Dead Space 3 Demo: Isaac is Dead In The Water.

They say that, in space, nobody can hear you scream. That's fortunate, because the latest offering by Visceral Games left me furious at the direction the series has been shunted in. I had, of course, heard rumblings around the Internet on the matter. Some were likening it to 'Dead Space for the CoD crowd'. And, ladies and gentlemen, if this demo is anything to go by they are bang on the money. It's a horrific mutation in the Dead Space gene pool, and one that should have been jettisoned.

I had downloaded the demo with hope in my heart. I'm a huge fan of the series, in a twisted manner. I've completed both 'main' games, as well as the Wii spin-off 'Dead Space: Extraction', as well as reading the literature and catching up on the films. Yet, despite all of that love, the games terrify me. I can't play them in the house alone, and I sure as Hell can't play with the lights off. I'm not a fan of horror games as a staple, as I'm sure you can tell. But the Dead Space series had so much more to it than blood and gore. It had several elements that kept me holding that controller. There was a concrete story, there was a character you invested yourself in(more so in the sequel) but above all, there was tension. It stacked up the pressure again and again, letting you think you had escaped some horrific consequence them BAM! You're plummeting through a falling train, fighting baddies as you go. Good times. But hold on tight, what's coming up has no thrills of any kind. It's grey, wearing a coat and pretending it's a rainbow.

Firstly, there was the length of the demo. Yes, I know it's just supposed to be a taster for the main course. It's supposed to get me just hungry enough to order the whole thing. I get that. But Jesus Christ, I didn't even get the fork to my mouth. It got snatched away, and then dangled the food in front of me. I don't like people screwing with my food, Visceral. I don't like it at all. While on the topic of tantalising the audience, it just didn't. It fell so flat in so many different areas. The landscape was a bland, ice planet where a Tonton wouldn't have looked out of place. The weapons consisted of the classic plasma cutter and some heavy fire weapon that I didn't discover until the last minute. There are set pieces in this demo: A giant drill and a centipede Necromorph. Oh, and you don't fight the latter. Sucks, huh.

So next up is weapons. You only have access to two in the demo, as previously mentioned. However, you can find bits of other weapons scattered around Ice Ball VII(as I have crowned it) which can be later used at a bench to upgrade your weapons. It does little to nothing to explain exactly how to use this new function, though. I just pushed buttons and added new stuff until it looked pretty. I call that the scientific method. What I wound up with in the end was a plasma cutter than, as its primary function, threw rocks at bad guys. It was only by using the secondary function that I could shoot. I'm pretty sure killing things is a primary objective.

Isaac gets to play dress-up too, styling a new Arctic Survival Suit. It's all fur and chic and would probably do little or nothing to stop a Necromorph carving out your heart and playing tennis with it. But he gets to look pretty. It also comes with upgradable slots for hit points, air and armour strength. The interface for this was nicely streamlined, but the shop of old seems to have been cut out for the demo. I can't say I missed it terribly, because even at that point I felt the shift from survival horror to CoD in Space. It was a very clear point, and it was about to get a whole lot clearer.

Cover has become a function in Dead Space 3, and one that I sense will become vital as the game rolls on. You can cower behind various objects and fire out at your enemies. Which are not only Necromorphs, but now include other people too! So you've been kicked down from badass alien killer to glorified grunt. So, that's a thing now. In co-op, you can kill with a friend which actually adds very little to the experience, and possibly detracts from what little atmosphere there was. The new guy is simply called Carver and, as we know, all the best people are named after forms of mutilation. You're no longer one man, alone and outmatched, using your wits to survive. You're good cop and bad cop, screaming a loud and proud 'screw you' to anything that looks at you funny. Less Dead Space 3, more Army of Two. Actually, I retract that statement. I enjoyed Army of Two.

So, to wrap this all up for you, I couldn't stomach the Dead Space 3 demo. In mere minutes, it destroyed what I had spent years coming to love. It confirmed the series' transition into the generally bland lands of shooters, and its descent into mediocrity. For the sake of closure, I'll buy Dead Space 3 when it hits the bargain bucket but not before. As a demo, it failed. As a Dead Space game, it failed miserably. In conclusion, you should give this demo a miss, especially if you're a fan of the series. Goodnight Isaac, it was nice knowing you.


Dead Space 3 will be released in February 2013.