Dead Space 3 - Xbox 360

Chewed Up, Spit Out, And Back For More

Tim Turi — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:00:00 GMT

As long as mankind has existed, our base instincts have included survival and tool creation. Visceral Games’ latest entry in its acclaimed horror franchise expertly taps into these core desires. Players still creep through dim corridors while blasting limbs off alien zombies, but the scope of survival has expanded. What you bring to battle is completely up to you thanks to the deep weapon-crafting system. Protagonist Issac Clarke can also suit up with a buddy this time in two-player co-op. These features culminate into one of the most rewarding video games I’ve ever played.

Most of Dead Space 3’s preview coverage has highlighted hero Isaac Clarke’s harrowing quest on the inhospitable ice planet, Tau Volantis. I was surprised and pleased to play several exciting acts that take place before his trip to the Hoth-like snowball. One section made me feel like an astronaut more than any other game has, and I loved it. Floating around the debris of destroyed space ships is surreal yet calming. This zero-gravity, focused part of the game is more open than previous Dead Space entries, allowing you to shuttle between sites and accept optional missions. Tau Volantis has a similar structure, sans the zero gravity. Straying off the critical path and accepting side quests regularly rewards players with goodies like ammo, health, and precious resources.

Unlike the first two games, players gather resources like tungsten and scrap metal instead of money. These materials are used to make extra ammo, upgrade your suit, craft weapons, and more. Scavenging much-needed resources is just as satisfying as finding that critical health pack when things get rough. Even better, you acquire little robots that troll areas for goodies and automatically return to your workbench, so every trip to a bench is like Christmas. Sorting through all your items to see what new weapons you can craft or tweak is a worthwhile endeavor that gives you a greater sense of ownership over your equipment.

Previous Dead Space games had players purchase new weapons, but Dead Space 3 gives you one gun to start with and sets you loose with the best weapon-crafting system I’ve ever encountered. Weapon components like gun frames, plasma cores, and ammo modifiers can combine into countless configurations. I thought I had optimized my resources by cobbling together a decent line cutter that I used for half the game. Then I spent 15 minutes reconstructing my main firearm from the ground up, and boy was I wrong. Your upgrade circuits and components are salvaged when you dismantle weapons, encouraging experimentation. I started mopping up necromorphs with my devastating custom plasma cutter/flamethrower hybrid, complete with stasis-enhanced rounds.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Dead Space 3 is still creepy, but this entry is more action-packed than previous games. That’s a good thing. Isaac’s intuitive new dodge roll makes avoiding the larger nercromorph attacks more manageable. His enhanced mobility is extra helpful during gigantic, tense boss battles that force players to think strategically about their stasis and telekinetic powers. Battles may be frequent and frenzied, but the game does a great job of building suspense. Battling necromorphs along Tau Volantis’ frozen surface while your body temperature plummets is thrilling. The game also boasts one of the most intense, Lost-style crash sequences in gaming. The only notable speed bump occurs in the final act of the game, which has tedious backtracking and difficult battles that feel forced. Otherwise, the pacing is masterful.

Every event in the game, including the aforementioned crash sequence, is playable with a friend via online-only co-op. One player is Isaac, the other is Carver, a no-BS military man. The game tosses more enemies at players in co-op mode, but having an extra gun makes the deadly mission more fun and decidedly easier (we recommend playing co-op on hard). A handful of missions require you to play cooperatively, and are gated off in single-player. These missions reward co-op partners with worthwhile bonus story details and loot, but solo players aren’t being denied anything critical. Players controlling Carver see unique, twisted hallucinations that players controlling Isaac will not. The bizarre, asymmetrical experience makes co-op feel true to the series and helps flesh out Carver’s background. Also, players gather independent loot but can still share items (including weapon blueprints), which streamlines the whole experience. The main hitch in co-op lies in the cutscenes, which awkwardly pan away from Carver to focus on Isaac. In one such moment Carver miraculously teleports from Isaac’s side to the ship they were both trying to board.

Visceral laid the foundation for a terrific horror series with the first Dead Space. The clean, HUD-less presentation, dismemberment-focused gunplay, and expertly crafted derelicts have made each successive entry feel ahead of its time. Dead Space 3 evolves the winning formula into a title not only befitting of the fantastic series, but also one of the best games of this generation.

Get Ready For Dead Space 3 With Phil Collins

Kyle Hilliard — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:27:00 GMT

Dead Space 3 is coming next week, so EA and Visceral have decided to release an exciting launch trailer to get everyone excited. That's fairly typical. What isn't typical, is using Phil Collin's "In the air tonight" as the trailer's soundtrack. It's an odd choice, but I think it works. Check it out below.

Dead Space 3 is coming Tuesday, February 5.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Newest Dead Space 3 Trailer Gives You Two Ways To Play

Kyle Hilliard — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:45:59 GMT

The latest Dead Space 3 trailer shows a little bit of single-player, and little bit of co-op multiplayer.

After Dead Space 3's E3 showing, which featured an action-heavy sequence in brightly-lit snow, many were understandably concerned that Dead Space 3 may not be as scary as the first two games. This newest trailer seems to curb that fear of a lack of fear somewhat, with lots of scary-looking stuff.

Dead Space 3 is set for release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360. and PC on February 5.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Dead Space 3 Preview: Isaac's Weapon Crafting Gets Creative

Bryan Vore — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:09:00 GMT

Dead Space hero Isaac Clarke is a known gun tinkerer, frequently boosting his weapons’ ammo capacity, damage rates, and reload speeds. For the latest entry, developer Visceral Games is scrapping this node-based upgrade system and starting over. Isaac still relies on old favorites like the plasma cutter and ripper in combat, but now you can combine both into a single necromorph-slicing machine. Read on to find out how a little weapon creativity goes a long way on the chilling new planet of Tau Volantis.

Frame

Before you get too carried away with wild weapon combos, it’s important to select the right frame for the job. The two options on display so far include the compact frame for one-handed guns and the heavy frame for two-handers.

Upper Tool

Now the fun starts. If you’ve collected the necessary parts, you can choose from an arsenal ranging from a flamethrower to the necromorph-impaling telemetry spike. Here are some examples we’ve seen so far.

• Pneumatic Torch - An incendiary device fueled by compressed gas

• Military Engine - A military weapon used by S.C.A.F. forces

• Plasma Core - A cutting tool that fires ionized plasma fuel

• Tesla Core - An engine for high-current electric welding

• Telemetry Spike - A mining tool that fires tempered alloy bolts

• Survey Charge - A seismic tool that fires explosive canisters

• Rip Core - A short-range suspended saw blade tool

• Hydraulic Cutter - A bayonet-like cutting tool, used for clearing large areas

Upper Adaptor

This is essentially a barrel that augments the upper weapon. The tesla core, for example, can be changed from a focused beam to a bouncy bola, sticky electrified bola, or an arcing electrical current that can spread among multiple targets. Every weapon type has this amount of variety and more. Here are a few examples:

• Precision Adaptor - Focuses effect or projectile for increased accuracy and lethality

• Compressor - Compresses effect or projectile into a more compact, intense form

• Directed Suspension Field - Enables kinetic suspension of effect or projectile

• Diffraction Torus - Allows effect or projectile to spread around the point of impact

• Directed Ejection Field - Fires effect or projectile in short, forceful impulses

• Rail Accelerator - Accelerates effect or projectile at high speed with penetrating force

Top Attachment And Side Attachment

As you can see from the examples below, these two add-on slots offer a range of supplemental abilities that can make you more deadly in combat or help out your co-op partner.

• Ammo Box - Automatically reloads after last shot

• Ammo Support - Increases ammo efficiency for self and partner

• Ammo Sweeper - Automatically picks up nearby ammo

• Damage Support - Increases partner’s damage with all weapons

• Full Zoom Scope - Prototype military scope for advanced long-range aiming

• Medic Support - Health packs consumed by self also heal partner

• Safety Guard - Prevents user from taking damage from his own weapons

• Scope - Military scope for long-range aiming

• Acid Bath - Coats projectiles in acid that does damage over time

• Electric Charge - Electrifies projectiles to cause small amounts of voltaic damage

• Flame Glaze - Adds fire to projectiles

Lower Tool And Adaptor

Using the same list of options you have for the upper gun, you can add a different weapon effect on the secondary fire button. This is where the real creativity comes in. Will you combine long and short range attacks? Maybe you want to have scoped acid shots. They’re all options.

Upgrade Circuits

Mixing and matching unique weapons is a nice option to have, but what if you want to improve a combo you already like? Upgrade circuits work much like the old power nodes, offering improvements to damage, rate of fire, reload speed, clip size, and more.

Blueprints

Once your custom weapon is complete, you give it a name and a custom blueprint is generated. You can share your concoctions with co-op partners, but EA wouldn’t say whether it’s building an online platform for sharing them with the rest of the world. If you’re concerned that crafting could be too distracting to the campaign, blueprints are also scattered throughout the game so you can simply tap a button, get a new weapon instantly, and be on your way. These range from traditional weapons like a simple sniper rifle to a chain gun/rocket launcher combo.

This article originally appeared in issue #235 of Game Informer Magazine.

Expand Your Wardrobe And Arsenal With Preorder Bonuses

Jeff Cork — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:52:00 GMT

As with most survival-horror games, you're constantly outnumbered and outgunned in Visceral Games' upcoming shooter Dead Space 3. Players who preorder the game can score some in-game weapons and suits that could even things out against the necromorphs.

If you preorder the game from participating retailers, you can get the game's limited edition at no additional cost. It includes the insulated Witness Suit and the First Contact Suit (perfect for zero G and space sections). There are also a pair of weapons included in the bundle. The Evangelizer is a combination assault rifle/shotgun, while the Negotiator is a Tesla-powered energy weapon designed to tear organic matter apart.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

For more information on the game, which is due out in February, take a look at our in-depth preview.

Isaac's Day Keeps Getting Worse in Dead Space 3

Jordan LaPorte — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:05:00 GMT

The new gameplay trailer for Dead Space 3 begins with Isaac in a precarious position, trying to escape from a ship before it explodes and brings an abrupt end to his adventures in space. After escaping the ship, Isaac and the other survivors find themselves on a derelict flotilla. It doesn’t take long for Isaac to realize that the dead crew of the flotilla has been transformed into Necromorphs.

The gameplay is demonstrated by the creative director and senior audio artist of Dead Space 3, who really push the isolated atmosphere of the featured section. Dead Space 3 releases February 5, 2013 in North America for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Build Your Own Guns From Scratch In Dead Space 3

Kyle Hilliard — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:34:00 GMT

Among the many new features of Dead Space 3 is the ability to craft your own weapons. You can mix and match your favorite parts to create the ultimate gun. In the video below, Dead Space 3's user interface lead explains the new process.

Dead Space 3 is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC February 4, 2013.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

EA Reveals Chilling New Dead Space 3 Trailer and Screens

Matt Helgeson — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:49:00 GMT

The next chapter in Visceral's sci-fi horror franchise looks as tense and terrifying as you'd hope. These new screens and trailer were released at the annual Gamescom convention in Germany.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Dead Space 3 Preview — Hell Freezes Over

Jeff Cork — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:33:00 GMT

Isaac Clarke has experienced unspeakable horrors. His exposure to an alien artifact known as the Marker has left him psychologically unhinged, making him a target for medical experimentation and betrayal. He has been haunted by the spirit of his girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, nearly losing his own life through her manipulations. Through it all, he’s had to battle the necromorphs, a terrifying alien threat that repurposes organic life, corrupting and twisting its hosts into mind-bending forms. Through the series, players have been left with a series of nagging questions. Who build the Markers and why? How do they work? With Dead Space 3, Visceral Games is not only providing answers, but it’s delivering an installment that will make players look at Dead Space in a whole new light.

Isaac awakes with a start, coughing. His eyes dart around frantically as he tries to gain his bearings. He’s suspended upside-down, and his face is banged-up and bloodied. More disconcertingly, his hair is dusted with a layer of frost. He’s in a confined space made from walls of twisted metal beams and paneling, and flames lick through small gaps. His breathing is labored, and he strains to free himself. After a few agonizing seconds, he drops down, and the camera spins to meet him on the ground.

The impact frees a few icicles from the misshapen ruins of what’s now clearly a crash site. Isaac rises to his feet and activates his suit’s helmet, which slides over his head. The camera pulls back, giving us the first full-bodied view of the engineer. A low-health beacon flashes on his back, providing visual confirmation of what we already figured out: Isaac Clarke isn’t doing so well.

He takes a few tentative steps out of the flaming scrap, and he’s enveloped in a powerful blizzard. The wind howls and whistles as snow obscures the wreckage in his immediate vicinity. He trudges forward, holding a forearm up near his face in an effort to block the wind. “Ellie?” he calls out desperately, hoping his Dead Space 2 companion has also survived the event.

Welcome to Tau Volantis. This inhospitable planet is the stage for our gameplay demo. It’s desolate and brutal. An unrelenting wind scours the surface, making trips of otherwise mundane distances a gamble. This is the second chapter of the game’s story, which picks up a few months after Dead Space 2 left off.

Isaac lurches on, knee deep in the snow, which is also accumulating in spots on his segmented helmet and shoulders. As a precaution, he pulls out his trusty Ripper, a rotary saw that carves through flesh as easily as whatever it was once intended for. Ahead, he sees an opening in the snow framed by a swinging gate — a sign of civilization. Suddenly, a ghastly sight pierces the haze. A creature with a glowing orange, grimacing face rushes out, and Isaac quickly dispatches it with a few well-placed blades. Isaac isn’t alone.

A New Enemy
Inside the cavern, Isaac is insulated from the elements, but he’s certainly no safer. A few corpses in yellow parkas lurch upright as Isaac approaches, and the Ripper is once again called into action. Necromorphs. As he blasts these new Fodder enemies apart with his weapon, we see one of Dead Space 3’s new features. The Fodders transform from their biped forms into one of two other abominations depending on how they’re attacked. After one enemy has a leg dismantled, four large spidery legs burst from the bottom of its torso and it skitters forward. Isaac drops the beast as it charges, dragging its remaining, useless leg behind it. Another Fodder enemy gets its top half ripped off, and it responds to the destruction by growing four tendrils near its exposed spinal column. This variant is particularly aggressive, and Isaac barely has time to dismember the creature before it slashes him apart with its whipping arms.

Isaac makes his way through the cavern, dropping a few necromorphs that pop out of the snowdrifts and collecting valuable ammo and health packs. They’re nowhere close to piñata-like showers, but ammo drops are more plentiful this time around, says lead gameplay and combat designer Ben Walker. Before you think that’s an invitation to fire blindly and hope for the best, consider this: Your errant shots could end up clipping an unseen Fodder, twisting it into a form that’s difficult to deal with.

Eventually, Isaac’s way is blocked by an abandoned excavator that’s stopped next to a ***-tightening drop. He opens the door, and the body of its driver slides out, plunging into the darkness. He’s only able to enjoy the refuge of the vehicle’s interior for a moment before it lurches toward the abyss with a groan. Now Isaac has to climb up and out of the vehicle, which has listed precariously on its side. He inches up slowly, steadily, gripping the seats and working toward the steering wheel. After a few agonizing seconds, Isaac slams the frozen driver’s side door open with his shoulder, escaping seconds before the machine disappears into the void.

Isaac has been doggedly travelling forward, but that isn’t the only way to play, says Visceral Games’ head and Dead Space 3 executive producer Steve Papoutsis. “Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 1 were very linear games. If you think about it, you start the game and go from point A to point B, and it’s fun and awesome. With Dead Space 3, we really wanted to open it up a bit. You’ll still have that really consistent and linear experience if you choose to experience the game that way, but if any moment you want to go off the rails so to speak and see what’s around, you’ll have the ability to explore the environment and find unique beta missions that aren’t required for the completion of the game.”

Ahead, he sees another tunnel. With any luck, that doomed vehicle was near an outpost. Isaac advances, taking out a few scattered necromorphs along the way. After clearing his way through the snowy burrow he emerges in front of a massive wall. Guard towers and spotlights line the structure, which at least implies that the location could be secure from the body-stealing necromorphs.

Shelter could provide more than a psychological break from the elements. Visceral wouldn’t specifically say how the cold affects Isaac, though senior producer Dave Woldman says the setting is more than window dressing. “You have a natural assumption of what that could mean for the gameplay and it’s our goal to deliver or exceed on that.” It seems likely that players will have to keep track of Isaac’s body temperature in the unforgiving cold or suffer the consequences, similarly to how oxygen management is a critical part of certain space sections in previous installments.

This preview originally ran in the July issue of Game Informer magazine.

Answering Questions: Dead Space 3 Story Interview

Ben Reeves — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:00:00 GMT

If you’re not paying attention, you’ve probably missed Dead Space’s rich lore. In the space of two games, Visceral Games has left fans with a lot of questions. Who created the Markers? What was their original purpose? Why do they create Necromorphs? We talked with creative director Ben Wanhe about how the studio plans to answer many of these questions in Dead Space 3.

After you guys finished Dead Space 2, what did you start looking at when you first started working on the sequel?

Ben Wanhe: We kind of wrote a backstory for the whole franchise, in a way. Its not a completely detailed story for everything to begin with, but as we started fleshing it out, we started figuring out what the entire arc of this whole thing would be. And what we really thought was important for the third game was to start answering some questions. So, we did get some feedback on the second game where people were like, “you know that was a great game, but what is the marker and why does it do what it does? What is its ultimate purpose?” We thought that for the third one it would be really important to really give people some concrete answers and really start to get into a lot of that lore that we’ve usually been kind of hazy with in the past. I think its just really important that we deliver a solid understanding of what it was they’ve been through in the last two games and give them a foundation of where it could go in the future.

Is there any history to that planet that you can share? What’s the story there?

I can’t tell you what the history is because that is a large part of the plot of the game, but the planet is very important to the Dead Space universe. Everyone is drawn there very specifically because they were looking for a way to stop the markers, this epidemic that has gotten out. What they end up finding there is going to be extremely important and very revelatory for this series. This is where they get all of their answers, so as you can imagine it’s a very important place in the entire mythology. They’re going to find some stuff on the planet that is going to lead to some really interesting reveals. Just know that it’s sort of a mystery that you’re unraveling and you’re kind of venturing into the unknown and finding out, revealing what’s happened. And what’s happened in the past and how this whole thing ties together and why everything points to this place.

Can you talk a little bit more about Carver and what his deal is? Where he comes from?

Carver is an EarthGov soldier. He’s actually a pretty interesting character. On the surface he’s just a soldier guy, he’s more of a grunt, he’s a sergeant in Earth Gov Special Ops. But underneath all that he’s a family man who is just not good at it at all. He’s a horrible father; he’s a horrible husband. A lot of that has to do with his experiences in the war. He’s kind of torn up inside, but he’s not the kind of guy that’s going to wear his emotions on his sleeve. He keeps it all inside, much like Isaac finds it very difficult to express himself, Carver has his own past buried inside. As you play through the game you’re going to start dredging up some of what it is that makes Carver who he is and kind of what his place is and what his role is in the story.

I know there is some fighting with Unitologists. How do they get involved in the story? What’s there motivation here?

The Unitoligists are a branch of Unitology called The Circle and they are a violent and fanatical group of Unitologists. The typical followers are natural, church goer-type people or whatever. This group, The Circle, has a very specific agenda and they have a man in charge that is leading them on this crusade. They have a very specific purpose in the story, which will be revealed later. But yeah, there is quite a bit of interesting background on these guys, why they formed and what there purpose is and what they want to achieve ultimately, but that all plays a very important part of the story.

When we were at E3 we got a chance to see some of the feeders, I believe? Those little scavenger-type creatures. What’s their deal? How were they created?

Those guys are basically people who have eaten infected flesh. The story there is that the people there were starving to death and they didn’t have any food and they managed to kill one of these creatures. They just couldn’t resist themselves and they started eating it and they started getting sick and a lot of stuff started happening to them. Eventually, they became, in a different way than you normally become a Necromorph, they became a sort of Necromorph that we call the Feeder. Because they have been trapped in the dark so long, they have trouble seeing, bright lights hurt their eyes. They get around mostly by sound so that’s why you can throw things in the environment and trick them into looking for it and try and sneak around the other way. If you do manage to enrage them, they just won’t stop. It pisses them off and they start screaming and they all start streaming out of the vents, all of their friends show up for the fight. So it becomes an interesting strategic element for the player: you can decide if you want to take them on head-on if you brought enough ammunition, but if you’re smart you’re going to start using the environment and learning how to get the best angle on the fight. Either to lay and wait for them, put some traps down, or whether or not you’re going to try and sneak by and ignore the fight altogether so that you don’t get destroyed by them.

Can you explain at all what has happened to the markers since two? The ones we know about?

Well, what we know from the end of two is that there have been quite a few of the out there that the government has been building. We don’t know how many are out there, but this overseer in the radio broadcast at the end of the last game he explicitly talks about the other marker sites. That becomes an important element in the story of Dead Space 3. It is an extension of that that ultimately causes the situation that we end up in in three.

But there is also a past to the markers which I thought was really important to tie into. If you remember the marker from Dead Space one that they found on Aegis VII was a man-made marker and it had been buried. The government had been searching for it and they sent Kendra over to go get it. Well she ended up dying and the marker got lost and then in the animated movie, Aftermath, Nolan Stross and his team went there and they found a shard. They didn’t bring back the shard, but they managed to bring back the blueprints on how to build markers encoded in Stross’ head. They also found the same blueprint in Isaac’s head. Isaac was used along with Stross to build a marker on the Sprawl, and now the government suddenly has the technology to build markers on their own. So by the end of that story you find out that they have built markers extensively, or at least they have plans to build them extensively at sites all over the galaxy.

The marker that was discovered on Aegis VII was also man-made, so was that a different government that made that one? Why did they have to get the blueprints from Stross?

I can’t answer that exactly, but you can look through the logs and you can read through and make your own conclusions, but somebody built that thing and it got buried and it got put on a planet that was blacklisted, no body is allowed to go there, no body is allowed to mine there. So you’ll have to draw some conclusions as to why it was there, who put it there, and why did they make the planet off-limits. All of that history comes full-circle and becomes important in Dead Space 3.

(Please visit the site to view this media)