Dead Space 3 is an excellent shooter mixed with amazing game play and design. The levels are beautiful and most of the game takes place on the frozen planet of Tau Volantis. I remember Dead Space 1 and 2 being excellent horror shooters that are staged within small clautrophobic corridors and space ship type atmosphere as you scour through room after room clearing the necromorphs. Dead Space 3 still retains that but half the game you will be playing in large spaces, open and closed and its superb in terms of variations.
Dead Space 3 is difficult at first in terms of understanding the bench upgrade system. Instead of power nodes in last games, this time we need to find and scavenge for items like tungsten, etc to craft weapon upgrades and a different suit kiosk is used for upgrading health, armor, stasis and Kinesis. The game is difficult in beginning with no upgraded weapons, armor and health. So it is challenging for the first 8 missions or so. You also get a scavenger bot mid game which collects resources for you and when done searching it returns with it to the bench. This is a nice addition. Once I fully understood how the upgrade system worked in game, you could truly build a powerful weapon of your choice with customizing primary and secondary fire options. Instead of power nodes, upgrade circuits are used to enhance a weapon's reload, clip, rate of fire and damage. You can also craft med packs, stasis, ammo, upgrade circuit etc. Weapons can be customized or blueprints found throughout the game can be used to build a weapon.
The shotgun and probe gun were my primary choice and once tweaked fully, the game was a breeze. I could feel the power of my gun and how i could easily annihilate hordes of enemies using shotgun and probe gun combo. From level 16 to level 19 the game relentlessly puts in various enemies to fight and the battles even though exciting, were easily won over due to powerful weaponry.
Dead Space 3 also has some exciting side missions which rewards you with blueprints, gun parts, upgrade circuit etc. The side mission story lines provide a background to the main story line and are well designed. One in particular has you scavenging for some parts in outer space for a long time and the beauty of seeing space ships and vast darkness of space is simply compelling enough to just stay and watch. Graphically the game is just gorgeous. In the starting levels, as you walk through a room with glass panes, you see the red sunlight gleaming through illuminating everything. The frozen planet of Tau Volantis provides rapelling sections of game wherein you avoid the falling chunks of ice and climb to safety. These are small variations and improvements that make Dead Space 3 a worthy successor. The level design in simply ingenious as you see how Visceral went about putting every effort in designing a supreme setting that doesn't feel repetitive.
From icy exteriors of Tau Volantis, space ships, alien underground city, interiors of Earth colony, zero gravity atmosphere to the insides of an alien necromorph, the game has all different settings for you to keep engaged. The shooting mechanics are brilliant as well.
My only complaint would be that the last boss fight was way too easy. I had gone in the fight loaded with med packs, ammo and Stasis storage. I finished the fight without needing to use anything. They should have put in something more challenging and hard rather than a boss that just sits and does nothing and wait to be killed. With kinesis, stasis, health, armor & guns fully upgraded the enemies become a joke as you squash through them like knife through hot cake.
Other than that last level disappointment, this hame is a flawless masterpiece that takes the series to another level. The horror element is not so strong as in DS 1 and 2, but i think thats a good thing as it can become repetitive with the same old same old. If you are a fan of great shooters, with insane upgrade options, beautiful level designs and a solid story line then DS 3 is for you.