JJ Reviews: Dead Space 2

JJ Reviews: Dead Space 2

Apparently in space they can still hear Issac Newton scream..... fresh from my run through of the original Dead Space campaign (which despite taking a while to get going, I found it to be a strong gaming experience [He sees dead people! He's like that kid from The Sixth Sense!) I thought I'd give the sequel ago.

Waking in a hospital, strapped into a well tailored straight-jacket, I'm immeadiatley confronted with my apparent rescuer taking a bony arm to his eyeball, signalling the start of a frentic run through a hospital that's seemingly overun with the Necromorphs. Nice start Viceral Games!

Early on it's clear the graphics in Dead Space 2 are much improved over the original game. It seems to move more fluidly and I like the new changes - the rig looks a little more friendly and I'm seeing and hearing hero Issac's face more. Add all this to some nice frights and well drawn bits and pieces, walls, furniture and fancy door locks, Dead Space 2 looks to be the money.

What I'm loving 2 hours into the campaign is the destructible environment, new, scary monsters and even though it's still get from A to B and solve stuff along the way, that activity has been made less a chore. That happens when trains nearly land on top of you.

There was a particular level where I was endlessly wandering around in a church and I was attacked by a group of very grumpy creatures that reminded me of Velociraptors. So I was extremely delighted after having slaughtered them when I earned and achievement called "Clever girls" which was a play on a scene from the film Jurrasic Park. Through out the game there was another 3 or so set pieces with these creatures and they were fantastically fun to tackle.

Video of Dead Space 2's Hand Cannon: Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It's always good to see game designers not taking themselves too seriously - Bungie, as an example, have a silly side to them in spades, and it's fun to see what the makers of Dead Space 2 have come up with.

If you complete Dead Space 2 on the hard core mode, the player is rewarded with a new weapon: the Hand Cannon. Think a big giant hand that you might shake and wave during an NFL game  and you'd be on the money.

Check out this you tube video of Dead Space's hero, Issac as he gets suited up and armed with the hand cannon:



If you haven't played the scariest game in space since Doom 3, check out a review of Dead Space 2.

The Lazy Man's Dead Space 2 Review

This time he's going deeper into space...

This has to be the laziest review of a game ever in the history of gaming, all I did was borrow paragraphs from other reviews and assimilate them like the Borg....kinda like as Issac learns, resistance is futile....

Dead Space 2 Review

Things haven't gotten any better for engineer Isaac Clarke since his narrow escape in the first "Dead Space." In that game he battled hundreds of disgusting space zombies called Necromorphs on the planet-cracker ship Ishimura and managed to destroy the relic that was responsible for them, but the girlfriend he went there to save was dead before he ever arrived on the ship.

Now, Isaac's slowly going fatally insane, thanks to the effects of the relic, and has been drugged into a coma and experimented on for three years in a secretive area of a massive space station.

The mission statement for most horror sequels is to improve on their predecessors. Dead Space 2's greatest challenge, then, is to top the terrifying experience of playing the first Dead Space. This is no easy task when you consider that the original game left most players feeling drained by the time its credits rolled. It's even more difficult given that, to some degree, anyone who played through the first Dead Space knows what they're letting themselves in for. Newcomers to the franchise will likely be thrilled and terrified by the game, but is it possible for the developers to visit the same amount of horror on players who know the Dead Space terrain?

Where is my mind?

Like the Bee Gees, this is where you come in. As Isaac, you'll pick up your plasma cutter, don an engineering suit and take the fight to the beasts out to kill you. The overarching goal is to find and destroy the religious idol (known as the Marker) causing all of this, but the story that makes Dead Space 2 great is the internal war Isaac's fighting. Unlike Uncharted's Nathan Drake who can kill a few hundred pirates and never seem worn down by it, Isaac is totally ruined by the events of the original Dead Space. He saw things no man should have to during his time on the spaceship USG Ishimura, but it's the fact that Isaac's girlfriend died on the vessel after he encouraged her to work there that really haunts him.

Isaac's losing his mind in Dead Space 2. 

The guilt is tearing his very sanity apart. 

That's heavy stuff and it makes for a really engaging story. Isaac doesn't let anyone else in on the fact that he's coming unglued, so as a player I get to see who he really is and the facade he presents to the other characters. Isaac's internal conversations and hallucinations are among the favorite parts of this game.

Bossanova of Foxtrot Madam?

The Isaac Clarke of Dead Space 2 reacts to the world around him – for once it's not just the player screaming when a monster leaps out of a nearby vent – and his interactions with the game's other characters is less of a one-way affair. This doesn't make things easier – there isn't anyone Isaac comes into contact with who seems overly trustworthy, and Isaac's dementia throws the player the odd curveball – but it does prompt the player to care more about Isaac's fate this time round.

Compared with the first Dead Space, there didn't seem to be as many "gotcha" moments that might have players jump out of their seat. If you've played the first Dead Space, players should have a sense of what to expect in the sequel. For example, that "dead" Necromorph is going to pop up any time now to start chasing Isaac around. Also, players might spot that vent or other opening where an enemy will surely jump out from.

Sever me timbers!

Dead Space 2's gameplay keeps everything that worked from the first instalment and then builds upon it. Combat is a bloody, brutal affair which involves tactically dismembering opponents and always checking over one's shoulder. There's a healthy collection of weapons (or repurposed tools) to collect and players are advised to forage thoroughly for ammunition and health-packs, and to use what they have sparingly. They're also advised to stamp on any enemy they have felled – this prompts an item drop, and it's also a good idea to make sure they're dead anyway.

Dead Space 2 is more than just an action game and it's more than a survival horror game -- it's a game that tells a really personal story about a guy who has been seriously scarred by the events around him. That premise alone makes it interesting, but Visceral Games melds it with rewarding combat, shocking enemies, and huge set pieces before tossing it into a world that's truly creepy and scary

Order Dead Space 2 from Amazon

Dead Space 2: Mom's of America Hate It

Shoot'em till they are dead. In space. 

Check out this cleaver (I meant to write clever but instead cleaver came out - I'm going with it) Dead Space 2 promotional video that features mothers exposed to the game's most graphic moments and their aghast reactions:



The trailer works on the premise that if a normal mom hate's it, it's gotta be a gotta be a good  thing! It's a very cleaver marketing tool - I trust the mom's got paid some good coin though!!

You can order Dead Space 2 from Amazon today. Here's some plot info on Dead Space 2.

Dead Space 2: You still can't hear a scream in space

Me? Again? 

The sequel Dead Space 2 will arrive to Xbox land and hungry space horror fans in a week and a bit's time and this second installment in the soon-to-be-a-real franchise is expected to be an excellent and polished follow up. You know it's gonna be good because the game is published by EA who put out a little known game called Gears of War...


The game is a straight sequel to the third person survival horror original Dead Space, Dead Space 2 places you as the titular hero Issac Clark forced to to tackle an alien infestation that in the last game proved to be one of creepiest and intense experiences in the gaming horror genre.  Doom 3 eat your heart out....


Dead Space 2, (like all good sequels!) will feature new weapons and tools at Issac's disposal to dismember and defeat hordes of brutal enemy Necromorphs. The  inclusion of a multiplayer component will make Dead Space 2 an interesting online prospect (kind of like how Bioshock 2 had multiplayer I guess!)



The plot of Dead Space 2 takes place in 2511 A.D., three years after the events of Dead Space, on the densely populated Titan Station on Titan, a moon of Saturn. The mental illness caused by the Marker appears to be permanent and continues to have an effect on the protagonist  and hero of the original game, Isaac Clarke. The government will continue to have a place in the storyline, their sinister motives always to be questioned! 


Check out the promotional trailer for Dead Space 2 on youtube:




IGN were privy to playing a couple of levels of Dead Space and had this to say:

"My demo picked up with Isaac back in a version of his familiar engineering suit, which gives him some protection from the beasts along with telekinesis and the ability to slow things down. A woman named Daina is leading our hero, but there's also a guy named Nolan Stross trying to get in contact with Isaac. Daina claims he's a psychotic that killed his own family." Hmmm, can you say psycho killer qu'est ce cait?

Extra for Experts: it was recently noticed that Bungie trademarked the name Dead Orbit - some people are speculating that this could be the name of the new Bungie IP - I doubt it as it's so close to the name Dead Space - what do you think? What's Bungie up to?