Space; Invaded

Power.

It's everything in this world. It's intrinsic in human nature to want power. Whether it's physical, in the workplace or in videogames, we want to feel like we're in control and have that power to influence everything around us. Now, there are times when this isn't the case (and I'm not talking S&M). Horror fans love to feel powerless, to be scared by an ever escalating situation that no one could possibly influence to work to their advantage. It's the same in novels, comics, movies and games. One perfect example of horror done right in recent years within the videogame spectrum is Dead Space.

Poor, poor Isaac.

Dead Space had everything going for it. It had an intriguing and original storyline, a great setting and, perhaps most important of all, that sense of pure powerlessness. The first 15 minutes of that game had scared me more than Resident Evil or Silent Hill had done in almost a decade. Everyone getting killed infront of your eyes (in typical flashing light "let your mind work out the rest" fashion) and then having to run away from the Necromorphs in a corridor barely large enough to fit two people in. Jumping into the elevator, I felt genuine relief that I had survived and outran the mutated monsters chasing me. Two seconds later that sense of relief changed to terror as a scripted event led me to pause the game and go smoke a cigarette whilst rocking away in a corner, trying to pluck up the courage to play the game again.

Playing the rest of the game, I felt more and more comfortable fighting these monsters, but there was always a sense of dread walking the halls of the USG Ishimura. Not just because of the Necromorph invasion of the ship, but because of the ship itself. The setting was what helped sell this lack of power, the feeling that you were not fighting to save this ship, but just to survive. The touches of people hitting their heads against the wall until it cracked open, the person shooting himself and the the audio logs representing life just before the outbreak. To top it off, what about THAT ending. It made me fall in love with the horror-survival genre all over again.

Still dark, but with a new evil.

Going into Dead Space 2, I always knew that I wasn't going to be as scared as I was when I played the original for the first time. But what I wasn't prepared for was the ways in which I was going to be scared now. Yes, there were still incredibly gruesome ways that Isaac could get killed and the overwhelming odds that Isaac has to overcome just to survive. The main enemy wasn't the Necromorph, it wasn't even the Sprawl or trying to take down the Marker. It was Isaac's own, demented mind.

Visceral took the ending of the first game and evolved it into what was, perhaps, the best antagonist the series has. The highlight for me was Chapter 6. For that chapter, the environment took centre stage and made me feel not just a total lack of power and control, but made me truly upset. It's videogames like these that make you think of what happened. Your own mind will always project the worst imagery and it is, in most cases, far more effective than a developer trying to project those images for you.

This image will forever be in my nightmares.

With this in mind, I've been scared of Dead Space 3. Not for any of the reasons above, but for the completely inverted feeling of power. This time round, I'm not scared of the environment, I'm not scared of the Necromorph or the religion trying to kill Isaac, but I'm scared that the feeling of power I had when playing the demo will mean I will be playing an action game, not a survival horror.

Whilst initially afraid that the game was taking place on a planet (read: not space), Tau Volantis could prove to work well for it. It's incredibly hostile, with the consistent snow blizzards making poor visibility the norm. It takes the long, dark corridors of the Ishimura and the Sprawl and flips it on its head. I've got to give it credit for making such open spaces feel so alone, so confined and even more so, dangerous. When trudging through the snow, the audio cues made me anticipate someone coming at me. The dense snowstorm meant that the Necromorph who came charging at me got a headstart and as such, I was forced into panic-shooting, eventually taking it down.

An odd union, but one I feel works.

Continuing through the demo, however, I never had that panic again. The abundance of ammo, health packs and placement of enemies made it easy for me to anticipate what was coming next and prepare for it. If it looked like a group, the rifle/pulse hybrid worked wonders. If it was a singular enemy, the classic Plasma Cutter sufficed. The two weapon slots allow for a limited weapon range, but the new modification system counteracts that. If you have the parts (more on that in a second), you can create a hybrid weapon that combines two weapons of your choice to take with you to take out the enemies of this snow planet.

The upside of this customisation is that it allows you to create a failsafe, something you could always rely should things go south. The downside to this, I feel, would undo the ingenuity behind the system. Creating these weapons require materials, and there are two ways to get these. Through exploring the world, destroying boxing and stomping the enemies you face, you can gain access to these. The OTHER way is through a series of micro-transactions. If you just want to purchase the materials to get that electric modification that allows it to be shot and rebound off of walls, but you're short on Tungsten, you can pay real world money in-game to get a boost of the resources you need. By doing this, I'm afraid that too many people will take advantage of this just to walk through the game with incredibly powerful weapons, taking the sense of power and amplifying it to the point where you would be pardoned for thinking you were playing "just another" sci-fi shoot'em'up.

We've got a "Bropocalypse" on our hands.

Another real problem I have is the inclusion of co-op. Isaac isn't the only one you can take control of in Dead Space 3. John Carver is a new character that your co-op partner will play as. Visceral say that it is drop-in, drop-out, meaning that the story won't get interrupted should your friend want to stop or gets disconnected (a step-up from Resident Evil 5). The main problem I have with this is that, as the past two Resident Evil titles have shown, cooperative gameplay takes the fear away. The isolation, the challenge that it's just you vs. the hordes of reanimated dead is stripped away when you've got someone to help you out.

I concede that it's been clearly stated that both of the problems I've stated have been addressed. The co-op play is completely optional and won't detract from the single-player experience and that the micro-transactions are there for the people who maybe don't have time to smash every box and collect every resource. My rebuttal to this is that by playing the game alone, I could potentially miss out on the extra dialogue between Clarke and Carver that could touch upon the lore of the Dead Space universe. I'll just ignore the resource purchases, because I know I'll end up relying on it should I be in dire need of an upgrade (and that's just the problem).

I hope Dead Space 3 doesn't crash land.

Whilst I completely understand that Visceral and the series in general would get slated for not trying to take it in a different direction and would suffer from the stale rot that other series have been suffering from (yes, I'm looking at you, Resident Evil), but this direction feels like not just a small step for Isaac, but a huge leap for the series. I'm afraid that it could potentially take the best aspects of Dead Space and completely remove it, making it another third-person cover shooter and not that of a power-stripping, nightmare inducing experience.

CJ Out.





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