Review

Dead Space 2 by Visceral games is simply amazing. When they announced the first Dead Space I had a mixture of excitement and dread. Mainly because survival horror is a genre that is hard to get right but Dead Space was amazing and part 2 blows it out of the water.

The best way to explain Dead Space one and two is by comparing them to the only two good movies in the Alien series. Alien and Aliens, Dead Space felt a lot like Alien, being someone who was thrown into a situation that he really wasn't ready for and using everything around him just to survive.

Dead Space 2 feels like Aliens because Issac Clark is a lot like Sigourney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley. They both survived a horrible situation and even though they are dealing with the trauma from it they both step up and deal with the threat when it rises again.

The improvements made to how Issac controls actually makes this feel real. In the original he was a little clunky and slow to move now everything about his movements are smoother and faster. He handles his weapons better and his Kinesis ability is actually a viable way to deal with enemies this time around. Everything about the gameplay is improved without messing with what made the original great.

Graphically the series is still amazing everything in Dead Space 2 looks sharper, the effects are great from the weapons and smoke to how everything floats in zero gravity is amazing, seriously seeing blood floating in bubbles is fantastic.

As with the original the sound is perfect the score under lays the tone without missing a beat. The voice acting is great I like Issac more now that he is not a silent protagonist. But this game shines with it's ambiance using the subtle sounds to punctuate the scares. I actually jumped a few times and the entire game is unnerving in the best way possible.

I won't give away anything about the story, but needless to say it flows great and shows just how deep this universe is. Dead Space could go on for years in movies (one anime is all ready out with another about to release as well as a major motion picture in the works), books (there are all ready a few of these as well), and the games. I am impressed with how well Visceral developed this series when there was a chance it could have bombed with the first one. And I am so happy EA is no longer the devil of the industry and supports games like this.

In closing there is no reason to pass this game up, and if you haven't played the original get it first and play it then move right into this one. But don't play it in front of the kids, I certainly did not. Also I will be posting a review of Dead Space Extraction (the rail shooter game that was originally on the Wii and was redone in HD and packaged with the collectors edition on the PS3) once I finish it in a few days if I can keep myself from starting my second play through of Dead Space 2.