Why Dead Space 3 Is the Worst Sequel In The Series

Richard Bailey of TheKoalition writes:
March 5th, 2013 marked one full month since the release of Visceral Games notorious survival horror space thriller Dead Space 3. This date was also important because rumors had been swirling throughout the day that EA was considering canceling the series due to poor financial sales. After several sources close to EA denied these claims over and over again, I started to think specifically about several shortcomings I experienced with the game in regards to how the finished product turned out. In this article, I take things a bit further by elaborating on why I feel this is the most disappointing entry in the franchise yet. So without further ado, I now present to you my four concrete reasons why Dead Space 3 is the worst sequel in the series.

[MrSwankSinatra]

gotta agree, i have the game an i couldn't even bring myself to finish it. it's nothing like the first two.

[Bimkoblerutso]

I don't disagree that it's the worst of the three. I still enjoyed it as an action game, but I totally agree that I sorely missed the game's horror roots.

[Sovereign59]

Worst sequel of the series? Must have been quite tedious and time consuming to sift through the vast library of Dead Space sequels just to deem number three as the worst.
Best, worst... it's all opinion. I still prefer the original over both of the sequels and I have no doubts that I will prefer it over any future entries to the franchise should they ever come into existence, but my opinion is still this: Dead Space 3 is a very good game, and I actually prefer it over Dead Space 2. If anything, it's actually more similar to the original game than second one was. The first third or so of the game thrusts you into dark, tight corridors of derelict ships floating in space.
Dead Space 3 fell victim to negative publicity prior to release and was not able to recover from this, despite almost all of the negatives having been either monstrously exaggerated or completely fabricated.
Dead Space 3 is a solid, positive game experience in every area (except for maybe the ending, but even that wasn't Mass Effect 3-ending-bad). So it wasn't as "scary" as the original. Neither was Dead Space 2. Not by a long shot. And honestly, how could was anyone really expecting to be terrified by this game? We've successfully navigated through 2 Necromorph outbreaks, we knew what to expect. Isaac (which also means you) has experience disposing of these enemies. Anyone that completed the first 2 games knew the basics: enemies are going to pop out of vents, aim for their limbs, every room could contain an ambush. If you went into this game knowing all of this and were disappointed when you weren't constantly on the edge of your seat and jumping out of it at times, you have only yourself to blame.

[HugoDrax]

The first Dead Space was amazing! I literally just completed it a week ago, and I'm excited to jump into Dead Space 2. Hearing that the 3rd title is lackluster is quite disappointing. Although, I'm interested in finishing out the series and just watched the animation Aftermath yesterday on Netflix.

[gorebago]

3 is still a fun and a competent game in its own right...

[forcefullpower]

I still liked 3 but not as good as first two but worth a play through

[CrimsonStar]

Yea man I cant even bring myself to buy the game and I love the first and second . Its a shame EA had to ruin what I thought made Dead Space so great.

[MysticStrummer]

I guess that's true, but I enjoyed it anyway. Still not a "bad" game.

[PS3Freak]

"Why Dead Space 3 Is the Worst Sequel In The Series"

So basically it's worse than Dead Space 2? Since there are only two sequels.

[brich233]

I played it on PC, and once I got to Chapter 10, i was bored of the game, so I put some cheats on just to finish the game. I used infinite ammo, and infinite health. Overall I'll give the game about a 5 or 6. Dead Space 1 and 2 were much better.

[latinillusion81]

I agree and disagree. It's not at good as the first 2 but it's not.as bad as I thought it was going to be

[ScytheX3]

agree of the three its the worst, but worst is a strong word, id use least good haha since its not a bad game by any means, yes it has alot of action, but better than RE or recent silent hill games, it stuck to its predecessors more than the other mentioned.

[ifritAlkhemyst]

The boss fights in this series became progressively worse. That Snowbeast in DS3 was annoying. That said, I think DS3 is much better than DS2 everywhere but the art department. For some reason, DS3 decided on making all the environments and character designs really uninteresting.

At least there wasn't anything as piss poor as that orbital elevator level with the tripods in DS2.

[admiralvic]

Forced Co Op Play:

One could argue the exact opposite and have an equally valid point. It's entirely possible the game was always intended to be Single Player, but at some point EA demanded Co Op (for the $$$!!), so they just tossed in some co op elements.

Weak Marketing Campaign

Many would argue that the "your mom will hate this" campaign was awful and in some cases actually made the game look worse. There were a few articles about this, which bring about some valid points. At least Dead Space 3 gave me an idea of what the game was about, over old women saying this thing was awful.

Lazy and Cliche Storytelling

Couldn't this apply to Dead Space as a whole? The whole idea of a haunted space ship is nothing new and we've seen a lot of movies / stories tell similar things. Sure Dead Space 1 / 2 had some original elements to them, but the series was never once defined by its story telling.

Stale Genre

One of the problems with the Survival Horror genre, is that so many people try to define it their own way. A SH game doesn't need to be "scary" to be a SH game, it just needs horror elements (gore / spooky stuff) and limited supplies. I wouldn't say the first two were exactly scary, nor would I call Extraction scary either. The only thing that was really "creepy" was the twinkle twinkle song in the first game.

Long story short, Dead Space 3 might be an awful game (I sure think so anyway), but I wouldn't say any of those reasons are exactly unique to this game in terms of the series. What makes Dead Space 3 a bad game is the nonstop loading (SO. MANY. ELEVATORS!), moves closer to action, but retains a lot of the SH elements that no longer work (It's so hard to survive when ammo is literally everywhere), ending seemed out of place in terms of the series, MICRO TRANSACTIONS (lets make an easy game easier people!) and the ability to just spam bots for easy supplies.

[aquamala]

nothing bad about it, I enjoyed it, I agree it's not great

[theWB27]

Gamers- Will complain if a series stays the same or if it changes.

DmC and Resident Evil- changed and got slammed

Zelda and Mario- needs to change cause it's the same thing.

Many more examples out there, but gamers are a fickle fickle bunch.

[CrimsonStar]

I agree we are fickle , but the drastic changes they made to the game were slapped on to meet a wider and broader demographic , which was a total backstab to the loyal fan base that made it so popular and successful .

[MikeyDucati1]

Miss the horror roots? Look at like this, if you keep going on the same barn ride, you are not going to be scared anymore. You know exactly where all the spots are and such. Now take that and apply that to DS3.

I don't know how many times you can revision a jump scare experience. Really.

[CrimsonStar]

Its not only that but its also the forced multiplayer . Even though you can play the game single player ,campaign was designed around Co-op first in mind . And not to mention that retarded love story , micro transactions , and dlc .

[MikeyDucati1]

Yea but I guess they figured it would be cool to experience that game with a friend, ya know? CO-OP missions can be fun when its done right.

And if you think about it, it was always driven by the underline love story. It just didn't take the forefront because the horror, which was so fresh at the time, had our attention. Once that was established and done, there was nothing left besides that.

Honestly I think they could have left DS3 out of the picture as a whole. Because you really couldn't take the story in any other direction. I'm pretty sure they had different builds that they scrapped because of that.

Not being sarcastic but I wished you had more bubbles so you can share your opinion on what I just said. So I rated you up one.

[yesmynameissumo]

I dug it.

[iMaim]

What really irked me was the focus on the love triangle. I mean Jesus Christ was that stupid.

[ShaunCameron]

Personally, I wanted to buy it for my 360 until I found out it was gonna be a multi-disc game. Then I said "Forget it!" I got the first DS for the PS3.

[Hicken]

It may be true, but there are only two sequels. Therefore, it can only be the best sequel, or the worst sequel.

[wtopez]

Since Dead Space is not a sequel, the title "Why Dead Space 3 Is the Worst Sequel In The Series" suggest that the comparison is between 2&3 only. It should be "Why Dead Space 3 Is the Worst Entry In The Series". Gotta be ready for Jeopardy!

[tigertron]

Obviously 3 is nowhere as good as the first two, but I did enjoy playing co-op with my friends, had some good laughs.