Solitary Dismemberment: Dead Space 3 Shows Its Roots

It's my dream to one day live in space, but I have some reservations. Foremost, it seems very, very dark, and I fear that I'd constantly stub my toes on even the sleekest, most futuristically rounded of outcroppings. Dead Space 3, meanwhile, contends that undead dog babies may also make my extraterrestrial existence somewhat less pleasurable - which is something I hadn't previously considered because I like being able to sleep at night. The latest Dead Space 3 level walkthrough, though, has all that and tons more promisingly Dead-Space-y things. Pitch-black corridors, anti-grav antics, and limbs flying every which way - you know the drill. Questionable co-op, shouty man-shooting, and even the slimmest shred of daylight, meanwhile, are nowhere to be found. That gently swelling flutter in your chest? That's hope. Well, presumably, anyway.

That was fairly intense! It's nothing we haven't seen from the series before - and the commando jawing at the start felt pretty out-of-place - but it kept me on-edge for the duration. Someone tapped me on the back while I was watching it, and I even did the whole "Yikes but oh haha I wasn't actually afraid of a YouTube video that'd be silly" thing.

My only real problem is that the level felt like it was building to some kind of fever pitch, but never really reached it. The almost absurdly dark generator room had its moments (Hi there, Minecraft-Creeper-face enemies; please never-ever touch any part of me), but the final showdown was just a standoff with loads of garden variety things-that-go-bump-in-the-perpetual-night.

So it wasn't the best Dead Space level I've ever seen, but at least it felt like actual, honest-to-goodness Dead Space. Granted, I don't just want of a retread of the previous two games, so I'm pretty conflicted about the different directions Dead Space 3's headed in. In short, I feel like people (myself included) are demanding a lot of this one. But then again, if we don't ask, why should EA and Visceral ever feel like they need to deliver?