Dead Space 2 is a bit of a weird game where its pacing is more reminiscent of Resident Evil 4. Alot more linear, more action, more enemies rushing at you at once.
They got rid of the typical Dead Space 1 structure which had you follow two mission objectives in seperate parts of the maps, which is welcome. Now you basically just run from point A to point B to point C to point D until you're at Z - the end. Didn't have a ton of fun with that structure until the midway point, after which this more linear structure finally clicked for me. I can't fully say I prefer this type of game to Dead Space 1, both of them have their strengths and weaknesses, but considering the mindset I was in while playing DS2 I had a bit more fun with this entry.
Something that's definitely alot worse here are the characters. My god. The antagonists are complete and utter disappointments. Isaac finally talking doesn't add much to him or characters either, but at least he's got some fun quips. Ellie is pretty terrible as well, though reading some of the lore and listening to audio logs makes her a bit more interesting. I feel like the one take structure definitely led to the story feeling more constrained than it should have, a trapping the previous game (and the new God of Wars) also fell into.
The set-pieces made me incredibly happy, impactful and bombastic, fuck the quick time sequences though. Gameplay wise barely anything changed, just felt snappier to control, which might just be because they finally got the mouse controls working here.
In the end I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this game. It's good, maybe slightly better than the previous entry though in the end it does not really matter. I just feel like there's something missing in the Dead Space formular. The secret sauce. It just doesn't exist. Might be a more campy tone, might be more bombastic sequences, better level design, more puzzles maybe? These are fun, sometimes maybe even scary games, but not the standouts I kept hearing about.
They got rid of the typical Dead Space 1 structure which had you follow two mission objectives in seperate parts of the maps, which is welcome. Now you basically just run from point A to point B to point C to point D until you're at Z - the end. Didn't have a ton of fun with that structure until the midway point, after which this more linear structure finally clicked for me. I can't fully say I prefer this type of game to Dead Space 1, both of them have their strengths and weaknesses, but considering the mindset I was in while playing DS2 I had a bit more fun with this entry.
Something that's definitely alot worse here are the characters. My god. The antagonists are complete and utter disappointments. Isaac finally talking doesn't add much to him or characters either, but at least he's got some fun quips. Ellie is pretty terrible as well, though reading some of the lore and listening to audio logs makes her a bit more interesting. I feel like the one take structure definitely led to the story feeling more constrained than it should have, a trapping the previous game (and the new God of Wars) also fell into.
The set-pieces made me incredibly happy, impactful and bombastic, fuck the quick time sequences though. Gameplay wise barely anything changed, just felt snappier to control, which might just be because they finally got the mouse controls working here.
In the end I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this game. It's good, maybe slightly better than the previous entry though in the end it does not really matter. I just feel like there's something missing in the Dead Space formular. The secret sauce. It just doesn't exist. Might be a more campy tone, might be more bombastic sequences, better level design, more puzzles maybe? These are fun, sometimes maybe even scary games, but not the standouts I kept hearing about.