A deeply flawed and barely worthy finale to one of the only good new franchises out there.
Another favorite of mine was Mass Effect, also by EA, not by Visceral. Also a trilogy, also hard science-fiction, it was a milestone in the RPG genre. What does these two share in common? I think you can already make a guess.
They both share disappointing endings. Dead Space 3 is better though, and I'll continue to explain why.
Dead Space 3 starts off with a rather down on his luck Isaac, fleeing from Earth Gov and Unitologists by hiding on the Moon colonies. Apparently, he had a relationship with Ellie that couldn't hold, and he seems lost. That is until you are forced to get on the fray again under the pretense that Ellie finally found how to actually end the Markers and stop the Necromorphs once and for all... if only she hadn't disappeared in an abandoned planet.
Here, the story starts to lose the momentum that it had accumulated, which is very bad because it's only the first chapter. From here, you know that the story will be your typical "boy and girl" drama, with some rather predictable twists here and there, but nothing really original. As is, it's very hard to feel empathy even for Isaac, given how the only relationship you felt he cared about was Nicole's, and how the only hint we had about Ellie's is a voice mail telling him "she's moving on" (really) and a torn picture (really). Therefore, whenever the romance rears its head, it feels tacked on and forced given just how crazy stuff is.
I say crazy, because as it happens, the planet was not really abandoned: it was colonized but forced into extreme quarantine courtesy of the Necromorphs and the fact that that planet is the source of the Marker that started it all. So, your ship crashes into a veritable cloud of orbital debris left by the colonists 200 years ago, debris plagued with cool, mummified looking necromorphs, and you still have solve Isaac's love issues. Now, THAT'S far fetched.
But moving on, the atmosphere is quite good, but not anywhere near as in the previous two games. While the derelict ships are interesting, and understandably rusted and claustrophobic, the planet surface is terribly uninteresting. Is also rusted, which not only means you won't see a true change from the ship's corridors, but also that, thanks to console's muddy textures, everything looks like a yellow brown mess. Graphics-wise the game is inferior to Dead Space 2, since the flashlight only projects shadows in certain points, and the textures are consistently low-res. Snowy landscapes are well executed, and will please those of you who are fans of snow, just not me. Certain vistas are well done, but these are far in-between. The game picks up both in quality and artistic direction towards the ending,but is too few too late.
Gameplay wise, Dead Space 3 is thorough in burying everything that made its predecessors great. The decision of focusing in action instead of horror, makes every necromorph encounter a prolonged, tedious and annoying exercise in dismembering. In Dead Space, monsters meant something, and were horrifying not only because of great art, but also because it was the first time you saw them. Dead Space 2 made it freaky with all sorts of disturbing environs, like the kindergarten or the school. Hell, even the apartments, all covered with ritualistic symbols and chock-full of scripted sounds had you in the edge of your seat. On Dead Space 3, since it is a derelict colony, there is only one way Necromorphs can reach you: Ventilation ducts. When you see one it is guaranteed, and I'm not exaggerating here, that at least 85% of the times, a necromorph is going to jump out of there. Of course, this kills any kind of tension, and makes the music, that was fantastic in the first two thanks to its hair-rising crescendo, feel almost comical in its repetition and futile efforts to produce any kind of terror (not the music's fault).
In the actual end, Dead Space 3 just fizzles away. No grandiose conclusion, no long cinematic, no real something. It just... ends. While it is a good ending, it is very deflating for such a good and long franchise. And I'm not counting anything about all that devilish micro transaction scheme because I didn't need it (if it counts for you, substract 2 points from the rating).
So there, Dead Space 3 is a game that has its moments. Very few moments in a quagmire of mediocrity, totally undeserving of its legacy.