Having seen an advert stating "Gain early access to the Dead Space 3 Demo" on Xbox Live earlier this week, I quickly and emphatically signed up using my EA origins account. I then patiently waited in anticipation for an email with the early access code and having seen the size '1.96gb', I was already excited over the possibilities that could be in store for me. Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are fantastic survival horror games in this current generation of gaming. Too few now exist, particularly and most notably with Resident Evil veering off its original path - a game series that I also truly loved.

Upon arrival of the main menu, I am greeted with a single player campaign option and co-op campaign option (aswell as a weapon editing mode which I will mention later). Personally, this addition does not bother me in the slightest - it gives you the option of what you want to play, but I would assume co-op does render the term 'survival horror', and any jump scares along the way, almost obsolete. Predictably, I chose the single player option.

On entering the game, Isaac wakes up in a destroyed ship, with frost on his face, on the planet Tau Volantis - a planet where the 'source' of the Markers is supposedly on. Once I had escaped from my ship in a cutscene, I proceeded to walk in about a foot or two of snow along the icy plains in my currently damaged suit in a violent icy blizzard. Visibility was rather poor at this point, so I treaded lightly and took my time - as you normally would in Dead Space games. Despite the game starting in an outdoor environment, it still felt like Dead Space. First thing I had to do though was change my gun reticle back to 'classic' - I prefer seeing dots spread with distance rather than being static. The Plasma-Cutter looked and sounded slightly different to the previous games. It did not feel as powerful so I was eager to test it out on some Necromorphs and I did not have to wait too long.

As I walked to what appeared to be a Mineshaft entrance, I was confronted with a Zombie-like Miner. He looked infected of somesort and he proceeded to run towards me. It was not what I wanted, but I repeated to shoot my Plasma-Cutter into his limbs. His upper body then exploded revealing three tentacles, whilst remaining attached to its human lower half. It sort of reminded me of 'The Thing' in a weird way. Just not quite as good. After I had dealt with him, I was then attacked by two. As I shot them, all I thought was how weak my Plasma-Cutter sounded and it felt like it was shooting air - there was no recoil or any real impact on their flesh. Not what I am use to from a Dead Space title. This was then hugely affected by the fps dropping to almost a slideshow for a few seconds. There was only two enemies on screen...I then decided to search this rather small mineshaft area as many paths were conveniently caved in with snow. So after a few item pickups from stomping on the deceased enemies and nearby crates, I exited the area.

I was quickly introduced to a quick-time cutscene, reminiscence of that to the beginning of one of the Uncharted games (2, I believe) where you had to escape from a bus/tram thing that was about to fall whilst in the snow. I pressed the buttons and crawled away with my mind saying 'please don't over-do this like RE 6'. I then entered a cave where I was introduced to our familar Dead Space foe, the traditional Necromorph, looking slightly different and not as scary or as detailed for that matter. I strongly felt Dead Space 2's Necromorph looked far more superior and horrifying. These still sounded quite fearsome and when they first popped out of the snowy floor, I did initially panic. Further along the way I came to a huge open clearing with some bridge-like structure to my left with a survivor, named Sgt. Carver, on it shooting and retreating from Necromorphs. My blue guide-trail led me to a small room with a suit station, changing me into an Artic suit, which looked more like a traditional suit with a coat layer over the top, but I digress. Then there was a workbench with a few new features. These now allow you to customise nearly any part of your guns from additional sights, extended clips to even changing the secondary fire completely - fancy having a Plasma-Cutter with a Flamethrower attachment? Yes, you actually can. I do like this customisation feature, but only time will tell how truly balanced this will be. However, you do need to find salvageable parts in order to start playing around with your gun. You can even make a custom version of a gun and save the blueprint so a friend can copy your design. Sounded pretty neat at the time.

After a few minutes of what was essentially me playing, I exited the room and proceeded to a nearby lift that would have allowed me to get closer to Sgt. Carver. This was shortlived as I was to be interupted by a cutscene (not a quick-time one though) of a spider-looking thing. Nevertheless, i proceeded to fire at the yellow tenticles and bodyparts as you do, Dead Space style. It took quite a beating before it ran away but I still felt that my weapons did not feel right. I cannot help but think why not keep the sounds from the last game - they worked amazingly. Maybe it was because i was outside in the snow, maybe not. Whatever it was, something was not quite right.

And then my nightmare was realised, I was greeted with human enemies saying "It's Clark, he's over there" and immediately chucked a grenade at me. I unfortunately thought "where's my beloved Dead Space gone?" It felt like Resident Evil 6 mixed in with the landscape style of Lost Planet. Maybe the developers read my mind because that human enemy was then torn to shreds by necromorphs before I retaliated - was this a reference to say 'we won't turn Dead Space into an action shooter with humans'? I smiled regardless. Still, the Necromorphs don't look as good as they did in one or two and neither does the blood, which looked like shiny dark red plastic-like stuff. I proceeded along to find a door way into some interior to be greeted by a freaky-looking head, with tentacles as feet, that scurried to a nearby deceased human body, bringing it back to life - just with a bit of a necromorph look about him and he pulled a gun and started to fire. That reference I had previously thought they had made was now proven to be false. I felt like Chris Redfield during RE 5 & 6 with the Las Plagas - and that is not what I wanted and I was not impressed. I come around the corner with my faith slowly dwindling away and see two people dressed in a similar suit to me shooting more Zombie-miners and a couple of them heads-with-legs (which I named 'Headwalkers'). I saved one of the men whilst the other died, but then the survivor turned against me and started firing away...I was confused because he did not shoot me until after I had saved his miserable life.

Shortly afterwards, I encountered the typical 'use stasis then kinesis' puzzle to dislodge an enormous drill that had blocked my path. The drill then fell out of position and magically started attacking me in a conveniently close-quarter arena-like area, whilst ordinary and anorexic-squeeling, teenage-looking Necromorphs (that acted very much in the same way as those babies) appeared. I was told that I had to use Stasis on the drill to reveal a yellow centre to which I then had to shoot. It then somehow flew in the air and spun for a few seconds more. I used stasis again, then shot the yellow centre, again. A couple of attempts later and the drill 'died.' Although I was assuming this was almost a boss fight with how the mechanics worked, it did instill a sense of panic due to the small proximity of the room and being with tons of necromorphs continually slashing me whilst running from a giant drill. I had to refill my health a lot and run to Stasis-charging docks a lot to overcome this initial threat. I was left from the battle with mixed feelings; I was panicking but the Necromorphs that were constantly hitting me stopped my attempts at shooting the drill, which got old and annoying far too quickly.

Unfortunately the nightmare was not quite over at this point. I then returned outside to another good looking but sadly unmemorable snowy outdoor environment to be presented with more mundane human enemies with the game encouraging me to use the new 'roll' (I don't remember it being in the other games) and 'duck and cover' mechanics to overcome a mundane shootout - again, like Chris' campaign in Resident Evil 6. They were wearing suits, like Isaac's, so they took a fair bit of damage. However, after a few kills a huge monstrous roar and a sound of sheer destruction came from behind me. I assumed it was going to be an environmental cutscene of something falling that would hurry me in killing my enemies, but infact I was pleasantly surprised it was a huge almost skeletal-like Necromorph that I had previously seen in the distance earlier in the demo - when it appeared fossilised. It came to the cliff-face, roared again, then started to suck us all in. I saw yellow within it so I prepared to ready myself only to be struck by its huge arm with the words 'Dead Space 3' appearing on the fading gameplay. It was a surprisingly decent ending to the demo that felt ultimately underwhelming for a sequel of one of the best survival horrors this generation. I hope I am truly wrong when the full game is released on February 8th (EU).