Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2
The team at EA's Visceral Games ramp up the action without straying too far from the scares for this breathtaking sequel to their 2008 horror shooter.
When Dead Space first arrived on the scene in 2008, it caught a lot of people by surprise. It's fair to say that there really wasn't much new about it, what with concepts borrowed from a number of iconic game and film franchises, and yet Visceral Games blended all those known elements together to produce a slick, atmospheric horror experience that somehow felt
not only different, but refreshingly new.
It's safe to say that the ending to the first game didn't leave a huge amount for protagonist Isaac Clarke's second outing to pick up from: without giving too much away, Clarke escaped the USG Ishimura leaving very little behind on either side of the fence. So where do we find our hero at the outset of Dead Space 2 ? Another outbreak of the hideous parasitic Necromorphs seemed unavoidable, but Visceral dodges the easy “another ship, another outbreak” route in favour of a story set inside a mining colony known as Titan Station, set into the remnants of Saturn's largest moon. After all, considering what happened on the Ishimura , wouldn't Clarke take severe measures to avoid such situations in the future?
And with good reason: for all his alien-slaying heroics in the first game, Isaac is still an engineer at heart. And after all that he went through, it's unsurprising to find him in a slightly less-than-perfect state of mind as the opening sequences unfold. Indeed the game begins with Isaac wrapped in a straitjacket and with no clear memories of the three years which have passed since the Ishimura incident. Before you have time to comprehend your surroundings, however, you are thrust headfirst into the action: the Necromorphs have arrived on cue and Clarke's only option, weaponless and bound as he is, is to get as far away from there as quickly as possible.
Once you're safe, the game begins to fill you in. slowly drip feeding you information: A video message here, a crazed inmate there, a message scrawled on the wall... you soon start to build up a picture of the therapy being undertaken by Isaac. Quickly enough, you come across a flashlight, given to you in a distressing sequence which both sets the tone perfectly, and also raises several key questions. This is followed shortly by the old faithful plasma cutter, making a welcome return – and with some plausible context as to its presence in this environment. Soon afterwards, Isaac is contacted by someone who claims to be out to help him.
This provides the perfect opportunity to note one of the first major changes into this new instalment – a face and voice for the formerly silent protagonist. He may resemble the close-cut marine at first, but closer inspection reveals Clarke to be a slightly older man than your average videogame hero. That said, his character for the most part is fairly unexciting, but it's certainly nice to have some sense of conversation between characters, given the first game's feel of a man who silently follows all orders with neither question nor comment. Without getting into details, the people you spend the most time talking to develop into reasonable characters, with Ellie in particular coming across as a likeable individual. Stross, another of the medical patients at the sprawl, is probably the standout character – a disturbed, panicked man whom Isaac has to ally with while enduring his frantic nature and eerie instructions – which develop nicely into a key theme through the latter parts of the game.
Titan Station, known as “The Sprawl”, is a fully-functioning city, and as such provides a much richer variety of environments than the first game's offering. Most of the corridors on the Ishimura looked pretty much the same as one another, but the views on offer here range from churches to schools, and there is a good balance between the tight corridors familiar from the first Dead Space and wider, more open environments. And although you'll revisit the occasional corridor, it's usually just for a few brief moments to reach a part you couldn't before. And in cases where you have to go somewhere twice, the game is fantastic at keeping you on your toes by mixing up the pace. Indeed, one chapter later into the game is set in a location you have already spent a good amount of time in, and the whole section is a fantastic example of the tension-building Dead Space 2 excels at. For all the jump-scares which are thrown at you (monsters sneaking up from behind, monsters bursting out of doorways and vents, and so on), it's the quiet moments which are often the most chilling, and Visceral does a fantastic job of holding back just enough to keep you on edge without ever becoming complacent.
This is in no small part thanks to the fantastic atmosphere crafted by the lighting and sound design. The sound in particular was something which stood out in the first Dead Space as a key reason for its success: slow build-ups of tension-inducing music (leading often to nothing), creaks and crunches which had you questioning their origins, screeches and moans from the Necromorphs – you name it, Dead Space did it. And the sequel certainly lives up to its predecessor, with some fantastic sound production which keeps you constantly on edge, so much so that you'll be glad when the beasties do show up, just so you can get it over and done with.
Speaking of fights, these remain as crisp and satisfying as ever – all the little touches such as the quick draw time of weapons, the ability to move and shoot simultaneously, and being able to reload your gun while running all add up to make for a combat system which feels as though it was designed to make your job of blowing Necromorphs limb from limb that little bit more bearable. And it needs to be, because the enemies in Dead Space 2 , when they do arrive, come thick and fast. Yet the combat retains a sense of logic, favouring careful precision and thought over blind spraying. Pick your shots carefully and you can take out limbs quickly and with minimal ammo usage, either killing your target outright or bringing them to the ground long enough to put a big footprint across their backs. The stomp remains a key part of Isaac's arsenal, and is rendered even more satisfying this time around by his vocal grunts and outbursts as he tramples every limb from the grounded freaks. Not only is it immensely satisfying, but there is often a real sense that every round saved could be valuable later.
Dead Space 2 feels like a “horror shooter” first, and “survival horror” second. As such, you will usually find sufficient ammunition through the levels to keep you going, as long as you aren't too wasteful. Play on easy and the amount you find ramps up enough that you will never be short of spare rounds, but at harder difficulty levels you will definitely need to make as much use of mêlée attacks and your environment. Thankfully, the Kinesis ability from the first game returns, allowing you to pick up stray poles (or even the limbs of dead Necromorphs) and use them to spear your onrushing foes. And if it still all feels to simple, Visceral have offered up a “Hardcore” mode, in which death returns you to your last save point – which doesn't seem like too much of an issue until you are told you can only save three times throughout the whole campaign. It's an experience most people will steer well clear of, but one offering a challenge which seasoned veterans will no doubt relish.
A few of the encounters in the game feel a little too challenging compared to the parts around them, but they certainly don't detract from the experience. New varieties of Necromorph are usually encountered through specific set-pieces which see you face off against one or two of them, allowing you to work out a good method to approach each enemy before you begin to see them more regularly.
Indeed set-pieces are a key part of the experience, and there are certainly several which match the intensity of being dragged through a corridor by the leg in the first Dead Space (including a sly nod to the incident in question), and most of which wouldn't feel out of place among Uncharted 2 's finer moments. That said, Visceral have done a good job of interspersing these moments so that they don't crop up too often, although the times when they do will no doubt be some of the most memorable you will spend in the Sprawl. One moment late in the game, which I won't spoil except to say that it gave off a strong Saw vibe, had me wanting nothing more than to look away from the screen and yet kept my vision glued to the action throughout. As someone who is prone to cover my eyes at the first sign of anything painful-looking, that's a phenomenal achievement.
The set-pieces in Dead Space 2 aren't the only thing which will feel familiar to those who spent time with Nathan Drake's last outing. Removing the end-of-chapter tram rides in favour of a continuous progression with chapter titles fading in across the screen as seen in Uncharted makes for a much more streamlined experience, and it's a design decision that certainly helps keep you immersed in the experience. Adding to this is the lack of a traditional HUD, with all the information you need displayed in context, such as Isaac's health displayed down the spine of his suit. It's a fantastic design touch, and one which feels easier to use than in the first game, especially when navigating the inventory menus. The complicated map of old is gone, but in its place Clarke can now use his locator (activated by clicking in the right stick) to see the quickest path to his next mission objective, or to the nearest shop, workbench, or save station. It's a nice touch which keeps you from getting lost at any point in the aftermath of a hectic encounter.
Also making a return from the previous instalment comes the zero-gravity sections, although they are handled quite differently this time around. Rather than simply jumping from wall to wall, Clarke's suit now comes equipped with thrusters, allowing him to manoeuvre gently across the room. It's all handled very nicely, and controls surprisingly intuitively, making for another nice change in pace from blasting everything you come across to smithereens.
The weapons themselves feel satisfying, with a number returning from the previous game alongside a few new offerings. Each comes equipped with both a primary and secondary fire mode, and there's certainly a good number of ways you can customise your loadout to suit your preferred play style. From the aforementioned plasma cutter to the spike-firing Javelin gun, there is a lot on offer here to keep you interested. Power nodes return too, allowing you to upgrade your suit and arsenal as you see fit to help you along the way. The only slight niggle with this system is that a complete respec (returning all your used nodes to you) costs five nodes to use, which feels so crippling that it seems better to struggle on, although this does force careful consideration of how to spend those precious nodes. You certainly won't be able to get everything maxed out in your first run through the game, but Dead Space 2 comes equipped with a New Game Plus mode which allows you to carry all of your previous gear onto a second run. And you will almost certainly want a second run. Coming to the end of the roughly 12-hour campaign, it's very tempting to jump straight back in again because you just won't want to leave the beauty and thrill of the Sprawl behind.
Dead Space 2 comes equipped with the now seemingly unavoidable “tacked-on” multiplayer aspect – however, the multiplayer in question does at least feel genuinely enjoyable. Taking cues from games such as Left 4 Dead , teams of four are pitted against one another in an asynchronous humans-versus-aliens objective mode, with the humans needing to work together to complete a series of tasks, while the Necromorphs do everything in their power to stop them. For the most part this involves throwing bodies repeatedly at the other side, although there is incentive given not to simply rush back into the action. Not only is a coordinated attack far more likely to be successful, but the longer you wait to respawn, the more of the four classes become available to you. Jump immediately back in and you'll be stuck as one of the Pack, a quick but fragile close-combat fighter. Wait longer and you could spawn in as a spitter, giving you projectiles to rival those of the human team.
That isn't all the Necromorphs have up their sleeve, however. They may be the more fragile side, but they come with a couple of other cunning tricks, like being able to see where the human team are even through walls, and being able to enter the fray from any of the many grates and vents littered throughout the area. This makes it easy to spot and blindside any stragglers who get separated from their team. As such, playing as the humans can feel difficult at first, but with their high firepower and range, a co-ordinated team can often navigate the scenarios fairly comfortably. The multiplayer only has five maps on offer for now though, so the experience becomes a little repetitive after a few hours, and even the experience-based levelling system is unlikely to keep you held in for much longer. That said, it's certainly fun while it lasts.
Also of note is that the Playstation 3 version has a “limited edition” release which comes with a free download of Move-enabled Wii shooter Dead Space Extraction . It's far from a deal-clincher, but it's something which gives fans of the fiction a little extra background to help fill in the gap, and it may be enough to swing your vote when deciding which system to pick up the game for.
Overall, Dead Space 2 makes enough key changes to build on the original, and although it should perhaps be seen as less of a “survival” horror and more an “action” one, it stands out as quite possibly the best example of its genre so far available on the current generation of systems.
