4. No Fear Factor
What I loved about the previous Dead Space games - particularly the first - is that it scared the living s**t out of me; it was absolutely dripping in atmosphere, and when the Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises had started to go to pot, it seemed to be the only viable survival horror franchise left. Though the early scenic moments of traipsing around Tau Voltanis are genuinely suspenseful and unnerving, it becomes familiar very quickly, and the open environment does less to create an imposing fear of the unknown, instead making the player feel complacent, as they have so much room to move around when assailed by the enemies. The tension of not wanting to run into a room that you just know by instinct is going to be chock full of enemies is sort of gone in Dead Space 3; you'll be kitted out sufficiently well that very few enemies pose a threat, and we do have to suffer through some repetitive sections that drain the game of a lot of its atmosphere. Granted, so much of this will be down to brand familiarity, but there's no doubting that tailoring the game more to the casual action crowd has played a hand in lessening the visceral appeal.