Dead Space 2 is just as gory as it is fun
Dead Space 2's introduction starts out with Isaac already losing his grip on his sanity. The place gets swarmed with necromorphs while he is in a straight jacket unable to defend himself right from the start. This is an amazingly impressive way to start out a horror game. Making you feel trapped, defenseless, and all you can do is run for your life hoping that nothing else is around the corner to finish you off.
As soon as you do get a weapon you'll feel right at home if you played the first game. The game plays almost exactly like the first game with a few improvements like being able to use your kinesis to grab severed enemy limbs and shoot them out like a spike to hurt other enemies and possibly even kill them. This is a great way to save ammo and the game is even designed to help you out by placing random bars, enemy limbs, or spikes for you to throw. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but it's the small improvements like this that make it such a great sequel.
The game looks a bit better this time around, too. Isaac's suits look cooler, the environments are even more gritty and varied, and some of the shadow effects have been improved upon. One of the main complaints a lot of people had with the first game is that every section looks almost the same. Dead Space 2 fixed this by having more areas such as a nursery, gift shops, hospital, and even another small trip on the Ishimura for old time sakes.
The story this time around is better as well. You feel connected to Isaac this time around since he actually talks. You watch him slowly lose his sanity more and more throughout the game. He doesn't want to feel like he is crazy, like his sanity is about to break. A few run ins with a certain character is sometimes startling and unsettling, so much that it is almost a treat each time it happens just because it's entertaining to see how Isaac is going to act, or just to see what is going to happen next. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the throughout the entire game.
All in all Dead Space 2 is exactly how a sequel should be. It makes small enough improvements to keep the game from feeling stale or like a rehash, but at the same time it keeps the soul of the first game. If you didn't like the first game then you definitely won't like this one, but for fans such as myself it is absolutely a must *and a blast) to play.