Dead Space 2

The original Dead Space was a surprise for me because what I thought was going to be a Resident Evil 4 rip off turned out to be a far natural successor to that game than Resident Evil 5 was. Resident Evil 4 gave that series, and third person shooters in general, a much needed kick up the arse. What Dead Space did was to take the basics of that game and improve upon it, giving us a great gaming experience. Dead Space 2 has given the original a polish, making the game play perfectly. I could hardly believe what I was seeing the first time it happened, but...

You can reload your gun...while running!

If you don't play third-person shooters, this may sound like a trivial point, but it really isn't. How many times have you been pinned to the spot while reloading or shooting a gun? How many times have you been left vulnerable because the character freezes to perform some kind of mandatory animation? I never once saw any hint of this, instead I saw combat that plays very quickly and very smoothly. Melee attacks are also a lot faster, meaning both hits and stomps have a more damaging impact on the enemy and lets you save a few bullets. I also found myself having a lot more fun with stasis and kenesis effects this time around. Sure, you could slow down enemies in the first one, but now you get to rip their claws off and shoot them back at them impaling them and pinning them to a wall.

Another good thing about combat is that the weapons have had an overhaul. They feel more dangerous and now. The flame thrower, for example, was a pathetic weapon that I never used. Here, it feels more deadly, something I could do serious damage to an enemy with and would also work brilliantly against smaller, weaker enemies that tended to attack in bigger numbers. The Ripper was a good idea in the first game, but was a little awkward to handle, but here it's a great tactical weapon that quickly dismembers enemies. The secondary fire of weapons has also been changed, for example, the Pulse Rifle which, in the original, shot bullets three hundred and sixty degrees around Isaac. It sounds good on paper, but was completely ineffective. Now, it shoots grenades, which is highly effective, especially is a group of enemies are coming towards you.

The enemies themselves, the Necromorphs, have changed very little. I still feel like I'm fighting the same enemies, despite a few additions. There's the guy that pukes acid all over you, the ones that super-charge you and the exploding babies, but really, nothing stood out, it just felt like variations on a theme. I think the reason for that is that there isn't any memorable boss battles in this game. I would even question whether this is any boss battles in the game at all. There are moments in the game that present themselves as boss battles. For example, you fight a brute, but, that's an enemy from the first game, so it's nothing new, and you face that same enemy at least another three times, so it's nothing unique to that moment. You also fight an enemy called the Nest, which is very reminiscent of the Leviathan boss battle from the original, but on a smaller scale. So again, nothing new, and it's repeated later on in the game. The final fight (which I again hesitate to call a boss battle) either feels like the game is dicking you over, or if you go in with too much ammo, is laughably easy.

The story is a huge improvement over the original. The original waited until the half way point for the story to really kick in, and Isaac being a silent character meant it was pretty difficult to become emotionally attached to him and feel for him later on when sad things happen. Thankfully, this time Isaac is a full character from the get go, in a hospital on Titan, seemingly in recovery from his experiences in the first game. Of course, it's not long before there's another breakout of Necromorphs and everything goes to hell again. Isaac has to wrestle with his own sanity while he's fighting monsters and seeing images of his dead girlfriend. Still, I felt at times like the game relied to much on the “Go here and fix this,” plot device, but still it's a much stronger outing this time than last.

I think ultimately, Dead Space 2 can't be described as any better, or any worse than the original. While there are times when the game play blows you away and you wonder why all games aren't as awesome as this one, there are times when you think to yourself, “I did this in the first game.” Still, this game plays wonderfully and the things that didn't quite work in the original have been tweaked so that it offers one of the best third person shooters I've ever played. I can't recommend it enough.