I HEART CHAOS

By Chris “Tinypenguininja” Edwards, Senior Game Reviewer

Around three years ago, Electronic Arts first announced Dead Space, promising us a visceral and terrifying survival horror experience. Being a huge fan of survival horror, I eagerly awaited its release, and went out to purchase the game the minute Walmart (ewwwww) would let me on its day of release. The experience was a satisfying one, although I found the horror to be somewhat absent, as the game relied heavily on jump scares. Anyways, two years have passed, and after infecting the multimedia world like a necromorph would, the Dead Space franchise has brought to fruition Dead Space 2.

Dead Space 2 starts in the year 2511, three years after the events on the USG Ishimura and the Red Marker, and depicts Isaac’s actions on The Sprawl; a giant space station built into one of the fragments of the moon, Titan. A necromorph outbreak has occurred, and it is up to Isaac to find out the journalistic what, who, why, when, where and how. Oh, and to stop the whole thing. One of the first things I noticed about Dead Space 2 is that it is a little more story-forward, and Isaac is actually a character, not just some voiceless guy in a big metal suit. Granted, the story is still stretched pretty thin among all the “this is broken, here’s how to fix it” quests, but overall it’s more than “I came here to do something I actually knew I couldn’t do”. In DS2, the story changes and evolves as new objectives and characters come into play, but it still had room to grow. 60% of the story is crammed into the last 10% of the game, so it feels like the game ends very abruptly and just as things are getting really interesting. Another thing about Dead Space 2 I really liked was the change of pace and atmosphere. In the original game, you got the shit scared out of you for the first twenty minutes by enemies popping out of vents. After that, you knew to just watch the vents, and the game was all downhill from there.

Additionally, the first game lacked the truly creepy atmosphere. Yes it was dark and bloody, but that was about it. Dead Space 2 cuts down a lot on the vent-popping, and instead has enemies coming out of ceilings and floor panels, and it gets to the point where if you try to watch everything, you’ll just exhaust yourself. They also has a couple of spots, ones that I despised, where you would see the enemies reanimate in the next room, such as through a window, and you’d get that half-minute of suspense, wondering where in the Hell they were going to come from. In one such instance, you see the reanimation of two slashers through a window. If you go closer, they will come right through the glass at you. If you back into the corner, they will come through the door right next to you. If you run out of the room, they will come in through the ceiling in the room you just ran into; it was kind of unnerving when you’d have this happen, because you would think you knew what to expect, only to have the game change it up. The true achievement, however, was the atmosphere.

Every place in the Sprawl has a story, every room looks lived in and unique, and all are basically terrifying. DS2 really messes with you head this time around, and not always in the same fashion either. I got really unnerved at one point when I walked into a room and the lights went out. I reacted by backing into a corner and pulling out my force gun and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. The lights turned back on, and nothing had happened. Waiting for something to attack, I sat patiently for another minute only to find that, even as I left, nothing attacked. The game is fraught with moments like this, and they really make the experience truly creepy.

In terms of gameplay, not much has changed since the original. As a matter of fact, nothing has changed except for the zero gravity parts, which allow you complete freedom of movement, instead of just allowing you to hop from one surface to the next. For those of you who don’t know the mechanics of Dead Space, I’ll give a quick rundown. In the style of Resident Evil 4, Dead Space is an over-the-shoulder survival-horror third-person shooter. Hyphen hyphen hyphen. The key difference, however, is that to kill your enemies, you need to dismember them in any ways possible to kill them. This includes shooting off arms and legs, chucking debris at them, and so on, until they cease to undie. Sounds pretty basic, but it really makes for some challenging moments, as the necromorph are varying in shapes and sizes, so when you get mobbed, you can’t just aim for the head, spray and pray, you need to take the time and hope our aim is true, lest you become just another dead person in Titan Station. There is a nice variety of weapons to do this with, including machine guns and flamethrowers, but also including a hovering cousing to a table saw and a gun that shoots giant electrified spears. Every gun has its own uses and fun applications, but most people pick four main guns and stick to them the whole way through.

The biggest new addition to Dead Space 2, and one that I was very skeptical of, is multiplayer. There is no co-operative campaign (sadly); instead you are treated to an objective-based mode where you either play as the Sprawl’s security forces, or the necromorph horde. As the security team, your job is to do any of a number of objectives, such as activating a bomb to wipe out the necromorphs, in a timely fashion and (preferably) without dying. As the necromorphs… well, you are pretty much around to hinder anything the humans are trying to do. When you first start, your basic loadout includes a pulse rifle and a plasma cutter, and you unlock more armor and weapons as you gain experience. On the opposite side, you can get various upgrades for your powers and abilities. It’s nothing too complicated from what I got to do (although my time with multiplayer was limited due to internet issues) but that is a good thing, as what they have done is really quite fun.

So all this is good and dandy, but is Dead Space 2 perfect?

Well, no. The first thing I noticed, and the thing that bothered me the most, was how hard it can be to get out of a bad situation. In this game, you are more likely to run into large groups of monsters, and if you get backed into a corner (you will) it’s almost impossible to escape unscathed. The enemies have an occasionally ridiculous range, so as you’re skirting around the edge of them a hit will land, make you stumble, and open you up for a couple more hits. On top of this, it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’ve killed an enemy or just made it shorter by cutting off its legs. More than once I would lay into an enemy with all manner of plasma and melee and have it hit the ground, only to start attacking me again 10 seconds later while I’m focused on something else. It got annoying on more than one occasion, especially with the advanced necromorphs, which are dark and sometimes hard to see when they’re on the ground.

My biggest issue, however, is with stasis and the upgrade system. As you are playing through, you’ll upgrade your gun and build up a nice pile of powerful weaponry, only to find out in the last few chapters that you really should have been upgrading stasis. It is also at this point that you realize just how few and far between workbenches are. At this point you begin getting mobbed by groups of enemies from all directions, and your two shots of brief stasis are little more than a few more seconds of life before you end up in pieces all over the floor. Hell, the final “boss” is damn-near impossible without either using a whole lot of stasis or losing a whole lot of hair.

Overall, Dead Space 2 is a fantastic addition to the series, filled with enough action and horror to keep anyone happy. With an improved atmosphere and story, and the addition of solid multiplayer, I can say EA has not yet failed what could easily become a staple horror franchise for years to come.

Review by Tinypenguininja

Also, if you want a second opinion, you can read a review of Dead Space 2 by IHCer JoeDissolvo here.