Scavenging for parts often feels like collecting loot in Diablo: a virtually endless stream of rewards you're constantly picking up from lockers and fallen enemies. Every classic weapon, from the plasma cutter to the ripper, has been broken down to its basic components, spare parts you can cobble together at a workbench to create the most surgical or bombastic weapon you can conceive. With its introduction of a robust weapon crafting system, it takes a significant step forward in terms of depth and flexibility.

Yet Dead Space 3 doesn't simply mimic what the series has already done well. Whether you're stuck in a dark hallway or floating in space, Dead Space 3 looks fantastic. Just as creepy is the game's sound design, which marries subtle audio effects with a restrained score to further build the tension. Interior spaces are a terrifying stage show of light and shadows, and even some of the planetside vistas are capable of making a glowing sunset look deeply unsettling. Where atmospherics are concerned, developer Visceral is once again at the top of its game. The game's opening chapters tend to favor loud and boisterous set pieces, but once you start digging deeper into the frozen hellscape that is Tau Volantis, a feeling of subdued terror gradually builds. Whether floating in the starry abyss amid the vast wreckage of destroyed spacecraft or attempting to stay alive in a suffocating blizzard, Dead Space 3 keeps you on your toes with one expertly crafted environment after the other. It's an issue compounded by a dearth of interesting characters, and this ultimately makes it difficult to feel attached to anything that occurs in the haphazard, quickly moving narrative.īut no matter: while Isaac's latest journey may not unfurl with the deftest of storytelling, it fully succeeds in ushering you from one incredible locale to the next. You remember every last scattered detail having to do with markers and their sundry effects on humanity, right? If not, you're out of luck: aside from a brief 'previously on Dead Space' video buried in an extras menu, the game makes precious little effort to explain anything of remote importance. Isaac Clarke, now caught in a confusing love triangle, has been sent off to the frozen ice planet of Tau Volantis, believed to be the marker homeworld. That is to say, it's nearly incomprehensible. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sĭead Space 3's story follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessors.

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