SMALLS' GAMER REVIEW: DEAD SPACE 2

Let's start off this review by taking a look at one of the things that made the first game so great, the story.

Dead Space 2 starts off three years after the events of the first game, during this time Isaac Clark, our war-worn hero from the first game, was not rewarded with a vacation for his efforts. Isaac was instead taken aboard a densely populated space station called The Sprawl where he was placed in an insane asylum and was heavily studied along with others who had come in contact with the first marker. The goal here was to use Isaac's and other's memories to re-create the marker on the Sprawl. Bad news: the ones in charge succeeded, created a second marker, and have brought hell to the Spawl and those on board. Once again, it is up to Isaac to save the day, and this time he's not taking orders from anyone but himself. With EarthGov and director Tiedemann (head of the Sprawl) doing everything in their power to stop Isaac from destroying the marker, it looks like it will once again be one hell of a day for our weary hero.

While the story in the first Dead Space was intricate and complex, the story in Dead Space 2 is much more straight forward and there aren't as many mysteries here to discover. The story in Dead Space 2 just didn't do it for me, but that doesn't mean that Dead Space 2 is a failure.

One of my favorite things about Dead Space 2 is getting to watch the consequences of the first game. In Dead Space 2, Isaac has been stricken with an extremely severe case of dementia which leads him to have pretty freaky hallucinations of a monsterous Nicole. It would appear that coming in such close contact with the marker, mixed with the events that occurred on the USG Ishimura may have forever scarred Isaac's mind. It is quite possible that Isaac may never be the same again, this dementia may stay with him for the rest of his life. Throughout the game as Isaac fights the new wave of Necromorphs, he also has to fight off his hallucinatory episodes and his self-imposed guilt over what happened to Nicole. This, to me, is the most interesting part of Dead Space 2, as we get to delve right into Isaac's mind and get a better sense of how deeply the events on the USG Ishimura have affected him.

Speaking of Isaac, another bad-ass addition to the game is that for the first time ever Isaac speaks. In the first game Isaac was the silent type, only emitting grunts, screams, and the like. In this game, Isaac gets to talk....a lot. It's neat to hear how our hero actually sounds, and to know what he's actually thinking as the events of the game progress. Another welcome addition is that (as I said before) this time Isaac is the one in charge. That means, unlike in the first game, Isaac doesn't take orders from anyone. It's great not to have to deal with some person telling you to go fix that, and after you fix that head to this area and fix something else so that we can get this other thing up and running and so on and so forth. In hindsight, the first game may have gotten a bit repetitive with all the fixing you had to do, but I'll be damned if it wasn't still a great game, back to the topic at hand though.

The atmosphere and setting in the first game was superb, in Dead Space 2  the settings are still pretty good but can't hold a candle to the USG Ishimura (also the music and sound design aren't as strong as the first's). The Sprawl easily lives up to it's name as you have to visit a residential area, several hubs, a train station, a nursery, a Unitologist recruitment center (luckily those bastards don't play much of a role in this game, the focus is squarely on EarthGov), and more. While, yes, some areas are indeed quite creepy they just can't top the Ishimura. As I ran through the game, I do admit I started to miss the Ishimura. Luckily for me, there is a good few levels where you get to re-visit the old beauty. You see, apparently the Ishimura was rescued and brought on board the Sprawl to be explored, so you get to climb back on board her. While on-board I did get a good deal misty-eyed as I got to revisit classic areas from the first game including the entrance, the greeting area, the engineering deck, the medical bay, and the bridge. Dead Space 2 does re-create some of the elements of the first game during the Ishimura level, including a quarantine procedure (remember those? I sure do). Most areas are recognizable  but different, the whole lower level has big bioharzard plastic covering everything, and the medical bay looks like someone decided to throw a rave. In this way does the game allow players to re-live some of their fondest memories, while changing things up at the same time.

Dead Space 2 also throws in some new characters for Isaac to play with. There's Ellie, a hard-core survivor that is sure to remind most of Isaac in the first game. She gets to play Isaac's more-or-less love interest. Isaac also gets joined by a fellow inmate named Stross, a man who murdered his family while under the influence of the marker and may hold the secret to destroying it. I really dug Stross' character arc here, as it goes to some pretty surprising places. The main baddie this time around is Tiedemann, the head of the Sprawl and the man responsible for the creation of the second marker. He believes that his marker could hold the key to everything, including Earth's survival, so naturally when Isaac gets loose Tiedemann pools all his resources together to stop Isaac.

While Dead Space was a survival-horror game, Dead Space 2 is more of a survival-action-adventure game. Dead Space 2 does still have horror elements in it, but the focus here is more on action/adventure than on  horror, also Dead Space 2 just isn't as scary as Dead Space was (except for that level on the Ishimura). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it takes the franchise in a new direction and in this way keeps the gameplay from getting stale or repetitive. If Dead Space was Alien, then Dead Space 2 is Aliens.

While Dead Space 2 does take a different approach to the gameplay, that doesn't mean it's any easier than the first. In fact, I'd say Dead Space 2 is significantly harder that the first was. Near the end of the game, I was constantly low on health and ammo, and the health packets and ammo rounds I could pick up were quite sparse. I literally had to freeze enemies and run through areas to survive instead of staying and fighting it out. I was always under constant threat of dying, it was pretty tense. That's not to say that the first game wasn't tough, it was very tough, I just feel that Dead Space 2 was tougher.  I'd say if you do decide to give Dead Space 2 a go, try it on casual first and see if it's too easy for you.

I must say that I do prefer Dead Space to Dead Space 2 for various reasons (better atmosphere and setting, stronger story, more focused, loved the focus on horror), but that is in no way a condemnation of Dead Space 2, in fact Dead Space 2 is indeed a pretty strong game and one that is definitely worth playing. I love how there is a focus on the consequences and after effects of the first game, and I highly enjoyed getting to delve into Isaac's mind. Dead Space 2 also manages to try a little bit harder at upping the re-playability by throwing in some goodies that are unlocked for further play after you finish your first run-through. There is also multiplayer this time around and some online features (not sure what the online features entail since I do not have XBOX Live). I'd say go ahead and buy this game, it will look great sitting next to your copy of the first Dead Space (if you haven't played the first Dead Space yet, play that game and then move onto this one). So far, Dead Space has proved to be a pretty strong, fun franchise. Let's hope this trend continues into the third game.

9.5 STARS