How to write a review of Dead Space 2:

1. Find your review of the original Dead Space.
2. Copy it.
3. Paste it into your blank Dead Space 2 review document
4. Write a little blurb about the multiplayer
5. Give in to peer pressure and boost the score by a point or two so it’s 9/10 instead of 8/10
6. Call it a day

Visceral Games pretty much took the technology and design from the previous game, added a couple new enemies and weapons to it and just constructed a whole new set of levels around it. That’s not completely a bad thing (let’s call it the Mega Man method), but it does make a review a bit challenging. That is, if you want to make it sound fair. What you are about to read is going to sound as if I disliked the game since I won’t be spending time on what we already know about Dead Space (that the first one was excellent and my favorite game in 2008). However, I’ve got a few nits to pick.

Look at the image below.

What sort of words, emotions or ideas come to mind when you look at it? Space, sci-fi, these ones are obvious. How about terror? Fear? Nothing really conveys such an idea. Sure, there are numerous monsters, but there’s no sign of a cowardice in Isaac. In fact, his outfit has been designed to look aggressive and angry. Phrases like “bad assery” come to mind. Action and exhilaration.

Understanding this piece of art is necessary to understanding what Visceral did with Dead Space 2. While it is a suspenseful and nerve-wracking gameplay experience, it is primarily action oriented.

By the end of Dead Space 2 it becomes pretty clear that they focused on the combat more than puzzles and clever level design. These elements aren’t absent, and in some cases are improved. For example, having full control in gravity allows for much more potential in puzzles and exploration, and Visceral implements this new feature to its fullest extent. It’s just that these moments feel to be fewer than in the first game.

Despite the focus on combat and action, a lot of the additions are missing that “special something”. It just seems Visceral forgot a lot of the reasons blasting the limbs off monsters was so awesome. Taking off the head in any other game is challenging merely because it’s a small target. Limbs, however, can move and change. The lurker (tentacle-fetus necromorph) only reveals his vulnerable tendrils when preparing to attack, forcing the player into a sort of quick-draw to see who strikes first. The fat necromorph has tiny, barely visible legs and large arms that swing continuously in front of its massive gut. If the player isn’t careful then they’ll blast its stomach and unleash a series of tiny swarming creatures. It forces the player to take their time and wait when the arm is swung away from the belly, something that becomes a tad more problematic and hectic when multiple foes are attacking.

The new foes don’t really provide such clever implementations of the concept. They instead threw in some generic shooter style enemies who happen to lose their limbs. The hordes of children merely need to be shot anywhere to drop. Their challenge is in sheer numbers, though there were plenty of other creatures available to do the same thing. The crawling baby can be separated from its explosive torso, but it pretty much equates to a slow-moving red barrel that will explode anything surrounding it. Unless you want to save its volatile corpse for later enemies then it’s just a one-shot-one-kill foe, which is pretty much no different from the already exploding kamikaze monster from the first game. The closest thing to an interesting enemy created for the game is the “raptor”. It hides like a clever girl, it makes the same prehistoric sounds, and then it charges right at the player in a straight line. Well-placed detonators can take them out in one hit, or a single shot from the Line Gun can strip it of its legs. The foe is only difficult the first time you encounter them and then each time after that becomes easy to pick off.

None of these new foes truly capture the same excellent design mentality as those from the previous game. It isn’t just about killing something by shooting its arms and legs off. It’s about how you have to go about it, especially when surrounded by a number of different enemies. The new monster roster seems limited to recycling the standard necromorph, occasionally throwing in the lurker for irritation. Otherwise it feels like the remaining originals feel more like cameo appearances while the new creatures take front and center.

Of course, these are subtle changes that most players won’t notice. In fact, most players may even like the new enemies better. Just because they aren’t done as well as the previous game doesn’t mean they are done horribly, and the game continues to be fun despite these minor flaws.

What I can applaud Visceral on is taking one of the best mechanics from the first game and getting some real mileage off of it. One of the most memorable aspects of the first Dead Space was being grabbed by the monstrous tentacle and, while completely disoriented, being forced to aim for a mobile weak spot as it held and dragged you about. The sequel brings this concept back in spades, forcing players to aim for an emergency lock while being dragged out into space through an open window, or sliding down a steadily falling train where the player finds himself hanging upside down while a hoard of necromorphs step forward to prey upon him. It is these moments that keep some of the fights from merely feeling like “just another encounter” and turn it into one large “ohshitohshitohshit” block.

As for terror, well, video games always fail at that. There is a big difference between startling and frightening, and while the folks at Visceral are good at the former they still need to work on the latter. The closest thing to fright is a carryover from the first game, which is a sort of apprehension of combat. Enemies deal serious damage, so the knowledge that enemies can be anywhere leaves the player cautious. This isn’t the same as being frightened, though.

This is still a welcome emotion to feel in a game. You’ll never feel quite as vulnerable as in, say, Silent Hill or Resident Evil, but it allows combat to always be interesting. Even after gaining a substantial boost in armor and health the number of enemies thrown at the player will keep them in the fight-or-flight mindset.

It would be nice if the game managed to manipulate the player’s emotions so successfully for the entire game. Apprehension, adrenaline and suspense the team has down pat. Anything else is either handled with immaturity or could just use a real writer in charge. To say “the characters are good for a video game” is tiresome and confessing our own medium’s immaturity. I like Isaac and his cohorts well enough, but I’m not given much sense of who they are. I know they are people and they are in a tough situation, but they are given no stand-out feats or flaws to make them feel real and endearing. I’d look at the fact that I like these characters fine to be more an accomplishment of the voice actors than anything else (you’d be surprised how much acting can do for how well a character is received by the audience).

It’s disappointing because I feel like Visceral missed out on some excellent emotional potential and instead opted for cheap thrills (if you can even call them that). I know Dead Space is inspired by a lot of horror films and thus the developers want to include an homage or two and a few tropes, but if I see an NPC in danger I’d like the chance to try and save them. For example, you obtain the plasma cutter by shutting it down as it is performing surgery on a guy (at least, that’s my assumption. Why else would he have been strapped to the table?). However, as Isaac is grabbing it from the machine a necromorph comes into the room. The guy you just saved is still strapped to the table and unable to flee, thus he gets slaughtered. You don’t regain control of Isaac until after the man is beyond saving. There are a few other moments in the beginning of the game where you stumble upon similar “survivors”, only you have no option or chance to rescue them.

This isn’t a movie, and if this were the protagonists would likely try to save those in danger. As a game, though, I don’t want those events to be scripted. I’d love the thrill of trying to save someone, and yes, make it difficult. That way I can actually achieve something that has nothing to do with my survival, and if I can’t save them in time then I can feel bad about it. Plus, having survivors that can optionally come back later in the game can serve as a pay-off to the player.

As an example, the beginning of Resident Evil 4 has a wolf caught in a bear trap. If you free the wolf it bounds off into the forest, presumably to never be seen again. Only it is seen again later in the game, distracting a giant ogre monster and permitting you to take down the giant with greater ease. It made a seemingly minor choice in a game pay off greatly later. Giving the Dead Space 2 player a slim chance to save some survivors could have added some new emotional depth to the experience.

Instead, the developers likely giggled like a bunch of children as they created gruesome ways for these NPC’s to die, and as a result I didn’t care. If the developers aren’t going to treat these characters with respect then why should I?

Nonetheless, the story does expand the universe a bit, even if Isaac’s own journey is…poorly told. Which sort of wraps up Dead Space 2 in a nutshell. It is an expansion on the first game. While some parts are done and modified excellently, others are not. In the end, though, it is a good game. Even the multiplayer, which felt unnecessary and even stupid before the game released, turned out to be a lot of fun. The game is a great experience and, just as the last one, I can’t recommend it enough.

Buy the game, play the game and enjoy the Hell out of it.

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