I awoke from my nightmares only to face the demons of my current reality. Injured and alone I traversed through the wreckage of my ship, battling against the frigid temperatures of an unknown planet.
I hear footsteps, but they are coming from a far distance. Through the falling snow I cannot see anything, I nervously move forwards and continue to examine the wreckage of the spacecraft.
Suddenly, a multi-limbed beast charges out of the darkness, moving at an inhuman speed. It's ivory white ribs poking out of its mutilated abdomen and brown rotting flesh.
My intrusion of the creature's dwelling causes it to roar angrily, the dead skin around its maw stretched beyond convention. Another beast violently emerges from the shadows and my heart began to beat rapidly.
I quickly squeezed the trigger of my weapon and let off several rounds into both monsters, falling the second one with several well placed shots directly between its eyes.
I have survived my first encounter with the monsters of Dead Space 3.
The Dead Space 3 demo starts of on the mysterious and artic world of Uxor with famed series protagonist Isaac Clarke marooned in the wreckage of space ship. The injured Clarke must traverse the frigid world in search of answers.
The planets weather makes it almost impossible to see anything creating a rather tense and frightening open-atmosphere. After picking up few items and a sort of on the go tutorial, Issace and you meet the game's first Necromorph.
The creature has extra appendages and moves rather quickly through the snow it almost appears human at first. Although you can almost anticipate its attack, the action sequence is still startling enough to make you crave more fear inducing moments.
As Isaac, players can dodge and runaway from the creature to better setup a kill shot and avoid damage from the Necromorph. As the demo continues we learn more about the game's weapon customization features like scavenging for parts to build those weapons.
For those gamers worried that Visceral is removing horror elements in favor of customization and cooperative gameplay, I don't think you have to worry too much as the demo still provided some good atmospheric horror moments.
The new cover based system is all right and is implemented well enough, but I still prefer the regular action of the game to these sequences. It does feel a little Mass Effect 2ish.
The cooperative mode doesn't change the scares of the game that much as the monsters attacks can still get you to let lose a quick curse word. Believe me it doesn't feel as action oriented as Resident Evil 6. The game preserves its horror pedigree and you got to love the way the game plays with visibility without using the same old monsters in a dark room gimmick.
The demo is a quick romp through the horrors of Dead Space, but makes you feel like Visceral Games is really trying to up the creepiness factor of the series. The demo last about 20-25 minutes, but I give it a score 8.5-out-of-10. I'm personally now looking forward to the finish product.
Dead Space 3 will release on Feb. 5, 2013 for Windows PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. You can check out some images of the game in our slideshow here and learn more about the game here.
Have you played the Dead Space 3 demo? What did you think of it? Did you play it alone or with a friend in coop? Let us know what you think in the comment section below...