Dead Space 2
25 Jan 2011
All releases
25 Jan 2011 - PlayStation 3
28 Jan 2011 - PlayStation 3
25 Jan 2011 - Xbox 360
28 Jan 2011 - Xbox 360
25 Jan 2011 - PC (Microsoft Windows)
Tags
Time to beat
Main story
Main story + extras
100% completion
Three years after the Necromorph infestation aboard the USS Ishimura, Isaac Clarke awakens from a coma, confused, disoriented, and on a space station called The Sprawl. Just as his health begins to improve, The Sprawl is overrun with even more advanced forms of the alien-zombie hybrids.
Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the events of Dead Space, in 2511. Following his nightmarish encounter on the USG Ishimura, former engineer Isaac Clarke arrives on the Sprawl, a civilian space station built on the remains of Saturn's moon, Titan, which was broken into pieces in a planet-cracking operation. Here a new Necromorph outbreak begins. Isaac witnesses the panic that overtakes the station from the start.
| Audio | Subtitles | Interface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | ✓ | ||
| English | ✓ | ||
| Spanish (Spain) | ✓ | ✓ | |
| German | ✓ | ✓ | |
| French | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Italian | ✓ | ✓ |
Visually, Dead Space 2 holds up better than the first entry while somehow managing to improve performance exponentially; going from 1 to 2 on PS3 was surprising to say the least, the former barely holding 30fps while the latter is locked at 60fps - 1080p, while at the same time having a lot of demanding action sequences and more varied environments. Honorable mention goes to the new suit helmet closing and opening animation; it's just simply iconic.
Story is my personal favorite highlight of Dead Space 2, growing in scale in both story complexity and quality of writing. The biggest change is, of course, Isaac himself, now fully voiced and acted by the same actor who only did screams and grunts in the first entry, a welcome change that I wouldn't have it any other way. The story focuses on deepening the Markers lore, making it more Lovecraftian in nature, easily the best part of the series. Don't want to spoil anything; it's definitely best going in blind. Just going to mention that the story's ending is probably the most satisfying and exciting ever seen in video games, period.
Gameplay mostly has received improvements, much more polished this time around, with some great additions, such as the ability to use sharp objects in the environment as spears to pin down enemies, as well as zero-gravity sections becoming much more enjoyable with the new ability to hover around the environment. Enemy variety mostly stayed the same, with some horrifying additions in the form of stalkers and crawlers, the latter being one of the most shocking enemies in horror media. Gameplay in general became set-piece focused, featuring a good number of action sequences that rival Uncharted's most memorable moments. They are mostly pallet cleansers with standard horror sequences still taking priority, although the series clearly did have an RE4 action shift, but personally I believe at least this time it's well executed for it to be an issue, but I do prefer the bigger horror focus of the first entry.
When it comes to issues, I believe game staggers a bit in the middle with an odd section that panders to nostalgia when the first entry was released just 3 years ago. Just thought it was unnecessary, should have saved it for the third entry atleast.
To sum up, Dead Space 2 is a great action/horror experience and an excellent sequel. I definitely recommend playing it; shame it's not available to experience on modern console hardware.