Dead Space 2 (PS3 / 360)

[Neon Ignition]

For the last section

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I used the force gun which just obliterated the boss in no time.

I know the scores in here don't mean anything but I really agonised over whether this deserved an 8 or a 9. I know DS1 reused areas but it made more sense within the context of a ship, the over use of areas in the first half of the game is a little disappointing and takes a little of the 'what's around the corner' edge off the experience. Like has been said in here, I feel DS2 lacks the sense of dread and horror that the original did and on reflection it's not because of familiarity as playing through Extraction for the second time showed that to have more atmosphere and characterisation.

I think part of it is the over reliance on

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Isaacs wife

which isn't scary the first time let alone the 20th. On the flip side, it does have the little bit more polish in the combat than the first game did and the set pieces are amazing. It's undoubtedly a great game but I think this installment shows a worrying leaning towards the combat side of things which is a mistake Resi has made twice now. Later in the game there are some stunning sights but you're not allowed to take them in because an endless wave of enemies keeps spawning turning the last sections into a gauntlet of nuisances.

If they'd removed about 1/3 of the enemies in the game this could have been pushing a 10. Though like I said earlier, it's still an amazing game and up to this point in the year I'd easily opt for it as Game of the Year.

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The ending with Isaac was a nice nod to DS1 too but the post credit chatter effectively setting them up all the way until Dead Space 13 was a bit eye rolling. Also, what's the betting that the blast from The Sprawl at the end threw the USG Ishimura into space where Isaac will stumble across it again in a later title

[rmoxon]

I dont really get scared by games and they deffinitley never make me jump so I honestly couldnt say if I thought this or the first one was more frightening.

I will say though that the stuff with Nicole would have worked alot better if you could understand what she was saying, her voice was way too distorted alot of the time, I tried turning on the subtitles but they are a massive distraction as they take up half the screen and theres talking during alot of the gameplay.

I still think this was much better than the first one, and I really liked the first one, this just did pretty much everything better for me, played better, looked better, the story was better mainly becuase you cared about Issac alot more this time, I thought it had an even better setting, and there were some brilliant set peices that the first game lacked.

Overall its deffinitley a 9 for me despite the somewhat disapointing final chapter.

[abigsmurf]

Stuff like REmake and Project Zero prove to me that you can make games that truly scare you. Unfortunately games have followed Hollywood's trend of transforming horror films into action films.

You just can't feel scared when you're a badass tough guy who has boots filled with depleted uranium and who can punch monsters to death when he's not using his incredibly powerful weapons.

[spagmasterswift]

Playing through this on Easy and having a bloody great time with it exploring all the little details in each scene and enjoying the lighting effects. I maxed out the first gun pretty quickly for the achievement then switched all my nodes over to the suit and have been using the mine gun and that slow effect as my primary weapon. Its so much fun rigging a room with wall and floor mines then triggering a bunch of over eager monsters to come bumbling into them. There doesn't appear to be any consequence to dying, in fact I've been actively trying to die in areas that I think will yield a new and amusing death animation. Top laughs from me so far and what a wonderful looking place to get mashed up in and make things go splat!

[Resonance]

On Ch11 I think and it has been good so far. I am getting a little tired of some of the cheap kills where you are shooting at something and something else comes and wacks you from behind. Sometimes it is fair, often it is really cheap. The waves of enemies sometimes feel a bit too long too.

On the good, the game is gorgeous. The story is good and I think they have done a really great job of letting Issac talk but not ruining him as a character. The locations and settings have been superb. The Zero G sections are also brilliant.

I don't get why people complained about backtracking in the first one. I thought the navigator made it pleasant. This is in contrast to wondering around aimlessly trying to find something like the Metroid Primes. If it still bothered you this game has much less of it.

[spagmasterswift]

Its like a haunted house ride, where there is a track and you come in and out of different doors but are essentially in a rather small area. I don't have a problem with that at all so far.

Must say that the

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escape back to the surface and the heroic landing

part was completely awesome and suited my character perfectly! He's bascially like Iron Man on Easy/Casual!

[Yakumo]

Did anyone import Dead Space 2 and find that NONE of the codes work? F+ing bloody EA F*cking it up for the gamer again.

None of the redeem codes will work for me nor can I even play multiplayer because it won't allow me to enter the code needed (What sort of bull **** is that anyway?) and I can't even buy a pass code, not that I need to because I have an original Asian NTSC-J game.

Do you think EA is blocking my redeem codes because my IP Address is Japan which is technically a different area although this is an NTSC-J region coded game.

I'm pretty pissed off about this.

[spagmasterswift]

Have you considered that it might be

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The Marker

?

[rmoxon]

Stuff like REmake and Project Zero prove to me that you can make games that truly scare you. Unfortunately games have followed Hollywood's trend of transforming horror films into action films.

You just can't feel scared when you're a badass tough guy who has boots filled with depleted uranium and who can punch monsters to death when he's not using his incredibly powerful weapons.

Those games didnt scare me either really. I just dont really get scared by games, I dont even get scared by horror films, which could be why there are few I really like very much.

The Dead Space games are pretty much sci-fi and action and not really horror anyway though, so I dont see why people expect them to be scary.

[BaronSqwelch]

wow...later levels really do have ALOT of enemies!! getting mobbed without much ammo is quite annoying!

am currently using the infinite powernode exploit to power up my guns some more before finishing it off and taking it back. its a good game I just prefer the first one.

[abigsmurf]

Only really once ran out of ammo, there were one or two sections with lots of enemies that didn't drop ammo and had few boxes.

Remember to use the slow down to conserve ammo, especially on the hiding things and the super-powered versions of monsters. Don't be afraid to buy ammo at the shop.

[Largo]

just upgrade the ripper then take them all out with 1 blade, wooo-rah

[rmoxon]

First attempt at hardcore earlier, half way through chapter 3 and died so had to start all over again.

Getting this last achievment is going to be hard work.

Is it just me or does only 3 saves seem overly harsh? why not a better number like 10 saves or somthing?

Or why not let you buy saves for somthing daft like 50,000 credits from the shop or somthing?

[Neon Ignition]

If you're low on ammo just punch em. Isaac could floor Ali

[Largo]

EA are going to let you DLC additional hardcore saves, 10$ a pop.


Thankfully im joking, but who knows, watch this space