I arrived home after work last night to find my copy from Zavvi on my doorstep. 
It might be my first ever super early preorder delivery; so I' don't have to be jealous anymore.
I'm a huge fan of the first two games but I had deliberately avoided any info on number 3 in case of any spoilers.
So I had no idea what to expect.
The first half an hour or so of playtime I was thinking 'WTF have they done!!! This isn't Dead Space!'
In fact it felt more like Mass Effect.
For a good while it felt as though they had gone down the Resi Evil 'lets ditch horror in favour of action' route.
Gutted!
I seriously considered giving up.
But all was not as first appeared.
Once Isaac appears and is cajoled back to the scene of his nightmares (a la Ripley in Aliens) we are back in familiar territory.
The small crew arrive in orbit around a marker planet and Isaac is soon despatched to start fixing and killing things.
From this point on, everything is back to the familiar Dead Space feel.
The graphics are very nice; particularly the outside sections. And there is now greater freedom to move about in space for longer periods. There are oxygen tanks scattered everywhere and so it no longer feels like a desperate race against time whenever you venture through an airlock. This does make these sections lose some of the tension, but it does make a nice change to float around outside for an extended period.
Another noticeable difference is the surfeit of health and ammo. I haven't ran out of either once yet. In fact, I've probably had to leave behind as much health as I have picked-up and have only died twice in approx 4 hours of playtime.
You only have access to two weapons at any time, instead of the usual four, and new weapons and upgrades have to be created at workbenches from metal and parts that you find.
I'll be honest: I haven't got the hang of this bit at all yet. It seems needlessly complicated, but is probably easy once you understand what you are supposed to be doing.
Another addition is the scavenger bot. This is a tiny robot you can deploy wherever you feel like it and it will hunt out supplies in that area before depositing them at the nearest workbench. It's a nice little feature.
After a few hours play, you gain access to a shuttle craft that can ferry you back and forth between the three main sections, which are three derelict ships in orbit. You can also choose to complete side missions if you wish.
These can be quite lengthy and really add to the game.
The necromorphs I've seen so far are all familiar from the first two games.
There does tend to be more of them but the abundance of ammo makes up for that.
I'm playing it on normal mode and it does feel noticeably easier than the previous games.
In both those games there were dozens of sections where I died countless times but that hasn't been a factor so far.
So if you are a veteran player then you might want to start in hard mode if you want a challenge.
The game also saves automatically now.
If I was to make a comparison to a similar update of a game I've loved, I would go for the difference between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City: it's less claustrophobic; more open-ended; has a more 'RPG' feel to it; lots of side-missions; there's much greater freedom to wander about and at first, it all feels slightly disconcerting and overwhelming.
But like Arkham City, it soon starts to feel completely natural.
Can't wait to play more tonight.
It might be my first ever super early preorder delivery; so I' don't have to be jealous anymore.
I'm a huge fan of the first two games but I had deliberately avoided any info on number 3 in case of any spoilers.
So I had no idea what to expect.
The first half an hour or so of playtime I was thinking 'WTF have they done!!! This isn't Dead Space!'
In fact it felt more like Mass Effect.
For a good while it felt as though they had gone down the Resi Evil 'lets ditch horror in favour of action' route.
Gutted!
I seriously considered giving up.
But all was not as first appeared.
Once Isaac appears and is cajoled back to the scene of his nightmares (a la Ripley in Aliens) we are back in familiar territory.
The small crew arrive in orbit around a marker planet and Isaac is soon despatched to start fixing and killing things.
From this point on, everything is back to the familiar Dead Space feel.
The graphics are very nice; particularly the outside sections. And there is now greater freedom to move about in space for longer periods. There are oxygen tanks scattered everywhere and so it no longer feels like a desperate race against time whenever you venture through an airlock. This does make these sections lose some of the tension, but it does make a nice change to float around outside for an extended period.
Another noticeable difference is the surfeit of health and ammo. I haven't ran out of either once yet. In fact, I've probably had to leave behind as much health as I have picked-up and have only died twice in approx 4 hours of playtime.
You only have access to two weapons at any time, instead of the usual four, and new weapons and upgrades have to be created at workbenches from metal and parts that you find.
I'll be honest: I haven't got the hang of this bit at all yet. It seems needlessly complicated, but is probably easy once you understand what you are supposed to be doing.
Another addition is the scavenger bot. This is a tiny robot you can deploy wherever you feel like it and it will hunt out supplies in that area before depositing them at the nearest workbench. It's a nice little feature.
After a few hours play, you gain access to a shuttle craft that can ferry you back and forth between the three main sections, which are three derelict ships in orbit. You can also choose to complete side missions if you wish.
These can be quite lengthy and really add to the game.
The necromorphs I've seen so far are all familiar from the first two games.
There does tend to be more of them but the abundance of ammo makes up for that.
I'm playing it on normal mode and it does feel noticeably easier than the previous games.
In both those games there were dozens of sections where I died countless times but that hasn't been a factor so far.
So if you are a veteran player then you might want to start in hard mode if you want a challenge.
The game also saves automatically now.
If I was to make a comparison to a similar update of a game I've loved, I would go for the difference between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City: it's less claustrophobic; more open-ended; has a more 'RPG' feel to it; lots of side-missions; there's much greater freedom to wander about and at first, it all feels slightly disconcerting and overwhelming.
But like Arkham City, it soon starts to feel completely natural.
Can't wait to play more tonight.
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