You can't put a price on company that had an idea, followed through on it and made probably one of the best, if not the best survival horror games of our generation. Dead Space still makes me wet myself a little. The 2nd installment of the series is no exception. With new horribly mutated creatures and crazy people galore, Dead Space 2 does nothing to keep you from keeping a pillow to hide behind during amazing sequences that you have to keep your eyes open, not just simply to enjoy the beauty of the graphics but to simply survive. Our mute hero Isaac Clark now longer has the debilitating fear of interaction with those that are left alive. Awoken by a would be savior, Isaac is straight-jacketed to a psyche ward bed. His savior in classic "Here let me hel....AAAAAAHHH!" fashion is impaled by a neocromorph and instantly changes from savior and possible friend, to face eating not-so-best-friend. Isaac luckily has the balls to just head butt and shove from being sliced. As he begins his desperate run towards whatever freedom he can find from the obvious chaos going on around him, with creatures bursting and screaming from everywhere. Isaac finally finds solace and freedom from his bonds at the hands of a doctor gone mad.
As far as the story goes, you know the situation you are in while making your daring escape. I find myself feeling a little nostalgic for the Ishimura's claustrophobic atmosphere as your quest to solve the mystery of why and how all this happened, while being trapped on vessel orbiting a planet that you have to travel back and forth through. The Sprawl in DS2, though amazing in scale and design, doesn't give me that sense of entrapment that I had in the first installment. Though you are being trapped and herded by a couple of sinister folks, you don't have that sense of anxiety that keeps you on your toes.
Both human and alien monstrosity's want something from you, apparently Isaac had something implanted in his head that is vital to building a new marker and making it work. But the problem is, NO ONE ACTUALLY TELLS YOU WHAT IT DOES!!! Ok, that is not really true. You know it is supposed to unite everything into one being, I think. The mystery is there and solving it once again your priority as you try to reach a giant marker somewhere on the Sprawl.
Gameplay is just as crisp in DS2 as the first. Tweaks made here and there, such as, you can now actually fly through space instead of just long jumping. There are new weapons and upgrades as well as new slick looking suits. The enemies are even more sickening then before with new and old giant monstrosities that just love to chase people in engineering suits.
One other issue I have is with some of the boss fights. While they are gorgeous to look at and just as amazing to fight, the build up to them does not mirror that of the original. As one of the most memorable boss fights I have ever had was a great experience, the build up to it was non-existent. The first Dead Space had an excellent build up to boss fights that made them memorable and pant wetting. DS2 seems to have lost it's way at the subtle build up to boss battles. A little gem that needs to be found again in the 3rd installment I readily await for.
I have played and beaten the game repeatedly, always with the anxiety driven survival mindset had with the first game. I enjoy the game immensely and would easily recommend this one to those how love survival horror or would like to scream at a TV screen for the first time.
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