EPTFirst to expand on my review of the game, now that I'm further in I feel I can make more serious comments on the combat system. During some early portions I got a weird Gears of War vibe in that you can roll around and crouch behind object while fighting some human opponents, however this didn't last too long and soon combat was feeling very much so like in the other Dead Space games. One interesting change in DS3 is that Ammo is now universal, I guess they felt the need to do this with the weapon customization system (I'll get to that in a moment) and while I'm not sure how I feel about that I can understand it from a design perspective.
If you're wondering what your going to collect besides Universal Ammo (just called Ammo) and Medpacks well then you clearly haven't heard of the weapon customization feature in DS3. Once you get to a certain point in the game you will start finding parts and soon after your first workbench. The game brings up a little tutorial on your first visit as the interface here has gotten a fair bit more complicated, but you can now build weapon pieces and modify and upgrade your weapons in a FAR far more customizable way than any other DS game yet. I'm looking forward to playing with this piece more and seeing how worthwhile this feature is. In addition to weapons you can also now assemble other items like medpacks and ammo.
Ok back to my play-through... So don't click if you don't want Spoliers!
+ Show Spoiler +
So after his fall from somewhere up a building Issac manages to land on a convenient pile of dead bodies, and as he wakes up he finds some of the very human like Necromorphs from the very first part of the game trying to get to him. Well our plasma cutter has something to say about that and soon the room has a couple more dead bodies. As we are exploring the rooms around I spy a few bodies that look a lot like necro's laying in wait to ambush us. Not wanting to use any ammo shooting possibly unanimated dead bodies I decided to see if my Kinesis is still around, and low and behold it's there waiting for us to use. Now walking around seems alot more fun as I can scan a room by spamming my grapple and grab any items as well as spot the necro's playing dead.
While at first the necro's look almost totally human it doesn't take long before they start appearing with spikes and shooting tentacles like we've grown to expect. Besides groups of necro's and finding the occasional unlucky human being torn to shreds nothing terribly eventful happens as we stroll through the city trying to find our way out of here. Eventually we reach the train station where we have to put the train back together (oh... this is where we are finally told we have the Kinesis modal in case you didn't start spamming it like I did). Once it's back together we get on and now must move through the train while it speeds it's way out of the city. As we head to the USD Eudora, the ship trying to rescue us, more Unitologists decide to get in the way. A few plasma cutter shots to the head and they are all cleared out, and we are able to get aboard the Eudora. The ship seems pretty clean and tidy, and feels oddly void of necromorhps... oh well I'm sure they'll give me something to shoot pretty soon...
Turns out I don't really get the chance, as soon as we make our way up to the bridge these guys fly their ship right into a minefield around the same ice planet the game started on. Issac quickly jumps into action and tries to find himself a real rig so that he can get out into space and help these guys out. We're now into the second big action sequence of the game as Issac runs down the corridors, while the gravity shifts on him, and then managed to jump into the airlock room with a space-worthy rig. Just in time too as he is blown out into space and only barely manages to get his helmet on once outside. Now we are in a Zero-G area and mush float around till we get back to the crew, and then Issac decides it's a good idea to blow the room clear of the now doomed Eudora while he is still outside. Well this goes about as well as expected and we now have to guide a speeding Issac across space into this tiny room-ship while dodging Mines and Space debris.... Did I mention there's a lot of action in this game? I have to say, these portions of the game are my least favorite (I remember feeling the same in DS2), there tends to be a lot going on onscreen and with the controls suddenly being different it can be disorienting, not to mention if you
get by something it can be hard to tell what you did wrong at times.
Well through trial and error (I already lost count of my deaths... I'm a scrub) I managed to guide Issac through and he was able to grab onto the room with the other guys and even managed to reach a ship in the debris field that looks to still have oxygen and a distress beacon going inside possibly Ellie's. It seems this ship is one of the 200 year old ones as it's doors have to be turned by the Kinesis instead of just hitting the open button. However with all the debris around it seems like we are finally able to start salvaging weapon parts for the new customizable weapons. Sure enough before too long we power up a bench and get our first taste of the weapon's menu. After a brief tutorial we are able to craft and build weapons, at a glance this new feature looks pretty in depth and should be fun to mess with, but for now we don't really have enough materials to work with so I decide to move on and save our stuff for later.
Well, turning on that Bench also got power working to the door marked "Quarantine", which is apparently the way we have to go. Fortunitly this probably doesn't mean much since these ships have been derelict for so long.... Nope, fucking Necromorphs are just chilling on the ceilings waiting for fresh meat to get active again. At least the 200 year wait seems to have left these guys a little slower and easier to kill than their fresh breathern. As we start clearing rooms it quickly becomes apparent that looking up for these cocooned Necros is a great way to spawn them one at a time an pick them off easy, though it seems that if you give them a moment to pick up speed they will really zoom at you, so having a clear line of sight is key. Soon we find ourselves in a Zero-G area, and as soon as we lift off and fly into the chamber those little Tri-tentacle Necros show up and start shooting at us. While these necro's used to look like babies now they appear to be some kinda of dog necro? Odd change, and while the looks more freakish it breaks the lore a little I think (maybe I'm wrong, but that's what they look like).
In the next big room we find the Power Generator for the ship, which is of course disconnected at the moment. Well surely as we connect this thing back up we'll be safe right? Nope, this is Dead Space, where every time we restore power, activate a machine, or flip a switch Necros come out to hug and congratulate us. These Necro's are slowly but surely starting to get more deadly as well, not only are there a few varieties now but the humanoid ones are starting to split into smaller and faster necros when blown apart... scary. Well after the power is back on it's time to take the elevator up and see whats at this distress beacon, funny the elevators here still work like normal. After we get to the top we receive, a maybe not so heartfelt greeting from Ellie and are quickly put to work to help translate some insane Admiral's marker script. This brings me up to Chapter 4 which is where I will be ending for now.
While at first the necro's look almost totally human it doesn't take long before they start appearing with spikes and shooting tentacles like we've grown to expect. Besides groups of necro's and finding the occasional unlucky human being torn to shreds nothing terribly eventful happens as we stroll through the city trying to find our way out of here. Eventually we reach the train station where we have to put the train back together (oh... this is where we are finally told we have the Kinesis modal in case you didn't start spamming it like I did). Once it's back together we get on and now must move through the train while it speeds it's way out of the city. As we head to the USD Eudora, the ship trying to rescue us, more Unitologists decide to get in the way. A few plasma cutter shots to the head and they are all cleared out, and we are able to get aboard the Eudora. The ship seems pretty clean and tidy, and feels oddly void of necromorhps... oh well I'm sure they'll give me something to shoot pretty soon...
Turns out I don't really get the chance, as soon as we make our way up to the bridge these guys fly their ship right into a minefield around the same ice planet the game started on. Issac quickly jumps into action and tries to find himself a real rig so that he can get out into space and help these guys out. We're now into the second big action sequence of the game as Issac runs down the corridors, while the gravity shifts on him, and then managed to jump into the airlock room with a space-worthy rig. Just in time too as he is blown out into space and only barely manages to get his helmet on once outside. Now we are in a Zero-G area and mush float around till we get back to the crew, and then Issac decides it's a good idea to blow the room clear of the now doomed Eudora while he is still outside. Well this goes about as well as expected and we now have to guide a speeding Issac across space into this tiny room-ship while dodging Mines and Space debris.... Did I mention there's a lot of action in this game? I have to say, these portions of the game are my least favorite (I remember feeling the same in DS2), there tends to be a lot going on onscreen and with the controls suddenly being different it can be disorienting, not to mention if you
get by something it can be hard to tell what you did wrong at times.
Well through trial and error (I already lost count of my deaths... I'm a scrub) I managed to guide Issac through and he was able to grab onto the room with the other guys and even managed to reach a ship in the debris field that looks to still have oxygen and a distress beacon going inside possibly Ellie's. It seems this ship is one of the 200 year old ones as it's doors have to be turned by the Kinesis instead of just hitting the open button. However with all the debris around it seems like we are finally able to start salvaging weapon parts for the new customizable weapons. Sure enough before too long we power up a bench and get our first taste of the weapon's menu. After a brief tutorial we are able to craft and build weapons, at a glance this new feature looks pretty in depth and should be fun to mess with, but for now we don't really have enough materials to work with so I decide to move on and save our stuff for later.
Well, turning on that Bench also got power working to the door marked "Quarantine", which is apparently the way we have to go. Fortunitly this probably doesn't mean much since these ships have been derelict for so long.... Nope, fucking Necromorphs are just chilling on the ceilings waiting for fresh meat to get active again. At least the 200 year wait seems to have left these guys a little slower and easier to kill than their fresh breathern. As we start clearing rooms it quickly becomes apparent that looking up for these cocooned Necros is a great way to spawn them one at a time an pick them off easy, though it seems that if you give them a moment to pick up speed they will really zoom at you, so having a clear line of sight is key. Soon we find ourselves in a Zero-G area, and as soon as we lift off and fly into the chamber those little Tri-tentacle Necros show up and start shooting at us. While these necro's used to look like babies now they appear to be some kinda of dog necro? Odd change, and while the looks more freakish it breaks the lore a little I think (maybe I'm wrong, but that's what they look like).
In the next big room we find the Power Generator for the ship, which is of course disconnected at the moment. Well surely as we connect this thing back up we'll be safe right? Nope, this is Dead Space, where every time we restore power, activate a machine, or flip a switch Necros come out to hug and congratulate us. These Necro's are slowly but surely starting to get more deadly as well, not only are there a few varieties now but the humanoid ones are starting to split into smaller and faster necros when blown apart... scary. Well after the power is back on it's time to take the elevator up and see whats at this distress beacon, funny the elevators here still work like normal. After we get to the top we receive, a maybe not so heartfelt greeting from Ellie and are quickly put to work to help translate some insane Admiral's marker script. This brings me up to Chapter 4 which is where I will be ending for now.
That's all for now, hopefully I'll get more in tomorrow but I've got some busy days coming up so it may be a little while.
