Just kinda that guy, ya know?
Dead Space is one of those series where the first 2 games set the expectations UNBELIEVABLY high. So high, in fact, that the developers were actually terrified they couldn’t live up to the legend, and were terrified they were gonna make a bad game that ruined the series. But they were gonna try their damndest.
And then EA executives came along, and they saw that “”“all the rage”“” those days was in Co-Op action shooters a-la Resident Evil 5/6 and Army Of 2, or Gears of War, and they DEMANDED that Dead Space 3 be “”“more like that”“”, or else. So they did it, and were also forced to shove microtransactions into the game with crafting materials.
The end result? Dead Space 3 was an… alright 3rd-person action-horror co-op shooter. Not great, not terrible, but… alright. An above-average shade of mediocre, certainly worth playing on its own merits, both mechanically and plot-wise, but not much more than that. A perfectly OK game.
And an absolutely TERRIBLE Dead Space game. Previous installments sold millions on multiple platforms. DS3… didn’t, and it ended up killing the studio.
Since you love Slay The Spire, you should try Balatro •<|:)€ ♤♡◇♧!
It’s the titular “Poker Rogue-lite” that’s taken the world by storm, and it certainly knows how to up the ante!
Counterpoint, a remastered Dead Space 2 with a lot more exploration capability would go super hard. I WANT to see the nooks and crannies of Titan Sprawl. I WANT to see the full desolation of a Necromorph outbreak. DS1 Remastered got that beautifully right with the new interconnectedness of the Ishimura and the Intensity Director.
I only played the OW beta, years ago, but even then I could see a bit of what people are upset about now. Characters are designed around one concept for their whole kit, and anytime people find a way to do MORE with them, Blizzard usually patches them to do LESS. Map design is… questionable at best, and confusing for people who are fresh to the game. The balance of things, even early on, was obviously going to be focused around a competitive ruleset, and that puts a severe damper on things from a casual fun standpoint.
Moving on to more recent events that I don’t have personal experience with, Blizzard has just repeatedly shit the bed. OW2 was promised with massive PVE expansions and massive balance changes/gameplay tweaks to make the game feel fresh and fun again. Instead, they released several generic coomerbait heroes that didn’t do anything unique, cut the PVE ENTIRELY, which players were super hyped for, “”“rebalanced”“” the game (they went from 6v6 to 5v5), and unloaded a ton of paid cosmetics and battlepass mechanics that nobody asked for or wanted. Then as the dust settled, they started releasing more heroes that broke the game further; Mauga was SO UNBALANCED on release that the only way to beat him… was another Mauga, leading to a near 100% pick rate in matches; I remember hearing Rammatra(I think that’s the name of the robo-centaur?) Was also super busted on release; finally, the seasonal balance changes were usually poorly received.
So it’s not impossible to see why so many people who’ve spent so much time and money on OW and OW2 are so heartbroken about it, yet so eager to jump ship.
What’s to tell me? That bad games that fall out of prominence tend to be remembered for reasons outside their gameplay or world building? That everyone already knows OW2 will be remembered more for its R34 than its actual gameplay? Or that Blizzard dropped the ball so hilariously terribly that people would literally rather play any other game despite the millions of dollars spent on lore, animations, publicity, and skins design?
Is this Free Healthcare in the room with us now, you miserable ghoul?