Some wonderful moments emerge that make it a must-play, especially since the game wraps in less than 10 hours, but the last act seems rushed. It’s a blast to lay waste to a whole family of creatures and let the bodies pile up around you, but it’s much more compelling to skulk through the cultish Church of Unitology, reading all the placards and immersing yourself in the game’s surreal world.ĭead Space 2′ s final chapters seem like an endless string of featureless rooms filled with monsters. Still, it’s hard to escape the fact that Dead Space 2 is at its best when it is chilling and empty, and at its weakest when it degenerates into a rote zombie killing spree. Filling the sequel with more and more gory death scenes and grotesque monsters, then advertising that in a campaign called “Your Mom Hates This,” will surely widen the net. Dead Space sales stumbled out of the gate in 2008. Similarly, every great scare in Dead Space 2 benefits from a strong audio component, which is just how it should be - horror is about the unknown, the thing you can’t see that’s making an unnerving sound, somewhere off in the shadows.īut “it has great sound design” is a tough sell for a game that needs to be a multimillion-selling blockbuster. I jumped in my seat in a way I never did when I was faced with an actual enemy. One of the most startling moments of the first game, for me, was when I accidentally kicked some small piece of metal off a catwalk, causing it to clang and clatter on the way down. But I’d rather constantly face death from a handful of dangerous enemies than have to blow away a thousand stupid bags of meat.ĭead Space was rightly praised for its sound design.

Sure, you need all these bullets because the game also overloads you with extended families of monsters to kill. 25 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (reviewed), you often feel none of the natural tension of a battlefield since you are miraculously oversupplied with ammunition. But while the game designers wisely pared down Dead Space 2 ‘s level designs to just the good parts, they lost something by eliminating what should be the scariest part of the game: scarcity. The sequel is a significant improvement over the 2008 original, which frequently felt sluggish and too long for its own good.

Sci-fi shooter Dead Space 2 is a superlative game in many respects: It is a gorgeous, creepy thrill ride packed with shocking moments. I’m trapped on a deserted space station filled with aliens, and must scrounge whatever I can to survive.

Dead space 2 xbox 360 review