User Review : Dead Space 2

prepare yourself for an amazing but scary and bumpy ride in space

Lots of players remembers Dead Space 1, it was a true gem, a game that did set a new standards for horror genre. Necromorphs (the only you face in the game) looked scary, ugly and will hunt Isaac down till the end. That game was pretty intense, amazing and full of suspense with a different flavor of Horror.
3 years later,Visceral Games, the developers that brought us Dead Space, gave birth to its sequel, simply called Dead Space 2. So was the game really good and worth the 3 years wait?

The sequel continues the 1rst game's story, you retake the role of Isaac Clark an engineer that was investigating the Ishumura ship, where hell broke loose. Isaac woke up in some Space station, to find out that Necromorphs invaded the station for an unknown reason.
The Game's first hours are truly amazing and tense, and you will fight your way through some necromophs without your gear or your beloved suit.
The first thing that we can notice is that Isaac can speak now and have a personality, unfortunately something is hunting him in his mind, so from time to time he will see weird visions accompanied with a familiar voice!
As you can assume, the gameplay did not change a great deal, when you recover your suit and your gear you will feel right at home if you played the first game, and the "No HUD" policy still exists in the game, where you can not see HUD in game. Of course one the best points that still in Dead Space 2 is the strategy you will use to kill Necromorphs, so you just need to dismember them to reduce ammunition consumptions that you really need in tough times, and as before the dismembering feels satisfying as ever But that doesn't mean that there are no changes. On the contrary, great things were added in the game.
Now you can use your kinesis power to fight enemies, just grab a necromorph body part (a sharp one) and throw it, or maybe some steel spears that can be found all around to nail Necromorphs to the wall.
In Vacuum mode (no gravity) Isaac can fly around this time, using a flying gear attached to his suit. That can be lots of fun when you are in one of those areas.
One mini-game is added and its to override some mechanical parts or doors, that feels truly right, and that of course to remind you that Isaac's true Job is an Engineer, the bad thing about that is it'll keep you away from the action.
For weapons we can find the old ones that was used in the 1rst game like "The Line Gun" "Plasma Cutter" "Pulse Gun" and also there are some new weapons like the detonator that lets you place laser-triggered trip mines and the javelin gun fires spikes at high velocity that is capable to impale Necromorphs to a wall.

New Necromorphs breed find their way to Dead Space 2, like The Pack, that are bunch of infected children that will attack you in groups, also a new breed called "Stalker" that shows a great deal of intelligence never found in the first game.
The Stalker will also attack in groups, but first it will take cover, peeking at you by showing only its ugly face and then attack by tremendous speed, and without slowing them down, it sometimes feel frustrating to kill them especially that Isaac will take some time to turn around.
The graphics in Dead Space 2 are great, but of course not the best, but the game wins in creating the right atmosphere, using a great shader lightening and effects, and creating a space station that comes to life in some areas.
You can also feel that there were an ordinary life before the outbreak, where you could find some balloons in a Hospital, or maybe find birds in a cage.
The game also wins by creating the right atmosphere for a horror game, where you will find lots of blood, lots of dark areas and some twisted graphics. Isaac can now walk in lots of dark areas, holding only a light when aiming his gun, that really adds a great push towards the horror that the game is trying to create.
But indeed, we can find some stiff textures, maybe some old animations, that you won't greatly notice when fighting for your life.
Also the Necromorph's reactions and moves becomes a bit predictable in the game, where you can find a fallen Necromorph, but as you get closer it will get up, and you will jump like a scarred rabbit, but that won't hold up long, but be sure that you can find more unpredictable scares and surprises during the game.
As the first game, the Sound effects are the true jewel of the game. where you will hear voices all around, like scratching noises, screaming, babies crying or even some twisted sounds.
Those sounds are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, and Isaac is brought alive thanks to a good voice acting, that gives him a good personality that now is twisted by the Marker and will see things that he feels is true when they're not, and the sounds that accompanies those visions what makes them feels scary and intense.
The other new added element is the Multiplayer that was not found in the first game.
The multiplayer can be played up to 8 players, 4 Humans and 4 necromorphs, and this is why you want to return to Dead Space 2, again and again.
The multiplayer will give the human team an objective to complete with a time limit and of course the Necromorphs' objective is to just stop the humans by any means necessary.

In the end, Dead Space 2 is an amazing but scary and bumpy ride in space that will leave you hungry for more, and its great multiplayer will eventually satisfy this hunger, so if you are waiting to buy a great game and to have lots of fun accompanied with lots of scares and an "Open Mouth" moments, Dead Space 2 is definitely the game for you.