If you read my recently posted review of Dead Space The First, you may have noticed that I wasn't one of its most ardent supporters. Don't misunderstand my 3 star rating as me hating the game, because I didn't; I liked Dead Space (DS), but I didn't love it. It had a lot of good ideas and fell short on following through with those ideas the majority of the time, but it was still a solid, enjoyable game--just, in my opinion, not as "great!" as everyone made it out to be. With Dead Space 2 (DS2), it seems as though the ambitions have been met with great follow through and it surpasses its predecessor in every way by delivering a genuinely intense experience filled with surprises (literally) at every turn.
DS2 starts off with a bang by introducing you to the no longer silent Isaac Clarke in a flashback video that segues into your introduction of the new and improved Nicole (if you played the first game, you know Nicole... and you may know what to expect... for those of you who haven't, this is one of my favorite moments of the game and it gave me genuine chills). Story progression from this point until about five chapters in, however, is a little thin. It's somewhat disappointing because you're essentially running from waypoint to waypoint with no real plot other than "escape the baddies," but, when the plot picks up, things get more interesting as the mysteries of what Isaac has been up to between the first and second game are slowly unraveled.
Isaac Clarke is definitely the star of this sequel and it's hard to believe that you're actually playing the same character you did in the first. Isaac in DS was more of a tour guide who aided you in your journey through the real star of the game, the USG Ishimura, as he silently made his way from objective to objective while encountering countless waves of deadly foes along his way. He was kinda just... there for the hell of it, I guess. They put a little effort in making Isaac an actual character in the first game by giving him a reason to be aboard the Ishimura but, beyond that, there wasn't really anything to make you actually care about the guy. DS2 makes Isaac much more believable as a character... someone you can actually invest some emotion into. I wasn't lying when I said it really feels like you're playing a different character, though; there were so many moments in this game when I was playing and Isaac said something and I honestly thought it was a different character talking to him (I went into this right after playing the first game again, so forgive my absent mindedness at times, plz). Were it not for the plot's heavy reliance on Isaac's mental breakdown caused by the events of the first game, they could have just made a different character to be the protagonist of DS2 and nobody really would have cared (just as long as he gets to wear the iconic armour, really). It's that breakdown, as well as his considerable experience with dispatching necromorphs from the first game, that keeps DS2's story moving forward and it's an interesting concept that I really wish they would have explored more.
Isaac Clarke's grasp on reality is somewhat fragile after encountering The Marker and all the unimaginable horrors it produced during the first game, but it's not that fragile. Despite the happenings between the two games, he seems to be adjusting to his insanity pretty well... easily able to determine what is real and what is not. It sometimes makes you (I did, anyway) feel cheated because they didn't explore this further--just a few otherworldly bursts of insanity that are easily discernable from the "real" and move on. It's not game breaking or a flaw in any way but, rather, a missed opportunity.
The gameplay of DS2 centers around the same core ideas of the original game's: shoot to dismember! The franchise's plasma cutter returns as your starting weapon and you'll come across a similar arsenal provided in the first game with several new and deadly additions to increase your killing efficiency.
On top of the weapons, you are also reacquainted with stasis and kinesis; both of which serve the same functions as they did in the first game: stasis slows things down and is useful for solving some of the simple puzzles the game throws at you as well as keeping charging enemies at bay to give you enough time to better place your shots while avoiding a grisly demise, and kinesis is basically a remote grab feature (also useful for completing the game's puzzles) which also allows you to launch whatever you grab and use it as a weapon (think the gravity gun in Half-Life 2). Stasis and kinesis have both had some tweaks since the first game: kinesis, by default, now has a longer range, objects get to you faster than they did in the first game, and I found myself using it more efficiently as a weapon than I did in the first game. Stasis starts off a lot weaker than it was in DS, but it now has the added benefit of a recharge over time--it's slow at first, but you can upgrade it at benches to recharge faster as well as have a longer duration and more uses. Also (and I think this is my favorite gameplay improvement with the sequel) Visceral Games gave us a quick stasis reload! I complained in my review of the first game how it was lacking a panic button for stasis recharge but, Altman be praised, we got it in the sequel.
The game's options also allow for a wider range of customization than the original's by, thankfully, allowing you to adjust your sensitivity as well as reticle placement (you can change between "Classic," which is how the original game's aiming worked, and "Center," which is how pretty much every TPS (third-person shooter) works). It's nice to have those options because I like to be able to spin around quickly (which is why a quick turn button would be nice), so turning up the sensitivity is a plus. It's also nice to have aiming set to center for the segments where you are grabbed by a boss or something and you have to shoot the weak spot to avoid dying--it's much easier to aim with that setting than classic. I will say that I wish you could have it auto change to the center setting for those scenarios while allowing you to have it set to classic for standard combat; I actually prefer classic in those situations. That's not something I'm going to dock points for, though, just something I think would be nice to have.
DS2 does a much better job implementing the horror elements than did the first game. DS2 has five difficulty levels (two of which are unlocked upon completing the game on any difficulty) and I started on the third, Survivalist, for my first playthrough, so it might be different since I started on what is essentially the "hard" difficulty, but ammo and credits seemed like they were in less supply in DS2 than they were in the original game (I also decided to have 3 weapons on me at all times, so I was selling less ammo than I did when I played through DS last--because I was going for the plasma cutter only achievement--so that might also have been a factor). With less ammo, and less money to buy ammo, you can't just shoot anything and everything; you have to use your stasis to make sure you place your shots perfectly to conserve ammo and you have to use kinesis to throw objects at enemies to conserve ammo. It only adds to the tension that the enemy count hasn't decreased with your ammo.
On top of the tension added with the lower ammo supply, DS2 likes to play with your head and your expectations--and it actually succeeds. Several moments throughout the game you will find yourself preparing for a jump scare or an onslaught of enemies... but nothing happens and, just when you think you're safe, you let your guard down--this turns out to be a bad idea and, before too long, you find yourself overrun and fighting for your life. It's a thrilling experience and delivers that rush of adrenaline fueled tension that I felt the first game was lacking.
Combat arenas (something prevalent in the first game) aren't such a heavy presence in DS2, which is a welcome relief, but they're not gone altogether. The arenas that are in the game are, however, better constructed than they were in the first game and less predictable because they don't telegraph that a lockdown is coming--you just get bum rushed by a bunch of enemies and you are fighting for survival to get by them. So, it feels more like you're trying to fight your way through or get around these armies of alien-mutated dead to move forward than burdened with the chore of killing them all before you can actually progress. DS2 also features a lot more actual forward progression than the previous installment--you're not backtracking through the same 4 levels multiple times, but you are actually moving through new environments.
But, even with all the new environments and added tensions, DS2 is a thrill ride that is over all too soon with the campaign being easily finished in under 10 hours on the initial playthrough (even less time with a New Game+). It also astounds me that the XBOX 360 version of DS2 is split up between two discs--it's a pretty game, yes, but it's also short and there are no pre-rendered cutscenes. Multidisc games aren't usually a problem for me, but that's when I can spend 20+ hours on a single disc; with DS2 (a game that encourages multiple playthroughs), you will be switching discs back and forth every 3-5 hours and it's a terrible inconvenience.
With all that said, Dead Space 2 is a vastly superior game than the original and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the direction Visceral and EA take the franchise beyond this. It is short (I completed my first playthrough on Survivalist in 9 hours and 45 minutes... and I wander around trying to collect everything I can when I play a game (it took me about 3 hours longer to beat the first Dead Space my first time through on Normal)), but it is undeniably thrilling with some genuine chills-inducing moments and well-constructed jump scares. I highly recommend giving Isaac's second outing a try--but be willing to play through the story multiple times if you really want to get your money's worth.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2011
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