Dead Space 2 is the perfect culmination of strategic third person shooting and survival horror.
The story picks up a few years after the events of Dead Space, where Isaac Clarke is waken from a coma on a space colony known as Sprawl. More recently, a Necromorph outbreak occurs that completely destroys the colony, with Isaac being a witness to all of this destruction. Now, Isaac must escape from the tarnished colony, before the invasion consumes him. Not only does Isaac have to escape this deadly threat, but he also has to fight one hell of a head-ache. And no, there is no Aspirin in the future (FUUUUUUUUUUU…). What I mean by "head-ache", is images in Isaac's head of his past girlfriend, who died in the last game. Not only does it mess with him psychologically, but it also causes him to do some crazy stuff, not to give anything away, but it's pretty messed up.
The game is by no means a "story driven" experience, but there is still a ton to the Dead Space universe. It's more involved than the first one, but not so much that it drags the game; it only explains it in a more detailed manner. In addition to the story, you find numerous text and audio logs that explain some of the events in the game. It allows the story to be deep, only if you care that much. It's perfect for people who want to focus on story first, before getting into the action in a new save file. It isn't the most engaging story of the genre, but it has built upon the awesome in ways that you'd want and expect, making for quite an entertaining single player campaign.
What makes the single player mode one of the most memorable I've played is how much there is to it. The game took me about 9 hours or so on my first play through, and I was only just scratching the surface, according to my trophy count. It's a linear game, sure. But the amount of different paths you can take is ridiculous, and I found myself purposely going the wrong way just to see what kind of goodies I could find. I'm in my second play through right now, and I still can't resist going off the beaten path on my own free will (well, except for towards the end, anyways.) That's another thing I love about Dead Space 2, it's not too hard, but it's also not too easy. It strikes a perfect balance between difficulties. What are even better are the New Game + features that lets you take equipment and credits from a past save file into a new game, with a new difficulty. Decided to make the game harder half way through? Yeah, you can also change it half way through the game if you find things to be either too easy or too hard. I never found myself doing this, mainly because the game is tuned as finely as one would hope it would be. It's impressive enough to have a game that is nicely sized, but for it to have a perfect difficulty… The last time I've ever experienced this was in Metal Gear Solid 4. Nuff' said.
Design is where Dead Space 2 doesn't shine as brightly. Don't get me wrong, it's still great, but it's just not as impressive as other aspects of the game. The game is strictly linear, with a few branching paths. Every corridor is either tight and straight, or wide open with a lot of room to maneuver. And that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, and the Necromorph come from every possible angle (just a heads up.) I'm not joking; there is never a settle moment in this games campaign. The Necromorph are plentiful, and they come in a wide variety of flavors. I won't spoil anything, but you will have to be strategic in some parts of the game if you even want to consider passing it. At times, during my first play through, I went into a new gun with my Pulse Rifle ready to tear **** up, and I found myself being killed, because I hadn't had my back covered. With every weapon, you will find new ways to defend yourself. For example, the detonator gun is probably one of the most useful guns in the game, mainly because you can cover yourself, and have a gun that has plenty of fire power. Each weapon has a secondary fire that makes for many useful strategies against the numerous amount of Necromorph. It matches perfectly, and it makes for just as much strategy as gunplay.
Towards the end of the game, the magic kind of wears off, when you realize that objectives never really change that much between gunplay. There are puzzles in the mix sure, but they don't really add to the games impressiveness; it only drags it out. It's still a fun game in the latter half of the game, but it doesn't offer as much as the thrills found within the first half. There's a disappointing lack of bosses that work together with the gameplay mechanics, with their only being a few mini bosses sprinkled into the mix. This is pretty much the only few complaints that I have for the game as a whole. It is one hell of a solid experience that offers so much for 60 bones. Did I mention that with the PS3 version you get a free copy of Dead Space: Extraction? Yeah, in addition to one full priced game, you also get another full priced game for free. You haven't picked this up yet?
Gunplay, from what I've heard, is similar to the first one. For the record, I've never played the first game (don't hate meh!) The game plays great, with controls that are perfect for the tense moments that allow you to breathe, but not too comfortably. There are also puzzles that are in the mix, but they mainly range from "move this over here, then turn it on" puzzles. They aren't all too hard to solve. There are also areas in the game where there isn't any gravity; which means having to shoot while trying to thrust your way to your next objective. We've rarely seen this done in games, and the team at Visceral pretty much nailed it.
Limb separation is still a huge factor in this game. Each weapon was built in mind with the goal of taking off pieces of the body (what I find strange is that all of the weapons are there for a reason, unlike some other sci-fi shooters.) It's pretty satisfying to destroy the Necromorph, limb by limb. What makes this aspect even better is that the variety in the enemies makes limb separation even more of a factor, when you have an enemy with an exploding arm that could be used to give you some breathing room. With this being my first Dead Space game, I am truly impressed by the amount of detail put into the games mechanics that equally matches the fantastic presentation.
Multiplayer… There is only one thing that makes this a throwaway. It's tacked on. If the multiplayer had been expanded upon, we'd have one hell of a multiplayer component that would keep us busy for months. It's a unique type of play that features 4 on 4 matches between humans and Necromorph between varying objectives that depend on the maps. As mentioned, this mode is tacked on, but it is still very enjoyable. It won't bring you back like the single player portion, but you it will give you a few hours of dumb fun, which is all that I want. It really disappoints me that the developers didn't expand on such an interesting concept, because this could've been really special if more time was put into it. Oh well.
The audio/visual presentation is fantastic, to say the least. Everything from the character models to the Necromorph are rendered to perfection, and animate pretty well. What makes everything look that much better is the amazing lighting that is some of the best in video game history. The sound of the game is equally impressive, giving chilling screams and scratching sounds that sound all the more better with a nice sound system. Voice acting is good, and the roars from the Necromorph are particularly impressive.
But my favorite part is easily the atmosphere. This is one scary game, and it goes to show in more ways than one. All of the elements in the game work together to make one of the most disturbing games to date. Isaac is treated as a rag doll by the developers in a world full of some pretty messed up children (there are killer children in the game too, just sayin'.) What's even better is that all of it is in a ton of gooey red stuff, so you know this game is sophisticated (you're mom will probably hate this game.)
It's hard to believe that people could really dislike Dead Space 2. It really has everything you would want out of a game, and gives you a little extra for a souvenir. I'm gonna go ahead and end it here, by saying that you shouldn't miss this. I know that EA is this "big huge evil monster", but you should buy it to support a great development team that looks to have a bright future. Dead Space 2's culmination of survival horror and technical supremacy make it one of the best choices on the market.
+Amazing combination of third person shooting and survival horror
+Superb presentation with some of the best sound and lighting in gaming
+Huge variety in gunplay and enemy types
+Plenty of content to keep you busy
+Dead Space Extraction is a great bonus
-Tacked on multiplayer (sad face)
-Mission design isn't all to good
*****DISCLAIMER*****
This was an old review from my last account, and has been deleted and reposted on this profile.