Is Dead Space 3 really better with Kinect?

Dead Space 3, Kinect and co-op – the ultimate love triangle, or a recipe for disaster? I question not whether Dead Space 3 needs Kinect, clearly it does not, but rather if it benefits from such functionality at all.

As seen in other titles, saying “Reload”, “Pause”, etc. is all rather pointless as you can just press a single button. I could see the benefit in something RPG-esque such as Mass Effect and Skyrim, where such commands give you instant access to abilities or weapons that are otherwise buried beneath trivial action breaking menu systems and pause screens.

However, for an action game, or action-horror in the case of Dead Space 3, does it truly benefit? It frankly does not, what it does do is compliment the experience, as voice commands are at least useful for mundane tasks that require you to press any button more than once, so for this alone Kinect support for Dead Space 3 gets the big thumbs up.

Even smaller tasks, one example being where you typically push in RS to highlight the objective, and then manually toggle through to find workbenches, health stations etc., now you can simply say “Locate Workbench” and cut out the button presses altogether.

As for saying “Reload” or “Pause game”, unless you’ve got a dodgy controller, these are all frankly pointless commands presented that are just there for the sake of it. It’s by no means as crucial a feature in Dead Space 3 as it is in the previous mentioned titles, as frankly the controls are handled well as is, but it compliments the user experience enough to make it worth its use.

Dead Space 3 is the first game to make use of voice commands in a co-op environment, and it’s an environment that typically involves a lot of chatter. Clearly then, the big concern is for co-op, while we know there’s co-op commands present, it remains to be seen if chatting with your buddy whilst blasting off necro limbs will have any kinds of impact on Kinect’s listening in. Although if Kinect were to accidentally pause when your co-op partner tells you he’s going for a piss, then it’s not all bad.

Written by: Rob Cram

Rob Cram has hundreds of video game reviews, thousands of articles under his belt with years of experience in gaming and tech. He aims to remain fair and free from publisher/developer influence. With his extensive knowledge, feels his gaming opinions are valid and worth sharing. Agreement with his views are entirely optional. He might have a bias towards cyberpunk.