QT reviews: dead space 2

Warning, ahead there be spoilers.

Introduction time!

You are CEC systems engineer Isaac Clarke. The year is 2508, and the future sucks. Earth's resources have been completely drained, necessitating the mining process known as "planet cracking", where a massive space vessel uses gravity tethers to tear entire chunks out of planets and refine them into usable ore.

One of these ships, the USG Ishimura, is dead in the water, stuck orbiting the planet of Aegis VII. You, as part of a CEC emergency repair mission, have been sent to diagnose and repair the problem. You volunteered for this assignment, primarily because your estranged girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, is a senior medical officer aboard the Ishimura.

When you arrive, you find that things aren't quite as you had expected. A malfunctioning gravity tether knocks your shuttle into the Ishimura's landing bay, rendering it inoperable and trapping you aboard. Then the shit really hits the fan.

You discover that the Ishimura is infested with hostile creatures known as Necromorphs, monstrosities hewn from the dead flesh of former crew members, reanimated by a malignant strain of alien microorganism. As you fight to survive, battling the Necromorphs and struggling to keep the Ishimura in orbit, you slowly begin to piece together what happened, all the while looking for Nicole.

It turns out that the colony on Aegis VII discovered what's known as a "Marker", a device, apparently of alien origin, that has significance to a powerful religious sect known as the Church of Unitology. This Marker causes mass hallucinations, paranoia, dementia, and somehow is connected with the Necromorph outbreak.

You, along with assistance from the remaining members of your repair crew, and a couple of survivors from the Ishimura, Nicole among them, manage to get the Marker down to the surface. There, you are betrayed by Kendra Daniels, another CEC engineer, who has been in the employ of EarthGov the entire time. She reveals that you are, in fact, insane, driven mad by the Marker. Nicole is dead, and has been the entire time. Her presence is a hallucination projected by the Marker to coerce you into following its orders. Kendra takes the Marker, but is killed by the Hive Mind, a massive Necromorph that apparently controls the infestation.

You manage to destroy the Hive Mind, and flee the planet as the Ishimura's gravity tethers give out, dropping teratons of rock back on the planet from orbit, annihilating it.

Dead Space 2 picks up three years later.

You're still Isaac Clarke, but this time, you're being held in a medical facility on the Sprawl, an enormous space station constructed from the ruins of Saturn's moon Titan, the first ever planet crack. You are being treated for dementia and PTSD acquired on Aegis VII.

Of course, something else goes wrong. Somehow, Necromorphs have made it to the Sprawl. The outbreak is already under way when you are freed from the medical facility, and the first part of the game is spent trying to survive, uncover what happened, find the cure for your dementia, and escape Titan Station.

Now that that's out of the way, on to the review.

-Graphics:

Bear in mind that I'm going by the PC version. The Xbox and PS3 might be different. My beast of a rig can easily run the game at maximum settings and 1920x1080 resolution, so that might influence my rating as well.

Dead Space 2 looks good. In some places, it looks great. The cyberpunk themed sprawl is well conceived and well executed, and the devastation wrought by the Necromorphs is convincingly horrific. Speaking of the Necromorphs, they're even more nauseating this time around, guts hanging out and frayed limbs waving wildly in every direction, they ooze alien menace just as often as they do bodily fluids.

The camera is set in the same over-the-shoulder style as in the first Dead Space, and it works just as well this time around. Motion blur, color filters, and dementia induced distortions complete the spectacle, and the RIG based inventory and HUD make for an incredibly immersive experience. The animation is improved as well, giving Isaac and the other characters convincing personalities that the wooden models in the first game often lacked.

The only time I was ever dissatisfied with the graphics were during several of the "scenic overlook" portions of the game. At times (Most notable in Chapter Seven, you'll know it when you see it), the Sprawl is convincingly detailed and well executed, but at others, it falls short, low resolution textures and some low-poly model fudging contrasting garishly with the detailed interiors.

-Audio:

Perhaps one of the best parts of the first Dead Space was the excellent sound design. Not only were the sounds the dev team came up with fitting (and at times terrifying), they were put to good use in a game-play sense as well. Each type of Necromorph had a specific noise it would make, and the designers put these to good use, often using the sounds when no enemies were around, just to keep you on your toes.

The sequel continues this tradition, using audio and subtle musical cues to ramp up the tension. The sequences taking place in the vacuum of space are also incredibly well done, removing any sound that isn't made by Isaac or his RIG, or that could be convincingly carried via vibrations through the floor or walls. There's one part (also in chapter seven, which is probably my favorite in the whole game) where you're alone but for the musical score. Even though there were no enemies around, I was still on edge, hurrying to complete the task at hand out of fear of what could be lurking just out of sight.

All of the weapons and tools you use have their own distinct feel as well. For instance, the punch of the Contact Beam is well matched to the charging and firing noises it makes.

-Gameplay:

One of my chief complaints about the first game was its lack of variation in game-play mechanics. This was a problem that RE4, a game in the same vein, had as well. Eventually, you just get tired of shooting the limbs off of space zombies, no matter how much you switch up your arsenal.

Dead Space 2 has taken steps to address this, and while they aren't as comprehensive as they could be, they're still much appreciated. While you'll still spend the majority of your time blasting the limbs off of Necromorphs, there's enough pauses in the action that you won't get bored. Puzzle sequences break of the monotony quite well, and the revamped Zero-G sections are some of the most fun I've had in a game recently.

As an example, the first half hour of the game is spent running around a medical facility, in the dark, unarmed but for a flashlight. You don't have a rig. You don't have a gun. Hell, for the first five minutes, you can't even use your arms. It's a welcome change of pace and makes for a great introduction.

-Atmosphere:

Oh man. Just... oh man.

I was scared playing this game. The first Dead Space didn't scare me. Sure, it surprised me a few times. Sure, I was grossed out by the Necromorphs, but I was never really, viscerally scared. Dead Space 2 managed to do that, and that's really all you need to know about the game.

From the blood spattered medical facility that you start at, to the baroque interior of the Unitologist church, to the dingy, oppressive corridors of the maintenance areas, to the empty expanse of solar collection station, the game's areas are unique and interesting in a way that the Ishimura never was. Of all the improvements made since the first game, this is definitely the best.

-Storyline:

This is another area that the first game lacked. Sure, there was a bit of a sub-plot about finding your lost girlfriend, but Isaac was basically a faceless mook, and the story was a generic space thriller/survival horror game.

Dead Space 2 is, at its core, still fairly generic, but there's an undercurrent of personality to it now. Isaac feels like a real character, and you can't help but empathize with him. The other survivors you come across each have a genuine personality, and Isaac's interactions with them all feel real.

The storyline itself is still a bit lacking. Like the first game, it's still a bunch of fetch quests strung together, but it's all put together a bit more smoothly this time around, which makes it more tolerable.

Summary:

Dead Space 2 feels, to me, a bit like Half-Life 2 in comparison to the first game. Sure, HL1 was a great game, but the second game was such an advance in storytelling and world-building that there's really no comparison. Dead Space 2 isn't quite as good as Half-Life 2 (which is my metric for awesome games everywhere), but it's a hell of a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it's marred by a couple of major problems. See, I've got the PC version, and since EA are console whoring assbutts, that means that I don't get any DLC. This includes all of the interesting extras that you get for a New Game+. Those are completely unavailable in the PC version. Hilariously, there's a petition up to bring these features to the PC, but I doubt EA actually gives a shit. They don't get most of their money from PC titles any more.

The other problem is one of length vs. cost. Dead Space 2 is longer than the first game by a good deal, but it's still relatively short. I beat the campaign in around eight hours, and there's not that much replay value. Even the multilayer is a bit lacking. All in all, I wouldn't say it's worth $60. If I were you, I'd wait a few months. $45-40 is a reasonable price for what you'll be getting.

-Overall, 8.5/10.

Good, and a massive improvement over the first, but lacking in a few areas and with some distribution issues that suck, but aren't any fault of the developers.