Miraculously, Dead Space 3 seems to have slipped through a loophole in whatever rule it is that requires the third entry in a sci-fi series to be dramatically worse than the second. (Star Trek, Alien, Terminator, Back to the Future, and yes even The Matrix, I'm looking at you). Despite noticeably upping the action level, bolting on co-op, and even charging us extra to cheat, this space-zombie shooter trilogy brings it home nicely with a lengthy, atmospheric, and suitably gory climax for our long-tortured hero, Isaac Clarke.

Each weapon performs a little unfolding animation when raised to firing position.
Technically, Dead Space 3 isn't impressive -- textures are low-resolution, and there's no hint of extra flashiness or physics-accelerated effects to make the PC version stand apart from the consoles beyond upping the resolution. (See our in-depth Dead Space 3 Port Authority here.) But what it has, it uses very well to convey a dark and creepy style. Detail in the environments and in Isaac's suits (which are now purely cosmetic options) is great, and I'm particularly impressed at little touches like how each weapon performs a little unfolding animation when raised to firing position. It's completely unnecessary and gratuitous, and perhaps that's why I enjoy them so much.

Holo Man

Likewise, I still love the way all of the life-meter and power-level indicators are part of Isaac's RIG suit, and inventory and computer console menus appear in-game as holograms -- though the mouse support for navigating them could certainly be a lot better. It's arguable that Dead Space games are best played with a gamepad, but for a shooter like this where precision counts, I'll always suffer through some inconveniences to use the mouse.

Will you be my wingman?

Mercifully, there are no more dead girlfriend hallucinations.
The story of the final battle with the Necromorphs isn't outstanding, but it's not half bad beyond a few cliches, and bolstered by good voice acting. There's little of the rehashing we saw in DS2, and (mercifully) no more dead girlfriend hallucinations. It also benefits from more visual variety, as unlike the last two games, only the first half of Dead Space 3 takes place in space. Over roughly 15 hours it takes us through the usual spaceship corridors smeared with blood, several areas of free-flying extravehicular action in space, an icy, Hoth-like planet, and a different environment I won't spoil other than to say it's also coated in blood. These large levels manage to feel fairly open, thanks to a travel system that lets you choose between several destinations for a tram or shuttle, and feature plenty of optional sidequests that expose more of the fiction (with some good background info on Unitologist leader Dannick) and give plenty of opportunity to hunt down extra crafting materials. Missions did force me to backtrack through certain areas, but not excessively so.

Carving Off a Piece

This campaign starts with several impressive bangs delivered via the barely-interactive action cutscenes Dead Space is known for, and a completely predictable "twist" lifted straight from Call of Duty. (These action cutscenes have the notable negative side-effect of making all cutscenes unskippable.) As expected, Isaac is quickly pulled back into the fight against the Necromorphs and the cultists that worship them by new allies working with his ex-girlfriend Ellie, including the new somewhat bland co-op buddy John Carver.

Press E! Alien zombies hate when you press E!

Voice chat was frequently full of shouts like "Behind you!" and "Get this thing off of me!"
I don't dislike Carver, but he didn't come across as terribly interesting next to Isaac's well-established history. Admittedly about 75% of my playthrough was done solo, so I might've missed some character development amid his frequent excuses for why we had to split up again. It also strikes me as odd that his abilities and gear are identical to Isaac's when Carver's a military man, not an engineer. Nevertheless, he gets the job done: giving us another warm body to back up Isaac in combat. It works well, too -- the built-in voice chat (via Origin) was frequently full of shouts like "Behind you!" and "Get this thing off of me!" It's exactly the kind of gameplay you want in a co-op horror shooter.

Going to Pieces

Yes, Dead Space 3 is more actiony -- the average interval between things jumping out and attempting to kill Isaac is noticeably less relative to DS2 -- but that's ok because it's good action. The way Necromorphs come apart in response to location-specific damage makes combat rewarding, especially because it's more than simply "shoot the bad guy in the head for an instant kill." Having the option to blast legs to slow them down, arms for high damage (or in some cases making them explode), the body for easy but low-damage hits, or the head for the sheer pleasure of popping it like a balloon makes this more interesting than the average shooter. Those aren't just skill shots, they're tactical decisions. And don't worry, there's still ample terror: especially early on, I got plenty of moments of terrifying helplessness as I hurried to reload my weapon with screaming ghouls rushing at me.

This situation is all kinds of bad.

Human enemies are almost the complete opposite of Necromorphs.
After two similar games that dismemberment is old news, but DS3 both adds a few new Necromorph types and marks the first time Isaac has had to raise a hand in anger at a fellow human. Even though these Unitologist thugs are barely more than turrets AI-wise, their occasional presence adds welcome variety because they're almost the complete opposite of Necromorphs when it comes to where you should try to shoot them first. Some weapons are much better suited for one or the other (the SMG for example, is fairly worthless against Necromorphs but does as well against humans as you'd expect) so the decision of which two to carry matters. Most guns also sound amazing, delivering some excellent weighty thumps when you pull the trigger.

Cheat Sheet

Action is broken up by frequent minigames, some of which are better than others. One, where I steered a crashing spaceship while my co-op partner manned the guns, are simple but spectacular; others, like the tedious unlocking puzzles, aren't. Still others are just plain wastes of time, such as the combination locks with the combo printed on the wall right next to the input panel. If I had to guess, I'd say these alien-language puzzles were designed to make us work out the code by sound, but the developers gave in and simply handed us the codes when testers complained.

Break me off a piece of that.

Don't expect to cheat for free in Dead Space 3.
Back on the subject of the arsenal: it took me awhile to get the hang of the weapon-building and modding system -- it's overwhelming at first. This may have something to do with the fact that crafting resources are available for microtransaction purchase from an in-game menu (nothing less than paid cheat codes -- don't expect to cheat for free in Dead Space 3), but visiting the very first crafting bench I came across gave me a list of almost 20 weapons, none of which I'd have the resources to build until the late game. Most of them, I expect, I wouldn't even be able to get until well into the New Game+ mode. Nothing's broken here, because the weaponry I was able to cobble together from parts I discovered as I went was more than potent enough on normal difficulty, but it could've definitely been handled better.

Are You Done Yet?

It also doesn't do a terrific job of explaining how to assemble the many parts you can slot into each weapon to determine both its primary and secondary abilities. That's overcome by some tinkering, but when playing in co-op it's never good to have one player standing at a bench station for several minutes at a time while the other has nothing to do but tap his foot impatiently. But at least it adds a feeling of Isaac actually being an engineer instead of Generic Shooter Man in a way other than simply sending him on numerous repair missions -- which Dead Space 3 also does.

That's one hell of a shopping list.

Ultimately, after trial and error with numerous shotguns, rocket launchers, machine guns, and lasers, I created a fast-firing pistol with a 26-round clip and of stasis-coated bolts that damage and temporarily slow targets without the need to spend a stasis charge. The alt fire causes the last shot fired to emit an electric shock field, frying whatever it's stuck in and anything around it. I like this gun. I like it very much.

How Do I Unsave?

The checkpoint- only save system left me with no way to back out to correct my mistake.
Before I built my best gun-friend for life, however, I ran into one situation where I'd gone into a huge boss fight -- a fairly spectacular Necromorph mega-worm with unspectacular "shoot the glowing bits to win" mechanics -- with a pair of weapons that weren't well-suited for killing it (or more specifically its waves of minions). I'd say that was a dash of the freedom to fail that many of us old-school PC gamers nostalgically long for in modern cross-platform gaming, except that the checkpoint-only save system left me with no way to back out to correct my mistake. I just had to keep trying 'n dying until I made it through.

These handy little fellows harvest resources so you don't have to.

Those save points could stand to be a little closer together, too. Particularly when playing in co-op and running through flame jets that, if mistimed by either player, send both of you back to the beginning of a long gauntlet, save-point placement is lacking.

When I reached the end Dead Space 3 failed the test of the interesting final boss fight, opting instead for another lively round of "Shoot the glowy bits while minions attack in waves." On the other hand it passed others: whether it had the guts to do an ending that meant something, and whether or not I'd be interested in hitting that New Game+ button to go for round two. It does, and I found that this is a good enough game that I'm ready for more, particularly if I have a like-minded co-op partner to play it with.

I wonder: with the threat of the Necromorphs theoretically dealt with, is the Dead Space franchise itself now just as dead? And should we be content with three games in a series, or do you want more?