Review: Dead Space 2
For my money, you really can’t do the horror genre better than putting the setting in space. Combine the traditional fear of, you know, psycopaths/monsters/aliens wishing ill upon you with a foreboding sense of loneliness and claustrophobia that only the infinity of space can instill, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for fright. Needless to say, I’m a big fan of the movie Event Horizon.
This theme manages to work supremely well in the genre of survival horror, and Dead Space 2, EA and Visceral Game’s latest work, takes this fact and runs hard with it. With a combination of smooth, beautiful visuals and sounds, satisfying shooting mechanics, disturbing body horror, and a constant phobic sense of anxiety and dread that really only compounds the further you play, it’s safe to say that Dead Space 2 is pretty damned good.
You reprise the role of Isaac Clarke, everyone’s favourite engineer-turned-emergency-surgeon, and it’s been three years since the events of the original Dead Space. Clarke hasn’t had a good time in that time; he subsequently lost his mind, and has wound up in an insane asylum on a research station located at the Saturn moon of Titan, with no recollection of the events between his adventures in the first game up to Dead Space 2’s introduction.
There are a number of settings in Dead Space 2 that prove to be almost hauntingly beautiful
And, as luck would have it, Clarke isn’t exactly waking up to the most hospitable of situations, what with the entire station coming under attack from everyone’s favourite parasitic nightmare, the necromorphs. Dead Space 2’s story is the very definition of a “cold start”, where you’re essentially thrown into hell and have to put the pieces back together of what exactly is going on while you go, and in this case it works to Dead Space 2’s benefit. I found myself more and more drawn into the game with each unraveled question, and felt compelled to continue so that I could find out what was going to be revealed next.
It warrants discussing how incredible this game looks, especially with consideration to the aliens you encounter. They look gross, disgusting, and when they leap out at you from the dark? Stark-fucking-terrifying. An early moment within Dead Space 2 has you watch, up close and personal, a man get his head bored into by an alien creature, who then sprouts claws and scythes and other unpleasantries from his body before attacking you. It’s a truly disturbing scene, one which manages to set the tone for the entire game exquisitely. Needless to say, this game is not for the squeamish.
May I repeat: NOT for the squeamish
What truly manages to set the scene, however, is Dead Space 2’s sound design. Everything from the creaks of the facility to the unearthly moans of some terrifying creature hunting you sounds pitch-perfect, and serves to heighten the atmosphere exponentially.
If you’ve played the original Dead Space then you already have the basic mechanics down for the sequel. You explore your way through dimly-lit corridors, only to be beset by terrifying creatures the likes of which would make John Carpenter blush, who you thusly have to kill by shooting off their various limbs. The ever-quotable phrase “strategic dismemberment” is most definitely still in play in Dead Space 2.
The other standouts from the original, such as the real-time user interface and unobtrusive HUD also make a comeback, which help in ensuring that there aren’t any menus cluttering up the screen and pulling the player out of the game.
This looks like it’s going to end badly for everybody
Where Dead Space 2 truly shines is in its ability to set the player up in a number of unique and incredible scenarios. I believe the marketing term is “water-cooler moments”, and Dead Space 2 has ‘em in spades. Whether you’re fighting hordes of monstrosities while on top of a giant mining drill, free-jumping off a platform in lower orbit to a building a couple kilometres below, or doing things with needles that almost made me physically ill, there are a multitude of moments in-game that’ll stick in your mind.
In fairness to having this be a “complete” review, I’m honour-bound to discuss the fact that, yes, Dead Space 2 has a multiplayer component. And while I am dead-set against the idea that all AAA games in this day and age need a multiplayer component, it’s actually not that bad. It’s not about to pull anybody away from their Call of Duty marathons, but it’s got charm.
You play as either a group of humans trying to acheive a number of objectives, or a group of necromorphs trying to, well, stop them. It’s fun to try and play out the various necromorph types, but personally I found myself getting tired of the whole conceit rather quickly, though to be fair multiplayer generally isn’t my bag. I guess it’s there if you want it, though.
Yes, that is a terrifying zombie-child trying to eat your face, and yes the implications of such things are best not to dwell upon
Dead Space 2’s ability to seamlessly meld moments of anxiety and terror with balls-out, bust-up action is really something to behold. Combine that with how deeply satisfying it is to shoot the razor-limbed appendages off of some snarling nightmare and I can say without reservation that this game is a “get”.
It’s out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, as well as the PC, with the graphics being generally comparable for all three (though the PC, of course, looks slightly better). As well if you buy the PS3 edition it also comes with Dead Space Extraction, the previously Wii-only rail shooter. But regardless of what platform you’re buying for, if you have any interest at all in survival horror, or are just intrigued by the term “strategic dismemberment”, then you need to pick up Dead Space 2.
Score:
