Metareview: Dead Space 3

Spaceman, I always wanted you to go into space, man. And now that Dead Space 3 is here, you can, again. But is it any good? The Joystiq Chief of the Astronaut Office certainly thought so, deeming the series' third main entry an "exciting, shocking, and mammoth adventure through the ghostly, unvarnished segments of space."

But it's a big old universe with plenty of opinions floating about, and not all of them are so positive. Here's a sampling of a few that popped up on the meta-radar.

• Game Informer (98/100): "Dead Space 3 is still creepy, but this entry is more action-packed than previous games. That's a good thing. Isaac's intuitive new dodge roll makes avoiding the larger nercromorph attacks more manageable."

• Polygon (95/100): "Visceral hasn't just avoided screwing up its game with co-op - it has made it feel natural and at home, and has done it without impacting the single-player experience in any negative way. That alone would be enough to make Dead Space 3 an achievement. But the new crafting system and bigger, more open level structure join co-op to make Dead Space 3 one of the best action games in years.

• GameSpot (80/100): "This is a game rife with options and flexibility, building on the strengths of the franchise with clever new ideas that let you tailor the experience to your liking. It hits a few sour notes in its story and struggles at times when it steps away from the core combat, but Dead Space 3 is a thrilling and worthwhile sequel."

• Eurogamer (70/100): "Dead Space 3 is a contradiction. Gorgeous but scruffy; tightly packed yet stretched too thin; often frustrating, frequently thrilling and bursting at the seams with stuff, not all of which fits comfortably inside the boundaries the series has set for itself. It's certainly not a great game, except perhaps as a poster child for the kitchen-sink development mentality of a console generation in its twilight months."

• Videogamer (50/100): "Dead Space 3 is a let down because it's not a very good action game, and a really substandard horror game. It is devoid of ideas, hung up on laborious combat and obsessed with making even the exciting seem boring. In truth, it's a bit of a shocker."