Dead Space 3 Xbox 360 Demo Review 6/10

    Preface: In an effort to begin diversifying the content we offer, the Dead Space 3 Demo will be receiving our first dual review. Not only will I be reviewing the demo, but Skye will as well. We hope you enjoy reading 2 articles on the same game. Cheers!

    The Dead Space 3 Demo was extra special because here at Dear Backlog, we got “early access.” For the most part, this meant nothing. It was open to everyone, and the only thing you had to do to get an early access code was to sign up for it on their website. If you didn’t feel like doing that, then there were many other ways to get your hands on one. If you didn’t feel like doing anything, then you could simply wait a week and it would be available to all. Again, it wasn’t anything special, but it made us feel special. It made us excited for Dead Space 3.

    The demo had two options for playing. You could either play the sample content by yourself or co-op with a friend or stranger. I played the demo by myself and with Skye. The first thing I looked for during my co-op run was how the story changed. I knew adding another player into the game would change the gameplay, but I wasn’t sure if they would go the extra mile and change the story as well. Games like Halo have sadly given me this outlook on co-op. To my surprise, the story did change slightly. There were added cutscenes and exploration even changed a bit. For example, at one point in the demo the main character, Isaac Clarke, is trying to bust open a jammed door. During my single-player playthrough I just mashed through the quick time event and went on my way. During the co-op playthrough, the scenario basically played out the same, except this time the other main character, John Carver, locates himself on the opposite side of the door, and tries to help pull it open. Again, they were small additions in the demo, but it showed that perhaps Visceral Games has more co-op specific scenes in store for the full game.

Isaac Clarke and John Carver.

    The graphics and sound were good, but I didn’t feel they brought anything special to the demo. I never stopped playing just to listen to a soundscape and only once did i stop playing to stare at a vista. I’m pretty sure there’s some inspired art somewhere in this game based on footage from games before, but in the Dead Space 3 Demo, it’s all pretty standard sci-fi. There was one time when Skye pointed out to me a specific melody that plays after you upgrade your suit, but if he wouldn’t have said anything, I probably would have never noticed. It may have clicked with him because he has played through the other games in the series.

What I wish I saw in the demo.

What I actually saw in the demo.

    One of the really promising new features to Dead Space 3 is the weapon crafting. You can now build your guns anyway you want. If you want to pair a shotgun with a flamethrower, you’re free to do that. If you want to wield a pistol that does tons of damage but needs to be reloaded often, then you’re free to do that as well. Since this happens to be a huge selling point of the full release, they smartly added the ability to test it out in the demo. Though you can’t fight any Necromorphs in the demo version of the weapon forge, it does allow you to build almost any gun. It’s totally separate from the story, but it allows you plan what you’d like to eventually get your hands on. If nothing else, it showcases one of the new reasons to try Dead Space 3.

    There were some things that bothered me during the demo. They were all really small, but together left a pretty big blemish on my experience. First off, the main menu for the game is just plain excessive. Every time you select a menu option, you have to watch a short cutscene as the menu transforms into something else. The developer must have been thinking that the player would enjoy watching these, but actually it just wasted my time. It only took the menu maybe 4 seconds to transform, but it could have just as easily been instant.

Another thing that bothered me was that during my play-through the game never taught me that I could pick up dismembered parts of enemies and use them as weapons. If I never would have played with Skye, a veteran Dead Space player, I never would have known that was something. Once I learned that, the combat changed drastically for the better. There’s also a cover system in the game, though it’s very unclear when you’re actually in cover. It wasn’t even clear when it was advantageous to use. As far I could tell, just standing behind things and coming out from time to time to shoot was good enough.The demo should have spent time teaching these mechanics.

Lastly, other human non-player characters took forever to kill. I understand Necromorphs aren’t going to go down so easily, but other human enemies should die with a couple shots to the face. These characters weren’t even outfitted with a special suit like Isaac or John, yet they were taking so many shots to the head that I had to reload before finishing them off. I even tried using the alternate fire on the pistol that’s used to cut limbs off of Necromorphs. Sure enough, I fired a shot that should have cut the human enemy in half, but instead he just flinched a bit. This took me out of the game.

I fucked up.

    The Dead Space 3 Xbox 360 Demo receives a 6/10. Above all else, a demo should get you excited to pick up the full game. I applaud Visceral Games for creating a form of hype around the demo release. That was good. Unfortunately, the demo didn’t do the same thing. After playing it, I no longer feel I need to play this right now. The story is the main reason I’m interested in the Dead Space series, and after playing this demo, it’ll still be the main reason I pick it up eventually.

    Needless to say, I won’t be buying Dead Space 3 anytime soon. I haven’t played the previous entries, so honestly, I’m in no rush to play this one. I’ll bite for about $20 after I’ve finished Dead Space 1 & 2.

- lvl 99