Dead Space 2

On January 24th, the newest addition to survival horror was added to 2011. Dead Space 2. I personally loved Dead Space (1). It scared the hell out of me and really redesigned what survival horror was. Everything was brutal gory and vivid. Dead Space was filled with so many jumping moments it left you on the edge of your seat till the very end. I also loved how Visceral games removed the idea of the HUB and just had your health bar and other abilities indicated on Isaac’c back. I loved this. It made it seem less of a game and more of a movie. (which is both bad and good. But it mostly just made the game more clean)
What I loved most about Dead Space 1 was how fragile Isaac Clarke was. It just appealed to me how easy Isaac would die or in the manner he died. I know a lot of games have focused around this subject but Dead Space really took the cake. He seemed human (you) considering how much he died or so much shit he went through. And expressed the most emotion without saying a single word which was both ANNOYING and interesting. What made Isaac so cool was that he WASN’T a badass. He was YOU getting attacked by crazeh zombehs.
But it seems that Dead Space 2 has kind of strayed away from what appealed to me most. The developers said they wanted to have that scary feel yet give you that sense of BADASSERY. At first I was like “Oh god, its another god damn master chief.” But Dead Space 2 was had qualities I enjoyed and disliked.

The good-

Controls
To start off Dead Space 1 felt very restricted on the movement. It seemed like you always had trouble slicing the monsters attacking from behind and to the sides. Everything was focused on what was in front of you. Now they got the feel of you being able to handle anything from any direction, yet it was still smooth. I liked this.

Isaac’s suits
They were awesome.

The graphics
I also just loved the way Dead Space 2 looked. They did a GREAT job with the scenery. Developers made everything scary and dismal without sacrificing color, and giving the game ATMOSPHERE. A lot of scary games just used the same gritty color base but dead space really didn’t have that problem. The facial detailing and movement also seemed really fluid. I don’t mean just Isaac, the NPCs as well. They seemed human and NOT out of place with the environment.

The flying/interactive cut scenes
Wow. If theres one NEW thing they added to Dead Space 2 that WORKED was the flight. It was awesome. You had full 360* flight and it was easy to pick up. It seemed really cool just moving Isaac around and watching his suit react to the controls. By this I mean the propulsion. It just felt/looked cool. And not only that, but there were points in the story where Isaac would fly at high speed and you had to avoid huge buildings or crazy necromorphs. There were also instances where Isaac would have to fight in crazy circumstances (like when I was falling through a train shooting bitches along the way down, then getting stuck at the bottom. Then I had to shoot off like 50 upside down.) This was straight up cool.

Story/Character development
I would say they did a good job creating a personality for Isaac. The story mostly centers on Isaac going crazy (or more like trying to become sane.) Isaac reacts to his environment and this makes him more human sometimes even more than when he speaks. I kind of liked this about him because so many games have the main character seem so “silently badass”. (master chief, every call of duty, (I don’t think BLOPS is a COD game FYI), resistance, samus, link, maybe Mario, Gordon freeman (but gordon freeman is awesome so that’s OK))

The BAD

Combat/enemies
What made the fighting in DS 1 so appealing was tearing the enemies apart. It was different from a lot of other games and it made the game interesting. IF theres one thing that bugged me the MOST about dead space was the lack of creativity that was put into that combat/enemies. I think it was one of the BEST things that was in the first game so they didn’t want to change it so they just left it the same. But this ISNT what I want in sequels. I want progression. I want something NEW. The enemy development in Dead Space 2 was serious LACKING. They added what 4 new enemies? (the kids, exploding babies, pukers, and the big gymnast enemies (bosses I don’t count that), and ones that run at you, but these enemies replaced a previous necromorph that practically the same thing). But the strategy for killing them was exactly the same for ALL enemies. Tear off the limbs. YAWN. And along with that they only added like 2 or 3 new guns. (a lazer, a javeline spear thingy, and a exploding mine gun) A combo of these things along with no new additions to the combat made me just get bored fighting the necromorphs. Yeah they added the ability to use detached limbs as weapons but this was something that SHOULD have been in the first one. Overall it really wasn’t satisfactory.

Stasis
Stasis was a pretty cool idea in the first game. You basically slowed down enemies so it was easier to shoot off arms and legs. The stasis was UNCHANGED in the new game. You used it for pretty much the same puzzles and it served the same purpose in combat. The developers said they were gonna make it automatically recharge because in the first game there were so many instances when you needed stasis but didn’t have it. This was a load of crap. I played that whole game and my stasis didn’t recharge on its own at all. I had to use the stations and little energy packs.

Being a badass
As I mentioned before, what I loved about the first game was how Isaac WASN’T a badass. He didn’t have super dead on senses or special capabilities. He was JUST Isaac. Now in this new Dead Space they give you all these points where youre kinda like “YEAH I JUST DID THAT.” No. Sorry Visceral. Not appealing to me. This just made the game seem mediocre in the sense that EVERY OTHER GAME DOES THAT. I just want a game where Isaac does things within reason. Like no honest to god reasonable average ENGINEER would be able to fly 3 miles into space, dodge buildings, and land perfectly on his feet WITHOUT a scratch. Im really nit picking the SHIT outta this but that’s just what LOVED about the first one. I feel it put this HUGE gap between you as the player and Isaac as a person.

The Horror
I don’t have to much to complain about this, but it was a fault. It didn’t live up to the horror in the first game. Random moments would have scary things but these were easy to anticipated and had really no effect on what was going on. Enemies playing dead were easy to spot and the only reason I was ever startled was because of the random parts in combat where an enemy would be out of your range of vision. But I can see how sometimes the horror would scare most players. I think im just used to it which is kind of disappointing Shit that’s my fault LOL.

The multiplayer
Its left for dead knock off. Really disappointing. Nothing very special. The multiplayer is mostly just a trigger happy orgy of bullets and clawing. It doesn’t take strategy or anything really demanding of your playing ability. I think it was just a thing they threw in there to say it has replay ability.

I really nit picked this one. Solely because this is a game series that will always have a deep place in my heart and I wont just suck its dick just cause they slapped the name Dead Space on there. But thats my overall analysis of Dead Space 2.
In the end I give it an 8.
Pros- graphics, space flight, interactive cut scenes, the suits, the characters/story.
Cons- Multiplayer, Badassery, combat/weapons (creativity), the horror (kinda), stasis.

Sorry for my atrocious grammar/ spelling. Comment back! I wanna hear everyone elses opinion.

Pretty nice review. I haven't played any Dead Space game, but
I know I will someday. Since I do not like scary/horror games I
will play Dead Space 2 first, since scary parts can be anticipated
and I will be able to close my eyes.
Also, I think I know why they left many stuff the same and just
added 4 new enemies and 3 new guns. I think it was because,
since DS2 wasn't made by the same people that made DS1, they
didn't want to change much so they wouldn't get negative feed-
back. This is just speculation.

And one more thing... Nice to see you back, AIX!!

Didn't much care for DS1. DS2 looks very similar, but I saw a vid of the intro. Looks pretty sweet.