Nukezilla Review: Dead Space 2 (360)

Visceral Games (or EA Redwood Shores as I know them) had a very difficult task on their plate in following up on Dead Space. First off, despite earning oodles of critical and word of mouth praise, the first game was a slow seller. Secondly, EA suffered from some very public staff losses following the departure of key upper level producers which left many fans worried that the remaining creators might not be up to the task of crafting a worthy sequel. I had a lot of trepidation that the studio could bring out the best elements from the original (nail biting horror sci-fi scares and rock solid third person shooter controls) and still bring something new and compelling to the table. Boy, did they ever.

Dead Space ended on a rote horror cliffhanger where you were left to ponder the fate of our silent protagonist, Issac Clarke. Right from the start of Dead Space 2 we find out Issac is not just living, but he’s suffering through painful hallucinations and trying to work it out via the talking cure. That’s right, Issac speaks! The opening chapter is phenomenal for many reasons, but foremost in how it expertly sets up nearly all of the most critical themes and thrills that will last throughout the rest of your romp through the Sprawl.

This time around the game’s setting isn’t an alien infested mining vessel, but rather an alien infested space station. Aptly titled the Sprawl, the station is host to massive residential, administrative, mining and religious facilities. Each chapter focuses on one of these facets of the location, which would probably feel more contrived if the objectives were related to each location. Instead, it’s clear from the start that Issac only has one objective: get rid of the alien menace and get off the Sprawl alive.

Thankfully the game’s arsenal has been supplemented with some wonderful new tools of dismemberment. My personal favorite is the detonator mines (think Half-Life 1‘s laser trip mines). As boring as they sound, setting traps for the lurking, jumping, vomiting, dragging horrors that stalk the corridors of the station adds a minor sense of empowerment to an otherwise tense and frightening experience.

Maybe it’s the kind of person I am, but Dead Space 2 freaks me the hell out. Yes, as you upgrade your equipment and weapons via power nodes you feel more powerful and more able to handle each combat encounter. However, there’s something wholly terrifying about looking down long corridors or twisting hallways with lights flickering on and off while you hear the sounds of unidentifiable creatures moaning off in the distance or scratching their way though the air ducts above your head. For the record, I did play this only at night with the lights off and with a pair of headphones cranked up for maximum effect.

There’s one new enemy that completely changes the combat dynamics of the game. I won’t spoil you with specifics, but suffice it to say, this enemy is easily the best addition to the game. I found myself playing a taught game of cat and mouse with these clever girls (play it and you’ll get the reference) at each encounter. If Visceral wants to continue to develop on the menagerie for the inevitable sequel, they’d do well to focus on this kind of innovation and less on the horrible abominations that are the exploding necro-babies.

As I mentioned earlier, Visceral have made serious attempts to flesh Issac’s character out this time. He’s brought some personal demons with him from his time on the Ishimura. This emphasis on his mental stability and some interesting parallels with another clearly insane character you meet make you wonder if all of what Issac sees is real or not and how that might change your opinion of his actions.

In addition to the hordes of reanimated dead, he’s also fighting human antagonists, though mostly through dialog over a com channel and only occasionally in person. When Issac is face-to-face with someone, his helmet retracts into the neck of the suit giving us a chance to watch him relate to others. While the facial animation on display isn’t on the same level as say, Uncharted 2, this definitely helps humanize Issac and start building a more complex character than the single dimensional fix-it or kill-it man from DS1.

With all of his demonstrated fragility, Issac’s internal and external conflicts further add to the confusion about him, his role in the story and the intentions of his supporting cast. What you’re left with is a very simple story that takes a multitude of inconsequential twists and turns. Each story beat is built up to feel more significant than they ultimately resolve to. The game is better off in having all of this plot contained within, but at no point does it all click and provide you with a much needed “ah-HA!” moment that will make all of the convolutions worthwhile.

One clear cut improvement from DS1 is how they’ve handled the “New Game +” features. Once you complete the single player story you will be able to carry all of your inventory and upgrades into a new playthrough on the first four difficulties (the final difficulty – Hard Core – is for sadists only, no thanks). I started on Zealot (the highest initial difficulty) being a Dead Space aficionado and skilled player, but found it was taking me much too long to progress. I switched to Normal about half of the way through. I still faced challenging sections, especially the last three chapters, but I was happy with the difficulty. Having played it through once I’m ready to begin my next complete pass of the game, this time on Zealot, but of course with the benefit of an entire game’s worth of upgraded hardware.

If you were wondering why I haven’t mentioned the game’s multiplayer mode, it’s because it is completely forgettable. I’m pained to see such a top tier game with an exceptional single player mode suffer such an ill conceived and tacked on multiplayer component.

The concept here is team based combat where one side plays as a security team, able to use health packs and weild a selection of weapons against a much larger team of necromorphs. As a necromorph player you can select the class type, ranging from the child like “Pack” (as in The Pack) to the aptly titled Spitter. Necromorphs are relatively weak, but spawn much faster and are tasked with keeping the humans from completing a handful of simple objectives. This multiplayer might work if you have a group of friends who all want to go online as a team, but jumping online against random opponents reduces the gameplay to a simple deathmatch where none of the human players I came across paid attention to completing objectives and the necromorphs rarely coordinated their attacks.

If multiplayer is a required component of the Dead Space franchise going forward, I’d suggest a separate co-op campaign, similar to Splinter Cell: Conviction or Portal 2. While I agree that most of the value in a survival horror type game are derived from isolation and feeling underpowered, a co-operative campaign with a strong story, characters and unique gameplay opportunities would add significant value.

While the multiplayer offering was sub par, I still am left with a very high opinion of Dead Space 2. I’m eager to step back into the grav-boots of everyone’s favorite space engineer for a more difficult single player run through. I’m sure the jump out of your skin moments will be deadened by experience, thankfully the gun-play, environments and enemy encounters are strong enough to pull me back into space.