Dead Space 2 gave me a mixed bag of emotions from start to finish. I loved the first game, playing through it twice to get all the achievements, and even loving the fiction to the point of downloading both downloadable games, as well as watching both of the animated films. I felt the church of unitology was a perfect reflection of the christian church of today, and the fiction behind humans having to destroy planets for resources a great view of what may one day happen.
So as you can imagine I was looking forward to putting Dead Space 2 in finally and pushing on with Isaacs story, turns out my excitement would turn to disappointment. Now don’t get me wrong, Dead Space 2 isn’t a bad game by any means, it’s just a game that shows the first signs of EA getting their grubby little paws into a fairly original concept and washing it down into something they can sell more of.
Dead Space 1 would have so many tense moments where you were constantly on edge wondering when the next creature would come along. Sometimes that moment would never come, but it still didn’t stop me from anticipating a scare at every turn, and sometimes it’s the anticipation that’s scarier than the scare itself.
Dead Space 2 on the other hand just felt like jump scare after jump scare. “Monster Cabinets” (holes that monsters come out of, where there is no conceivable way in which the monster could have stayed in that hole for months on end.) are a plenty in this game, and come very fast and hard. You rarely get a chance to sit down and think. And that’s the problem; with scary games, it’s your own mind that’s your enemy, not the actual monster on the screen. It’s your paranoia that something could happen that makes you scared. It’s the isolation, the sense of frailty that makes you more scared. And that’s where I feel Dead Space 2 let me down. It concentrated too much on the image of horror, rather than the thought.
Pros:
- Great Graphics
- Gameplay has definitely improved
- Isaacs personality definitely adds to the game/story
Cons:
- Creatures lack originality since first game
- Lack of atmosphere
Overall I would gladly say that anyone who was a fan of the first should definitely play this one, if not just for the continuation of the story. I enjoyed it, but wouldn’t play it again.
3/5
