Dead Space 3 - Preview

It’s one of the scariest franchises to grace consoles. The atmospheric darkness and creepy, jumpy alien-corpse foes made playing Dead Space alone in the dark a terrifying experience. And if you don’t agree, well then you're not doing it right.

That's why it was worrying to fans of the series that when the third game was presented at E3 that the survival sci-fi horror game seemed to have lost some of its eeriness by introducing a second co-op player, and spinning the ACTION dial up to 11.

For this third instalment, you fly off to a distant ice planet where you are looking to discover (and fight) the origins of the Necromorphs (bodies of dead aliens which are taken over by a, frankly terrifying, virus) which have plagued you for the series. It's not scheduled for release until February 2013, but we've had an early hands on: The level we played through sees you on a spaceship, looking for clues in a...“retro future”, as the developers call it, and then landing on a bright white arctic landscape – a far cry from the dark levels we’ve become accustomed to.

Dead Space 3 - Electronic Arts

Whats new?

As was revealed at E3, the most note-worthy game changer to be added is the two-player co-op option. Cutting through the third person shooter's trademark tense atmosphere seemed like a risky U-turn for it to take, and in practice it makes for a...

...different action-led style of gameplay. It’s not a bad thing: the change is reinvigorating and accessible, with what we’ve seen using a simple drop-in drop-out mechanic.

Playing with a friend means that you can team up to bring a new level of fun to the franchise. Developers Visceral Games point out that this means you can take advantage of stuff like “strategic dismembering” – eg. One player holding an enemy reanimated alien corpse in stasis, while the other dismembers the limbs accordingly, obviously.

On top of that, fresh environments transform the look and feel of the game. The new ice planet provides an unforgiving, yet polar opposite white tundra of a setting compared to previous outings of dark, cramped space ships, as well as the key to understanding the Necromorph virus. And the terrain means blizzards, cave, limited visability – and just as a jumpy Necromorphs leaping out of piles of snow. It’s not the traditional landscape, but it’s still tense.

Is too much change a bad thing?

As much as this addition shows off a wealth of new features, thankfully, it all still feels very old-school Dead Space. Particularly when navigating the shadowy and claustrophobic depths of the spaceship.  And despite the addition of co-op play, you can still play through the whole thing single-player if you’d rather. Plus, even though physical gameplay mechanics may have changed slightly, (things like the way you open doors for example –  things that aren’t worth worrying about now)  the tools we are used to from the previous games are still in it. Don’t worry, you’ll still be freezing aliens with your stasis gun before ripping them apart. We’re also promised more weapons before it’s released next year.

The enemies have been souped up too – we were treated to a giant boss-type monster in our preview, which made tackling it with a second player all the more necessary.

Is it actually frightening?

It’s known for its scares, but when we saw the title at E3 this year, this game looked to be taking a different, less horror and more action-led direction. But Dead Space aficionados should be reassured  that the chills are still here. Especially in the form of new enemies – new Necromorph enemies like the "Feeder" (above) make the whole thing more creepy. Play in the dark with the volume cranked up - though with co-op this time, not alone. It’s better to be scared together, right?