Intense Review - Dead Space 2
Wednesday, 26 January 2011 14:22 Ian M. Jones
How do you follow up one of the best and most innovative survival horror games of the decade? You might think the answer lies in making a game that reinvents the wheel a second time. But visceral games has thoroughly done away with that assumption with Dead Space 2, a game that sticks to its roots while perfecting a tested formula to create a fresh and awesome experience that's even better than the original.
Dead Space 2 takes place three years after the events of the first game and is set in The Sprawl, a metropolis built into Titan, one of Saturn's moons. This environment looks and feels far more expansive than the ship you were trapped on in Dead Space one, and the game uses it to its advantage. The game does an excellent job of changing the horrifying elements of Dead Space to suit the Sprawl.
Being set in a metropolis means a lot of things for Dead Space 2. It means more people, Dead and otherwise, and it means bigger environments. Visceral Games has done fantastic things with these changes. Gone is that overwhelming sense of isolation that haunted you through the halls of the Ishimura and in its place is the feeling of immediate panic, as you race around the sprawl attempting to survive. The Sprawl also immediately feels like a large, inhabited city. You encounter far more living people than you ever did in the first game, and from the very beginning you find yourself battling waves of the undead. It may seem like a little thing, but this sense of scope really adds a lot to the game's atmosphere.
One of the biggest changes in Dead Space 2 is that your character has a voice. Isaac Clarke has been given words and he uses them quite often. Another thing the game changes up is the way the story is presented. While you still do the vast majority of necromorph slaughtering by yourself, the game introduces you to several intriguing characters. These characters are a major addition to the way you play Dead Space. The superb dialogue, voice acting and character animations make the game feel all the more like a true cinematic experience, and you will genuinely want to see what happens to them next.
Adding to the fun is a hardly redesigned but entirely streamlined combat system. Isaac Clarke aims truer, feels lighter and moves faster then he did three years ago and it makes for a more exciting, blockbuster experience. Isaac also has a few new toys at his disposal on the Sprawl: A Javelin Gun that shoots spears and can impale enemies to walls, a high precision rifle that zooms in, and a few more powerful goodies. This doesn't detract from the horror however, as your necromorph enemies have been hard at work devising new ways to kill you. There are several new types of enemies to deal with. Some of them display intelligence and will hide behind cover, others will charge you in large numbers. Further still there are necromorphs who spit bile and acid at you from a distance, so while Isaac's techniques may have been revamped, they are sure to be tested.
The campaign is a shining example of what a survival horror game should be, and to top it all off, it looks and sound great. Great lighting effects really set the mood while highly detailed environments and enemies really suck you into the terror. It should take you about 8 to 10 hours to finish if you've played the original, and probably even longer if you're new to the series. There isn't much wrong with the single player portion of this game, but that's not all you get with Dead Space 2.
Dead Space 2 has a multiplayer component. It's a blast when you've got some people to play with, and the game does allow you to create matches with friends pretty easily. The only problems with the multiplayer are its limitations. There are only 5 maps, each of which is host to only one basic game types. 4 humans are pitted against 4 necromorphs. The humans have to complete an objective (Each of the 5 maps has its own objective, though all are fairly similar), and the necromorphs have to stop them. I heard Left 4 Dead 2 called and wanted their versus mode back, but they got forwarded to voicemail. In all seriousness, the multiplayer in Dead Space 2 is very similiar to Left 4 Dead's versus mode so if you were good at that you'll have no trouble getting used to this. It forces you to work together in the same ways, and it's a **** of a lot of fun in the same ways. The only difference is the levels don't take you an hour to complete. Overall the multiplayer feels a bit tacked on, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with it.
Even if the multiplayer is bit lacking, the game makes up for it ten fold with it's real star: a stellar campaign that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Another thing I'm sure a lot of fans will be glad to hear is this: The game has a very satisfying Ending. Many of us were left hanging at the end of Dead Space, and while that feeling of wonder isn't entirely gone from the series, a larger sense of accomplishment and fulfillment await you at the end Dead Space 2.
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