We’re not 100% sure at what point during the just-announced Dead Space 3 (star of our August '12-issue cover feature) that our demo takes place, but we know it’s the first time during the game that returning-hero Isaac Clarke touches down on Tau Volantis — a perpetually icy planet populated by both icky Necromorphs that range in size from skittering smallies to lumbering dino-sized behemoths, and the very human religious-nutbag sect of Unitology.
Before that point, you’re on a ship with a familiar face. Ellie, the woman who helped you out of a tough jam in Dead Space 2, is chatting with Isaac about a planet “where it all started.” This, of course, happens about 20 seconds before your spacecraft is cracked in half and poor Ellie gets sucked into the void. Does she survive? We aren’t lucky enough to find out as Isaac is plunged into a series of encounters on Tau Volantis.
At that point, we're treated to a co-op demo, where we meet Issac's partner-in-survival, John Carver, as they face off against an errant, berserker-like spinning drill. The intense fight involves the use of stasis — both characters possess the same abilities, so it won’t matter who’s filling which role of defender or drill-stasis-ing — in order to freeze the out-of-control machinery and shoot at its core. Meanwhile, the other character helps out by keeping the encroaching Necromorphs at bay or forcing them into the drill’s path for some tenderizing action.
Once the drill is yesterday’s news, it’s back out into the snowy wasteland, where you’ll fend off some Unitologists shortly before being confronted with the mother of all Necromorphs: a giant monstrosity looms up from the ciffside and promptly uses its giant jaws to suck you, along with friend and foe alike, into it’s seemingly miles-long esophageal tract.
As the demo winds up, we get a peek at what awaits you inside the giant beast as you’re pushed, pulled, and eventually plopped into a stomach-like, fluid-filled cavity. As you splish-splash into a sea of transparent goo, a uvula-like protrusion oozes down from the upper surface of what looks to be a stomach, and dangles with a handful of convenient glowy sacks. We suspect you’ll be wanting to shoot those sacks, son. But alas the demo comes to a close, with Dead Space's franchise executive producer quipping that Isaac and Carver certainly won't be exiting the same way they entered. Yikes!
Isaac’s journey may be a ways off, what with its February 2013 release date, but we’re already anticipating that Dead Space 3 is going to be one of the games to watch in the increasingly crowded first quarter of next year.
PUBLISHER: EA • DEVELOPER: Visceral Games • MULTPLAYER: Yes • RELEASE DATE: February 2013 • FOR FANS OF: Survival horror, sci-fi, dismembering (virtual) things
