JAWGR: Dead Space 2 First Impressions

The Story (So far):

I’m currently only somewhere in Chapter 3. The story once again revolves around Issac Clark, an engineer from Dead Space and takes place 3 years later after the first game. He awakens in a station called Sprawl located on one of Saturn’s moons Titan in the middle of another necromorph outbreak. He must explore the necromorph infested Sprawl to escape and possibly destroy another marker before it’s too late!!! Also, during the story, Issac is still suffering the loss of his girlfriend Nicole from the first game and he has visions of her throughout the story. Issac is also suffering through some sort of mental side effect from the marker as throughout the story so far he has visions to hallucinations. As the story goes on, we find out what happened to Issac in the last 3 years.

The actual storyline is told through transmission logs and audio logs scatter throughout Sprawl or through interaction with some characters that communicate with Issac.

Gameplay:

The overall game is a third person shooter. Been playing it for a while and I learned one thing, if it moves, kill it as fast as you can!!! The game is pretty linear and you can’t get lost at all as the game provide a way point system that you can follow if you get lost. If the door is locked, you do 1 of 3 things, kill all enemies, hack a terminal or solve a puzzle. Depending on the difficulty (on easy – enemies are weak, on hard – there is barely any ammo and enemies are harder to kill), most enemies are killed the same way through dismemberment. This game provides a wider assortment of necromorphs then the first game. Something I learned from playing this game is never aim at the head, they’ll keep coming and be more powerful then before. Dead Space 2 main scare point is the closet scares or what I like to call it jump out of no where and screaming scare. Issac throughout the game has multiple weapons at his disposal. His main weapon is his plasma cutter (which is a mining tool, not a military weapon) which can shoot vertical or horizontal which makes it the perfect weapon for dismemberment. Other weapons that also appear are the rivet gun, the javelin (which launches large javelin like spikes at the enemy and stick them at the wall), rifle, and many others. All the weapons in the game have a secondary function and use a specific type of ammo. One of the most prominent weapons is also his most useful which is telekinesis and his stasis ability. Telekinesis allows Issac grab items from far away or use those items as projectiles to launch at enemies to conserve ammo. His stasis ability slows/ stops enemies so you can take your time to pick them apart. The down size is that it drains the stasis meter which is located beside his health bar but it will recharge in time.

Just like the last game, there is no hud and also pulling up the inventory in the middle of a battle will not pause the game. You life bar is indicated by the glowing LED light bar on Issac’s back. The life bar lowers as you take damage and the only way to recover health is to use health pack. You can either get health pack either from the store or find them from the corpse of your enemies or find them scattered randomly throughout Sprawl. This goes the same with ammo as well.

What’s improved from the first one is the zero-G segments of the game and the outer space section. These sections are a great change of pace. The space sections are one of the hardest section as you have a limited amount of air.

To help you survive through all this are save points that common, stores for which you can purchase/ sell items and store some items for later and Benches which help upgrade your weapons, armor, and other abilities with nods you find throughout the game.

There are also boss encounters throughout the game. So far only faced one boss, not hard but it requires the use of stasis often to beat it.

There is multiplayer, but haven’t played it much. It is required that you enter a special pass code that comes with the game. I can say that the engineer side of multiplayer is too overpowered. Pretty much throughout multiplayer, you take turns on both sides (engineer and necromorphs) and try to clear objectives before the other team does. It’s pretty standard and there isn’t much variety in game modes.

Sound and Presentation:

The games graphics has improved leaps and bounds since the first game. The lighting to the overall setting is makes the game all that creepier and the sound is just amazing. What really helps the atmosphere is the lighting and the sound of the creaks of the station which makes it all the more scarier. You can really feel alone in the game and the atmosphere makes it really creepy. The creepy droning sound track works well in the environment and the sound effects are just phenomenal. You combine all that and it makes for one heck of a spook fest!!!

Issac without his helmet…

Issac’s new armor.

The overall change to Issac is that we get to see his face and he talks unlike the first one where he was a silent engineer is a nice touch and it helps us bond with the character more. Sadly the other characters aren’t as interesting as they are given small and uninteresting lines throughout the story so far.

My Thoughts:

The thing that everyone knows about this game is that Dead Space 2 will scare you and will at least creep you out, if not shit your pants. Once you get into it, it’s not that bad and it soon becomes apparent that it’s easy to figure out when the necromorphs will pop out and attack. I felt that when hacking, the necromorphs don’t really attack you. The game really does make you feel all alone with these necromorphs trying to kill you. Boss fights at times are simple to hard, depending how much ammo you have. Trust me, it takes a lot of shots to kill them. Aside from the bosses, the regular enemies you encounter does the same thing, they charge at you screaming. Just shoot at the legs first then the arms and your good. Pretty much dismembering a regular enemy may get a be repetitive over time. So far playing it, I never really used the other weapons as I usually use the plasma cutter and never really in a need to switch weapons yet.

The lack of a pause screen makes this game feel really intense. I’m always on the edge of my set watching if a necromorph will pop out from behind or pop out of somewhere. Overall, you’ll have to be focused when playing.

If they added more game modes to multiplayer, this game would have such high replay value. It just feels like multiplayer was an after thought.

Overall Verdict:

Creepy game but I do recommend it for any gamer. My grade verdict is “B+” (7/10), a great game. It’s a must try for just the experience for any gamer who is into shooters or any gamer for that matter. Just be careful your parents aren’t watching.

I would had given it a higher score if the multiplayer wasn’t so tacked on and if it offered something like death match.

Well, hope you enjoy the first Just Another Written Gaming Review!!! I hope to make some video review soon and more written reviews in the future!!!