Video Game: Impressions of the Dead Space 3 Demo

Some five years ago, I demo'ed Dead Space...and hated it.  I personally found the game slow and clunky, and within minutes, I was swarmed by these darn scary monsters and I was totally powerless to stop them.  Understanding the game's core concept of dismembering the necromorphs in order to fully kill them, I regarded the onslaught of monsters and thought to myself, yeah, right, I'll never get past all this! The game was successful and it spawned a popular sequel.  Regardless, I was not fond of the gameplay, as it did not make me feel empowered.  Reviews indicated that the missions were dull and repetitive, so I felt I wasn't missing much.  And I never did bother looking at Dead Space 2, despite all the hype and positive reviews.

So now, there's a third game in the series, and it's opened with a decent amount of hype and positive reviews.  I'm not sure what possessed me to demo this game, but I decided to download it on the PS3 and give it a shot.

This place is suffering from low morale.  Maybe some redecorating is in order...

Despite my indifference toward the series, I got to admit that the Dead Space 3 demo is a lot funner than what I remember out of the first game's demo.  The gameplay and control scheme is smooth and intuitive enough to blast away necromorphs right off the bat.  The character still moves pretty slowly, but he doesn't feel as agonizingly slow or lumbering the way I remember it from before.  As you trudge through the oppressive snowy planetscape and make your way through a derelict space colony, necromorphs pop out unexpectedly from the ground and out of dark corners; they inhabit the bodies of the colonists, even going so far as having them shoot back at you (although the colonists are also your enemies, and will shoot you anyway).  So, there are enemies everywhere, monsters always coming out for some serious in-your-face scares, and there are occasional big-scale challenges to deal with.

Only problems I see are:  the game might still be really annoying for me personally.  Probably because survivalist horror was never my forte, and this game gets really intense with the survivalism.  I ultimately gave up on the demo during the big spinning drill scene; I'm sure I could have gotten through it fine and dandy, but with three or four necromorphs flanking me all the time while I tried to shoot at the out-of-control drill, I decided this was getting too annoying.  I'm certain that the rest of the game would only have even more nerve-wracking challenges and boss fights, which would probably be way out of my league.  In the end, I could still see myself getting annoyed at the character's slowness and the relentlessness of the enemies.  I'm sure the game would creep me out at certain spots too.

From what I could tell, it is a fine-quality game.  Graphics are pretty impressive, and the sound is incredible.  Controls are smooth and intuitive.  Levels appear linear and straightforward, but are loaded with some appropriately grungy-looking settings and props.  I'm sure the story for this game will be fine and dandy too.

As it is, Dead Space 3 is a good-looking game that (once again) thrusts the player into the middle of a harrowing struggle for survival in deep space against insurmountable odds.  The game features a co-op option and the ability to build custom weapons.  Chances are good that if you enjoyed the last couple of games in the series, or are a fan of horror survivalist games, then you'll probably be quite happy with this game.