Dead Space 2 - mini review (includes spoiler)

Dead Space 2

picking up three years after the original Dead Space you again play engineer Isaac Clarke as he tries to combat a massive necromorth infection, only this time you are in the massive city called The Sprawl rather than the confines of a adrift space craft.

Anyone who has played the first one will find this all massively familiar. The controls and inventory systems are all the same. You have some cool new weapons to try out and some different types of enemies to go up against.

The graphics have already completely blown me away, only five chapters in and there is some amazing set pieces that literally left my draw dropping to the ground and completey forgetting I was even playing (this usually led to a very bloody death that involved me being able to see half my rib cage and spinal column!). Combined with the awesome music and use of sounds have left us with a very atmospheric game that both amazes and scares the living shit out of me in some places.

Achievement wise looks like a very gettable 1000 g, probably about three play throughs needs , like the first one, all single player as well which means you don't have to bother with the pointless multiplayer. I know I won't be trying it. The achievements reward you going off the path and looking for collectibles that are actually useful to the game , and to vary up the way you kill stuff.

One of the best comparisons I have seen in a review is that the two Dead Space games are like comparing Alien and Aliens, both are great games just number two clearly has a bigger budget so there is more scares , more enemies and a twistier storyline.

So far a very good 9 out of 10

good review mate, sounds awesome. I'm going to town soon so I'm going to pick it up, I'm a big fan of the first game, going by your review I should enjoy this one even more.

Just to add, I have just discovered that the 50 G achievement for finishing the game on hardcore mode means doing it with only three saves and no checkpoints :-O

Now that sounds like an achievement

just picked this up, installing it to the hard drive now, surprised to find that it's 2 discs.

That hardcore mode achievement sounds like a serious challenge, definitely won't be attempting that one for a while.

Awwwww! I forgot the game I was going to trade in for it at lunch

nice mini rev nite

repo repped

Nice review mate, i still haven't played the first one. Really should get around to picking it up!

Been playing the game most of the day, currently on chapter 9 and I have to say this game is incredible, the first Dead Space was a great game but this is something else. it also seems to be a very polished game as well, I haven't experienced any glitches, drops in frame rate or anything, which is rare these days. The achievement for finishing the game on hardcore seems like it might be nearly impossible, I'm playing on normal and some parts have been quite challenging and I've died a few times. I also read that in hardcore you have to start from scratch, meaning you can't use a previous character with upgraded rig and weapons which obviously makes the whole thing a lot more difficult, can't see myself ever doing it.

MASSIVE SPOILER
check out the reward you get for finishing Hardcore mode. Makes me want to put the effort in .....

That hand cannon looks awesome.

I finished the game on zealot yesterday so this morning I decided to have a quick go at hardcore to get a feel for it. the necromorphs seem to be set to survivalist difficulty, they didn't seem to do as much damage as they do on zealot. I made it to chapter 3 on hardcore easily so it definitely seems possible, the second half of the game is where things start to get a bit mental though, there's so many enemies in some areas. I think I might give it another go tomorrow and see if I can get to chapter 7 then use my first save before the elevator where the large necromorphs keep climbing on the sides as I think I can get there in roughly 2 hours.

If you can make it to chapter 7 then you can semi- cheat it as you still get a checkpoint from the change in discs. So if you die you'll just go back to the beginning of disc two, just you can't save it to come back to later though

I didn't know it created a checkpoint at the disc change, that could be useful, going to have think about this some more now as there are probably better places to save.

Finished it.....played through on casual so I could actually enjoy the story initially.....got absolutely creamed several times, so doubt I'll be going for the hardcore achievement in the near future. Awesome game though.

Anyone done the power node glitch on chapter 14? Managed to upgrade my rig and 4 weapons on one playthrough!

GrahamOfTheDead wrote:
Anyone done the power node glitch on chapter 14? Managed to upgrade my rig and 4 weapons on one playthrough!

I've only got 2 weapons, rig and stasis fully upgraded after 2 playthroughs, had to spend most of my credits on ammo when I played on zealot. how does this glitch work? I haven't heard of it.

Ninja Yaro wrote:

GrahamOfTheDead wrote:
Anyone done the power node glitch on chapter 14? Managed to upgrade my rig and 4 weapons on one playthrough!

I've only got 2 weapons, rig and stasis fully upgraded after 2 playthroughs, had to spend most of my credits on ammo when I played on zealot. how does this glitch work? I haven't heard of it.

Right at the end of chapter 14 there is a supply room with 2 nodes, a ruby conductor and a health pack. If you collect the items go forward to the next save point, save then quit out. Load your game, go back to the room and the items are back. Rinse and repeat for as long as you want. I did this over and over again for an hour

Cheers niteowl, have some rep. I plan on playing through one more time on zealot before I attempt hardcore and that glitch will be useful if I still need some extra nodes to upgrade my last few weapons.

Nice review , i think i'll pick this up tomorrow and trade in the terrible motion sports while i'm there.