Review and Video Review / Dead Space 2

The video review for Visceral's scary shooter is above. The written review is below.



Today’s shooter market is a crowded, dull space, often starved of imagination and innovation. To stand out from the pack you’ve either got to have something new or offer the very best gameplay experience around.

Dead Space 2 falls into the latter half of those two options. Its sci-fi horror twist may not be the most inventive take on the genre but tight controls, vicious weapons and a top-tier presentation ensure that this will be remembered as one of 2011’s best.

Once again you take control of Isaac Clarke, the silent-but-strong hero from the first game, only this time he actually talks. Isaac wakes up on a space station named The Sprawl, a sort of apartment complex complete with nurseries, schools and shopping centres, ideal for living in if you don’t get space sick. He doesn’t get much time to relax though; mere seconds into start the game up you’ll encounter the first of many, many necromorphs, a dangerous, mindless alien race that have started to invade the station.

What follows is a 12 hour journey full of scares and shooting, and one that you definitely shouldn’t pass up on. Dead Space 2 plays out as a third-person shooter in which the best way to get rid of enemies is dismember them. The usual videogame cliché of going for the headshot won’t work here; you’ll need to slow necromorphs down by taking off their legs and arms or any other dangerous bits that they might reveal.

It’s pacing that makes this sequel such a standout. One moment you could be crawling through a dark corridor, jumping at every slither of movement, while the next you’re desperately scrambling through a busted train as it heads for a huge crash, dodging blood-drenched, terrifying enemies as you go. This constant change will keep you guessing (and playing) throughout, never once giving your mind the opportunity to wander off.

Shooting is a clean, responsive task with plenty of fantastic weapons to take advantage of. The Plasma Cutter is our favourite, a standard pistol that lets you shoot either horizontally or vertically to take off legs or arms, but there’s a tonne of other tools of death to use, from flamethrowers to mines, all proving equally entertaining to use.

You’ll need to be relatively skilled with the gun you’re holding too; enemies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes from spike-shooting Crawlers to vomit-inducing Pukers (we’re not lying about that last one). The game is never short of imaginative enemy design and each new foe requires a different plan of attack. Pair that with scarce ammo supplies and tense boss battles and you’ve got a challenging game on your hands.

Story will make sure that you don’t want to stop playing. Dead Space 2’s characters strive to differ themselves from the usual assortment of space marines that you’d find in any other game; Isaac is an everyday engineer caught in the middle of a terrible crisis much like Hollywood’s John Mclane, while the characters he meets along the way are scared, desperate people that you can easily relate to. The tale spins plenty of twists and turns as Isaac sets out to rid the station of the source of necromorphs, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout.

It packs a strong graphical punch too. What The Sprawl loses in colour palette it more than makes up for in atmosphere. Detailed character models that will send a chill down your spine, moody, dim environments and the occasional bit of eye candy as you look out into space mean this is no visual slouch.

If there are complaints, it’s that the game is a little too familiar to those who played the first. Controls remain untouched, there’s not a wealth of new enemy types, and the story seems to run along a similar path. That shouldn’t stop you from playing, as it tops its predecessor in many ways.

When it comes down to it, there just aren’t many shooters that can compete with Dead Space 2. It’s longer, tighter, prettier and just all around more fun than most of its competition. On top of that it’s got the scares to put you on the edge of your seat and the story to make sure you stay there. Make sure you don’t miss out on this one.