Dead Space 3 DLC Review: Awakening

So recently, I was able to find the time to play through Dead Space 3: Awakening, the downloadable content released close after the game's release back in March. This addition starts off where the full game ends, continues to follow Isaac Clarke and Carver and is meant to serve as an epilogue to the main game. Almost more importantly though was rumor that the DLC was going back to the original horror genre that the first two games were built upon rather then the more action oriented game that Dead Space 3 ended up being. Naturally, I felt I needed to play it to see if these rumors were true and also to see what more there was to the story. I'm sorry to say, I was a little disappointed. But read on! And of course, there may be SPOILERS ahead!!

The game opens with Isaac waking up in what appears to be an apartment back on Earth. He stumbles into the bathroom, looks into the mirror and sees Carver instead of his own reflection. There's a flash, and Isaac and Carver find themselves once again on Tau Volantis after destroying the Necromorph moon by pulling it in and crashing it on the planet. In the wake of all the destruction, they have managed to survive. As it happens, some of the Unitologists have survived and are leaving the planet themselves. The goal becomes stealing one of the escaping ships to get off the planet and back to Earth as soon as possible. This is the first chapter. To be honest, the feeling of the chapter was about the same as Dead Space 3 in general to me: more action, less horror. However, there was one detail of this chapter that did in fact remind me of Dead Space 1 in particular: Unitologist soldiers going crazy. If you've played through Dead Space, you'll remember seeing various Ishimura crew members going crazy and usually killing themselves right in front of you. The imagery was downright creepy and really added to the fear of being trapped in the dead mining ship. While I didn't get the exact same feeling from the DLC, I still appreciated that the developers went back to the source material to create a feeling of dread. 

The second and third chapters take place upon the Terra Nova, one of the ghost ships floating over the ice planet. Carver and Isaac make it off the surface and attempt to fix the Terra Nova enough to jump it to Earth. But the Unitologists have taken up residence on the ship and it's revealed that a new cult within the Unitologists' ranks has taken over. These Unitologists have mutilated their limbs and wear hoods over their faces. They basically look as though they are trying to imitate the way the Necromorphs look. You have to fight your way through the ship and find the necessary parts to fix it. These chapters are definitely meant to feel more claustrophobic and haunted house like. The spaces are far less open then on the planet and darker too. Isaac and Carver are also having flashes in their heads revealing more about what happened on the ship. These flashes eventually evolve to encounters and serve as boss fights, which is reminiscent of the last boss fight in Dead Space 2. I won't reveal what happens in the end of the DLC, but it is supposed to serve as a more concrete ending to the main Dead Space 3 storyline.

Ultimately, I can see what the developers were trying to do with this DLC, but I ended up being fairly disappointed with it. There was a revisit to the horror feel the first two games were built upon, but it just wasn't enough. There were still points I felt freaked out, but it was not nearly the same as the primal fear I remember feeling from DS1 and DS2. The game play was the same as the main game (though that's to be expected) and I still ended up using my same two guns that I had from the main game. I did enjoy the revisit of being surrounded by people going insane from the Marker and the fear those scenes brought. But again, the whole thing felt "too little, too late" to me. While I have enjoyed the Dead Space series immensely, I feel that unless EA and Visceral choose to bring back the horror they utilized in the first two Dead Space games, the series is going to become boring. This DLC is worth playing through, but not for $10. Overall, it also did not fix the failures of the Dead Space 3 main game. 

Next up: Bioshock: Infinite AND The Last of Us (once Speeder and I finish it!)

It's been a long time.......

It's been far too long since my last post but I'm trying my best to get back into a regular writing schedule. With next week bringing big news from E3 and the release of The Last of Us on PS3, I should have plenty to write about. I'm also working on a post outlining my thoughts on the PS3/Xbox One and a detailed conversation about Bioshock Infinite between Felon and myself.

In other awesome news Felon and I will once again be traveling to Seattle in August to attend PAX Prime. Hopefully we will be posting more pictures and hands-on impressions during the convention this year.