Completed the game at the weekend.
Some decent parts but on the whole really disapointed, a big drop from the standards of 1 and 2 IMO.
Main criticism and gripes as follows:-
1. First and foremost is the speed of the Necros now - they are so fast it destroys the game balance in most places, Kinesis especially is rendered almost impotent, Stasis in a lot of cases doesn't even take effect until they have already completed a hit animation. Not only that, but it makes the Necros less varied - the Leaper was always hated by me due to it being able to cover a lot of ground quickly, now all the Necros can cover the same ground in the same time, it really detracts from things. As someone else said the Necro Gangbang is getting old now when you tend to get swarmed by numbers and speed.
I just rage quit in Conning Tower mission on Classic playthrough; I wanted to give the game another chance by seeing if classic mode changed anything in terms of the balance; nope, Necros are all fast fuckers, even superspeed Pukers! Puker's were nasty and pissed me off in DS2, but now they can cover a room in a second or two, it's ridiculous.
2. Co-op; for someone like me who fell in love with DS1 due to the isolation, and has no desire to play co-op whatsoever, it's clear to me that a lot of the design changes were implemented to increase the co-op challenge and balance it better, which is fair enough but it lost the feel of the single-player Dead Space; the combat for me was slow and considered; and there isn't much in DS3 that retains that core combat feel.
3. Upgrade system. Weapon Crafting in DS3 is all fine in concept, but it's less Dead Space and more Gears IMO, couple that with cover system stuff, and it's a game that has lost it's sense of identity IMO.
4. Ending
Utterly incoherent, and really disappointing.
5. Overall Narrative.
Poor writing and execution, though to be fair I thought DS2 was similar in the narrative department.
6. Other Nitpicks
Too many QTEs. Part of the 'gotta have a big action set piece' approach.
Too many flying sections, these are so dull. In total contrast to the Zero G sections in DS2, which I loved.
Suit upgrades? What was wrong with having suits dictate inventory slots? Suit changes are now just cosmetic...which is a shame.
Regenerators just walk through engine fire like it's not there? A bit of a retcon this one...
Just nowhere near as polished as one and two - so many more glitches and issues I have found. Again I put the blame on co-op focus.
I've played through Dead Space about 6 times, DS2 3 times, and right now I'm not feeling the desire to go back to DS3 right now, the combat just isn't as much fun as DS1. To be honest, I should have extrapolated, as the last few chapters in DS2 were pushing things in the direction that DS3 has gone (speed, swarming, less consideratiuon... more ACTION!).
With Bioshock Infinite out tomorrow I'm going to leave DS3 for a few months at least, and maybe will come back to Classic mode then.
My current ratings:-
Dead Space = 9.5
Dead Space 2 = 9
Dead Space 3 = 6.5
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