Review by: William Abner

I had many bones to pick with the original Dead Space, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games’ 2008 third person sci-fi horror hit. I found it derivative, more about startling jumps than providing true horror atmosphere, and the save checkpoints and the restart positions after you died were both unfair and tedious as they forced you to repeatedly watch cut scenes and replay sections over and over again.

So you can imagine my reluctance to fully embrace the sequel.

Then again, what if Visceral Games realized that the game wasn’t perfect and needed retooled? What if, this time, the admittedly talented developer decided not to punish players but rather allowed them to fully experience this world of dread that the team created? Turns out, this is precisely what Visceral has done with Dead Space 2.

Before launching into why this sequel is significantly better than the original it’s important to note that this is without a doubt a low risk design – at least for the solo campaign. If you played Dead Space you will find a shockingly similar game here from the monsters to the weapons to even some of the set pieces. Sure, you can now use a full 360 degrees of motion when in the zero gravity segments, and this does make those portions of the game a hell of a lot more fun, but they are also underused. Visceral didn’t stray too far off the beaten path. This is not BioShock 2 to BioShock or even Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect. This is Dead Space with a better fundamental core design and a lot of the same stuff from the first game.

So why is this version so much better? For me, it has to do with the basic design of the game and the fact that Isaac is no longer a mute engineer with little to no personality. Isaac talks now (and is brilliantly voice acted) and you finally start to see a real human being inside the armored space suit. It's not just Isaac – the exceptional voice talent adds to every character you find in the game and this goes a long, long way in bringing this world to life.

More importantly, you can clearly see lessons learned from the development of the original game. No longer do you have to watch a cut scene if you happen to die during a tough fight. In fact, the game does a great job of placing you exceedingly close to the exact point in which you were disemboweled. No one likes to replay sections of a game over and over again should you happen to take one wrong turn and end up impaled by a Slasher. There are times when you are placed back a ways, but it's significantly better than before.