Friday, March 13, 2015
Dead Space 2
Pros
- Fast paced, visceral bloody violence like the first game
- Controls are tightened and improved from the last game
- More weapons and upgrades
- Set on a massive space station, its environments are far more varied than the first game
- Crazy story that expands on the original
- Isaac finally talks
- Same integrated UI, "strategic dismemberment," and general polish from the first game
- Great graphics, horrifying enemies, and everything else combines to make quite the thrill ride
Cons
- Despite Isaac finally taking, he doesnt really say anything meaningful
- Game is very much more "action" than "horror."
- Some of the enemies and gory events are borderline crass
- Has a multiplayer mode that nobody plays, even though it isnt particularly awful
- Gets so over the top and unrealistic at times youll swear you are playing a Call of Duty game
- Only a handful of new enemies, with the basic staples being recycles from the first game
- Why are there so many closets for enemies to jump out of? And why would they wait in a boring closet, anyway, when they could just be running up and eating my face?
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| Isaacs back and ready to slice-n-dice. |
The Long
Its been often stated that if Dead Space is Ridley Scotts Alien, than Dead Space 2 is James Camerons Aliens. Its an adept analogy, as the Aliens movies are perhaps the best horror movies set in space, and the Dead Space games are the best horror games set in space. Like Alien, the first Dead Space was somewhat slow, put you on a single ship, and eased you into the horror elements before blowing you away. Dead Space 2 is Aliens, which was released with the tagline "This Time Its War." It is war, and Isaac is ready to blow some Necromorph scums arms, legs, and whatever other nasty things pop out of them off on his quest to get rid of the bastards once and for all.
Dead Space 2 is much more an action game than Dead Space, and is certainly less subtle. While Dead Space started with a slow build, where you crash-land on the spaceship and walk around in the dark for a while, Dead Space 2 starts with a dudes head exploding about two inches from your face before he turns into a bloodthirsty, violent Necromorph.
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| I wasnt kidding with that content warning |
From that point the game turns "on" and does not turn "off" again until the credits are rolling. Dead Space 2 is a good deal more an action game than the first Dead Space, and because of it a lot of the "horror" elements are gone. Dead Space was scary in the same ways the Silent Hill games are scary: during the quiet moments in the dark, as you collect your thoughts about what might be lurking out there in the dark, scared to continue forward. Dead Space 2 says "screw that, cut em up!" and sends you forward with a boatload of weapons to blast zombies to pieces. Which Im totally fine with. Unlike Resident Evil 5, which tried to blend action and horror and failed (mostly on the "action" side), Dead Space 2 accepts the fact that its action first, horror second and rolls with it. Which makes it work.
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| That isnt to say there arent some tense, shocking scenes in this game. And yes, screwing this up does exactly what you think it does. |
This is evidenced by the fact that the controls are much improved over the last game. While Dead Spaces gameplay was far from bad, it could be clunky at time. Isaac was wearing a heavy suit, which made him less versatile and speedy than say, Master Chief. In Dead Space 2 Isaac has a newer, lighter suit, and the gameplay changes respectively. Melee and stomping is better and faster. Isaac seems to move at a slightly better clip (though I still have to hold a button to run. Why? We have analog controls now, people.), the shooting seems tighter, and overall it just plays great. Id say after Gears of War, Dead Space 2 is probably the best controlled third-person shooter out there. Which is good, since you still have to be shooting with the precision of a surgeon in order to blast the limbs off the numerous types of Necromorphs that want to make you lunch. The zero-g controls have also been dramatically improved, letting you float around rather than leaping like a crazy person from platform to platform.
Most everything good has carried over from the first game. The "Hudless UI," where everything is displayed on Isaacs suit, is back in full force with a few subtle improvements that make reading his various meters easier. The graphics still look fantastic, with the enemies being horrible monstrosities, the environments being extremely detailed down to every splatter of crimson blood, and the effects being flashy and satisfying. Guns handle well (with a few newcomers like one that shoots javalins), though your original Plasma Cutter is still the best weapon in the game.
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| So whats new? Well, zombie kids for starters |
Visceral Games pretty much took everything about Dead Space and improved it. People complained because you spent the whole game on one ship, so they gave you a whole space station to explore. You go to various districts ranging from a residential area, a space-church, an elementary school, a biological lab, a computer mainframe, and more. You also spend a good deal of time back out in space, and these are some of the most awesome, gorgeous moments of the game. People complained because there wasnt enough enemies. So they added tons more: packs of zombie kids, a new type of zombie baby, a zombie that charges you like a velociraptor from Jurassic Park, a zombie that barfs acidic goo on you that slows you down, and more. People complained that most of the game was Isaac being bossed around, so they...actually that didnt change too much. But it does lead into another big change: Isaac actually talks in this game!
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| Silent protagonist no longer. |
Yep. Despite being mute in the first game, Isaac is chatty in this one (which makes it seem, in retrospect, that he was just giving everybody the silent treatment in game numero uno). This means he can decide things for himself and tell these things to other people, as well as have a deeper interaction with other characters and be more involved in the story. I think its an improvement story-wise, but character-wise Isaac just isnt very interesting. He switches between moping about his dead girlfriend to yelling cuss words at people he doesnt get along with, and there really isnt much variance. Hes also a cold-hard killer, doing some nasty things and making some tough decisions, but never really having a sort of personal reconciliation about it. Come on, dude. You cant get over your dead girlfriend, but you kill both zombies and people in this game, but you hardly bat an eye? Its like they gave you a voice just to push the story further, not develop your character...oh yeah, thats exactly why they did it. Hmm.
Thats fine, though, because I liked Dead Space 2s story. I mean, its not going to win a pulitzer or something, but like Mass Effect, Dead Space has a relatively deep mythology that has plenty of resources for mining. Think Im actually part of a bigger, living universe is a big step in immersing me in the game (and its clear they want me immersed, based on the HUDless UI and the fact that its a creepy horror game), and the story does that well enough. Theres also a rather sad moment (which the screenshot above depicts) that actually made me feel some genuine emotion, so kudos to you Dead Space 2. You did alright.
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| Now back to murderin |
There is very little about Dead Space 2 I didnt like. The graphics, sound, and voice acting are all exceptional. The shooting is fun and provides a great mix of tension and adrenaline pumping zombie blasting. The minimal puzzles are easy and non-frustrating, and the story wasnt world-shattering but it was still worth a run-through if you liked the first game. Dead Space 2 also had a rather crazy nod back to the first game about 2/3 of the way through, which is probably my single most favorite moment in the entire game. If you played the first game and loved it, prepare yourself for a treat.
Again, there isnt much I didnt like, but there were a few things. A few parts, especially the beginning, feel a lot like the first Dead Space. Your first weapon in the Plasma Cutter, everybody wont shut up about cutting off the baddies limbs, etc. Another problem was there never seemed to be enough stores. I kept filling up on health and ammo and wanting to dump it off, and in the first game the stores seemed well paced so that I wasnt throwing items away. In Dead Space 2, I kept having to leave presents behind, which made me sad. The infant baby enemies (a new enemy type) seemed really crass. I wont say they crossed a line or anything (I mean, come on, its a Dead Space game), but it seemed more like they were being tasteless to try and prove how "hardcore" they were, rather than actually provide genuine scares. The last thing is kind of a silly one: enemies seem to pop out of closets from everywhere. Yeah, its a genre staple but come on. I began to predict when enemies would pop out of walls or from the ceilings just because they use the exact same time-lull between incidents. Mix it up, guys.
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| Nothing bad happened here. Nope. |
The game also has a multiplayer mode that Im certain nobody played. I booted it up for about two matches: its essentially Left 4 Deads multiplayer mode but with Dead Space enemies instead of Left 4 Dead enemies. Which sounds fine in theory, sure, but again...nobody is playing it. It seemed like kind of a tacked on addition, and there is certainly a large disconnect between it and the single player story. Maybe next time a co-op mode would be a better idea? Just dont, for the love of all that is good, make your main game mandatory co-op. We all saw what happened to that other action-horror franchise when they did that.
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| Dead Space 2 is just a really, really solid game |
You really should try Dead Space 2 out if you are a fan of horror or action games in the slightest. Though you should play it after the first one; unlike many "second" games (like Gears of War 2) that make the first game look kind of pale in comparison, Dead Space was already on a platform so freaking high that Dead Space 2 just sort of stands alongside it rather than knocking it off. Both games are absolutely fantastic, and with a third one for sure on the way I really cant way to see how this all ends.
Steam sells this game frequently during sales for only $5 on computer, which also has better graphics. On a console you are looking anywhere from $20-30, which is still a very fair price. Even though this game is much more about action than horror than the first one, its still a kick-ass game, so grab your Plasma Cutter and slice up a few more Necromorphs.
Five out of five stars.
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