Here's what you need to know; three years after escaping the USG Ishimura and destroying the Marker, Isaac Clarke wakes to find himself on the Sprawl, a massive space station orbiting Saturn in the midst of new Necromorph outbreak, As the station falls apart around him, it is clear that Isaac's job isn't finished yet, and that the Marker he destroyed isn't yet finished with him. With the Sprawl swarming with a fresh batch of even scarier Necromorphs, Isaac's fight begins again, only this time against not just the monsters on the station, but the monsters inside his own head.
As I made clear in my Dead Space review, I adore this franchise, and upon replaying Dead Space for the first time in years, that adoration has returned. But I debated for a while about reviewing Dead Space 2 or not, wondering if I should save it for next Halloween, but by the fourth or fifth hour as my dormant love for Dead Space reached new heights, it dawned on me that I probably wouldn't be able to wait another year, so here we are, reviewing one of the best video game sequels and one of my all-time favourite games, Dead Space 2.
Dead Space 2 does not open with a bang, not at first anyway, instead it opens with a glimpse into Isaac's head as he is interviewed about his experience on the Ishimura. In Dead Space 2, Isaac is no longer a silent protagonist and undergoes a character arc throughout the game, so it's very fitting and very humanising to reintroduce him at his lowest low; tied up in a straitjacket and suffering constant nightmares and hallucinations about the Marker and Nicole who, in case you somehow don't know, was dead from the beginning. Don't think that means Dead Space 2 is slow to start though, because after that little bit of catch up, he gets woken up by some poor guy who never gets the chance to tell him what's going on before being forehead raped by and infector, turning into a Necromorph right before our eyes. What ensues is yet another nail biting chase sequence as Isaac once again runs for his life, Necromorphs closing in from practically every direction. This introduction isn't quite as intriguing or panic educing as the intro to the first game, but it does take its time a bit more than the first game which is good, it actually tries to build a bit of suspense, while also letting you get to grips with the mechanics. It takes a surprisingly long time for Isaac to get his hands on a weapon, with Isaac spending the first ten minutes or so literally unarmed before getting his hands on a kinesis module and eventually my baby, the Plasma Cutter. All this while you're walking around this spooky space hospital in the middle of a Necromorph outbreak, which is as violent and creepy as it sounds, it's good stuff.
The first Dead Space's story was not the star of the show in that game, it wasn't a bad story, but it took a back seat to world building and atmosphere. Dead Space 2 on the other hand has a very prominent story and it's actually a really good one. Isaac Clarke's newfound voice gives the game a chance to develop him a lot more, and it does exactly that. Isaac starts the game as a broken man, clearly having been affected by the shit that happened in the first game, as well as suffering from the effects of his exposure to the Marker which tortures him in the form of an uncanny, distorted ghost of his dead girlfriend. His curse hasn't made him any less efficient though as he manages to survive the initial outbreak and builds a Plasma Cutter, and when told to aim for the limbs, he says he's had a lot of practice, badass, total badass. Isaac Clarke is a very compelling hero in Dead Space 2, he is a man on a very simple mission; find the source of the Necromorph outbreak and destroy it, and on the way he makes friends and enemies, narrowly avoids a horrific death countless times, and battles his way to the source which, unsurprisingly, is a Marker. This is no ordinary Marker though as to my delight, Dead Space 2 digs even deeper into the lore of the series and how the Markers work. We'll get to that, but back to Isaac, it's easy to say that he's just a normal guy, he was just some guy in the first game, but in Dead Space 2, that's not entirely the case because Isaac Clarke is basically Ellen Ripley.
The engineer is dead and in his place is a monster hunter, one who knows his enemies well and will take them all on, no matter how much they scare him, I'm telling you, total badass. The game explores Isaac's mind in a very compelling way as the effects of the Marker worsen, triggering violent hallucinations that force him to confront his guilt of not being able to save Nicole. This personalises Isaac's quest as he's not doing it because he's a hero, he's doing it because he feels it's his duty and his way of finding peace. This is where the friends he makes on his quest come in, Stross and Ellie. Stross is an interesting fellow; having also been exposed to the Marker and having been left a twitchy, delusional mess who mumbles constantly about "the steps." Stross is, in many ways, the logical extreme of Isaac, as he talks to his visions and becomes more and more violent and psychotic, ultimately losing any focus he had on stopping the Marker and becoming another mindless victim of it. On the other end of the spectrum is Ellie, a survivor Isaac encounters and in whom he sees a chance at redemption. These two make a really nice contrast and are reflections of Isaac's struggle; the former being what happens if Isaac fails, the latter being the hope that he succeeds and the chance that he can save someone this time. And these are really likable characters too, it's fun to watch Stross go from awkward and pitiful to more dangerous and threatening as his mental state worsens, while Isaac and Ellie start to form a really sweet friendship as Ellie warms to him and starts to trust him.
And should you be one of those types who get a bit squeamish at that thought of a woman needing rescue, don't worry, because the first time you meet Ellie, she's ripping apart Necromorphs with a Plasma Cutter, and her first interaction with Isaac is her threatening to kill him if he tries to attack her. The game has other characters but these are the stronger offerings, because the rest of the cast isn't quite as strong. Early on Isaac is in contact with Daina, a Unitologist telling Isaac what he wants to hear to get what she wants. All the while he is on the run from Tiedemann, the director of Titan Station and the game's human antagonist who wants Isaac dead for the threat he poses to Earthgov's Marker building operations. Tiedemann isn't the strongest antagonist, only infrequently video-calling Isaac to tell him the usual about him not allowing him to escape and not getting in the way of his plan. The other antagonist is the Marker, presenting itself to Isaac as a hallucination of Nicole, and this is a little stronger, but not much. This subplot hinges on the relationship Isaac had with Nicole and the guilt and responsibility he feels for her death and while the latter is strong, the former is not. The weak point here is that we don't really know who Nicole is, Isaac eventually confesses that his clinging to her memory is out of fear that if he lets go, he'll have nothing left, but their relationship was never really explored in the first Dead Space and it's not really explored in this one either. Nicole is ultimately a manifestation of the Marker and a reminder of Isaac's guilt, making her a good plot device in his struggle against the Marker and his redemption with Ellie, but that's all she is, a plot device as their relationship just isn't that deep or compelling.
And then there's the Marker itself, which you don't see until the game's final moments this time, but Dead Space 2 takes the groundwork of what made the Marker so intriguing and scary in the first game and makes it even better. Dead Space 2's Marker is a full-on antagonist this time, both in its manipulation of Isaac through Nicole and through audio and text logs that detail its creation. Dead Space 2 portrays the Marker not just as a glowing lump of bad juju, but as a thinking entity with its own goals and plans, and Dead Space 2 further expands the lore of the series with Convergence, which isn't fully explained until Dead Space 3, but like the first game, Dead Space 2 gives you enough to keep you hungry without taking the piss. Dead Space 2 also gives you a reason for Earthgov wanting to build Markers, which you'd think they wouldn't after the events of the first game, and in a universe where humanity is resorting to mining entire planets to sustain itself, the Marker's use as a form of energy makes just enough sense, while further demonstrating the manipulative power of the Marker. Dead Space 2 also provides more context to the recurring line, "make us whole," which is said constantly and is scribbled on the walls all over the Sprawl. It refers to the Convergence, a divine event in Unitology which unifies its followers in body and mind, which sounds like typical religious doctrine until you factor in the Necromorphs, then it takes on a whole new dimension of creepy, playing deviously with Dead Space's knack for body horror.
Not that there was anything wrong with Dead Space's story, but the sequel is truly on another level; it has its flaws like a weak human antagonist and underdeveloped relationship between Isaac and Nicole, but I still love this story and the characters that are strong are really strong. But like the first game, Dead Space 2 is a powerhouse in a few other areas; worldbuilding and presentation. Dead Space 2 leaves the dingy, claustrophobic, industrial wreck of the Ishimura behind and this time plants you on Titan Station, a sprawling (get it) space station built out of the remains of Titan, orbiting Saturn. And a creepy old mining ship this isn't, it's a shiny, high tech, futuristic civilian station with hospitals, school, shops and churches. Titan Station feels every bit as alive as the Ishimura thanks to all those little details that it doesn't need, but still has. From the returning audio and text logs you can find to details like there being balloons and toys in the hospital in the game's opening, or drawings of "our home" in the school, which are doodles the kids drew of Titan Station. You'll visit the station's civilian quarters and wander through small but decently comfy looking apartments, which is a massive improvement from the beehive bunks of the Ishimura, and from there you'll visit a retail plaza lined with shops and services, as well as train system that links the various areas of the Sprawl. The Sprawl is about as believable as I think a civilian space station could be, while it's cleaner and shinier, it's no less functional than the Ishimura as everywhere you visit has a clear and believable purpose; the hospital looks like a hospital, the school looks like a school and the Church looks like a church.
The entire game isn't shiny and futuristic though as you'll spend a lot of time in the bowels of the station, back in those familiar dark, dingy halls with metal walls, or working around massive machines that could crush you like a bug, and the game has a good balance between the two aesthetics. You have the claustrophobic, ominous mines beneath the spotless, sterile and futuristic Government Sector, or the almost inviting and very grand halls of the Church of Unitology hiding the indoctrination centres and the frozen crypt with walls lined with ice-covered glass coffins. Every area you explore in Dead Space 2 is a joy, each twisted in a very Dead Space way; like a school you explore at one point with slightly off, overly bright lights and colours and an absolute creepfest of a soundtrack. A space pre-school that was probably already a little creepy before it was infested with exploding babies and the Pack, but we'll get to them. The aforementioned Church of Unitology is similarly awesome and similarly creepy, but every bit as fun to explore. At one point you'll visit the station's solar array, which is one of the more industrial areas, with flimsy sheets of glass between you and the vacuum of space and curving hallways with motion sensitive lights and hidden mines. But there is one area in Dead Space 2 that takes the cake, both in coolness and in creepiness, and that's the Ishimura. Oh yeah, at one point in the game, Isaac's solution to the latest problem the crew face is to power up the gravity tethers on the Ishimura, which for god knows what reason is docked on the Sprawl.
This one level is probably creepier than the entire rest of the game combined, as you explore the decks of the ship, completely unchanged from the first game, save for the sheets of plastic and red tape. The first time I played this sequence when playing for this review, it was the most intense sequence of the game yet, and not until the final moments of the game did that intensity get topped. You will be exploring familiar areas of the ship like the flight lounge, the medical and engineering decks and the bridge, all of which is completely unchanged in its layout; you'll get on that lift from the start of the first game, then walk through the room where you found the Plasma Cutter, you'll pass through the room you first met the Hunter in, as well as the room where you froze it, and you'll walk the length of the ship under the tramline. The Ishimura is also one of the most suspenseful areas of the game as it take a while for any Necromorphs to even show up, for what feels like hours, you'll just be exploring the ship, waiting for them to appear. You'll find audio logs of people researching the goop on the ship, which they're horrified to learn is human tissue, or logs from one of the clean-up crew who requests a transfer because he's convinced the ship is cursed. This level is just awesome, it's easily my favourite sequence in the game and I have a big smile on my face when Isaac ascends that service lift into the Ishimura's shuttle hanger.
Part of the reason the Ishimura sequence in Dead Space 2 is so effective is undeniably the novelty of the setting, but the sequence's initial absence of enemies goes a long way to letting that setting speak for itself, and it's one of the most suspenseful stretches in the game. Because like the first game, Dead Space 2's horror is a little inconsistent, but in a good way. The game has an amazing atmosphere when nothing's happening; dark, gore covered hallways and rooms, the distant sounds of screams and roars echoing through, it's brilliant. Then a Necromorph will appear and just like in the first game, everything gets super loud and over the top, loud music and Necromorph screaming will instantly be assaulting your ears. And just like in the first game, this happens very quickly, often in the form of a jumpscare as a Necromorph bursts through a nearby wall or door. But just like in the first game, these jumpscares never bothered me, they either got me or made me laugh. Dead Space 2 has considerably more Necromorphs than the first, and these sequences get even more ridiculous in this game as a result. But again like the first game, there are some really effective moments in Dead Space 2, like the school and the Ishimura, and while the Sprawl is a less creepy setting overall, the game hasn't lost any of that haunted house vibe, it's great. However, I do think the Ishimura was creepier, which is probably down to it being a dingy old mining ship, as opposed to a more modern and clean civilian station, that might just be down to preference.
But where would this horror game be without some monsters and unsurprisingly, Dead Space 2 has some pretty awesome monsters. The Necromorphs return from the first game and among them are some new and freaky forms. The Slashers, Leapers, Lurkers, Pregnants and alike all return and are mostly unchanged, but Dead Space 2 introduces some new monsters like the Pack, infected children that swarm you in groups and the Crawlers, infected baby suicide bombers that explode if they get close enough. You encounter both of these Necromorphs in the school, what a surprise, and also what a surprise, they are horrible, but they're both pretty squishy enemies that pose more of a threat in groups or with other enemy types than on their own. The Puker is a monster with an obvious function, to puke on you, covering you in acid that slows you down and melts your health bar. The Hunter is gone but not really, replaced by the Ubermorph which is basically the same but somehow even more intimidating and panic educing in yours truly, seriously, fuck regenerators. And one particularly cool new enemy type is the Stalkers and if you've seen Jurassic Park, these guys will be familiar to you. They hunt in packs but unlike the Pack who swarm you, the Stalkers use tactics; calling out to distract you while another goes for the attack, scampering around to confuse you and hit you from multiple sides, as well as to close the gap before charging at you.
These guys just make me smile, it's easy to tell when you're in Stalker territory and they strike a perfect balance of being unsettling and cool, there's just something creepy about how they poke their heads out and look at you. In addition to the Brute, the game also introduces the Tripod, a similar mini-boss type enemy that's very annoying to fight with its hopping around and spindly, harder to hit limbs. But the Tripods being annoying doesn't really detract from what is yet another really good enemy line up, Dead Space 2's Necromorphs are every bit as gross, mean and awesome as they were before, but there is one area where the game makes a change for the worse and that's the final boss. In the first Dead Space, you go down to the planet and fight the Hive Mind, a building sized monster that emerges from the planet's core, and in Dead space 2 you go to the Government sector and fight the Marker. That's right, the game's final boss is an inanimate stone, a sentient, evil stone, mind you, but still a stone. Except it gets worse as to hurt the Marker, Isaac has to kill the form it has taken inside his head, did I mention that the fight takes place entirely inside Isaac's head. It's a very thematic fight, don't get me wrong, there's a lot to take away from it like Isaac finding peace and overcoming his guilt by literally killing it, over and over again, and killing himself if it so much as touches him, but it's certainly less spectacular than a giant monster and a falling continent.
But whether you're shooting at a giant monster or a bad drug trip, one other thing that wasn't lost was the game's fantastic weapons and combat, so that's something. As with the first game, the bulk of Isaac's weapons are industrial tools, from the returning Line Gun, Ripper and Force Gun, to a devastating new Detonator that lets you place explosive traps, and a Javelin gun that lets you skewer Necromorphs to walls. Then there is the Plasma Cutter of course, the first gun in the game and easily the best, except now it's better because you can upgrade it to set enemies on fire, and even better still, the game also has the Plasma Cutter from the first game, which, while functionally identical to the Dead Space 2 Plasma Cutter, also makes it redundant because it's the Dead Space Plasma Cutter, fuck yes. Dead Space's only gun, the Pulse Rifle also returns and has a shiny new grenade launcher alt fire to replace whatever it had before, but now it's joined by the Seeker Rifle, a super accurate long range rifle that I barely used because why would I when I have a Line Gun. All of these weapons have alt fire modes like they did before; the Line Gun still shoots mines, the Plasma Cutter still rotates, and the Detonator has a very handy feature that lets you disarm the mines you place and pick them back up. Just like before as well, you upgrade your weapons and rig with Power nodes at the Bench and buy and sell shit from the Store, with only little changes like a better Store UI and the option to respec your upgrades.
Your rig is also mostly unchanged, your health is still displayed in your back, carrying on that unique and genius gimmick from Dead Space, you still have a Stasis module for environmental threats and Necromorphs, only now it recharges on its own and can be replenished with a button push just like health, making it a lot more practical to use. Kinesis is also a lot more practical now, with you being able to upgrade the damage it does and therefore, should you want to, pin a Necromorph to a wall with another Necromorph's or even its own arm *cackles maniacally.* Dead Space 2's changes are all little but serve to make the game more fun, another change is how the suits work; whereas in the first game suit upgrades gave you more inventory space and better armour, in this game, different suits give you different perks like damage buffs for certain weapons or Store discounts, letting you pick the suit that best fits your preferences or even just the coolest one if you don't care that much. But just like in the first game, you need to find schematics for everything before you can buy them, so there is still that element of exploration as you hunt for those schematics to get the next suit or weapon. One big change to the rig though is how it works in zero gravity, in the first game, you would have to jump from surface to surface, effectively making whatever surface you landed on the ground, it was fine but it was obviously clumsy. In Dead Space 2 however, you have full three-hundred-and-sixty degree movement in zero gravity environments, letting you fly around like Iron Man, an ability made less vomit educing by the option to reorient yourself with the ground at any time.
This is a big improvement from the first game, even if it gives you a bit more of a headache, and the game really has fun with it too, featuring several sections of solving puzzles and dodging deadly machinery in zero G, which is undeniably cool. This does come with a catch though, and it's good for me because Dead Space 2 gives you more air. One of my biggest anxieties in games and in the real world is working against a strict time limit and as such, the vacuum areas in the first game always made me hold my breath, which I'm sure was the idea. In this game though, there's one area where you have to take down a massive Necromorph zit that's throwing explosive squid things at you and then realign some big arse mirrors, and if this task was supposed to be stressful and intense, having a good three minutes worth of air and air refills everywhere didn't help that. In the first game, I wanted to get these sequences over with a quickly as possible but in Dead Space 2, I dawdled in these areas very often, flying around and soaking in the game's gorgeous visuals with a not very Dead Spacey feeling of freedom. It's a decent way of summarising the changes to Dead Space 2 though; it's smoother, more fun to play but less creepy and oppressive, it's bigger and better but not as scary, and do you know what, that's ok. It has its creepy moments still and the joy of cutting down its space zombies isn't lost at all, in fact it's stronger than ever, but it is worth it to go into the menus and set aiming to classic, just something I thought I'd bolt on at the end.
But We Never Expected This Many Bodies
When looked at purely as a horror game, Dead Space 2 is a downgrade from its predecessor; it has the same twisted and sadistic horror and atmosphere that made the first so memorable, as well as it's charmingly aggressive style, but the Ishimura level proves my point that something was lost in the jump from creepy old mining ship to shiny space station. But as a shooter and a piece of storytelling, Dead Space 2 blows its predecessor away, it tells a gripping and compelling story driven by the inner conflict of a broken man, it has memorable and likable characters and twists and turns that keep you firmly engaged in spite of its shortcomings, and to top it off, it has some utterly tasty world building, which I'm a sucker for. Mechanically, Dead Space 2 doesn't rewrite the script but if it isn't broke, don't fix it, because Dead Space's unique presentation and gameplay is on full display in the sequel. Dead Space 2 is an absolute blast from beginning to end and you already know what I'm going to say, it's an absolute must play.
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