If Dead Space is a game that I get to love and respect more with each replay, its sequel seems to be the opposite. When I first played it, I liked it a lot. Yet, with each next replay, while my respect for it remains, I find more and more reasons to dislike it. Thankfully, they tend to be minor and most of them lie in the exact same problems that I’ve had with the game during my very first playthrough. More than anything, it’s the understanding that those exist as huge blemishes upon the game that make them more frustrating to re-experience each time.
But let’s get one thing out of the way first – I liked revisiting Dead Space 2 a lot and it’s still a good game worth revisiting. And all of the things it does are still incredibly smart and amazing. I just get wowed by them far less by now.
Just like the original Dead Space, the sequel is a survival action title. So it has some elements of the classic survival horror like resource management and “smarter” combat and a few bits of optional exploration, but it’s far more action heavy and incredibly linear. In fact, this game can probably be best described as “what if Dead Space was Uncharted”, so lots of its elements are much more fast-paced and some of the things are streamlined, without simplifying the overall core of the game.
Isaac moves, aims and attacks considerably faster than in the original, for example. Everything still has a weight, a certain heavy feel to it, but all actions and elements take less time to play out. The chapters are now flowing without clear loading screens and save prompts – you just get a little text prompt that says the name of the chapter after certain events and the game just keeps going. Most enemies are faster, which is nicely counterbalanced by the Isaac’s own speed in pretty much all but one type of necromorph, who do get far more annoying this time around. You tend to get more enemies in one encounter overall and there is even a new type of necromorph that attacks in huge packs.
Isaac’s abilities get improved as well. Kinesis is now incredibly useful due to the ability to impale enemies with sharp objects, including their own cut off limbs. Stasis is balanced to be used more frequently. Zero G areas movement is now fully controllable, with the ability to fly. Weapons have been tweaked, with new weapons introduced and old ones redone in terms of their alt. fire. Everything is, essentially, bigger, louder, more cinematic and explosive.
It’s a typical “Alien to Aliens” move and, even today, I’d argue that this was the only way to make a sequel to the original game without introducing a new character and a new story altogether. With the only other good alternative being not making a sequel at all (and this is EA we’re talking about, what do you mean no more sequels and merch?). It’s handled mostly gracefully and the game was adapted for new needs really well.
In addition to the gameplay tweaks and changes, the story takes a far more personal and far more dialogue-driven turn. Isaac talks, a lot, there are other characters to interact with all the time. The events of the previous game are haunting him with constant hallucinations. The world of the game is expanded beyond anything that the previous 4 pieces of media did. There are new supplemental materials and related media to go along with the game, and this time, they might even be helpful to understand some of the background events.
Dead Space Ignition was a direct prequel and a rather poor downloadable title for consoles only, yet there are rooms inside Dead Space 2 that are locked unless you play the game (so they are permanently locked in the PC version unless you edit the save file). There’s a novel Dead Space: Martyr that explores the first Marker found on Earth. There’s Dead Space: Salvage, a prequel comic book that touches upon one of the subplots of Dead Space: Extraction. There’s Dead Space: Aftermath, the animated movie set before the events of the game that explains how Isaac got onto the Titan station in more detail and explores one of the main characters of Dead Space 2 in more detail. Dead Space, the mobile game that is sadly unlisted from the stores, was a pretty descent prequel to the game as well, and is the only mobile game I’ve experienced that actually tried to recreate the “big game” on a smartphone (but then again, I’ve played like 6 games on a smartphone in my life, so my experience is limited). This was EA going full franchise and pumping money in all sorts of supplemental material, which is what was happening with the Mass Effect series as well at the same time.
It rarely if ever goes bad. Despite some outright bullshit rooms which are designed to kill you. Despite the obnoxiously typical jump scares that the original avoided. Despite the overabundance of QTEs in comparison with even the sequel. And despite the fact that the last third of the game seems to completely loose its understanding of good action balance and starts throwing way too many (boring rather than challenging) fights at you way too often. It gets more annoying, it gets “oh, it’s that part”. It remains enjoyable and fun even on repeat plays and it remains unique and clever. Even if it’s far more predictable than the original game and has more repeating tasks and moments, it remains surprising, fresh and exciting. And it has the hand cannon which is a really funny unlockable if only to hear Isaac go “pew pew”. Also, I still love how the developers played with the return to the setting of the original game. Both as a really tense moment and as a little “the sequel is so big that the first game is just one chapter of it” brag.
The game, as it is now, is, shockingly, a bit more problematic than the original. While playing on PC you will automatically get all of the fluff DLC with unbalanced items available to you right from the start. Which is especially frustrating because the only story-driven DLC for the game, Dead Space 2: Severed, remains console exclusive. It tells a new chapter of the remaining characters from Dead Space: Extraction and has more to say on one of the subplots that the game and the Salvage comic had. Though, it’s worth noting, that this subplot and the characters were completely dropped by Dead Space 3, so… yeah. Additionally, the PC version has a problem with the special post-game unlocks, so if you complete the game at its hardest setting (which is hard), you might not get any rewards from it unless you do it in a very specific way, something that has not been patched either. The game also still has DRM in it, despite being 9 years old. And it still wants you to log into EA account, even though the multiplayer mode (yes, it had one – EA) has been long dead.
But despite being somewhat more conventional, more action heavy and more, well, EA, than the original game, it remains fun. The introduction of impalement alone makes the combat more fun and inventive. And while I don’t find the game as clever or amazing as the original, it’s still a really really good game that is worth playing or replaying. Oh, it also has a really good tune during the ending credits which you should definitely check. Good game. If only the series ended here, or at least went into a completely new and fresh direction…