Poll: Which Dead Space game did you enjoy the most?

[Falcondynamite]

I'm not normally into questions like this, but I just wanted to see a bit of voice from some other people besides the ten voices going through my own head.

Now I'll look at all three games and then I'll throw my final verdict, this is just my own opinion, so please do not strike me with a Narwhal horn. I'm not doing the spinoffs because they're spinoffs and I don't think they count.

Dead Space one:
Threw you into a dark place with a silent protagonist and characters that were there because they were. The game had an excellent atmosphere and always felt intense. Especially when you get chased around by something you couldn't kill. Tons of memorable set pieces and it was a fairly challenging game. Probably had the best boss fights in the series.

Dead Space two:
Gave Isaac a voice and personality and introduced characters that were actually likeable (Ellie). The game had an excellent atmosphere, it always kept the mood intense, there was a new challenge in every corner (Of the three I found 2 to be the most difficult). It felt more terrifying especially when I knew I was in a tough area and don't have the credits/ammo/or health to get to the next area without dying a few times. The new enemies were definitely a plus. The only real downside were the boss encounters, considering the fact you don't even need a fully upgraded weapon to kill the final boss in under a minute... Then again I just think that's a Dead Space thing in general because the final battles were never actually difficult.

Dead Space three:
Doesn't really feel like a Dead Space game. Ellie became kind of useless. The weapon crafting system was incredibly broken. Not once while playing the game did I feel "fear" nor did I feel intense. A majority of the cast of new characters were completely forgettable excluding Norton (despite how predictable his character was), and Danik for some entertaining dialogue.
The game introduced the excellent idea of free roam zero G segments that disappeared almost completely in the second half. The game was pathetically easy. The ending was probably one of the best segments of the game, even if the final battle was incredibly easy. Micro-transactions. I actually defend the idea of CO-OP since the game obviously abandoned the idea of being a horror game and just wanted to be an action shooter, and I suppose the CO-OP was appropriate after that beginning decision... Just would have been better if they chose someone over Carver, because he's not very interesting.
You can go through most of this game without seeing your health go red (excluding scripted events) until the stasis necromorphs show up. There are some memorable moments, but nothing really special. It's not that its close to being a bad game, I've actual replayed the game four times (once being in co-op)... I just played the others a lot more.

Ranked favorite favorite-least favorite

Dead Space 2
Dead Space 1
Dead Space? 3

Again this is my personal opinion and I'd like to hear yours.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I enjoyed all three, pretty equally but the first one had the better atmosphere and was a fresh game to me. Reminiscent of System Shock minus the more RPG elements.

 

[Soundwave]

I preferred the third one, actually, for a variety of reasons. I liked the idea that "being an engineer, I could engineer the ideal necromorph killing weapons", I liked the environments better, I really enjoyed playing as that poor grunt in the opening sequence. I liked not being forced to kill child-based necromorphs. I especially loved killing unitologists. I liked the cute salvage robots.

So maybe it wasn't scary. People consistently claim resident evil 4 as the best and it isn't scary either. It was also pretty easy on the resource management.

People complain about the existence of paying to win in Dead Space 3, but I don't think that's a fair argument either. Just from being thorough, in one normal difficulty playthrough, I had all the materials I'd have ever been able to use.

 

[Catfood220]

Dead Space 1 was the scariest of the 3 games, but there are a couple of things that ruined it for me. For a start, the turret sections were fucking annoying. Secondly, Isaac has no voice, there is a bit where his "missing" girlfriend helps him out and he doesn't call out or thank her in any way shape or form. Its odd.

Dead Space 2 is my favourite of the 3. It was still slightly scary, Nicole being a symptom of his Marker induced insanity were great fun. It also had generally more interesting environments to explore than the first game. I never had a problem killing the kid necromorphs and the small set of characters were interesting. Apart from the "Mwuha ha ha ha ha ha" station boss. It had some nice action sequences and best of all it had no turret sections.

Dead Space 3 was a bit meh. Don't get me wrong, there are bits that I genuinely liked, like the space ship bits in the beginning of the game reminded me of the first game and when you first get down to the planet and have to stay near fires to keep warm. I really enjoyed these bits, but as soon as you RIG gets fixed, the game really drags. For about another 10 chapters. I really think that there could of been some pruning done to keep things interesting and tight. The micro transactions didn't bother me as I never used them.

 

[Terminate421]

Dead Space 1, mainly for it's emphasis on "Dead Space"

What I mean is that, of course Necromorphs try to kill you but then you have to realize, you're not just fighting the necromorphs, you're also trying to fight gravity, asteroids, and just...space. You're truly alone out there.

Dead Space 2 got it right, but it only lacked just a bit in the horror aspect. Going for a more "Aliens" approach but still was amazing. Also Isaac talking now and having a personality was gold here. He felt like he had a personality that wasn't generic. Odd as it sounds, he really does have his own say. Isaac was better in this one.

Dead Space 3 was only "Dead Space" at the very beginning, The moment you touch the ice planet is where it stops.

Weapon crafting discouraged experimentation once you had something comfortable to use. I had a Pulse Rifle fully upgraded into clip and damage use with a rocket launcher and had an acid attachment. Come at me bro.

 

[GoaThief]

Dead Space is the only good Dead Space game in the series, although I have not tried the third installment which is apparently worse than the awful second game.

Dead Space 2 shat on everything that was good about the original and turned it into a cheesy tween "horror". Voiced Isaac was terrible on every level, as was the pacing, set pieces, plot and secondary characters. It was more of an action game that had no tension and build up whatsoever.

 

[Juste Goose]

The first one I guess, it's the only one I played. I didn't finish it though. I got about halfway through before thinking, "you know, I bet in the next room, an alien will pop out at me, another alien will pretend to be dead, I'll flip the macguffin switch, and it'll tell me to go in the next room to do it all over again."

I just found the whole thing boring. It lost it's "scary" around the time you beheaded your 35th alien.

 

[RJ 17]

I preferred the 2nd one, but to be fair I haven't played/don't intend to play the 3rd. I'm one of those people who saw what they were making it into by all the pre-launch videos and info and such and just had absolutely no interest in the game. Everything I've heard about it, though, has thus-far confirmed my suspicions about the game. I'm pretty sure that if I had played it, I would have liked it the least out of the series.

I liked the 2nd one because I felt that the first game had a couple plotholes that I just couldn't get around (one of them could verywell be my misunderstanding of story details). But I'll go ahead and post what I thought to be the plotholes in case anyone can correct me on them.

Spoiler: Plotholes/spoilers from DS1

1: Your ghost wife. Now I've got no problem with hallucinating your wife into places around the ship - I was pretty certain from the very beginning that she was dead and Isaac was just seeing shit - but there's a section where you need to protect her on the other side of this huge gap while she's hacking a door or something (I think she's trying to give you access to the Medbay, I don't know, it's been a while since I've played the first game). Couple of problems with this. One: If she's a hallucination...how the hell is she hacking a computer to give you access to the area of the ship that you're trying to get to? Two: If she's a hallucination...why the hell are the Necromorphs charging after her and trying to kill her?

That's my biggest bug-a-boo with the story, these next few where I could have just been misunderstanding the story.

From what I recall, the Necromorphs are actually created/attracted to the Marker. Yet in the prequel animated movie and in some notes you get if you do a New Game +, the Marker actually serves to imprison them. In the game, the notes say that the Marker's waves force Necromorphs into dormancy while in the animated movie, the Marker actually projects an invisible forcefield that physically prevents the Necromorphs from getting near it (the security chief that's the last survivor takes refuge by the Marker while the Necromorphs are literally just bouncing off of the field).

As such - and I believe this was in the extra notes you get from the New Game + journal entries - it's surmised that the Markers stand as some kind of prison, sealing Hivemind within the planet and preventing the spread of the Necromorphs. However, the Necromorphs in the game are clearly connected to it. I'll let it slide that as you're pushing the Marker along the planet to get it in place, the Necromorphs are charging up to rip your face off...if you had forcefield around you, that'd make that final sequence pretty damn easy (though it could have been neat to see them all just standing there staring at you while you're doing what you've gotta do...woulda been creepy). But here's what I don't get...are the hallucinations coming from Hivemind telling you what to do? Because it certainly seems like that's what's happening...the Necromorphs induce the hallucinations and make you kill yourself and such so that you're obeying the will of Hivemind. If that's the case, then why does Hivemind keep telling you to "Make us whole" by bringing the Marker back to the planet? Isn't the Marker supposed to be the Necromorph's prison? Wouldn't Hivemind want the Marker as far away as possible? Or does the Marker have a will of its own and wants to be back in place to imprison the Necromorphs again?

Anyways, the first game's story didn't make entire sense to me while the 2nd game's story seemed to be a bit easier to follow (that is, fewer noticeable plotholes). I did think the final boss was a bit lame in the 2nd game, but all in all I thought it was better. I really liked the section where you're going through the unitoligist church. That part was creepy as all hell.

 

[skywolfblue]

I loved Dead Space 3 the most.

It's nearly a tie between Dead Space 2 and 3.
- Two has the best storyline. Issac's mental battle with his dead girlfriend made for an awesome story, and it's one I really love.
- Three has the best environments and gameplay. The story was lacking, Ellie's new love triangle was horrid. But I love snow and space environments, and Dead Space 3 did not disappoint. The Sovereign Colonies fleet debris field was truly one of those "awesome!" moments. And the gun crafting was awesome too, it was fun to tinker around and create absurdly overpowered gun combos, and then giggle like a maniac while laying necromorphs flat.

 

[krazykidd]

Dead space 1 was awsome . Easily my favorite . I didn't play the 3rd because it strayed too much from the survival horror genre to make me interested.

 

[alphamalet]

Resident Evil 4

Seriously, it's Dead Space but a better game.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

People complain about the existence of paying to win in Dead Space 3, but I don't think that's a fair argument either. Just from being thorough, in one normal difficulty playthrough, I had all the materials I'd have ever been able to use.

Playing with a friend on hard, we found that we had an abundance of crafting resources and our guns were plenty powerful. I kinda forgot the micro-transactions were there, to be honest. They were utterly pointless, but didn't actually affect the game.

Still, Dead Space 1 is my favourite, just because I tend to prefer the more slow-paced and "atmospheric" nature of the game. I didn't think it was all that scary, either, but it could get pretty tense; especially if you turn off the music.

I didn't like Dead Space 2, but I don't think I gave it a fair chance. The intro was so bad, it soured me on the whole thing. It wasn't that I kepty dying or anything (I didn't), it was just so horribly paced and devoid of subtlety.

 

[pspman45]

I liked the first one the best.
when I first played it, I got really into the atmosphere, wandering an abandoned ship where something had gone horribly wrong. the sense of mystery and intrigue went well with the slow paced gameplay.

The second one felt exactly like the first one, they re-used almost all of the guns, changed a few animations, but that was really it. the new enemy types were just frustrating as well. The sense of mystery was gone, I already knew what was happening, and I also wasn't too fond of Issac as a character. the last 40 or so minutes was really good, but the rest is forgettable

and finally we reach Dead Space 3. I played the Demo, and decided that it wasn't worth my money. that simple

 

[HellbirdIV]

Dead Space 2 for many reasons.

Zero-G maneuvering was great, the character of Ellie is one of my favorite love interest characters in recent vidya games because you do actually get the chance to grow to like her over the course of the game rather than her just being named your love interest, almost like it's an actual story being told, and Isaac having personality - even if it's not a particularily deep or complex one - carries the story quite well.

The gun handling was the best, there was no arbitrary crafting/harvesting, and it had enough of the quiet, uncomfortable atmosphere from the first game creep up in-between all the shooty fun action setpieces. The Church of Unitology stands out to me as being really unsettling.

 

[JediMB]

I will be a anti-poll rebel here and say Dead Space: Extraction.

But, seriously, both 1 and 2 had their strong points. The overall atmosphere of the first game was better, but the second had the most memorable set pieces, I guess.

Haven't played 3. Got it from the Humble Origin Bundle, but haven't touched it.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Your poll doesn't have an option for "I didn't really care for Dead Space". So I'll just tell you that I didn't really care for Dead Space. No disrespect to those who may have enjoyed it. More power to you. I like Jason films so I'm not one to judge.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Based on my relatively limited experience with the games (i.e. having only ever played 1 & 3 but having never completed either), I'm going with Dead Space 3 simply because none of them were particularly scary but 3 had better mechanics overall.

 

[Foolery]

I'm gonna be a dick, and say none of them, really. They rely on predictable and cheap jump scares that get old after the first few encounters. But the atmosphere is well done, and 2 made a good move in giving Isaac a voice.

 

[WindKnight]

I haven't played three (the demo really put me off), but of 1 and 2 I'd easily say 1. I think apart from the addition of Ellie, nothing really jumped out to me from 2 as a positive addition, and the difficulty felt cheaper rather than harder.

Plus I really really hate the eyepoke machine... it just really unsettled my stomach having to do that and being forced to watch.