs literally jumped out of the snow and threatened Isaac in close proximity, people my theater were literally screaming.
Speaking of the Necro’s, a bunch of new baddies were on display. The first of which, which I believe was referred to as a Feeder, was a bipedal humanoid type that sprouted three tentacles, not unlike Lurkers. A much more terrifying foe was met in the form of the famous Infectors, (you know, those travelling worm things with a human head on the end), which previously overpowered Isaac before decapitating him and walking around with his body in on the most terrifying and gruesome death scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a videogame. Well, this time all of that happens, but it happens to other corpses and Isaac has to deal with the reanimated results. Terrific.
Another new enemy ties into Dead Space 3’s narrative conceit; humans, or, more specifically, indoctrinated patrons of the Church of Unitolgy. Isaac’s principle purpose on the ice planet is to rid it of a newly discovered marker and all of the Unitoligists along the way. This marks the first time people will be firing back at Isaac with traditional weapons rather than the hell spawn of acid and viscera flung from Necromorphs. As an adjustment Isaac can now duel wield certain weapons, which, in our demo, appeared to be Ripper/Plasma Cutter combo. There was also a basic looking cover system in place, which was employed with competent results.
At this point I began to internally raise the same objections as that vocal minority of fans. Was Dead Space 3 still Dead Space? Why does Isaac still lack traditional weapons? Hasn’t the mining equipment excuse gotten a little old? Sure, he has better cold weather gear this time to try and rationalize similar systems, but you’d think a guy hell bent on saving the known universe would get some better equipment. None of those thoughts matter, really, but the deeper Visceral gets into the series’ fiction the more and more one starts to think about its collective lore.
In any case we were then exposed to Dead Space 3’s ace; co-op. Funny thing about co-op; if it wasn’t there you’d never know the difference. To demonstrate this a few minutes of the game were played as Isaac solo and everything proceeded as planned. Isaac plodded along rarely saying more than a word as he carried out his tasks. When another player was added to the mix, the verbal banter between him and Isaac increased and added a bit more context to their surroundings. It’s worth noting that John Carver, Isaac’s red suited buddy, still has a few mandatory interactions with Isaac, but he’s not a symbiotic character. The last thing Visceral would want was a co-op disaster ala Resident Evil 5, which is thankfully why Carver is completely optional.
But he certainly helped. Our demo ran through a blistering progression of three separate bosses. An arachnid type enemy was taken down much easier with Carver handling stasis while Isaac fired away at its weak glowy bits. In another sequence that involved a giant (and I mean giant) drill wreaking havoc, Carver’s responsibility was crowd control on the other Necro’s while Isaac worked on slowing down the drill. Was any of that necessary? Hard to say, but there didn’t appear to be a “wrong” way to play the game.
The final sequence of the demo probably set a new standard for massive carnage. “Epic” is an adjective freely dispensed when describing Dead Space’s boss battles, but this particular example may have redefined the term. Isaac and Carver battle this huge rock armored bug thing for a while before they’re inevitable swallowed. From there Isaac appears to travel down an esophagus, which might look a bit too organic for its own good, before eventually landing in a pool of stomach bile. Then the stomach starts absorbing Isaac, who mean while is desperately trying to fight his way out. Whoever said Dead Space 3 was losing its grip on horror was dead wrong, because that sequence was utterly terrifying. Here’s to finding out how it ends when Dead Space 3 lands in early 2013.
