I like horror games. Not all of them - but most. I really enjoyed Condemned and its sequel. Perhaps they weren't 'horror' in all aspects, but they had great atmosphere and really did rack up the tension at certain points during the game. I remember being incredibly impressed with the original dead space. Part of me loves being scared by games, and the other part of me hates it at the moment of panic inducing fear. Dead Space 2 had its moments - it was certainly much more cinematic than the original, I think anyone's that played it would know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that 'opening' (double meaning) was incredibly strong and a great way to kick things off. But overall it didn't have the same amount of tension throughout, instead deciding to rack up the body count and set the intensity of attacks up to 11. Sometimes it was almost comical how many enemies could seemingly jump out of vents and want to come get some of Issac Clark. It had its merits by all means - but 2 was inferior in my opinion to the original.

Why can't games generally just have a bit of closure? Sequels can always come later, they don't need to be outlined as painfully obvious as they are in so many games (Including Dead Space 2). I'm a fan of the Dead Space series, however, I wasn't overly excited by the prospect of a third entry.

With the demo out, it was an instant download because I was curious enough to want to see how the game played and what if anything co-op could add. After one playthrough, the demo has been deleted from my harddrive. Honestly, I don't feel the demo was very good at all. The co-op side of things feels incredibly weak. The gameplay is becoming closer and closer to Gears of War, and the ammo situation is laughable. I looked at my ammo to find 500 rounds. I seem to remember in earlier games, ammo was limited as hell. You had to take shots carefully for fear of running dry. Here, it's like you have an ammo store strapped to your back. And the most concerning thing of all to me - the demo wasn't scary in the slightest. Perhaps we've become desensitised to the necromorph?

I could see the game was trying to create some atmosphere in the snow, but it just fell flat. Issac struggles to walk through the snow, yet hit aim and he can march through it like a trooper? It would have been better if your vision deteriorated the longer you held your aim, the blizzard effecting your screen. This would of helped in my opinion.

Co-op of this nature could suceed and work incredibly well. I just worry that Dead Space 3 won't deliver. Large sections of gameplay away from your partner could help, perhaps seeing one another from a far but being unable to help during choke points. Hell, even messing with the communication via xbox live could be interesting. Put someone elses voice through my head set, whispering on occasion and making my co-op partner think I'm losing it as they don't hear what I hear. These are just a couple of ideas off the cuff, I'm not sure if such things would be implimented in the game, but here's hoping atleast.

What are others feelings about Dead Space 3? Will you be picking it up day one? And do you have any interesting ideas that would help build tension and atmosphere in a co-op scenario? Share your thoughts.

I like horror games. Not all of them - but most. I really enjoyed Condemned and its sequel. Perhaps they weren't 'horror' in all aspects, but they had great atmosphere and really did rack up the tension at certain points during the game. I remember being incredibly impressed with the original dead space. Part of me loves being scared by games, and the other part of me hates it at the moment of panic inducing fear. Dead Space 2 had its moments - it was certainly much more cinematic than the original, I think anyone's that played it would know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that 'opening' (double meaning) was incredibly strong and a great way to kick things off. But overall it didn't have the same amount of tension throughout, instead deciding to rack up the body count and set the intensity of attacks up to 11. Sometimes it was almost comical how many enemies could seemingly jump out of vents and want to come get some of Issac Clark. It had its merits by all means - but 2 was inferior in my opinion to the original.

Why can't games generally just have a bit of closure? Sequels can always come later, they don't need to be outlined as painfully obvious as they are in so many games (Including Dead Space 2). I'm a fan of the Dead Space series, however, I wasn't overly excited by the prospect of a third entry.

With the demo out, it was an instant download because I was curious enough to want to see how the game played and what if anything co-op could add. After one playthrough, the demo has been deleted from my harddrive. Honestly, I don't feel the demo was very good at all. The co-op side of things feels incredibly weak. The gameplay is becoming closer and closer to Gears of War, and the ammo situation is laughable. I looked at my ammo to find 500 rounds. I seem to remember in earlier games, ammo was limited as hell. You had to take shots carefully for fear of running dry. Here, it's like you have an ammo store strapped to your back. And the most concerning thing of all to me - the demo wasn't scary in the slightest. Perhaps we've become desensitised to the necromorph?

I could see the game was trying to create some atmosphere in the snow, but it just fell flat. Issac struggles to walk through the snow, yet hit aim and he can march through it like a trooper? It would have been better if your vision deteriorated the longer you held your aim, the blizzard effecting your screen. This would of helped in my opinion.

Co-op of this nature could suceed and work incredibly well. I just worry that Dead Space 3 won't deliver. Large sections of gameplay away from your partner could help, perhaps seeing one another from a far but being unable to help during choke points. Hell, even messing with the communication via xbox live could be interesting. Put someone elses voice through my head set, whispering on occasion and making my co-op partner think I'm losing it as they don't hear what I hear. These are just a couple of ideas off the cuff, I'm not sure if such things would be implimented in the game, but here's hoping atleast.

What are others feelings about Dead Space 3? Will you be picking it up day one? And do you have any interesting ideas that would help build tension and atmosphere in a co-op scenario? Share your thoughts.

Unfortunately they never made a demo for PC which is all I play on.But hearing from interviews about the demo they crammed everything in because demo's are short so they wanted to have a lot of action. I think Gamespot said the the first couple of hours of the game are nothing like the demo and start off slow and more traditional like a Deadspace game so maybe there is hope I'll be reading all the reviews chances are for me I'm buying love the series and want to see how the story plays out.

I loved the first game and had to be fast with the second one, because I hated the "oh look.. there are 100 little shitty monsters on screen"-direction in which this game was going!

The first game had a great atmosphere, I had high hopes for the second one as well, after this fantastic opening! But OH SNAP I was misled! This game felt like a SHOOTER, and by far not like a survival horror game like its predecessor did!

I abandoned all hope for 3!

The trailers alone give me the vibe of "It is a shooter now, DUH!" and I don't like this at all! Reminds me of Resident Evil, especially the transition from 4 to 5 and then to the very crappy 6th!

@JEC03: One thing I read recently which might not be great news for you is the PC version of Dead Space is apparently a straight port of the console version, so there's nothing extra (which I'm guessing means no graphical options to play with or anything). It's a game I will probably end up buying - but not on day one I doubt.

@Chontamenti: It really does just feel like a shooter now (at least from the demo's gameplay). As I said in my original post, you have TONS of ammo (but perhaps this is only for the demo, who knows), and there are times when its you and your co-op buddy, versus necromorphs and random dudes with machine guns - plenty of chest high cover to get behind in those sections...sigh.

worst. demo. ever.

i was pretty disappointed as i loved the first one and the second one was pretty good. if this game is garbage it seems like something ill grab later on when its on sale for half off, just to play it, but not something i would spent 60 for out of the gate. hopefully the game is better when it launches..

I liked both parts to the demo. I prefer the new weapons and the crafting bench for upgrades on these more traditional weapons makes me want to play more. The co-op was fun and felt better than Resident Evil and it actually added the second player to cutscenes. The graphics are great, turning the camera makes the visor shine towards the screen and i thought the snow was a nice touch. I never played all of the previous games so maybe i am seeing things that people who played the others have grown tired of.

I haven't played the demo.

I've also abandoned all hope of this game being a really effective horror game. I'm also totally okay with that. You guys remember that Dead Space has always had better shooting than, like, any other shooter ever, right? Like, it's the best third-person shooter gameplay model ever. inFamous and Gears are close runners-up, but the DS model is just so goddamned precise. It's brilliant. I'm perfectly happy to play a Dead Space action game.

The only thing that's still horrifying about Dead Space is the "kill the Unitologists" subplot that feels akin to thinly-veiled anti-Scientologist hate speech. I'm no Scientologist, I just think it's fucked up that they're so blatantly putting a bunch of people in the equivalent of religious blackface and convincing you that they all deserve to die. That's kind of bothered me since the end of the first game; if I've gathered correctly, now the Unitologists are actually fighting side-by-side with Necromorphs, making them even more over-the-top and, again, a bit fucked up. I felt like they toned it down a lot in that second game, or I at least noticed less of it. I'm hopeful that Dead Space 3 will continue down that road and find more ways to differentiate Unitology and Scientology.

Or it'll continue to be pretty horribly offensive and I'll continue to say that it's really fucked up. Here's hoping we go with the former?

During the second one I shifted away from the horror stuff and stared to really like the insane stuff he goes though. I do not think the third one will focus on scary and hopefully we so some crazy stuff with the story.

I suppose I should start off by mentioning how much I find 'survival horror' to be anything but horrifying. At best, I feel it creates a few tense moments where you're clutching your controller tightly, wondering how you're going to get out of the tricky situation you've gotten yourself into. Usually, though, I find it to be nothing but a parade of cheap scares and crippled mechanics to create some illusion of 'fear', but only manages to either bore me to death or piss me off. (ex. Penumbra)

So, I guess it comes as no surprise that I found the Dead Space 3 demo to be quite enjoyable. I like having to deal with armed resistance in addition to Necromorphs, as I feel it has the potential to make encounters more intense. The atmosphere on Tau Volanis gives off a "John Carpenter's Thing" vibe, and I'm liking that as well. And, most of all, I'm really digging the weapon customization aspects. Anything that lets me tinker around with the in-game hardware is always welcome.

As long as they keep Issac's story interesting (something that I really can't get a feel for in the demo), I won't feel like I wasted my money come February 5th.

Having played the demo, I can safely say that this game is just... more Dead Space. You just happen to have a section on a snow planet to vary the environments. That said, I like the idea that the game transforms its cutscenes and dialog once you switch it to co-op.

Really, I don't understand why people complain about this game. It's not going a completely different way like F.3.A.R. ( fear3 ). It will still offer a solid single player experience. Would you people prefer not to have a Dead Space 3 instead? If so, that's very selfish.

I honestly think that people don't remember what Dead Space 1 actually was. It's not a survival horror game, ammo and health packs are plentiful. You can buy them both from the very first store in the game. And as far as it being scary goes, I guess your mileage may vary. I'm playing it right now (granted for the 4th or 5th time) and it's not scary in the slightest. The atmosphere is great, yes, but the only real scares are jump scares, which are never good. They literally give you the best gun in the game right off the bat and enough ammo to blast your way through anything that comes into your path. It's hard to feel terror when you're more than capable of dealing with any situation that arises.

What Dead Space 1 actually is is a kick ass action game that has the best combat in the genre. Dead Space 2 refined that combat and made it even better. And, judging from the demo, Dead Space 3 will continue the trend. I've played through the demo at least half a dozen times and spent a good amount of time just messing around in the gun creation area and I can't get enough.

The demo was awful. I Hundred precented both 1 and 2. And I don't plan on buying 3. I am really dissapointed with the co-op bullshit. Ugh...

It's been great reading all your opinions and its nice to see my post has become a user created highlight :D Thanks for that!

The long and the short of it for me is overall I really enjoyed Dead Space 1 and 2 but I just find I'm not champing at the bit for more Dead Space. Eventually I'll play through it, and so long as it contains some of the things that have made its two predecessors enjoyable - story, atmosphere, strong sound design and ofcourse cinematic 'set pieces' - I'm sure I'll have a great time. I just don't see it being on launch day.

Dead Space 2 abandoned all the scary so I wasn't expecting any of that in DS3, it just needed to be a competent shooter to stay on par with DS2, which it appears to be. I absolutely love the weapon customization since I rarely used both the primary and alternate fire on any one weapon so being able to build my own combination will save me a lot of weapon switching.

The co-op is what really has my interest, though. I had tons of fun with RE5 co-op and DS3 looks to be a similar experience only with dramatically improved controls.

I am sad about how quickly Dead Space died as a horror series. We already have tons of shooters and I don't think there are any action horror games anymore so it's a shame DS is just another shooter now, but taking it on its own merits it seems fine.

I got a very strong "The Thing" vibe from this game but I'm not entirely sure they pulled it off. Microtransactions don't really bother me, but in this game it's a fucking slap in the face (basically money for cheat codes; the worst kind of dlc). I turned the demo off after dying at the drill part; I can't put my finger on it but the tension just irritated me rather than scared me. We'll see when the game comes out but I think I'm gonna skip this one.

I feel like Dead Space 3 could go either way. I'm one of those that never considered this series scary, but unnerving and tense more than anything else. I have more fun chopping up necromorphs with remote control buzz saws and getting up to space mischief rather than dreading what's around the next corner. Exploring damaged ships and flying in zero-g around with heavy machinery... you know, Issac Clarke stuff. The monster designs for 1 and 2 were also pretty well done, so it's fun to see what kind of corpse-based horrors they can drum up. Calling this series survival horror always seemed like a stretch. I think it just had really great atmosphere with the cool UI decisions and location design.

However, Dead Space 3 has adopted a lot of the dodgy things that showed up around the time Resident Evil made a bad turn. You have human enemies with guns, monsters that use guns, haphazard cover mechanics and other things that usually never adapt well. They also swerve directly into straight up zombie territory with rotting dudes swinging ice axes around. Normally the necromorph was another way to do zombies in space without resorting to standard zombie designs and behavior. The demo was decent enough, though. The weapon construction seems promising, and the Co-op is optional... so... I don't know what to make of it yet. I have a feeling I will check it out on February 5th and take my chances. It's possible they don't fuck it up. It's possible.

Demo isn't that impressive. That's all.

I liked the demo. Still felt like Dead Space, which means "not scary, but a fun shooter". Atmosphere seems nice with a cool The Thing vibe going on.

Is Dead Space a very linear experience or do you have some time to roam around or approach situations differently?

@Svenzon: This "The Ting" vibe is just because there is snow everywhere, I think. ;D (is this sentence grammatical correct? I don't know ,_,)

I played the demo now. And yes.. I will not pick this game up!

I mean.. when you don't aim Isaac is really slow, you aim an OMG the snow is no problem anymore! YES I know I'm nit-picking here.. but come on! This is something that drag me out of the experience! It immediately caught my attention! In addition to that: Lack of horror-elements. Just because there is an instrument playing louder than the usual game sound doesn't create atmosphere! Yeah in most cases it does, but not when everything is illuminated and the visual moment itself is not scary at all!

I mean yeah, the game spawns (!) a dude out of the snow.. but I shoot him and he is done. He had no chance anyway.. why does the developer think "THIS IS A SCARY MOMENT, WE NEED A SCARY INSTRUMENT SOUND HERE, PLAYING WITH VOLUME 100 EVEN WHEN THE GAMER SET THE VOLUME TO 30!!" this is not scary to me at all! It isn't even fun anymore! And that saddens me! This fanchise was BIG! Then it got OKAY because it went to mishmash, ans now it IS mishmash with no ray of hope at all!

Like I said at top of this thread: I abandoned all hope.. now for sure!

@Chontamenti said:

@Svenzon: This "The Ting" vibe is just because there is snow everywhere, I think. ;D (is this sentence grammatical correct? I don't know ,_,)

I played the demo now. And yes.. I will not pick this game up!

I mean.. when you don't aim Isaac is really slow, you aim an OMG the snow is no problem anymore! YES I know I'm nit-picking here.. but come on! This is something that drag me out of the experience! It immediately caught my attention! In addition to that: Lack of horror-elements. Just because there is an instrument playing louder than the usual game sound doesn't create atmosphere! Yeah in most cases it does, but not when everything is illuminated and the visual moment itself is not scary at all!

I mean yeah, the game spawns (!) a dude out of the snow.. but I shoot him and he is done. He had no chance anyway.. why does the developer think "THIS IS A SCARY MOMENT, WE NEED A SCARY INSTRUMENT SOUND HERE, PLAYING WITH VOLUME 100 EVEN WHEN THE GAMER SET THE VOLUME TO 30!!" this is not scary to me at all! It isn't even fun anymore! And that saddens me! This fanchise was BIG! Then it got OKAY because it went to mishmash, ans now it IS mishmash with no ray of hope at all!

Like I said at top of this thread: I abandoned all hope.. now for sure!

Ooookay.

First thing, the snow. You say how Isaac is slowed down by it, and yet, when you aim, you regain 100% of your mobility. I get your point. But really, why do you think they chose to not hinder you when you aim? Because you most likely spend a good time in snowy areas and it would end up frustrating a lot of people, myself included.

Especially when bigger creatures are involved, you need to be able to move around and I doubt they tailored the game's monsters to be affected by snow too, thus, having to create a whole new set of animations and combat rules. Just think before you complain, seriously.

Then, you proceed to say that the game is not scary at all. For real, you complain about this? Dead Space has never been scary. It has been TENSE and filled with jump scares, but scary? Ever played DS1 and 2, brother? You are heavily armed and march through space stations and obliterate fools with special surgical cuts. Deep down, it is an action game with a snippet of horror elements.

When you complain about the sound, I really have no idea what's the problem there. It certainly doesn't reach '' 100 when volume is at 30 ''. Audio cues have been used since Hitchcock to highlight scenes or moments.

Also, this is a demo, which occurs right after Isaac's crash-landing on a snowy planet. You want horror elements right there? This is still the intro of the game, dude. They wanted to show you the gameplay, the environments, the new bench system. They certainly didn't wanted to show you the jump scares on a demo.

Seriously, if you're all up in arms because of these complains, you're really missing out on a potentially great game for really stupid reasons. But hey, that's you.

@Klei: If done reasonably, I think the snow obstructing your vision could work. It would just stop people continually holding down the aim button to move like a snow mobile through the environment. After 'x' amount of seconds, just have it start to cut off the vision a little and continue to grow. It would help increase tension as you'd know you have to choose your moments to get a shot off. When fighitng larger enemies you'd still be able to see their general shape and figure through the snow - the vibration functions on the controller could get heavier the closer the enemy is.

@Chontamenti said:

@Svenzon: This "The Ting" vibe is just because there is snow everywhere, I think. ;D (is this sentence grammatical correct? I don't know ,_,)

I played the demo now. And yes.. I will not pick this game up!

I mean.. when you don't aim Isaac is really slow, you aim an OMG the snow is no problem anymore! YES I know I'm nit-picking here.. but come on! This is something that drag me out of the experience! It immediately caught my attention! In addition to that: Lack of horror-elements. Just because there is an instrument playing louder than the usual game sound doesn't create atmosphere! Yeah in most cases it does, but not when everything is illuminated and the visual moment itself is not scary at all!

I mean yeah, the game spawns (!) a dude out of the snow.. but I shoot him and he is done. He had no chance anyway.. why does the developer think "THIS IS A SCARY MOMENT, WE NEED A SCARY INSTRUMENT SOUND HERE, PLAYING WITH VOLUME 100 EVEN WHEN THE GAMER SET THE VOLUME TO 30!!" this is not scary to me at all! It isn't even fun anymore! And that saddens me! This fanchise was BIG! Then it got OKAY because it went to mishmash, ans now it IS mishmash with no ray of hope at all!

Like I said at top of this thread: I abandoned all hope.. now for sure!

Ooookay.

First thing, the snow. You say how Isaac is slowed down by it, and yet, when you aim, you regain 100% of your mobility. I get your point. But really, why do you think they chose to not hinder you when you aim? Because you most likely spend a good time in snowy areas and it would end up frustrating a lot of people, myself included.

Especially when bigger creatures are involved, you need to be able to move around and I doubt they tailored the game's monsters to be affected by snow too, thus, having to create a whole new set of animations and combat rules. Just think before you complain, seriously.

Then, you proceed to say that the game is not scary at all. For real, you complain about this? Dead Space has never been scary. It has been TENSE and filled with jump scares, but scary? Ever played DS1 and 2, brother? You are heavily armed and march through space stations and obliterate fools with special surgical cuts. Deep down, it is an action game with a snippet of horror elements.

When you complain about the sound, I really have no idea what's the problem there. It certainly doesn't reach '' 100 when volume is at 30 ''. Audio cues have been used since Hitchcock to highlight scenes or moments.

Also, this is a demo, which occurs right after Isaac's crash-landing on a snowy planet. You want horror elements right there? This is still the intro of the game, dude. They wanted to show you the gameplay, the environments, the new bench system. They certainly didn't wanted to show you the jump scares on a demo.

Seriously, if you're all up in arms because of these complains, you're really missing out on a potentially great game for really stupid reasons. But hey, that's you.

i tried the demo for a few minutes.

i quit as soon as the ladder i was climbing began to crumble and a button prompt came up for me do something to the left stick...i didnt even look at it long enough before i turned off the tv.

im so tired of quicktime events. so, damn tired .. im starting to think apple is sponsoring all this nonsense.. eh eh? apple .. QUICKTIME ...

I have really liked this series, so i'm sure I will be picking this up day one.

@Little_Socrates: Fallout 2 did a far less subtle job of poking fun at Scientology.

I don't mind ammo being less of an issue. In fact, one of my biggest problems with the first two games was that the default difficulty was always too easy, but the goto method of making the game more challenging on the higher settings was to make ammo so brutally scarce that you literally couldn't afford to miss a single shot as opposed to making the combat noticeably more challenging. It absolutely drove me up a wall.

Ammo being a little more plentiful doesn't make "boo" type scares any less impactful in my mind.

@chontamenti: yes. everything you said.

Feels like Doom.