It’s been 10 days since the launch of one of the biggest Science Fiction Horror games ever! SFL now goes deeper into space to see if it lives up to the hype.
The XY Review by Ian

Isn't that something? Magnificent Desolation!

Poor old Isaac Clarke left alone to gather dust in a psychiatric ward on The Sprawl. The engineer wakes up after a 3yr coma and immediately has to combat an intense mental demon (his dead girlfriend who just won’t let go), a sprinkling of handy Necromorphs (who just want to play hugs and give you a little love bite) and he has to find a magical marker (which he’s obsessed with) to destroy it, which will wipe out Mr and Mrs Necromorph and all their delightful offspring.

This game is ALL about the jumps, the jolts and the shocks. Dead Space 2 made me scream out loud dozens of times and I am man who normally laughs in the face of horror films. It built such a sense of fear and anxiety in me whilst playing that it set me on the edge of the edge and I thought a Necromorph was going to erupt out of every closet and every hole in the wall. This is a clever tactic from game developers Visceral, as it makes you slow right down, for fear of being attacked, and in turn enables you to see the features, explore more of the areas and absorb the world in which you have to escape from.

It looks A-MA-ZING with the lighting design surpassing most Hollywood films to create a haunting and evocative environment with intelligent use of shadows, haze and smoke to produce a total scare fest. When you’ve got floodlights burning your irises as you peer down a long corridor which are actually masking a horrendous Necromorph galloping towards you, this is “blinding” attention to detail. The sweeping quality of the score with the swells and surges in the string sections add an almost Bernard Herrmann Psycho effect to proceedings and helped increase my heartbeat to north of 180bpm.

For me there are many structural echoes of Resident Evil 4, with upgrades, stores/merchant points and save stations at regular intervals throughout the chapters to ease the progression through the game. However in Dead Space 2 the narrative design is better and the internal struggles that Isaac faces and relentless brutalising from the enemies is nothing short of horrific.

My main space beef with the game is that’s it’s as linear as a line on planet Linesville. There’s no room for deviation from the story or the magic blue line which guides you to your next objective. This begins to make the game a little predictable but the aesthetics and jumps that keep coming managed to just about sustain my interest in the world and keep me wanting more.

It wouldn’t be the king of survival horrors if you didn’t die a few times. You will die, then you will die again and maybe even a thousand more times and to celebrate this fact Visceral should author a brand new book: Incredible Ways to Die by Isaac Clarke. Read it now for some absolute head popping ways to pass into the next world.

A small note about multiplayer, it’s not worth multiplaying. Instead go through the single player mode 3 or 4 times as you’re able to keep all your weapons and suits each time accumulating a small arsenal until you get to the hardcore level and then let’s see how good you are as it only allows you save 3 times throughout the whole game. At least it’s not on the Sega Master System which wouldn’t allow you to save at all and you had to finish games in one sitting.

So break out of your strait jacket, get yourself to the nearest store to upgrade your space suit, your gun and your life because you’re going to need them all just to survive in this adrenalin filled, festival of scare which teaches Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes a thing or two about how to make people jump.

The XX Review by Tracey

Dead Space 2 isn’t just a ‘next-in-the-series’ title. It’s part of a much bigger Dead Space Universe featuring a range of characters as seen in Dead Space Ignition(DLC), Dead Space Extraction (bonus content game), Dead Space Aftermath (anime), Dead Space Salvage (graphic novel) Dead Space Martyr (fiction) etc. However good some of the others might be though, Dead Space 2 is the most outstanding and brilliant piece of work. After playing the demo over and over, I wondered if Visceral Games/EA would be able to deliver the same thrills and action in the full game. Not only do they sustain it, but they have taken space horror to new levels of gore and fright. Be under no illusion, this game is excitingly terrifying.

The tone of the game is set within the first 5 mins. The Universe’s most unlucky engineer Isaac Clarke survived the events featured in the original game only to awake and find himself confronted with some vividly disturbing, hallucinogenic memories of his dead girlfriend and the place swarming with mad Necromorphs. You barely have time to take it all in before a guy gets ripped apart in front of you and you’re running for your life! You start with no weapons, no suit, not even a lowly flashlight. Thankfully, it’s not long before you can get your hands on some tasty weapons and there’s loads on offer from your trusty Plasma Cutter to Seeker Rifles, Flame Throwers, Javelin Spear Guns and Ripper Saws, all of which you can upgrade at stores. Stomping the head off a crawling Necromorph is an innovative way to earn credit and also helps relieve tension after a full on attack. The weapons are great but conservation is the real key to survival. Hold on to those health packs as you’re really gonna need them from Chapter 8 onwards when things get more insane. Instead of using ammo, you can use Kinesis to pick up objects like chairs, fire hydrants or severed bloody limbs to chuck at your enemies. You also have limited Stasis ability which can slow down some of the speedier Necros – handy if you survive long enough to think quickly on your feet!

The levels are really well designed and rarely repetitive or badly laid out. Ian points out the linear aspect to the gameplay but it’s brilliantly written - plenty of gritty twists and turns without ever feeling silly or unauthentic. Ian also mentions the incredible use of light and dark and the timing of when things happen which are so cleverly designed that you need to be on red alert at all time as you never know when nasty things will JUMP (cue much screaming or colourful language or quite often both) out at you through the confines of metal corridors or spew acid goop at you from across a shadowy room. I love it!

There are some puzzle elements usually involving getting machinery working whilst in Zero-Gravity. Overall, the Zero-G is smooth and easy to control, even in my favourite, graphically awesome bit when you’re hurtling head first through space junk at a gazillion miles an hour (unless you mistimed it and then you end up splattered all over the screen Ian). I’ve been chopped in half, lost my arms, legs, head, had my neck punctured countless times and been dragged away to a very dark place but it provides a nice break from the scariness! Which there is lots of. Make that lots and lots of. This game is so scary I had self-imposed ban not to play it after 9:30pm... In a frantic, creepy gross way, Lurkers scuttle up walls just out of shot then spike you with darts, Stalkers with exposed ribcages and long sharp talons hide then run up to you at high speeds, Slashers gang up on your with their spindly arms whilst small crawling exploding baby bug things are a nightmare. AAAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

And then there’s the silence. Dead Space 2 uses silence to emphasise the vastness and oppressively deadly threat of outer space whilst indoors, the score is at times haunting and eerie, at other times dissonant and jangling.

Dead Space 2 is an incredible game. The attention to detail musically, graphically (even Isaac’s stubble is impressive) and vocally is superb. The story is emotional in parts, relationships between key characters are awkward and untrustworthy but it’s always believable, thrilling and exciting. It certainly isn’t boring and the balance between horror and action is sweet perfection.

Dead Space 2 from Visceral Games and EA is out now available on PS3, XBOX360 and PC.
For more information visit the Dead Space 2 website.