The Dead Space 3 demo dropped yesterday for PS3 and Xbox 360, and the Internet has been abuzz with conflicting impressions of it. Ever since the first footage debuted at E3, I was sceptical about the inclusion of co-op multiplayer, fearing it might dilute the experience just as it had done with the last two Resident Evil games. Though the game has some nifty new mechanics and feels a whole lot like John Carpenter's The Thing (which can never be bad), it hasn't done a whole lot to dissuade me from these complaints. Many have also stood up in defence of the title, however, claiming that it simply represents the evolution of the franchise. Anyway, I'm not personally convinced; this feels like a game being crafted to suit the highest number of people possible, more a commercial calculation than an attempt to create a game that is consistent in tone with the previous entries into the series. Of course, we have to remember that this is "only" a demo, so things like the visuals might be tidied up before the final product is released in 2 weeks. Nevertheless, on the strength (and moreover, the weakness) of this demo, here are 10 reasons why Dead Space 3 sucks...
10. Sub-Par Graphics
You probably won't believe this going by the above title, but I'm not a graphics whore; I don't need super-slick HD textures to enjoy a game, but booting up the Xbox 360 version of Dead Space 3's demo, I was left completely underwhelmed by the visual experience. Perhaps I've been spoiled because I played the last two games on the PC, which allowed for a smoother frame-rate and graphical tweaks (and indeed, I will be playing the third game on the same platform when it is released), but looking at the bland, snowy expanse of Isaac's latest adventure on a console just left me totally bored and devoid of feeling. Not to mention, I was able to glitch into the environment on numerous occasions simply by jumping into a wall. Of course, these things could all be fixed for the final version, but the most dispiriting announcement for me personally is that the PC version is going to be a near-enough straight port of the console version, meaning that if the console equivalents look this rubbish, then so will the PC counterpart. While the previous two games allowed for plenty of graphical upgrades, the third game will reportedly not even support DirectX 11, and the ability to adjust graphical settings will be considerably limited.