NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
So Dead Space 1 and 2 are some my most favorite games. I finished both of them multiple times, and I love the stories. The two games make a pretty nice duology; the first about the destruction of Isaac Clarke's life at the hands of an unknowable alien entity and the second about him taking control again. It makes a great character arc, and the characters were well acted, and a special shout-out to Gunner Wright who really brought Isaac to life in the second game. In fact, I consider Dead Space 2 one of the best sequels in the history of gaming, but that's just a personal opinion.
However, Dead Space 3... oof, the story told in Dead Space 3 is just so frustrating, especially because there's a lot of good ideas here, but they're either hamfistedly executed or the bad stuff around them totally craps on the good stuff.
The bad:
- That shitty love triangle.
- OH MY GOD IT WAS THE MOON. Honestly, I found the giant moon Necromorphs to be completely absurd, and then fighting it by shooting Markers in the eye just seemed so... dumb
- Unitologists pretty much took over in the course of three years. They went from being a devious cult to basically burning everything to the ground, but it all happens off-screen and seems like a surprise.
- The character of Norton.
- Carver kind of just sorta being shoved in there so EA could accommodate co-op.
There was some interesting ideas and influences that I loved though:
The three primary settings - Luna City had some seriously cool Blade Runner influence. Loved the dead Flotilla, it was very eerie and cool. And finally, Tau Volantis, echoing 'The Thing' was an inspired setting to use.
Coming across a previous alien race that achieved "Convergence" was really cool, and unraveling the mysteries around it was a cool concept.
Isaac achieving action hero status was kinda rad (even though the transition to full on action felt pretty weird).
A lot of the historical stuff, lore, and world-building was done spectacularly well. There's a great sense of atmosphere and history in the Flotilla and on Tau Volantis, especially with the stuff about The Colonies.
So yeah, it feels like a crappy, mediocre poorly paced action flick set in a world that should have had a more tight, intimate horror/survival narrative similar to Dead Space 1 and 2, but the conflict felt like it expanded so much beyond. Yes, Isaac destroyed two Markers in the past, but the dude was fucked up from it. This is basically him going to the source for reasons and then bad shit happens and it all just felt... tired.
Oh, and then there's Awakened! Which started out really interesting, but then... oh wow, everyone is dead and the Brother Moons are gonna eat everyone.
Like I just find it all so asinine. When I think "IT WAS THE MOON ALL ALONG", I just crack up.
And like, it's not like they didn't already have enough narrative built up in the past that they could have worked into the third game for a more emotional, intimate, and spookier game, while utilising the same basic plot framework and locations.
Why bother with Carver when you had another character waiting in the wings that would have been a perfect co-op/deuteragonist character with Isaac?
Lexine Murdoch-Weller survived Dead Space: Extraction and survived Dead Space 2: Severed (albeit losing her husband in the process, and fleeing with her newborn baby). You can easily set up a narrative about her life colliding with Isaac's. Maybe the Unitologists are after her and her baby cause she's a survivor of the Sprawl and resistant to the Marker's effects. Maybe there's something special about her child, whatever. Perhaps she joined a ragtag crew in the aftermath for work, and they're being chased by Unitologists and they go see Isaac. The Unitologists get wind of Isaac and boom, now he's on board whether he likes it or not.
And Isaac being in a relationship with Ellie is so dumb. Like, it's not really necessary and it just serves to be this dumb love triangle. I mean, if I was writing it, why not have their relationship just be platonic? I mean, Isaac is probably horribly fucked up, what he's gone through, it's not shit people get over. I mean, I could envision a storyline where maybe they're both living below the radar on Luna and she's around keeping him stable, and they're best friends, but a romance wasn't necessary. Even if she goes missing, he'd still go to the ends of the earth to find his last friend.
Like, the story just needs to be more intimate. A lot of the stuff in the middle of the game, unraveling the mystery of the Flotilla and then of the dead alien race on Tau Volantis is quite compelling. But when your crew starts dying one-by-one, there's just no impact. At least if you're playing as Lexine, there's a history there and you can build it up through dialogue and the player is aware of her development from past games.
Carver is just grumble grumble dead family, hallucinations, yo bro.
I mean, you can have a more urgent and intimate narrative where when the Unitologists catch up to them in the Flotilla and they crash land, Ellie and Lexine's baby are both separated. Lexine and Isaac have to traverse the treacherous territory and dead base to find them.
And honestly, I wish they never showed the Brother Moon. The unknowable horror of the Markers was compelling enough. We didn't need an answer. We are already compelled by this tale of survival and the mysteries and the horror and the characters. I didn't need to know big honking moons eat all the aliens and then they ate the humans.
I wish the finale was more mental or emotional like in Dead Space 1 and 2. Well okay, Dead Space 1, you're battling the Hive Mind after you realize you're crazy, that's a physical confrontation. Dead Space 2 is all emotional as Marker-Nicole is fucking with your brain and Isaac has to overcome his trauma.
Dead Space 3's finale should have had a spiritual or mental bent to it. It should have gotten weird and metaphysical and creepy.
Essentially, this game is about the End of the World... but it never feels like that. The conflicts feel contrived. It lost the intimate feeling that the previous two games had. One man against a harrowing and dangerous world he didn't understand.
I dunno, in short, here's what I would have changed:
- Lexine instead of Carver. You could do co-op with her, but my preference would be having the game use both protagonists at different points.
- No romance between Ellie and Isaac
- Different motivations for getting to Tau Volantis
- Don't reveal the origins of The Markers. I think "It's all just... dead space" is scary enough in it's own right as a reveal, that these have killed many species before.
I'm sure there's a few more things I would have liked. A longer intro on Luna showing Isaac's day-to-day life would have been interesting. Getting to know the crew before everyone dies. The Unitologists having less influence then basically overthrowing EarthGov everywhere.
And use the ice planet setting better. I was hoping for some serious paranoia down there, akin to the Thing. In fact, given that this planet was inhabited by an advanced alien species, Visceral missed a chance to develop wholly new and creepier creatures down there. There are some, like the big ones, but regular enemies on Tau Volantis could have been Necromorph "Rosettas". More than just the setting, have their abilities echo "The Thing' and induce paranoia in the cast. They crash on this planet, but whatever is on it is not the Necromorphs they recognize, but something horrifically different and even more alien and more terrifying. Isaac's attitude is very much 'been there done that' but now he's on an alien planet that has a dead civilization, give him something that terrifies him even more... more unknown.
Also if we had Lexine, we could have had an amazing homage to Aliens and given her a mech suit on the ice planet.
I like the D9 suit.
And I'm not saying that the narratives of DS1 and 2 are high art. They're well done horror thrillers that are paced really well. But I cared about Isaac and the world was terrifying and intriguing. In Dead Space 3, it felt... less so. It felt less urgent, less horrifying, less compelling as a narrative.
DS1 was a mystery and search for a lost love. DS2 was a story about survival and overcoming loss. DS3 was... I dunno. Getting answers, I suppose, but it wasn't even really that cause Isaac didn't care about the answers.
It should have been about the futility of unraveling a mystery and about reconnecting with other people and human audacity in the face of horror.
However, Dead Space 3... oof, the story told in Dead Space 3 is just so frustrating, especially because there's a lot of good ideas here, but they're either hamfistedly executed or the bad stuff around them totally craps on the good stuff.
The bad:
- That shitty love triangle.
- OH MY GOD IT WAS THE MOON. Honestly, I found the giant moon Necromorphs to be completely absurd, and then fighting it by shooting Markers in the eye just seemed so... dumb
- Unitologists pretty much took over in the course of three years. They went from being a devious cult to basically burning everything to the ground, but it all happens off-screen and seems like a surprise.
- The character of Norton.
- Carver kind of just sorta being shoved in there so EA could accommodate co-op.
There was some interesting ideas and influences that I loved though:
The three primary settings - Luna City had some seriously cool Blade Runner influence. Loved the dead Flotilla, it was very eerie and cool. And finally, Tau Volantis, echoing 'The Thing' was an inspired setting to use.
Coming across a previous alien race that achieved "Convergence" was really cool, and unraveling the mysteries around it was a cool concept.
Isaac achieving action hero status was kinda rad (even though the transition to full on action felt pretty weird).
A lot of the historical stuff, lore, and world-building was done spectacularly well. There's a great sense of atmosphere and history in the Flotilla and on Tau Volantis, especially with the stuff about The Colonies.
So yeah, it feels like a crappy, mediocre poorly paced action flick set in a world that should have had a more tight, intimate horror/survival narrative similar to Dead Space 1 and 2, but the conflict felt like it expanded so much beyond. Yes, Isaac destroyed two Markers in the past, but the dude was fucked up from it. This is basically him going to the source for reasons and then bad shit happens and it all just felt... tired.
Oh, and then there's Awakened! Which started out really interesting, but then... oh wow, everyone is dead and the Brother Moons are gonna eat everyone.
Like I just find it all so asinine. When I think "IT WAS THE MOON ALL ALONG", I just crack up.
And like, it's not like they didn't already have enough narrative built up in the past that they could have worked into the third game for a more emotional, intimate, and spookier game, while utilising the same basic plot framework and locations.
Why bother with Carver when you had another character waiting in the wings that would have been a perfect co-op/deuteragonist character with Isaac?
Lexine Murdoch-Weller survived Dead Space: Extraction and survived Dead Space 2: Severed (albeit losing her husband in the process, and fleeing with her newborn baby). You can easily set up a narrative about her life colliding with Isaac's. Maybe the Unitologists are after her and her baby cause she's a survivor of the Sprawl and resistant to the Marker's effects. Maybe there's something special about her child, whatever. Perhaps she joined a ragtag crew in the aftermath for work, and they're being chased by Unitologists and they go see Isaac. The Unitologists get wind of Isaac and boom, now he's on board whether he likes it or not.
And Isaac being in a relationship with Ellie is so dumb. Like, it's not really necessary and it just serves to be this dumb love triangle. I mean, if I was writing it, why not have their relationship just be platonic? I mean, Isaac is probably horribly fucked up, what he's gone through, it's not shit people get over. I mean, I could envision a storyline where maybe they're both living below the radar on Luna and she's around keeping him stable, and they're best friends, but a romance wasn't necessary. Even if she goes missing, he'd still go to the ends of the earth to find his last friend.
Like, the story just needs to be more intimate. A lot of the stuff in the middle of the game, unraveling the mystery of the Flotilla and then of the dead alien race on Tau Volantis is quite compelling. But when your crew starts dying one-by-one, there's just no impact. At least if you're playing as Lexine, there's a history there and you can build it up through dialogue and the player is aware of her development from past games.
Carver is just grumble grumble dead family, hallucinations, yo bro.
I mean, you can have a more urgent and intimate narrative where when the Unitologists catch up to them in the Flotilla and they crash land, Ellie and Lexine's baby are both separated. Lexine and Isaac have to traverse the treacherous territory and dead base to find them.
And honestly, I wish they never showed the Brother Moon. The unknowable horror of the Markers was compelling enough. We didn't need an answer. We are already compelled by this tale of survival and the mysteries and the horror and the characters. I didn't need to know big honking moons eat all the aliens and then they ate the humans.
I wish the finale was more mental or emotional like in Dead Space 1 and 2. Well okay, Dead Space 1, you're battling the Hive Mind after you realize you're crazy, that's a physical confrontation. Dead Space 2 is all emotional as Marker-Nicole is fucking with your brain and Isaac has to overcome his trauma.
Dead Space 3's finale should have had a spiritual or mental bent to it. It should have gotten weird and metaphysical and creepy.
Essentially, this game is about the End of the World... but it never feels like that. The conflicts feel contrived. It lost the intimate feeling that the previous two games had. One man against a harrowing and dangerous world he didn't understand.
I dunno, in short, here's what I would have changed:
- Lexine instead of Carver. You could do co-op with her, but my preference would be having the game use both protagonists at different points.
- No romance between Ellie and Isaac
- Different motivations for getting to Tau Volantis
- Don't reveal the origins of The Markers. I think "It's all just... dead space" is scary enough in it's own right as a reveal, that these have killed many species before.
I'm sure there's a few more things I would have liked. A longer intro on Luna showing Isaac's day-to-day life would have been interesting. Getting to know the crew before everyone dies. The Unitologists having less influence then basically overthrowing EarthGov everywhere.
And use the ice planet setting better. I was hoping for some serious paranoia down there, akin to the Thing. In fact, given that this planet was inhabited by an advanced alien species, Visceral missed a chance to develop wholly new and creepier creatures down there. There are some, like the big ones, but regular enemies on Tau Volantis could have been Necromorph "Rosettas". More than just the setting, have their abilities echo "The Thing' and induce paranoia in the cast. They crash on this planet, but whatever is on it is not the Necromorphs they recognize, but something horrifically different and even more alien and more terrifying. Isaac's attitude is very much 'been there done that' but now he's on an alien planet that has a dead civilization, give him something that terrifies him even more... more unknown.
Also if we had Lexine, we could have had an amazing homage to Aliens and given her a mech suit on the ice planet.
I like the D9 suit.
And I'm not saying that the narratives of DS1 and 2 are high art. They're well done horror thrillers that are paced really well. But I cared about Isaac and the world was terrifying and intriguing. In Dead Space 3, it felt... less so. It felt less urgent, less horrifying, less compelling as a narrative.
DS1 was a mystery and search for a lost love. DS2 was a story about survival and overcoming loss. DS3 was... I dunno. Getting answers, I suppose, but it wasn't even really that cause Isaac didn't care about the answers.
It should have been about the futility of unraveling a mystery and about reconnecting with other people and human audacity in the face of horror.
