"Fuck you. And fuck your marker."

’Dead Space 2’ is honestly a miracle to exist the way it does. Lately, really big budget horror games have become more common with ’Alan Wake II’ and of course any of the ’Resident Evil’ titles pushing that further, but back in 2011, this was pretty much never heard of. ’Resident Evil 5’ and ’6’ got insane budgets, but those were focused on being co-op action games which were no doubt going to make their money back. This really makes ’Dead Space 2’ stick out for when it launched because it had a stupid amount of money thrown at it to try and achieve the most gruesome, horrifying game they could make. It’s kind of surreal to see something like it exist, but its biggest issue stems from this area as well. ’Dead Space 2’ is so focused on being as big and bombastic as possible that it sometimes forgets to take a moment to calm down and catch its breath.

To further context, ’Dead Space 2’ isn’t on some ship that is falling apart anymore, but a whole station built on Saturn’s moon, Titan. This leads to a lot more variety and levels to go through that all feel quite distinct. Similar to the first game though, it’s linear which isn’t a bad thing at all, but it’s more noticeable this time around. The Ishimura felt cleverly disguised as less gamey (for lack of a better word) since there was more room for backtracking as well as revisiting previous levels later in the game having a sort of interconnected feel. ’Dead Space 2’ is a bit more obvious with its level to level structure, but it is still well done, just a notable difference folks should expect. It’s quite seamless because loading screens are practically non existent outside of dying or reloading a checkpoint, but I don’t know how much I appreciate this. For some aspects of the game, it’s phenomenal, but when switching between locations that are significantly different from each other, you are thrown into huge action set pieces. This approach was taken to give the pacing of the game a similar feeling to a rollercoaster. I do think it is successful in this, but I don’t think this approach works in a title so focused on its horror. It’s also interesting to see though since one of the spin offs that came out between ’Dead Space’ and ’Dead Space 2’ was an on rails light gun shooter for the Wii called, ’Dead Space: Extraction’, so they’ve had that “rollercoaster” idea for a while. (Oh, also ’Extraction’ is surprisingly good and worth giving a try if you’re interested.) I don’t dislike these set pieces as a whole, but they kind of mess with the pacing. The moments of spectacle break the horror that comes from the normal gameplay loop entirely. They are way more exciting and fun than anything. This isn’t an apparent issue throughout the whole game and is only noticeable in the middle portion, but when it’s there, it’s hard not to pay attention to it. This isn’t to say the middle chapters are bad or have pacing as poor as the front half of the last game, but they stick out in comparison to what may be the best opening and closing to a video game I’ve ever seen.

I won’t go into to much detail about the closer for spoiler reasons, but this opener is fucking nuts. If you remember from my review of the first game, I found the introduction to ’Dead Space’ to be a bit too eager. It doesn’t give you enough time to take in the atmosphere of the world because it throws the first necromorph chase sequence at you within the first ten minutes. This was an issue there because you didn’t know what was happening. This was an entirely new experience and a slow build up to them just felt like it would’ve paid off more to me. ’Dead Space 2’ doesn’t need to do that. You know these enemies now, you understand what situation it puts you in. So in the first cutscene, you get snapped awake by the protagonist of ’Dead Space: Ignition’ (for the two others of you that actually know what that game is) and immediately he is grabbed by an infector and you see him change into a necromorph right before your eyes. It is the beginning of this outbreak and you’re here stuck with no weapon and in a straitjacket. The only option you have is to run and you better do that quickly because they are a comin right the fuck to you. I could gush about this sequence for actual hours. It not only sets up the mood perfectly, but also does a fantastic job telling the player that the necromorphs are even faster and deadlier than before. I love it so much. This level of quality lasts for a good while up to the Church of Unitology. Sadly after that, you can kind of feel a dip. It’s not that the middle of the game is bad, in fact it’s still quite fun and well designed, but it doesn’t really live up to those first three hours (except for one chapter which I won’t spoil). Then, ’Dead Space 2’ does the impossible, it comes back stronger than ever before. Those last three chapters are some of the best moments in a game I have witnessed. It perfectly takes the ”go, go, go” panic horror from the beginning and tests that with every skill you learned along the way. It is by far the strongest moment in the whole franchise. I have no issue with anything about it, it’s just fucking perfect.

In terms of the actual gameplay loop it is quite similar to the first title, but has everything you’d expect from a sequel and some more. Quality of life improvements, more enemies, more weapons to combat those new enemies, gameplay is much more polished and smooth, and the game’s difficulty and speed increased by a few notches. To mention some of the improvements that you’d expect, you can now reload your weapons without having to aim down (although I still instinctively did this from time to time because of habit). The combat feels way more responsive and slick this time around. In the first game, specifically with the pulse rifle, it would feel as if you were aiming in the correct spot at an enemy and it would just pass right through them. This never negatively impacted my journey with it to much, but it was an annoyance at times and I’m happy to say that’s not the case with ’Dead Space 2’. There’s a lot of little fixes like that here which is appreciated, but I personally have a preference towards the clunky nature of the first game. That may sound a bit contradictory, but hear me out. I always found the most enjoyable survival horror games to be the ones where you have to come around and learn the quirks and janky elements of the gameplay and ’Dead Space’ delivered that in droves. The sequel is a blast, but I feel some of its tension is lost since everything feels so polished and easy to use. This is only a minor issue though because the game delivers in different areas for itself. ’Dead Space 2’ is significantly more difficult than the previous entry. Necromorphs move much quicker, demanding more speed and reaction time from the player and combat scenarios will have more varied enemy types to deal with. This does a lot to improve the challenge this time around which the first game struggled with. It also feels better balanced for players on keyboard and mouse since aiming for limbs becomes a tougher task due to the enemies speed. Oh, I forgot to mention this originally, but Zero-G has been changed to have 360 degree movement instead of just jumping from wall to wall. It’s pretty cool.

I don’t have much to comment on with the narrative. It’s good. Isaac is much better with motivations that are easier to care about since he is a more compelling character this time around. He has a voice now too and I adore some of the quips he makes. They never come off as him trying to be cool, but incredibly dorky like Leon Kennedy in the ’Resident Evil’ games. They don’t push Isaac into a really big action hero and through his dialogue he feels like someone who is experienced, but still just a dude. There is one moment where they literally have him do a superhero landing though and that is the most goofy shit ever. The other characters you meet, especially Ellie, are also fantastic. I will admit though, I am still let down by Tiedemann. He isn’t a terrible villain or anything, but shockingly forgettable. It comes as a surprise as well considering how fascinating Dr. Mercer was in the previous game. The overarching plot is compelling, but I have a preference towards the first ’Dead Space’. It was much more simple there, but every time something bad happened to you that made it even more of a struggle to get off the Ishimura, a sense of hopelessness just fills you. It continuously made me feel more desperate where the slightest chance of escape was all I needed to want to progress. That feeling is lost here and I’ll admit, I miss it. I still enjoy the story here quite a lot, but I have a slight preference towards the more simple nature of the first game.

’Dead Space 2’ is one of the best looking games of its time, no doubt. It is difficult not to notice how much love and care went into each environment that you get to explore. The biggest compliment this title receives is usually how real and lived in everything feels and I find myself agreeing with that although I do have a soft spot for the industrial, brutalist space ship in the first game. ’Dead Space 2’ has such a strong use of colors and variety giving each level a unique feel that I easily understand why this is considered to be a way more stunning game to look at. The models are of a much higher quality this time around also. One of the biggest issues I had is that the suits, in all honesty, fucking suck! I don’t know, most of them just aren’t interesting or look kind of dumb lol. I’m not as fond of some parts of the RIG this time around, specifically the spinal health being a bit of a downgrade, but as you may notice, these are such small issues that it’s arguable whether it’s worth mentioning or not. ’Dead Space 2’ is a gorgeous game that I can’t stop myself from gushing about. The sound design still is peak as well which is no surprise considering this is ’Dead Space’ we’re talking about.

I wanted to give a quick mention as well that this PC port is much stronger, but I have a few points of contention worth bringing up. The steam release of this game will feature all the cosmetic weapon skins and suits for free. The upsetting part is you can’t turn any of this off. If you don’t want it hoarding the shop then you’ll have to purchase all of them and put them in the item box which can take a solid fifteen to twenty minutes which fucking blows. Multiplayer isn’t active either, but I don’t think many folks are here for that anyways. The story DLC ’Severed’ isn’t included with the PC port and although most people wouldn’t miss much because it’s a continuation to ’Dead Space: Extraction’ instead of Isaac’s story, I know some will still find it saddening to not have, but yeah that’s it. The PC port here is much more stable and well made then before.

’Dead Space 2’ is an insanely high budget sequel that still maintains some of the best qualities of the first title, while making itself feel distinct and different. It’s honestly one of the best examples on how you should approach a sequel and if you enjoyed the first game then it is very much worth giving this a shot! The amount of money poured into this title was absolute fucking insanity though. The game had a budget of sixty million dollars just to develop and wasn’t able to make a profit even though it sold two million copies in its opening week. The expectations EA put on ’Dead Space 2’ is absurd and due to this, we would get a sequel that wanted to make itself as appealing to everyone as possible and pretty much killed the franchise for a full decade. Thanks EA.