Dead Space 2 was a game that thousands of gamers were looking forward to, myself on the other hand had no idea it was out when it was. Luckily for me, A Silent Circus was kind enough to swap a couple games with me and this was one of the games that I received from him. Enough back story about how I acquired the game, let the review begin!
Gameplay (campaign)
The campaign in Dead Space 2 was nothing short of fantabulous. I usually shy away from over the shoulder/3rd person shooters because they usually handle awkwardly and end up pissing me off to no end. This is definitely not the case with DS2. Everything from the camera to aiming while moving handles very smoothly. The physics of the game are also unbelievable, nothing like hitting a necromorph from 10 yards away with a highly concentrated beam of energy or a mine only to see said necromorph’s limbs explode in an array of blood and gore all over the environment you’re in at the time.
The campaign itself is very linear and the feature of pressing the right thumbstick down to show you where your next objective is is just fantastic. If there's one thing I hate about games, it's not knowing where to go or what to do, this is not the case with DS2, if you get lost, don't hestitate to press down the right thumbstick and follow the fluorescent blue trail on the ground to where you're supposed to go. If you don't like linear campaigns and would rather explore and takes your time with a game, fear not, there are many different paths to take during the campaign that will lead you to more enemies, hidden objects, locked rooms and much more.
The campaign length is anywhere between 7-20 hours depending what difficulty you're playing on, how much exploring you like to do and/or how much you reload a checkpoint while achievement hunting.
Rating - 11/10
Gameplay (multiplayer)
Quote by A Silent Circus:
Another aspect of Dead Space 2 that may be overlooked is its pretty fun multiplayer mode. Basically it features two teams of 4 pitted against each other across 5 different maps and has a very Left 4 Dead multiplayer feel to it. You have the Sprawl security vs the Necromorphs or rather offense vs defense, each with unique upgrades all the way up to the level 50 cap. These upgrades generally include new suits and weapon perks for the Sprawl and class based perks for the four classes of Necromorphs that make them each a little bit more powerful. There's not much difference from Isaac when playing as the Sprawl and you generally tend to start with your trusty plasma cutter and the assault rifle right off the bat as well as stasis and are tasked with doing different objectives for each map such as securing a point on the map or blowing something up and moving on to the next, which has a very Battlefield rush type vibe to it.
The major difference when playing multiplayer, and what everyone will probably enjoy more, comes in the form of playing as one of four classes of Necros(no pun intended). You have the pack, the lurker, the spitter, and finally the puker. The lurkers were my personal favorite and they allow you to crawl on walls with the tap of the RB and you can even invert yourself on the ceilings, but it tends to get a bit disorienting at times. Each class of Necro has 2 unique abilities it seemed from my hands on and as you ascend ranks you unlock upgrades that make these abilities a little bit more potent, though I never got ranked high enough to mess around with many of these upgrades.
The rounds are all time based and the Sprawl obviously win if they complete each objective within the allotted time and the Necros win by holding off or stopping the Sprawl from finishing their tasks. The Sprawl have stasis at their disposal and a lot of firepower and when working together can be very lethal and can rack up alot of kills on the Necros, this is countered with the Necros having other AI bots helping them out(which never seem to do much) and they also have very fast respawns and can choose to come out of one of a ton of vents scattered around the maps and objectives. The multiplayer was a fun side note, however it tends to get very fast and frentic quickly and when playing against higher level people seemed to feel a bit overbalanced for my liking with the higher level people dominating the scoreboard and the game. Overall I'd give it a 6.5 as a standalone score, it seems to take a little too long to rank up and feels way too overbalanced when starting out and there's not much to see outside of the 5 maps, it could have some lasting appeal if you have a few friends to partner up with rather than playing by yourself.
Rating - 6.5/10 - Could be a bit better
Graphics
On to graphics, the setting of the game is somewhat familiar but also has a lot of new environmental features. Unlike it’s predecessor Dead Space, DS2 takes place in a type of Bioshock like world/enclosed city. The graphics are also a step above the original Dead Space. The world is greatly detailed, full of seemingly useless junk left by the world’s former inhabitants. Isaac is able to use his kinesis to pick up left behind suitcases, chairs, desks, doors and even old rotting corpses to either use as projectiles or progress in the game (I won't give away too much!).
The gore in game is excellent as well, with a precisely placed shot you can dismember enemies while blood goes EVERYWHERE. Even after dismembering an enemy you can still use your kinesis to pick up the remains of civilians, necromorphs and/or parts of necromorphs to kill other necromorphs with.
Rating – 10/10
The Scare Factor
While playing Dead Space, I have to admit, I was on edge the entire time because I had never played any game in the horror category. Comparing the scare factor from Dead Space to DS2, even though I was ready for a terrifying game there were A LOT of moments in game where I found myself on the edge of my seat not blinking because I was afraid that if I did blink, I would get mauled by some lurking necromorph I had failed to kill completely. The ambient noise is somewhat unnerving throughout the entire game. With excellent use of different environmentally appropriate sounds (i.e. alarm clocks, ventilation shaft noises, radios/televisions, etc.) you’ll find yourself turning around to check behind you, above you and even retracing your steps to make sure everything in the area is dead.
Even though I expected a lot of different things in the game and anticipated what was going to happen at certain points in time, I found myself jumping at stuff that I had encountered in my first playthrough even while playing my second playthrough! The use of the environment and noise or lack there of is just superb, so be prepared to be frightened!
Rating - 9/10
Achievements
Compared to its predecessor, the achievements in DS2 seem much more obtainable for average gamers, with only 2 achievements being tied to playing on certain difficulties (Zealot and Hardcore) gamers can expect a quick and easy 800-900 gamerscore with minimal need to check guides. Over 1/3 of the gamerscore can be obtained simply by playing through the story, another 1/3 of the gamerscore comes from different weapon related achievements and the last 1/3 consists of doing certain things during certain chapters, some collecting (but guides are definitely not necessary as long as you’re aware of what you need to keep an eye out for) and upgrading your suit and/or weapons.
I did not attempt to play the game on Zealot or Hardcore so I have no idea what to compare it to difficulty-wise. I would assume it would be close to the first Dead Space (which I also did not attempt
).
Also, NO MULTIPLAYER ACHIEVEMENTS!
Rating - 10/10
Replay Value
Even though this game has multiplayer, I don't really think this game has any replay value even if you really enjoyed the campaign. After 1 and a half playthroughs and 900 gamerscore in the game, I don't think I would ever pick the game up again to play it. I do admit, most games rarely see a second playthrough from me, but in this games case you can get away with a second playthrough on casual or normal difficulty in under 3 hours if you're just trying to mop up achievements.
With that being said, the replay value isn't very strong.
Rating - 8/10
The Final Verdict
Had I actually paid full price for the game, I definitely would not have been disappointed or felt as if I wasted 60 dollars. Even with a couple categories with low ratings, I would rate this game between 9 and 9 and a half on a scare of 1-10. Since multiplayer doesn't have any achievements I decided not to put the score the MP was given into the final score of the game and even though the replay value isn't very strong, you should be able to either trade the game back in with minimal financial losses or if you're a collector, you'll have a great game sitting on your shelf and if you ever feel the need to be scared shitless again, pop it in and you'll need a new pair of pants in no time!
Overall Rating – 9.23/10
