From a visual standpoint, I dislike copy/paste room design. From a realistic standpoint, it actually makes far more sense for military ships and prefab buildings to be of a uniform design. I've played about two hours of DS3 so far. So far so good, but the opening sequences (the first two areas) are absolutely shitty.
I did not like Dead Space, not enough to actually finish that game. So it was surprising that I loved Dead Space 2 a lot. It really is the Alien / Aliens dichotomy, with Dead Space taking place entirely on a ship, and Dead Space 2 wandering off appropriately into something called the Sprawl, with more relentless action sequences. So far, I like what I see of Dead Space 3 quite a bit, but it's disappointing to read from Brad's review that it goes downhill from there. I'm unlikely to play this co-op, since few of my friends this side of world enjoy this type of game, and even then, I doubt co-op will enhance my dead space experience. Ah well, this will tide me over till Bioshock: Infinite anyway.
Polygon has a detailed positive review. One interesting bit is that they seem to crib from something that Bioshock did really well: I'm not convinced they have what it takes to make that interesting, and I wonder how well it will translate to a first impression via coop. Still, hope springs eternal. If RE6 hadn't burned me so badly I'd definitely have the second copy on the way already.
Uh didn't 2 have multiple logs from the same person many times? I may be misremembering, it certainly doesn't seem like something most games don't do.
Make sure you transfer over a Dead Space 2 save, you get a better plasma cutter in your safe (I used Gamefaqs since I played DS2 on PC and am playing this one on a console.)
Man that dude at the start is the gooberest Gomer Pylest dude possible, was he a contest winner that got his face put into the game or something?
Yeah, and I'm sure System Shock was an influence in how those spell out the story. I think what they're talking about is logs that aren't directly related to the plot and only serve to make the game world more compelling. Regardless, I'll probably grab this tomorrow and put some time into it.
Targeted dismemberment seems less important, but I may be mis remembering DS2. Currently I'm running with a shotgun/linegun combo, and the line gun is completely worthless for the most part. It takes multiple hits to take off a limb, while the shotgun will remove 2-3 just by firing roughly center of mass, and fires a lot faster as well. I have the same complaint with the plasma cutter being generally a poor weapon compared to the crazy thing it was in 1 and 2.
Also from the latest Bombcast it seems Brad got all worked up over the microtransactions (with Patrick practically cheering him on) for about half an hour before Vinny, the official voice of reason, finally needled out of him that you can get everything except the 2 bot upgrades by using in-game earned stuff and that by the end of the game you are positively flush with resources. And judging from the fact that since the game comes with a code that gives you a badass assault rifle/shotgun and a tesla cannon/linegun (not to mention a proper linegun for 0 resources) at the very first Bench you reach I don't really see how the game is exactly making you a pauper at the start.
Well you could use the assault rifle and with any aiming ability whatsoever do everything the plasma cutter did in 2. It was just boring as hell to play that way.
I ended up using a powered up Force Gun through most of Dead Space 2 for the reasons you mention. I found it much easier just to blow enemies to bits en masse as opposed to surgically removing the limbs of three or four enemies bearing down on me all at once. In DS3, the pre-order assault rifle/shotgun combo has been great. I blast the guys down with the shotgun and follow up with a few rifle shots to put them down. I haven't been using the Planet Cracker Plasma Cutter hardly at all. I haven't gotten there yet in this week's Bombcast, but it sounds a lot like the hissy fit they threw about Mass Effect 3's From Ashes DLC throughout the GOTY podcasts. Not to say that the From Ashes business was great or anything, but I think the reaction to the DS3 microtransactions has been overblown. The reviews I've read have taken the time to comment on the scumminess of the microtransactions, but have all acknowledged that they're wholly optional and fairly unobtrusive. I played about two hours of Dead Space 3 last night and absolutely love it so far. I think the opening sections are very strong and the game is constantly wowing me with its gorgeous presentation. What would be set piece moments in other games have been coming fast and furious in Dead Space 3 and I love it. To me the noise and bombast doesn't detract at all from the horror. The events have been plenty scary for me in that I get amped up and nervous as enemies are bearing down. I mean, I'm not going to have nightmares about the game, but I think it's very effective at invoking that particular feeling of panic. Did I mention it's gorgeous? In an early part Isaac is proceeding through offices with windows that look out across a city with a red sunset and Earth in the distance. The whole scene is just bathed in red and was extremely striking to me. Or what about how the light from Isaac's helmet is cast out into the environment? That is such a cool detail.
On the microtransaction front: I'm curious if it's not implemented properly on the PC, or if I'm failing at the menus. In the GB quick look, they have the option to buy packs of stuff with cash or in game currency (the ration tag things). I cannot find the latter option anywhere, nor the packs they were buying on the console version. All I have is a list of $5 DLC for specific packs. I don't want any of the DLC (I haven't even been using the preorder weapons because I didn't want to know if they were strictly better or not since they use special parts), I was just a bit curious to find no apparent use for the ration tags in the PC version. Anywho, I'm giving it high marks so far. The room repetition is nowhere near as bad as people have been saying (I'm about 70% through if the chapters are to be believed) and most of the repeating rooms are either the same actual room you pass through four times or the very poorly disguised loading rooms between areas. The plot so far is weak as hell, but we'll see if they can wrap up some of these threads in a logical manner at some point soon.
FYI You can safely deconstruct anything in the game, you always get the full resources back for it, this includes any preorder/LE/Slim Jim (yes there are some) weapons.
Yeah if you want to see what they are you can go here: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10459026&postcount=19 From what I gather the linegun is exactly the same as the Negotiator linegun tip except it's an ugly red/yellow color so I imagine the other weapons have preorder counterparts.
Okay they went so far as to make Elly's cyber-eye a mismatch like a text log states, that's a cool touch.
Damn, I guess I missed an artifact in the prologue. Oh well, not starting over now. Also, the shotgun owns. I'm not having near as much success with anything else.
The Witness shotgun mod is pretty damned effective. I've found my preorder smg attachment fits well on the plasma cutter.
Well, I didn't have a game ending save nor realize I could transfer a save in from Deadspace 2. I'll only note that: 1. It's a little odd that there are cover shooterish bits without "full" cover mechanics. Actually, I think I might prefer it this way. But it's still weird. Ish. 2. It seems to take 27* shots with the line gun to kill necromongers. 3. Who the fuck are all these people** anyway? Sometime around the third time I hallucinated a freaky chick with Lo Pan eyes in Deadspace 2 I realzied I wasn't paying close attention to the story. * It's more like 4-6, even when I hit nothing but limbs. I exaggerated here. ** Don't answer, I don't actually care.
I think you just need to have any DS2 saved game on the same machine, you don't have to have finished the game. You'll get a Planet Cracker Plasma Cutter in your safe.
Yeah. http://www.deadspace.com/news/article/exclusive-planet-cracker-plasma-cutter It's not some massive upgrade or anything. Also it's too bad that it doesn't look like the shitty cobbled together one you make at the start of DS2.
I hope eventually I find a text log that details that only the movie Event Horizon survived some media apocalypse and that is why all the doors scream while they open.
Apparently we are so low on resources in the future that our spaceships run on diesel engines. Also, anyone still complaining about immersion after actually using the Workbench should probably be culled from humanity.
If you miss something, like an artifact or tungsten stash, you can play the chapter where it appears again until you grab it, then quit and save and continue not from the last save, but from the story. Your gear is persistent, so anything you pick up will stay as long as you save and quit afterwards. I did this to get both the Prologue artifact and the tungsten stash at the beginning of Chapter 4 since I'd missed them. Then I quit and continued the story and was right back where I'd been. You keep all of your gear when you go back, so any fighting you do should be easier.
Which is the one thing that bugs me for a survival horror game. Theoretically, you could wander through the first half of a level / or chapter, hoovering up all the materials and ammo along the way before a safe point. If you save and quit the game, you'll start right back where the last checkpoint was, but with all the loot across the levels respawned. Dark Souls, this is not, and it breaks the whole illusion of Isaac scavenging his way past the necromorphs into the planet. The shooty / stompy bits are still quite fun, and the story so far is holding my interest, but the resource management gameplay lacks tension, or any meaningful scavenging at all. So I guess the good news is that the microtransactions matters not a little bit.
You actually don't start at your last checkpoint, you seem to start at the last major transition. If you're on a sidequest or a chapter, you'll be all the way back at the beginning of it. The only reason I didn't lose any progress was because I quit and went back right after a chapter transition. If people want to grind their way through an entire chapter or sidequest area again just for resources they could more easily get from a scavenger bot, who cares? Don't do it if you don't like it. I liked the classic Dead Space system as well, but I'm willing to give this a shot. If nothing else, the weapons are a lot more flexible and interesting. That's a step somewhere.
There's a range of difficulty options as far as I understand it, including a scavenger mode where you have to survive only on what you find. I only ever found DS and DS2 to be 'survival horror' on the hard difficulty settings. Otherwise you had plenty of ammo and probably enough health kits to not really worry about being surprised.
That's almost exactly what RE5 did, to great effect in the coop format. It's really useful for balancing difficulty over different skill/comfort levels, and it can be completely ignored if you choose different difficulties (it seems) or if you just, you know, don't do it.
I played about an hour more last night and I'm still loving the game. I am starting to understand the Eurogamer complaints about cheap shots from enemies. In the vast majority of enemy encounters it seems that some always pop up in front of you, followed closely by some that spawn behind. You're better off turning around immediately to take on what will be the closer threat behind you as soon as you see enemies appear in front. It's a near constant and it does feel a little cheap. I got through most of the DS3 discussion on this week's Bombcast. Brad's complaints about the microtransactions were more measured and tame than I expected. He made sure to note multiple times that the microtransaction stuff was not a hindrance in any way to progressing in the game. Patrick, who I don't think has even played the game, seemed most up in arms, but even he wasn't slobbering about it. The guys recognized that the discussion was more about where such things could lead in terms of game play balance and design than any real complaint about how it was implemented in DS3. For myself, I've not even noticed any prompts to spend real money on stuff at Benches. It certainly hasn't interfered with my "immersion" in the game. I'm still rocking the shotgun/AR combo pretty much exclusively. I'm thinking I might put the Plasma Cutter on top in place of the AR component, but haven't tried that yet. I got my first robot scavenger last night. The game does an awful job of explaining what you're supposed to do with the thing in terms of telling you what the little screen is trying to impart. Brad mentioned that it's supposed to beep when you're close to a place to use it, but last night I just ended up putting it down and letting it do its thing. Ten minutes later it was at the Bench with some stuff it had nabbed. Am I supposed to be looking for some sort of prime location to let it loose? SOUND! God, the sound in this game is unbelievable. The screeches and clangs and bangs of the heavy machinery is just fantastic. The music is also awesome. It calls to mind the soundtrack of Aliens for sure. The voice acting, especially Isaac, is fantastic as well. I love that he sounds like a normal enough guy. That said, I hate Sergeant Shootstuff. He's awful. I mean, what's that guy's fucking problem? If anyone in the universe deserves some respect it's Isaac Clarke, right? Instead, Gruffvoice McGrimface treats Isaac like he is some kind of free loading baggage. I want to punch that guy's face.
I See now where it did in fact register my DS 2 save. I just turned the power of the WTF Roanoke (really? Come on. I mean, you might as well title the colony we're in orbit around "New Cthulhu"), and then I had the reunification scene with the survivors. I'm pretty sure I did a save & quit right next to some workbench, and have absolutely no faith whatsoever that I'll continue from that spot. Having said these things, when can I expect to find a suit locker? According to the start of the game, I received a shitload of bonus goodies including like 5 different suits because it recognized a bunch of save data from other games.
After a first clear, if anyone is interested in a co-op run, let me know. I'm on Chapter 10 right now and this game is still plugging along for me. I'm playing on 360. I don't like the stuff on the planet as much so far, and think Visceral's strength is in derelict ship environments, but it's more Dead Space. I think they will turn the planet stuff around. I do get the feeling that we're headed for some kind of resolution to the plot, which I've been wanting for a long time. I am using a shotgun + carbine heavy right now and it's glorious. The shotgun takes the legs off anything at medium or close range, then you stasis and finish them off. I have that and a plasma cutter (this is my gun!) and have been pretty happy with them. The bots - you can use a radar thing with them to locate places that are flush with resources. Those same places (once you have a bot) will also radiate a noise just when you are standing near them. I didn't get that's what that was until I was on the planet and heard the noise; before then I thought it was just something in the background. MAKE US WHOLE
Yeah, with the bots you're listening for beeping, then busting it out. They're adorable, if a completely wonky mechanic (how am I placing these things in random fucking locations and they somehow find the benches again?) The plot however has gone completely off the rails, imo. Near endgame ranting: I do endorse the idea that the game is at it's best in the first half, and the second half suffers from hurried attempts to tie the plot together and just winds up with the same problems Lost had trying to explain everything. Gameplay is still mostly fun, aside from bullet sponge dudes.
So I have the shotgun blueprint but can't build it yet. I need more Thinginium. I have a problem with the crafting interface. I go into it, I have to select an existing weapon or select new. Then you're in the "look at all the bits you get to fiddle with screen". If you hit B (cancel) here, you back out to weapon selection. If you hit B again, it takes you back to "fiddly" screen. You're basically locked in at this point? I know when you break a weapon down you get full mats back, but I can't figure out how to get all the way out. So either I';m missing something or someone really screwed the pooch here. I can't believe enemies are already bullet spongy at the outset.
Afaik you can't break down a weapon without putting it into your safe, so you have to basically construct something that is free (the line gun) and put that in your weapon slot and put the weapon you want to dismantle into the safe and then dismantle it there. Haven't had any problems taking anything down with the Evangelizer Carbine/Shotgun.
I know how dismantling works; I just want to back out of the craft weapon interface, in accordance with sane UI conventions dating back to 5000 BC.
