Electronic Arts first released Dead Space 2 on January 25th, 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. From Visceral Games, comes a 3rd person survival horror game where not everything is exactly as it seems. Tear through space with full 360 degrees movement. Wield devastating tools to dominate the alien outbreak. And strategically dismember your friends in multiplayer.
System: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Genre: Third-person action-shooter, survival-horror
Release dates: January 25, 2011 (USA), January 28, 2011 (Europe)
Players: Campaign: 1, Online Multiplayer: 4-8
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: America
Rating: ESRB: M, PEGI: 18, BBFC: 18
“Stick around, I’m full of bad ideas.” -Isaac Clarke
After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as “The Sprawl”, Isaac Clarke must battle dementia, the government, and visions of his dead girlfriend as he dominates a gruesome new Necromorph onslaught. Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you.
Here is a video review of Dead Space 2 as promised!
Agree/disagree with my thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think!
Music from the game used in the review:
All the tracks playing the background are from official game soundtracks, in the order they appear:
1. Welcome to the Sprawl – DS2 OST
2. Lacrimosa – DS2 OST
3. Canonical Aside – DS2 OST
4. Come Rain or Come Convergence – DS2 OST
As a conclusion let’s see how much fun the game is on a scale from 1 to 10:
Story
It’s a solid continuation of the story. I’m happy to say Isaac talks in this one, so he actually reacts to emotional situations and scenes of terror. Prepare yourself for one heck of a ride.
Gameplay
The gameplay is a lot more varied this time around; You get to hack machinery in certain areas. Kinesis is very user-friendly and tightened up to feel a lot more effortless. And the map is gone — and I for one am quite glad about that — this new root-system is great, by pressing down on the back-right Trigger button the blue beam will guide you to your next point. Isaac now as thrusters built into his suit and it makes it a lot easier to travel around, flying in zero-gravity was my favorite feature.
Overall, they definitely tightened up what didn’t work in the first game and kinda threw in some extra variation for good measure and it worked in their favor. Although I haven’t played the multiplayer yet, the gameplay in single-player was pretty darn perfect!
Graphics
The graphics are great, but what I noticed and what impressed me more was the level design. Seeing as “The Sprawl” is a civilian space station, we get to see schools, shopping malls, and locations that we’re all familiar with, but in a completely different light. What I liked about it is that the developers presented us with a futuristic design, while making it feel quite worn… so even though its space-agey, you still feel like you’re in a ship-hull, or uhm spaceship-hull. It’s a style we saw a lot in 80’s sci-fi, a not-so-futuristic future.
I think my favorite area was just outside the elementary school, there’s an area for teens with arcades and shops. Just beyond it is a big shopping mall with holograms advertising what’s inside, with music kind of still playing indoors. And I really liked that, I felt like they created a fully believable world.
They also added a few epic space-views. You’d be walking down a hallway and you’d see out into space, you’d see shuttles and Saturn’s rings, and I love that it made the world feel very vast. I mean, it’s set in space, so give us some more… space! 🙂 The genius is in the design of the world, obviously setting it on a space station gave the developers a lot of creative lee-way to do more. It’s the perfect setting for the horror that ensues.
Audio
I like the music to Dead Space 2 mainly for the musical interludes and by that I mean not the screeching violin-scary orchestral sounds. I thought the musical interludes sounded very similar to Rule of Rose and I like that, it gave the impression of dilapidated grandeur. Of course though, the scary tracks are terrifying and they add to an already nerve-schredding moment.
Dead Space 2 really concentrates on sound effect that we saw in Dead Space 1, which is really effective, but the musical score — although it’s not really melodic — it adds to the atmosphere and that’s what a good game score should do.
OVERALL FUN-FACTOR — 10
Overall, this game is a slice of perfection. I give it an overall 10. Because it’s a game that I could play, immerse myself, enjoy myself, and BE SCARED! It took everything from the first game that it did well and then did it better.
Now, I play this game with my headphones on, in the dark, high volume and in that environment I would give it a full 10. In the daylight I would say it’s a 9. Dead Space 2 is what DOOM 3 was a few years back, it’s got all gamers in front of their consoles (or PC’s) playing it and enjoying it, scaring themselves silly! ^_^ And then rushing into work or school the next day and talking about it, and if that isn’t what gaming is about, then I don’t know what is.
For help with the game, check out our Dead Space 2 walkthrough.