Introduction and New Features:
If you’ve played Dead Space you have surely enjoyed a lot of the horrific moments in this wonderful horror game, however it’s not even possible to compare it against other titles such as the early Resident Evil games, Alan Wake or Silent Hill. Even though, being faced with this sad truth, it’s still a pretty enjoying game to play since taking off body parts on some of the most grotesque creatures that has ever graced the sight of man never loses its touch.
You are Isaac Clarke, an engineer that was sent to the planet cracker class ship Ishimura to investigate why it went dark and if they are in need of assistance. During your visit a quite interesting and horrific story unfolds where you’re put against the transformed and mutilated corpses of the crew who have been infected by an alien race known as the Necromorphs. In the middle of this one of your main objectives is to discover the fate of your wife who was working on this cursed ship to gain experience working in space before Ishimura was planned to be decommissioned six months later.
The story in Dead Space ends with a massive cliffhanger and there was no doubt there would be a sequel and Electronic Arts saw fit to grace us with one. Isaac Clarke wakes up in a straightjacket on Titan Station which is a human colony circulating around Saturn, you don’t know what happened, how you got there or what forces are at play. A man tries his best to rescue you but from out of nowhere a Necromorph comes out and turns him, which in turn makes Isaac slam his head into his face. During the very first part you have to make your way through a psyche ward with people dying all around you, and this beginning will hook you in an instant.
Isaac Clarke
Some of the new features are for example new weapons such as a rifle that shoots proximity mines, you start with a much larger air supply when you finally find a suit, new enemies have been introduced such as exploding babies and transformed women that spits acid. There are also a lot more cinematic moments and I’m not talking about quick-time events but the largest change is that Isaac is a whole lot more talkative, I’d guess he talks about 300 percent more than in the first Dead Space game.
Graphics, Gameplay and Difficult Situations:
There isn’t much I can say about the graphics other than that they are really pristine and well made, especially at the moments when you’re outside in space. The stars, light from the sun and Jupiter makes for a very nice backdrop. They’ve also done a very good job at creating a pressing atmosphere with shadows playing on the walls, the fire also looks a lot better and one of the things I reacted on most was the points when Isaac’s visor slides down from his face which never happened in Dead Space. You never saw him without a visor while in this game they lower it every chance they get, but displaying the perfect facial animations isn’t a bad thing of course.
Gameplay wise this game isn’t much different from its younger twin brother, the disturbing fact that when aiming down your sights Isaac seems to suffer from arthritis, is still there. With that I mean he moves extremely slowly when you aim which is disturbing since most of the enemies you meet are fast, even the really big ones and that ends with some pretty cheap deaths. The extremely low inventory you receive in the beginning doesn’t help either, I know that they want you to conserve ammunition and think before you drop something to pick up another item but when ammo drops like candy both from boxes and enemies I’d prefer a larger inventory, even if we’re only talking about a slot or two.
View from Titan Station
Most of the scares do make you jump from your seat and makes your heart race but in essence most of them are really cheap scares that you can see a mile away. I have a perfect example – I was walking down a corridor in the residential area and I saw a box positioned right in front of a doorway, since there had been enemies jumping out of the doors before I thought “when I break that box something is going to jump out at me”, and that’s exactly what happened. It gave me a slight scare but directly after I found myself thinking “that was scary, but I saw it coming a mile away.” This removes quite a bit of the really thrilling scary moments; they should make things a lot less readable if you ask me. When walking into a big room riddled with boxes and large containers you KNOW something is going to happen, either a boss fight or a big amount of enemies jumping out from the ventilation ducts.
Brining me to my next point, usually all you have to do is put out a couple of mines in good areas and huddle down into a corner until it’s over. But from time to time you´ll face an onslaught of enemies that both run up to beat you and stand from afar to shoot projectiles in your face, add a big enemy who blows up on death and spawns a wave of smaller ones and you’ve got yourself a decent fight.
Music, Advice and Scariest Experience:
Without the music Dead Space 2 would be something to laugh at, especially during the moments your wife appears with glowing eyes and mouth. The work put down into the music and sound effects of this game is great and I can’t find anything lacking about it.
I’ve also got a very good advice to the ones of you that are considering a purchase of Dead Space 2, when you bring down an enemy, shoot him again before passing. You´d figure this out yourself early in the game so it isn’t a spoiler, but do yourself a favor and put an extra round into them unless you want to lose unnecessary hit points.
Necromorph Onslaught
My last and final point is to bring light upon the most scary/chilling moment of the entire game, when walking through the residential district I mentioned earlier you will arrive at an area where there are a bunch of dryers. One of these are turned on, next to it sits a lonely teddy bear. As you walk away from it you can hear a child screaming and loud thumps’ coming from inside, and that was by far the most horrifying moment throughout Dead Space 2. Sent chills up my spine, I tell you.
Final Thoughts:
For those who enjoy action and horror games Dead Space 2 is a game I’d advice you to purchase, and those of you who want to buy it but haven’t played the first installment, don’t fear. With the game comes a 6 minute long walkthrough that describes what happened before Titan Station, so you can watch that if you want some more insight. I actually recommend all of you to take a gander at it, because it’s a wonderful short movie about the story behind Dead Space and the planet crackers like Ishimura. There is also a new Multiplayer feature I haven’t tried out yet, might add it in a later post.
Design: 8.8
Story: 8.1
Gameplay: 7.8
Presentation: 9.2
