After ten hours of screams, stomping, impaling and the dismemberment of countless infected limbs, I had finished my first play-through of Dead Space 2. This is a game I was looking forward to a lot, choosing to steer clear of most of the media surrounding the game in the build-up to its release. I loved the first Dead Space and was grateful that there was still a developer out there that could make a high quality survival horror game, which became more of a rarity after Capcom had decided to abandon any chance of that with Resident Evil 5.
Dead Space 2 begins 3 years after the events of the first game as Isaac awakes not knowing where he is, and suffering from dementia, has to fight off another horde of Necromorphs in order to survive and find out what has happened to him. I feel this may be the games weakest element and it is a shame because although it was nice to see a more developed Isaac who speaks throughout the game; the story was quite flimsy and wasn't as engaging as the first, especially because the narrative is rooted in the events of the original and therefore feels very familiar.
The gameplay and presentation are as solid as ever with several great gameplay tweaks such as the ability to freely float around rooms with zero gravity; also the melee attacks have been improved and just like the first game, the user interface is still one of the best ever.
Visceral Games have nailed the atmosphere and sound design yet again, doing its utmost to make you feel helpless and alone, especially in the earlier chapters. The voice-acting is also very good despite the slightly undeveloped characters.
Dead Space 2 is at the pinnacle of the survival horror genre and has truly established itself with this exhausting and heart-pounding sequel; which with a stronger story could have entered into truly elite status. However that isn't to say that you won't greatly enjoy this gorey adventure that has got the most important thing right: gameplay.
p.s This review was intended only to comment on the single player campaign as I have yet to try out the new multiplayer features.
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