Summary [8.0 out of 10]

Dead Space 2 sees the return of Isaac Clarke who wakes up in a medical research facility as all hell breaks loose. Someone is there to rescue him but before he can even be cut free of his straight jacket his would be savior is savagely killed by an outbreak of necromorphs. Isaac races to escape and finds help from a woman over his comm who claims to have a cure for whatever it is that is wrong with his head. From there the game plays out in a similar way to the first game with the same general gameplay and enemies. Many issues from the first game have been cleaned up but a massively unbalanced difficulty holds the game back from surpassing the originally and becoming great.

What’s It Like:

• Dead Space: This is a no-brainer since it is a sequel but for the most part the core of the game remains unchanged. If you dug the first game you are going to like this one for the most part.
• Bioshock: The communication logs, texts and characters talking to you while you walk through a ruined community with disturbing things happening and attacking you feels very much like Bioshock. If you are a fan of that series for the ambiance you will probably like what is being offered here.
• Taking a Hammer to the Nutsack: If you don’t play through the game on the difficulty you are supposed to in the proper order, this game can be very similar to having your jewels compressed by cold steel fast, hard and in rapid succession. If you are into that then aces. If not it is best to play through the way you are meant to.

The Great:

• Graphics: The graphics are stunning and the effects from explosions to blood to lighting are terrific. The game is very dark by nature but that doesn’t cut down at all on the detail and just how great everything looks. Just a gorgeous game.

• Storytelling/presentation: From the beginning moments the game is creepy and tense with the player completely off balance and without a means to defend himself and it doesn’t stop. Story points are delivered with tight and suspenseful pacing and scares are masterfully done. The menus and HUDs are designed to keep you in the game and in the story with very little to distract you from what is happening on screen. These aesthetics really up the feelings of immersion and when the game cooks it really keeps you engaged.

• Controls: As frantic as things get and as frustrating as some of the action can ultimately be, you can’t blame your latest cheap death on the controls. Everything is mapped conveniently and it isn’t difficult to make Isaac do what you want. When you die it is going to be because the game is brutally difficult not because the controls are faulty.

The Good:

• Gameplay: Gameplay in Dead Space 2 is as tight as ever. Moments of quiet punctuated with bursts of intense action keep the tension high. Aiming for appendages on the Necromorphs is still the preferred method of dispatching them as body and head shots take awhile or are ineffective altogether. Resource management is important and informs the flow of the gameplay. The ebb and flow of the action starts to get repetitive after awhile but the core gameplay is solid and maintains the quality of the last game.

• Replay: Dead Space 2 is structured for replay. The player is meant to start off on easy and carry over the materials and weapons to normal and so on. If you are invested in the game enough you can run through the thing several times with the difficulty ratcheting up every time. If you go into the wrong difficulty too early you can get replay in the form of the same room for about an hour or the handy restart to a lower difficulty. Add to this the new multi-player mode and there is a lot to do here.

• Weapons: The weapons were fun last game and remain fun this time around as well. The detonator, in particular, is a whole lot of fun and can really get you out of a jam. Using your telekinesis powers to  use dead necromorph’s claws as projectiles is also a decent amount of fun. Aside from being fun, the weapons are useful too as the necromorphs change enough that you are always in need of something new to deal with them. The secondary mode of each weapon gives each even more usefulness. If you have to be stuck on a space station full of bastards trying to kill you then you might as well have fun tools with which to deal with them.

The Bad

• Difficulty Settings/scaling: Your mileage may vary on this but I found the difficulty to be really annoying. Not that it is hard and I am some kind of pussy but more that the way it scales and the actual difficulty settings are bullshit and I resent being shoe horned into one setting just because the developers have decided that is they way I should play. The result of this is a normal mode that feels more like hard or very hard and an easy that, by comparison, is a cake walk. I am not new to survival horror by any stretch and for the level of frustration to get to where it was on normal was really incredible. I can’t think of a time in the current generation I was that frustrated by how many times certain areas were requiring multiple attempts off of really cheap and annoying deaths. If it were a matter of strategy or skill, okay, I would be alright with it but too often it comes down to luck and repeating the same shit over and over hoping that you can sort it out this time until you want to throw your entire entertainment center out of a window and set it on fire and that is just not fun. On the other hand, if you break down and restart on easy, there is almost no challenge of any kind. I am not asking for the whole game to be nerfed or something but I resent having to play on easy because that is what the developer wants me to do and get punished for playing on normal. Frustrating repetition isn’t fun and being forced to play a certain way isn’t either. If you don’t have time to play the game four times to see everything you shouldn’t be penalized for it.

Conclusion [8.0 out of 10]

Dead Space 2 is a very solid, if frustrating game. The series has high potential for being incredible but it is held back by stupid limitations that would be easily fixed. The fiction and storytelling are top notch and deserve to be showcased in a truly epic game. The high levels of quality in certain aspects really shine a light on the lackluster ones such that it brings the whole project down. But then again, as I said, your mileage may vary and the difficulty and frustrating restarts may not bother you. If that is the case then you are in for a big treat and it isn’t you should still play Dead Space 2, just start on easy and work your way up. It is much better on your ballsack that way.