Edge magazine calls Dead Space 2 nothing short of spectacular 
It goes on to quickly qualify that Dead Space 2 isn’t just more of the same. In fact, it claims the leap in quality is so great that it’s comparible to “Uncharted’s move from a superior first game to an outstanding second”.
“Polish, variety and, most radically for Dead Space 2, likeably engaging characters,” make for a significantly improved Dead Space experience, says the mag.
Edge’s score is the latest in a growing line of praise for Dead Space 2, alongside PSM3′s 92% Dead Space 2 review and OXM’s 9/10 Dead Space 2 review.
Game Informer 9/10
A monster of a sequel, offering bigger scares and more excitement than I expected… The tease for Dead Space 3 has my head spinning with questions.
From GamePro Germany: 9/10
Dead Space 2′s graphics display “nasty monsters,” along with lots of good detailing, “nice effects,” and “very good animations.” The game’s sound has “excellent” encoding, “well-established music,” and lots of Necromorph noises.
Overall, Dead Space 2 is “really exciting” with lots of “well-chosen locations and tasks.” It has a “good story” and many “varied puzzles,” but it has only a “few [story] highlights.” Lastly, the “non-flying sequences and hacking games” show little improvement and can sometimes be “a bit confusing.”
Score: 9/10
PSM3 magazine 92%
It’s beautiful, that goes without saying, and a relentless beast in combat. But more than that, it understands how players play – what they look for…
Dead Space 2 launch trailer
Several months after the conclusion to the original Dead Space, Issac’s nightmarish cryosleep is interrupted and he is propelled into consciousness. He is in a holding cell within a space station.
A Reminder why Dead Space 2 is so anticipated (DS Review)
Taken from the OXM Review of Dead Space 2 review
Words By: Francesca Reyes
There?s a brief moment at the start of Dead Space 2 where returning hero Isaac Clarke finds himself immobile-strapped to a hospital gurney with no knowledge of what?s going on or where he?s being held. Savor it. The second the lights crackle, then fizzle out as all hell breaks loose his descent into the horror-shooters tunneling darkness kick starts into high gear and never…lets…up
Three years is an eternity in out space. Its been that long since Isaac Clarke, Dead Space’s unlikely engineer protagonist hightailed it off the surface of Aegis VII escaping a seemingly endless plague of reanimated corpses turned monsters.
But between those closing moments and the opening scenes of Dead Space 2, a few mysteries have lingered…..”
“If you dove headfirst into the original games plethora of secrets or have followed its expanded universe in books, graphic novels and so on you may have already solved some of them for yourself, is Isaacs apparition of a girlfriend, Nicole really dead? Is she some sort of whacked out undead Necromorph? Was the source of all undead ghastliness,
The Marker fully destroyed at the end of Dead Space? and most important of all what?s up with our main man, Isaac? is he completely sane, or is he now zero-G surfing in Crazyville? Good horrors gamers who wait and survive what Dead Space 2 throws at them will get all of these answers and more.”
“And what a menagerie of madness it throws. Right from the opening scenes, you?re tossed into a flurry of crazy harrowing events that?ll leave you bewildered, Vulnerable and suitably freaked out. You?ll be ducking, dashing, and frantically wondering where to find your first weapon for a chunk of the intro sequence.
Its a hell of a start to the 10-to-13 hour journey ( depending on which of four initially selectable difficulties you choose) and it?s a pace that?s gleefully sustained throughout. Down time is for sucker and Dead Space 2 knows this all too well.
If you?re not desperately running and gunning for your life then you?re tentatively tiptoeing into a darkened room praying that those creaking rattles you hear are just plumbing problems. Because in reality despite the sci fi action movie drill piercing mountains of stone or scampering wild eyed around a space station schoolroom overwhelmed by exploding infant like crawlers. Dead Space 2 is really a game made up of small masterfully executed touches. It?s a superb refinement of everything that made its predecessor a ticking time bomb of terror.?
Were getting ahead of ourselves. First you?ll need to know what got you into this fleshy, undead mess to begin. Story in Dead Space 2s solo campaign is paramount and its what will get you through this house of deep space horrors. Ah, pity poor Isaac a thirty something Everyman devoted to an ill fated girlfriend and possessing an unfortunate tendency to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. His initial contact with the lethal shenanigans aboard the abandoned USH Ishimura was a surprise and the first games story is retold in a nifty ?
Previously on?.? Recap movie available from Dead Space 2s main menu. In it you?ll discover the fate of Isaacs wayward lady love, Nicole, who served as a kind of moral compass during your exploits aboard the Ishimura which makes her reappearance in the dark scary space of the sequels massive metropolitan setting a truly devilish delight. After all, Isaacs mental state is in flux this time around and though discovering Nicoles true purpose-is she savior or tormentor?- might at times feel like a long winded exercise in ?Lets see how freaky $%#$% can get!? its ultimately what gives all your enemy dismembering and ammo hoarding a certain degree of gravities among all the gristle.?
But Nicole isn?t the only other character haunting the hallways of The Sprawl-this was after all a bustling cityscape before the Necromorphs settled in. And the environments reflect that with the doleful plaints of trapped citizens pleading from behind locked doors in residential districts and discarded toys littering bloodied nursery school hallways.
Though its no less tense than your adventures on the Ishimura it is a much more populated trip through hell and Isaac will meet up with a handful of characters whose motivations may or may not be what they seem. Every videolog message or PA system correspondence you receive during your journey can also double as a cautionary tale on the value of trusting no one. Could that friendly voice on the intercom be a cult worshipping Unitologist (the religion that gave birth to the Necromorphs) or a disguised member of the oppressive EarthGov military force? You?ll find out eventually as they?re after you and what you may or may not know. And because you?ve only recently regained consciousness following a long stint in The Sprawls brutal mental health facilities you wont know the answers until you unravel each mystery yourself?
Its a riveting if not particularly deep or think-y sci fi narrative and coupled with the games consistent forward push in pacing. It?ll leave you breathless through most of its 15 chapters. There?s not a single instance of back tracking through previous areas to bog down your progression and even though your given objectives by various characters throughout, you?ll never feel like your merely running errands or completing fetch quests as you sometimes did in the first game. While you?re still able to click the right analog stick to activate a brief glowing line that guides you to your next goal, Dead Spaces clunky 3D map is gone as is the ability to prioritize objectives.
Fine by us as your main goal is merely to survive and if you should happen to figure out what the hecks going on, then so much better. But really its Isaac himself who serves as Dead Space 2s true emotional core. In the first game you glimpsed his face only in the final cinematic and his vocal cords got workout only when he screamed or grunted in combat.
As a result you always felt at an arms distance from the story but this time Isaac?s not a faceless cypher and there are no mute heroics. He may not be a chatty Cathy but he?s very much a participant in his own plight youll interact with other characters and noticeably react to what?s happening around you. It?s a small touch that makes a world of difference; Isaac is now less s shell for you to stuff into and more of a badass you can root for.?
Storyline of course is only one part of the equation and it?s the framing device for Dead space 2s real star, the gameplay. After all a plot twist wont save you from the terrors that away. Leave that to your skills with your various weapons, most of which return from the first game. Eliminating enemies by gruesomely hacking off their arms, legs, or whatever else remains one of the series trademarks, although with bigger monstrosities you?ll need to prey on their yellowing, infected fleshy areas to take them out. It?s a formula that certainly aint broke, especially amid an onslaught of crawling and dashing baddies. Having to be somewhat strategic about where you hit these beasties certainly ratchets up the tension and Dead Space 2 keeps the fear very much alive.
We do wish that you had more new weapons to toy with, as the only real standout addition is the Javelin spear gun which lets you deftly impale adversaries then alt-fire zap them with a hefty bolt of electricity. Its not the game changer wed hoped for but we wont complain too much as the game puts all your powers and weapons to good use with a wider variety of activities than you had last time around?
You?ll need both your stasis and telekinesis powers to navigate enemy threats and puzzle areas, especially in Dead Space 2s brilliant retooling of its zero-G areas. No longer can limited to merely jumping from surface to surface with gravity boots on you now freely navigate all the nooks and crannies of zero-gravity locales as you please. Its like swimming in the air with rockets strapped to your feet. In these areas you?ll use stasis to freeze spinning fan blades so you can slowly shimmy past or use kinesis to shove fuel canisters into huge panels thereby unblocking your path. There even a sweaty-palmed moment early in the game when you?re hurled from one train car to the next forcing you to employ your rockets to survive.?
Despite all the additions and refinements Dead Space 2s multiplayer mode is the biggest departure from its single player only predecessor. Out of the box you?ll find team versus mode that puts up to four Sprawl security officers with a timed series of objectives against four human controlled Necromorphs who?ll do anything to slow them down. If the creepy crawlies manage to maim, kill, or generally annoy the snot out of the humans long enough, they win. But if the humans can tear through the threat and enable enough objective markers in time, then Team Sprawl Security claims the round. It?s a face paced variation on King of the Hill and Capture the Flag, but the results lets you play either side of the griefer (necromorphs) or griefee (humans) equation in lightning quick alternating rounds.
As a Necromorph you can pick from four uniquely controlled types: The Pack, Lurker, Spitter, and Puker. Being at the controls of a puker for instance, where you can launch projectile vomit at some poor security sap activating an objective panel is a blast. And each of the five included maps is crafted with respawn-a-thon speed and teamwork in mind. Will it replace Black Ops or Halo Reach on your nightly playlist? Probably not for long, as what?s here is understandably smaller in scope and less flexible in terms of game and party customization then those xbox live juggernauts. But it?s the single player that you most likely came for anyway, so consider Dead Space 2s succinct suite of multiplayer options a small but tasty cherry atop a dazzling horror shooter sundae?
Does this subtly retooled return trip through an out space freak show radically transform any of the first games fundamentals? Not outrageously but the nuanced tweaks and countless subtle refinements really ratchet up the atmosphere and make Dead Space 2 a richer more streamlined experience. You?ll still be rationing ammo clips and resources combing the landscape for power nodes to upgrade your weapons and equipment and taking deep breaths as you enter dark newly accessible corridors filled with shrieks and ghostly clanks.
But there?s a sure footed confidence this time around that gives the ghastly proceedings a level of character investment and polish that Dead Space never quite achieved. And though the ending simultaneously left us cheering and scratching our heads we cant wait to see where Isaacs strange scary tale of redemption takes us next
VERDICT= 9.5
+ Smart refining of the horror shooter formula, filled with well paced insanity and surprises
+Lengthy, Gorgeous and scary as hell, vocal Isaac is a better hero
- Story gets a bit muddled torward the end; enemy placement grows predictable in spots
? okay lets be real who is “peng” not where or when- WHO?!
Unnecessary multiplayer aside, Dead Space 2 is a corker. It’s an unpredictable powder-keg of [a] game; even when you get mulched by the Necromorphs it’s great to see just how many chunks your corpse has been blown into.
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