Dead Space 3 | A Complete History and Retrospective 

How do you feel about Dead Space 3 Dad? 🚀

How suitable is it to release the first two Dead Space games' retrospective in the Halloween season and release the third one's retrospective that became non-horror once Halloween is over.

Played the game from start to finish coop with a friend. Just having another person with you really dampens any horror you might feel. Never mind the ridiculous gun combinations we can make. In the end, we just ended up one upping each other with how crazy the guns we made. And then we hit the coop missions where one person sees the game differently from the other. Then I remembered "Oh, this is Dead Space, right."

While this may not be my favorite Dead Space, the revelation about convergence, parts of the Awakened DLC, and the co-op campaign make this an entertaining but very flawed entry. This is a fantastic video, son. I’m proud of you.

I think Dead Space 3 is a decent game in its own right. The Co-Op wasn't forced so you are able to play by yourself if you wish. As far as the lack of horror or scares, I look at it from Isaac's Point of View. He's had to deal with Markers and a Necromorph outbreak on two different occasions already. So after that nothing much would scare him anymore. Also even though the weapon crafting was really only a way to introduce Micro Transactions, (i personally didn't buy any) was a good way to showcase Isaac's skills as an engineer. Really all around a solid game. The only thing I don't care for is the Awakened DLC. It was obvious like you said that DS3 was going to be the final game in the series, so it would make sense to go out with a bang perse and stop the Markers for good. That DLC just makes everything you just went through be all for nothing. That and I know there's "Video Game Logic" But there is no way in fuck all that after defeating the Brethren Moon, Isaac and Carver would survive free falling back down to an ice cold planet and survive not only the free fall, but also the ice cold temperatures...with broken rigs. Sorry but what?

Found your channel like a month ago and I love it. I’m and artist and we tend to always be looking for long videos to play in the background while we draw, and yours are great for that. You seem like such a fun and nice guy. Thanks for all the high quality content you make man.

The sad truth with the ScavBot is that it was about monitization. Not sure if it's still there, but back when the game released, they sold random lootboxes of crafting materials and the Scavenger Bots were your, "free," lootbox payouts. Something that's easy to miss today was that Dead Space 3 had some *really* slimy microtransactions, even by 2022 standards. It was something that dinged their reviews, and contributed to a fair chunk of EA alienating contemporary players who didn't already enjoy the game. I'm honestly, pretty fond of DS3. I think it had a lot of really interesting ideas and then explored basically none of them. In particular, the idea of substituting whiteout conditions for darkness in a horror game, to restrict visibility, was a really neat concept... which the game did almost nothing with. The gear crafting system had a ton of potential. I still think, if it hadn't carried the Dead Space title (even as a spinoff to the series), DS3 could have been a pretty well respected title. The problem was, it got tied to a series where it didn't belong at all.

The co-op made this game very enjoyable, especially when Carver starts hallucinating. Dead Space 3 was a terrible DS game but I had an absolute blast playing with a friend and trying to see what wild weapon combos we could make. I put it in the same category as Resident Evil 5, where it was a bad RE game but a very fun co-op experience.

Fans of the series asked for co-op? All I remember when they announced DS3 was going to have co-op was people complaining

I heard that Norton was originally a survivor from the military ship that crashed into the Ishimura in the first game, which would have helped to explain his obvious emotional instability and layered his character a bit. I don't know if that is true though, might just be an internet rumor.

They throw more enemies at you because they only programmed enemy encounters for Co-Op, so when you're playing solo, you're fighting waves of enemies which are based on how much you'll need to kill if you're playing Co-Op.

The asymmetrical coop was one of the greatest things I had ever seen in a video game. For all this games faults I think that alone makes it great.

I bought the Game at Release. Back than there was the option to buy ressources for Real cash. The scavange bots were just in the Game so EA could say: See? You can get all the ressources you need without spending a dime. It just takes way longer.

I really like Dead Space 3s beginning. Flying between derelict ships to fix things felt like a really cool throw back to Dead Space 1 in the Ishimura

Just when I’m going on an hour long car ride & have some time to kill, my boy comes in clutch with a new retrospective. Thank you son, I knew you were my favourite for a reason

18:30 Okay, this is where the game takes an absolute nose-dive in terms of writing. Isaac already knows that the Marker shows you idealized versions of what you want to see, or at least manipulates people into doing what it wants, through the individual's desires. This is literally what happens during the FINAL arc of Dead Space 2, with "Nicole" lying to Isaac that he would be able to destroy the Marker and that she literally guides him TO the Marker. At some point, Isaac likely would have told Ellie what happened. At no point during Dead Space 3, does Isaac hallucinate. In fact, he remains level-headed and calm during the entire thing, probably because he killed "Nicole" at the end of the last game and the whole kill you with Dementia thing is dealt with. So why does he suddenly think that turning OFF the Machine would in turn off the Marker signals? These instructions are written in the language of the Markers that he has SEEN before, Markers which have displayed active malevolent intent towards Isaac twice already, both times using visions of his dead girlfriend. Even worse than any of this, it becomes RAPDILY apparent through text logs that everyone on Tau Volantis was experiencing wide-spread dementia. This plot-line could and would only ever make sense if Isaac was NOT Isaac Clarke, and he was a totally new character who got this whole thing wrong.

Oh wow, what a nice sonrise! ps. Son, for your one off series, I present Binary Domain for your consideration as it ties to Yakuza's studio. Criminally underrated game.

I enjoyed Dead Space 3, played it with my best friend from start to finish and we found it scary and hilarious with how in the side missions we saw different things

I agree with the complaints of EA but to me, the flow of the Dead Space series from horror to action feels organic. When you contextualize this change through the lens of Issac's feelings towards the Markers it makes a lot more sense. He's horrified in 1, dealing with his trauma in 2, and pissed as hell in 3. To me, in the beginning of Dead Space 3 Issac doesn't throw everything off his table because he has to move on from a relationship. No, Issac is finally done with the Necromorphs. The gameplay here doesn't feel bland because its just another cookie cutter action game, it's because f$ck the Necromorphs. This time we're trying to end things once and for all. I feel a lot of parallels with the 3rd entry to the Max Payne series too.

Thank God, I was waiting for this one to drop. Nice job, son. 💪

I love your channel, thank you for your efforts and work

Despite the overall... Game, i loved the size of the horror, specially the gloom eldritch ending of the DLC ! Also i never understood the whole daddy thing with ur chanel but i love your content !

Good timing. Literally just finished your first two videos earlier

Just a reminder that originally Dead Space and Mirror's Edge were EA's apology and their "we're gonna do better, promise!" and that's why it hurt so much when they were devolved into what their sequels became

i imagine ur excited for callisto protocol son :) can't wait. Awesome vod bud.

Let’s go part 3

Love long form content like this, glad to have found your channel, may I recommend the Mass Effect series at some point?

Youre on a roll. Love your videos

My favorite part was definitely the ancient alien city underneath the ice. Once I got there I understood what they were going for. Not so much "Alien" anymore, but more "At the Mountains of Madness". I also really liked part where you move between all the spaceship derelicts and I feel like that almost could've been its own game. It's definitely not as good as the first two games, but I think those parts still make it a worthwhile playthrough. The DLC might be the best part about the game though. It's visceral (no pun intended) and butal. And even though the ending is left open, I think it fits with the franchise and ends on a high note.

Fianlly getting round to watching this. I quite liked my playthrough I did with my brother, which was definitely the intended way to play the game. Weapon crafting took me a while to figure out, but when I did I made a Shotgun with a Sniper on the lower part of it, great weapon

Top notch as always, young man 👍

The only thing important to me while playing games is enjoyment. I enjoyed Dead Space 3.

Sir you have no idea how much I enjoy your videos. Would you mind if I make a request? Would you consider doing a retrospective about the game called “we happy few”? It’s a game that had a lot of potential but ultimately fell flat on his face due to a bunch of reasons. Might be worthwhile if you are interested. Much love from Spain 🇪🇸 Edit: Typos

the grand narrative of this game is actually pretty good

I was so disapointed when this game was released in high school. I loved DS1 and DS2

I think the reason for Ellie's death fake out was them not having enough faith in the competency of the player. I would imagine that the shift in genre probably prompted some discussion regarding this game being a lot of players' first introduction to the series, and maybe the devs just didn't think that new players would be sufficiently motivated without something blatantly obvious like the death of a love interest. Just my two cents. Keep this long form content coming. Love the channel!

Actual transcript: EA suit- “Money?” Visceral-“…but it’s not Call of Duty.” EA suit- “Mmmmmoney…” Visceral-“It will kill the franc..” EA suit-“MONEY!” Visceral-“ Alright, Jeez.”

Good video as always, son

loved this. it would be sick if you could cover the outlast games at one point

There were elements I enjoyed of 3. I do agree though because the things presented in this game could of been far better. I like your work. Keep it up ♡

Xenomorphs aren't basically space zombies? The only thing that I always find fascinating about this franchise is the cosmic horror of the markers, the developers not needed to add space zombies to copy Resident Evil 4, and I am happy enough to fight human that were turn insane by the market, as much you want to call Dead Space revolutionary, to me is just survival horror with space zombies.

Somebody once described Dead Space 3 as a reskinned Kane & Lynch, and I've never been able to unsee that.

Another great video Son. Hope you do fallout and resident evil soon!

great video! just a little dissapointed you didnt talk about the dlc more from a lot of ppl i heard its great and maybre even better than the base game

My only gripes of this review was when you said you are reduced to two weapons when you can still have 4 You also said you can only place the scavenger bots in certain spots. You can place them anywhere

While Dead Space 3 maybe a shit game it holds a special place in my heart, it was the last game me and my highschool best friend played together, he joined the military and I went to college, it was one of those thing that happens and you don’t even notice it, the last days you spend with a friend, he didn’t die or anything, we just grew up and went different directions in our lives and fell out of contact, we loved all the bits with carver having mental breaks and seeing things that the other player could not see, we wound up beating the game in I almost want to say 1 sitting, by the end of it we were so tired and delirious we were just sitting there going “are we in an underground alien city? When did that happen” we played awakened and we loved it (we used to play splinter cell conviction all the time and loved the climax of the co-op story where you and your partner fight to the death) so awakened brought back some fun memories for us

Just started replaying this 👍 I really wish you were able to take an AI Carver on the Optional missions. 🤔 is it uncharacterstically generous of Electronic (arts) to allow purchasing resource/weapon/mod packs for in-game ration seals ?

Dead Space 1&2 are masterpieces, Dead Space 3 is....something. I was completely unable to get through it solo, it just was not fun at all. I had been playing it on PC and bought a copy for xbox to play with couch co-op. THE GAME DOESNT HAVE LOCAL CO-OP, it only lets you play online! You can add that to the list of reasons why the game failed, friends would wax poetically about their couch experience with buddies even if the game was bad, but they couldn't even let players have that

I'm disappointed you're not mentioning Carter in the story more. His interactions with Issac are pretty great in my opinion

*Five minutes ago? If that ain't early enough, I dunno what is.*

Great video as always son. It's unfortunate how dead space 3 turned out

Gotta love EA marketting, doubling down on the changes they forced onto Dead Space 2 while in complete denial that it was their meddling that caused the last game underperform is the first place.

The insane overabundance of healing items and stasis packs, and the crazy level at which stasis got nerfed really destroy this game's fun factor.

I think it's kinda ironic that Norton was right in wanting to leave the system, as that would have prevented Unitologists from activating the machine and awakening the Moons, ending humanity. Although it was bound to happen it could have been stalled I suppose, or at least let humanity die out naturally from lack of resources.

One thing I like about DS3 that most don't - the necromorphs at the start of the game. Not because of lore reasons or any shit like that, it just reminds me of that badass scene in Heavy Metal. You know the one.

Hope You do Resident Evil series one day :)

It's not necessarily that the story or gameplay doesn't fit... it sort of does... it makes sense storywise that it would develop to this point, and that fighting like this, against human foes, would occur. BUT.... They should have made it into its own subseries of the same game. Deadspace Marines or something.... the series that would have cameos from past characters, but which would ultimately see you playing as someone else. And playing a different type of game... sort of like Chris and team in Resident Evil VS any other playable character in mostly any other game. 99% of the time you are someone else, dealing with keys, puzzles, horror, and limited resources. But when Chris is seen, he's just some muscle bound, unlimited ammo having, unlimited gun having, unlimited resource having, power house. Fighting an action game through and through.... They could have simply done that, and allowed for yet another future release or releases in one or both series under the same franchise banner. If you want to appeal to a wider audience, you don't do so by throwing away your previous audience... and the proper way to gain both, would be to make both entries. One remaining horror focused, the other becoming whatever it needs to be to be successful... action if need be. But, not only is hindsight 2020, but so is reality in general, so long as you aren't some inept ceo type. Same reason most low level employees can often run entire businesses far better than that of their actual management or CEO's.... You get too far up that chain, and all you are is disconnected. But hey, that's just how the world does things I guess... backwards. I can say that the over abundance of enemies in this title is pretty transparent though... it's the same approach many lazy devs take to a coop gameplay system. You provide the same or a similar amount to the last games, and the extra player will render the threat moot. Too easy... two people blasting away just makes it all too easy. So, just hike up the enemy count and/or buff them to some extent to deal with the extra player. Laziest way to do it, but I'm sure it's why it was done.

Honestly, I just try to ignore the Dead Space 3 DLC ending. Isaac ridding the galaxy of the marker signal but then being left alone and dying on some unknown planet, his feat unrecognised by those he saved, is much more inline with the idea of "dead space" then the actual ending we got

One thing I really liked about DS3 was the whole "and reality ensues" aspect of Isaac using stasis on an automated highway. Everything else? eh. By the end, it felt like a slog, and I never played the DLC.

fyi during the original release of the game they heavily monetized the scavenger bot resources by selling "time boosts" and "resource packs" which directly gave pay to win aspects in a single player game its not around anymore but it was by far one of the most worst things of dead space 3

Personally I enjoyed playing dead space 3, but it never felt like a dead space game. Imo, I know it would sound weird, but I thought it would be cool if we had like a semi-open world environment between the sea of destroyed ships and had to piece our ship back together while cycling power between sections of 200+ year old ships. That and weapons having a form of durability system would balance out the weapon crafting so much

9:58 IT BROKE NEW GROUND!

There were spots of DS3 that had brilliance. The crafting system was was a nice change, though the optional micro transactions were annoying. I did truly enjoy exploring the chunks of that space craft. It still had some atmosphere, but was open world in a way I had not seen in a horror game at that point. I would have been very happy if 90% of the game was spend doing that and fighting cultists and Necromorphs. there was a lot of story that could have been told there. DS3, much like Resident Evil 6 the year before, ran headlong into action set pieces and wild variations in environments.

Yes feed me more Dead Space son, om nom nom nom

For the combat peeps: 12:35

Always thought the main bad guy looked like Elton John

Dead space 3 is a personal favorite of mine, it is in absolutely no way as good as one and two and the EA treatment severely destroyed any possible good thing that could have emerged from it, but it is a fun time playing after the nerve-racking first two episodes It would have been a wonderdul experience if it was a spinoff game without Isaac, like a new protagonist to tie into the story, I think people would have had a far better opinion of the game this way

hey Son would be nice if you do The Evil Within games in the next videos

Sorry you had to go through that, son.

Daily reminder that Dead Space is only being brought back, not because EA respects the franchise, but because of the success of RE2 remake

will you think of covering the yakuza spin off games

Could you posibly do Bayonetta next? Thank you

Thorough retrospective, though you unfortunately missed some points. Eg the connection between the gameplay issues and the coop. In DS 3, there is no rebalancing between coop and singleplayer wrt enemy numbers or behaviour. Those are entirely scaled to coop boundaries. This is why in singleplayer the stream of enemies seems endless and why the necromorphs are so much faster than before or the fact that the "stun" mechanic does no longer work. DS 3 was initally advertised as a singleplayer game with the option to play it coop; after having played the game, the opposite turns out to be the case. The gun crafting and the lack of balance with respect to how powerful the guns may be that you create trivialize a lot of the encounters to the point where the game and its gameplay is purely tedious as you're only wasting time in fights due to the lack of a real challenge. Also as you already mentioned the replacement of Ellie's eye, I would have appreciated if you went a bit deeper into the topic of Ellie's character development from DS 2 to DS 3. I found it to be almost insultingly bad (as not only her eye was renewed :S). My biggest gripe with the game is not its lackluster gameplay, atmosphere, character development or other important stuff but how the dev's decided to continue the Dead Space lore. What they came up with (the moons, aliens, machine etc) is so over the top, so ridiculous, so far away from anything the previous games alluded to that it killed my interest in what was up to then my favourite franchise. Isaac's story should have been concluded in DS 2.

omggggg i needed this! thank you son!!

At least we got The Callisto Protocol to look forward to. (Don't get me wrong, the Dead Space remake looks awesome, but I'm putting my money with the original creator)

Currently going through DS3 with my brother so I won't watch yet. And it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I'm playing CO-OP. Some of the changes took some getting used to though

I wonder if EA remaking DS1, will lead them to remake 2 and 3 in a more horror game way, that is if the remake of DS1 maintains the horror and does well.

Guh, hated the changes to every Survival Horror during the 2000's and 2010's gone was the gritty atmosphere, the horrifying low ammo counts, and jump scares, Dead Space 3, Resident Evil 5 & 6, Silent Hills later installments. Thank Mass Effect 2 & 3 for the gameplay and thank the Resident Evil movies for the lack of horror.

Hi son it's me, your favourite Dad

The main problem is EA themselves. At this point in the gaming timeline they were 'all profits all the time' and in order to make Dead Space sell big numbers they did a full media blitz -comic books, an animated movie, way too many commercials and magazine ads. Given the original budget it could have easily sold enough and stood on its own, but the sales numbers they had in mind were astronomical, especially for a new IP. If they had simply cut out the media blitz with some well placed magazine ads and word of mouth this game could have continued on to this day -but you are also correct, EA is especially guilty of 'following trends' leading to a generic action game -this might have even done well on its own merits if given proper time for balancing. I did leave feeling a bit sad -not because of how #3 ended, but how badly EA abused and twisted this burgeoning francise

Anyone managed to get this game running on Windows 11? It stopped working after I switched D:

It was so so bad. Its the shattered memories of the dead space series

Dead space 3 is just a silly co op shooter with light horror jump scares I always play this game with my friend that doesn’t play horror games but he loves it especially when he plays carver and I don’t see his marker moments so while he is in McDonald’s play land and I’m shooting elite necromorphs

DS3 is good game but, it feels not like a DS game, the dlc was amazing

Dead Space 3 is the only game I ever forced myself to finish. I hated it so much, I was swearing at my screen the entire time but I wanted to finish the trilogy so I didn't just shut it off and walk away and I wish I had.

Did anyone else notice that the Necromorphs have weapons?

"I just wish the weapon system was in another game." This here. I really enjoyed trying different combinations. Just not fitting in a Dead Space game. Sad they wasted this

I wonder how a Complete History of "Doki Doki Literature Club" would be here on this Channel. That Game also changes Tone....IN ONE GAME XD

Even if they made a dead space 4 How do they ignore 3 and fit it into the whole storyline we're gonna say Isaac wasn't sleeping the whole time

To be fair i would have been disappointed if dead space stuck to the formula too hard, by dead space 3 it kinda made sense that isaac and subsequently the player wasnt scared shitless by the outbreaks anymore, the action focus i feel was the only logical evolution of the dead space series, if it was just another space station or something im sure ds3 would have been stale as opposed to annoying and that could have gone worse, plus the story hoops they would have to jump through to get isaac on another spaceship experiencing an outbreak, considering he is now a fugitive from two spacefaring war entities, it would have felt wrong imo

They actually never concluded story. The game ended with a bit if a cliff hanger.

Hey son, I don't agree with your sentiment, I actually thought DS3 was pretty good, and specially the part with the wreckage visiting different ships was top notch Dead Space. Yeah, it wasn't really scary, but that's a problem 2 also had and it's pretty difficult to make a scary game with a character that has been through so much, and with players familiarized with the formula. I specially liked that the story was much more fleshed out and you got an idea of the whole world, the story with the Sovereign Colonies... it made my imagination run wild and it has so much potential to make an extended universe. It would never be as good as DS1, but despite its shortcomings I'd rather replay this one than the second one, which to me is the weakest. Love your reviews though, good work!

If I do not see you using telekinesis to shoot back enemies parts at them atleast once I'm gonna be mighty dissapointed

I think the surgeon did great work on Ellie 👍 - on her eye, the operation on her eye, of course 🙄

Damn, son, you sounded angry on this review! Kinda funny how the first game was heavily inspired by RE4, and then the sequels followed the exact same path towards action and even co-op. Anyway, another franchise down, considering a new release is happening in a few days, any chance that after you talk about the spin-offs next week, we'll get a God of War retrospective?

The same way re did it, it's the failing brew of every horror game, you have to find a medium that brings in new players but please the og and its never happened we always get a game that allienates long standing fans who typically promote the games in the first place. Re was able to pull it back by creating an entirely new system, visceral did it by disbanding forming a new studio and team and created callisto protocal (maybe) which will from here on be known has cp

I still very much enjoyed playing Dead Space 3. It was a solid game, but it wasn't a good Dead Space game.

Man the story was so cringy in DS3. Honestly looking back on it, the only issue I had gameplay wise was the addition of enemies with guns and the waves and waves of enemies. The locations were fine, the crafting system was fine, and the coop only missions were great. But my goodness was the romantic triangle sooooooo bad.

You can very much tell the devs wanted to make a good, horror-action coop game with some of the things put into the game including the cool coop elements and gun building system, but EA forced them to make it a worse action game overall

I think DS3 gets too much hate...not saying it's not deserved, but it wasnt THAT bad