If that isn’t enough, Nicole also pops back up from the dead, giving Isaac nightmarish visions and completely messing with his sanity. Yeah, like the depressed humans killing themselves and the twisted creatures weren’t doing that enough already. Fortunately, he does have some guidance from a couple of human survivors, which may (or may not) be enough to get him through in one piece. A word of warning about the game’s pacing – it picks up tremendously in part two. Where the original Dead Space was all about atmospheric touches and slow pacing, Dead Space 2 relies on hard-hitting action and plenty of “shock” moments. There are times when the story will take precedence and you’ll need to complete the occasional puzzle, but otherwise you’re aiming your weapon of choice – mainly the plasma cutter – and cutting enemies to ribbons by shooting out their legs and stomping on their heads. That’s not entirely a bad thing, as the intensity keeps up throughout the game, especially near the end. Good luck surviving in one piece. If you do, you’ll unlock a Hardcore mode, in which you can go through the whole thing again with stocked weapons and armors, but with a much more limited save system. Hope you enjoy being ripped to shreds. That’s fine by us, though. Dead Space 2’s action flows very smoothly, and there’s hardly a moment when you’ll be stifling yawns. Instead, you’ll feel chills down your spine as everything from environmental touches (damn steam pipes) to Necromorphs appearing out of nowhere will keep you on your toes.
There are new Necromorphs to battle as well, including a smaller brood of creatures known as the Pack that’ll finish you off in seconds, and a Puker that can slow you down tremendously. You’ll need every bit of ammo you can muster, along with your swift melee attacks (we love the boot stomp) and the return of statis, which freezes enemies and objects for a few seconds at a time. Thankfully, it refills automatically this time around, albeit slowly. Along with a 10-hour single player campaign and various difficulty settings (again, Hardcore will eat you ALIVE), Dead Space 2 also introduces a new multiplayer mode, where players can choose between humans and Necromorphs and battle across a series of locales in the Sprawl. At first, we felt as if it was tacked on, in the same way that Bioshock 2’s multiplayer is. However, after a few matches, especially playing as the Necromorphs, it began to take shape on the same level as Left 4 Dead 2, where the elements can change in a match in seconds. It’s really a lot of fun, especially as you start getting better at it. Keep at it and enjoy the match-ups to come. This’ll only grow even bigger with the upcoming DLC. Visceral Games has done a knockout job with the game’s presentation, which actually goes above and beyond the original. The bigger locale settings of the Sprawl open up the game quite well, giving you lots more room to run, but still giving enough of a claustrophobia effect that things stay intense.
The design is well done, and the attention to detail, especially in the smaller air ducts, will blow your mind. The animations are good too, particularly with the blood. Stomping the crap out of a Necromorph has never overflowed with such gushiness. The sound is equally impressive, between haunting overhead speaker announcements, Necromorph screams, solid voice acting (Isaac actually doesn’t sound like a chump) and spine-tingling music. Good luck sleeping after a few rounds of this. A word of note- the PS3 version does have mild superiority over the Xbox 360 one. That version comes with an extra game at no charge, a high-definition version of the Wii release Dead Space: Extraction – and it’s great. Also, the PS3 version is printed on one disc, while the Xbox 360 one comes on two. So, yes, on occasion, you’ll need to swap out discs. Not the end of the world, though. We just wish the 360 version came with an exclusive bonus of its own. At the end of the day, what matters is the game itself, and Dead Space 2 delivers on every level possible. It’s freakin’ intense (the first 30 seconds of the game totally set the mood), fun to play and wonderfully designed, even going as far to top Visceral’s previous work on Dante’s Inferno. Kudos to EA for making a sequel that steps up its game and really makes you work for survival, rather than taking the usual route that some franchises like to stay on. Now let’s see what it can really do with Dead Space 3, shall we?
Game Information:
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Reviewed for PlayStation 3
Release Date: January 25, 2011
