6:12 AM
The Game Peddler
Isaac Clarke, the hero of the Dead Space series, began the first game as an engineer sent to rescue a ship that seemed to be having problems. Once there, he tangled with an ungodly strain of mutated humans and the mind of an eldritch relic that had inspired a Scientology-style religion. He escaped that situation with his life, but how much of his mind came with him? Like Ellen Ripley of the Alien films, he's now defined by his experience of fighting something he barely understands.
The second game picks up directly after the first... we think. We see everything through Clarke's eyes, the camera peering over his shoulder. He's an unreliable narrator, forced to make sense of where he is and what he's doing, using the words of people he's not sure he can trust. He sees things that aren't there, and even at the end we're left to ask ourselves what just happened. No matter what you think or believe about what the game shows you, you'll leave it knowing you had one hell of a ride.
There was concern that Dead Space 2 would ditch the horror of the first game and move to a more violent, action-oriented style. That worry will pass within the game's first hour, which presents scenes of dread and tension very effectively. If you're scared of not being scared, to put it one way, you have nothing to be afraid of.
One of the characters you meet early in the game leads to a disturbing conversation, drenched in direct threats of violence. "We're going to burn for what we did to you," he tells Isaac. The scene turns even darker after that. The game knocks you off-balance multiple times, and now Isaac will often remove his helmet to speak directly to other characters. This is for the better.
The game does a good job of balancing the big, loud "Boo!"-style scares with the quieter existential dread, keeping both sides of that argument happy. When Clarke enters a place where every nerve of his body screams at him to get out, the game wisely steps back and has nothing happen for a long stretch of time. You know things are going to get bad, you know you shouldn't be there, and you know—like the loud person in the movie theater during a horror film—you would never enter there yourself. But the game shows you no reason to be afraid, and then begins to slowly work on you with hints, sounds, and then... well, it pays off.
While you hear yourself breathing and other sounds from your suit, there is no other sound during the few times you find yourself venturing into space. The game deftly juggles the intense, ear-splitting din of the action scenes with the otherworldly calm of space, creating set pieces that last until they're nearly unbearable before backing up. This is a game that understand pace and how to use it to the fullest.
"Is this going to hurt?" Isaac asks someone before climbing into a machine that he doesn't understand. "Yes," comes the answer without any hesitation, but it's said in the same voice I used to speak to my daughter when she needed stitches. It's the voice of "this is going to be unpleasant, but we can get through it together." The eerie foreshadowing may make you think the game is all talk, but what happens inside that machine is horrible. I was playing with a friend, and he couldn't watch. Just to drive the point home, the game makes you participate.
You'll die multiple times in the game—the battles are not easy and the odds are often stacked against you—but the horrific ways you go make it almost worth popping back at the last save point. Fans of splatter will be just as happy as fans of the more psychological horror.
The game now sports zero-gravity sections where Isaac can fly around freely, and there tends to be some sort of small puzzle connected to these sections. A quick click of the analog stick orients you to the ground and causes you to land, but when you're using the jets located in your boots to fly around, you can expect some disorientation. You're now skulking around a huge space station called "The Sprawl," but the environments remain similar to what you saw in the first game (minus the very green hydroponics area). Even before the Necromorphs started ripping people to shreds, the Sprawl does not seem like it would be a happy place to hang your hat.
You still gain power nodes to upgrade your weapons and your suit, and there are a few new guns to try, although we still found the Plasma Cutter to be a fine weapon in 75 percent of the situations. Trying the different weapons feels satisfying and primal. Many of the weapons you use are re-purposed equipment, suited to other tasks, and as a result they can often feel powerful and dangerous. Each weapon has character, and it's worth being fiddly with the four weapons you can carry with you at any time; changing your loadout from time to time will be beneficial.
There are a few new enemies, and perhaps some new enemy behaviors—you'll have to find out. My personal favorite is a monstrous beast that hunts in packs, poking its insectile head out to track you every now and again before screaming and charging. These are used in completely unnerving ways a few times in the game, and if you're wondering what creature this enemy has been modeled on, the achievement for killing your first pack is called "Clever girl."
Another slightly jarring change is how funny the game can be in the last quarter. The dialog gets downright witty in places, even though it remains very dry. It's better in reality than it reads in this review, I'm sure.
The majority of the following text comes from our review of the Wii original, but we've updated a few sections for this re-release. If you have both the 360 and the PlayStation 3, this is a bonus that should be enough to sway your decision; Extraction was worth your money when it was first released, and this version not only looks better, but takes advantage of the buttons on the PlayStation Move so you don't need to play with a Navigation controller.
Dead Space: Extraction plays with your expectations. It's the second game in the franchise, but EA decided to go the prequel route this time around to show gamers what happened before the events of the first game. Considering that game began with the main character landing on a derelict ship overrun by monsters, Extraction has a shaking, dire feel to it. In a very real way, you already know what happens to the "good guys": they lose.
The game features a stunning introductory level, and you'll quickly get the sense that EA did not take the safe way out with this game. The environments and characters look great, with recognizable monsters, environments, and weapons from the first game.
For an on-rails shooting title, you use an impressive number of buttons on the Move controller. You have to twist the controller on its side to activate secondary fire, which you'll use often if you want to survive, and you also have to point at items on the screen to grab them (this is how you upgrade weapons and gain ammo). You have a button that cycles through your weapons, and another that activates the Stasis shot and Kinesis.
The controller is used in other ways, as well; some sections force you to construct barricades by riveting steel onto a door—which looks and feels like the tense welding scenes from James Cameron's Aliens—and you'll have to "hack" into computer systems by tracing along circuit boards without touching the obstacles. This is little more than a science fiction version of the board game operation, but it's used sparingly enough that it's a nice twist, not an annoyance.
In fact, the entire game keeps your interest by offering a story and character you'll actually care about, while keeping the action interesting with a steady supply of new and upgraded weapons. Revisiting the Ishimura and seeing familiar settings in a new context is also welcome; the game even re-creates the zero gravity sections of its big brother by having you point at sections you want to jump to when your character ventures off into space. The heavy breathing and dense thuds of your guns in open space remains creepy and wonderfully atmospheric. Not only are you being hunted by hellish creatures, but the environment itself feels unforgiving.
The game's strategic dismemberment mechanic was also made for this sort of play. You can simply blast away at an enemy's main body mass, but you'll waste a ton of ammo that way. The best way to deal with enemies is to take out a limb or two, and then go for the head. Hit a charging mutant with a stasis blast and then pick off an arm or two at leisure. So much fun.
Since you're graded on your performance on every level, there's plenty of reason to go back and see if you can perform better. Multiple difficulty levels and the inability to carry more than four guns mean you can try levels again with a different loadout, making this a game that's easy to return to repeatedly.
When was the last time a light gun game pulled that off?
The on-rails shooter is one of the most cinematic genres, and this is one of the rare times it's used in a way that not only serves a greater story but is genuinely scary. The game even offers limited areas where you can look around at will, mostly to find items or to grab ammunition.
Dead Space as a light gun game feels natural, well thought out, and the game looks and sounds great. It's more than enough reason to choose the PS3 version over the 360.
The game's ending feels a little too pat, and a few characters are given short shrift when it comes to finishing their story, but overall it does what it set out to do. The journey is more impressive than the destination, and as the credits roll it did seem like there were a few opportunities for exploration that were passed up; but detailing these would send us spiraling directly into spoiler territory. It may be worth revisiting this topic after everyone has had a chance to play the game.
The action is more satisfying, the battles are more intense, but the game retains the tension and fear that made the first title so effective. This is a sequel that has made everything bigger and better, while not getting rid of what people loved about the original. Go get your copy.
The second game picks up directly after the first... we think. We see everything through Clarke's eyes, the camera peering over his shoulder. He's an unreliable narrator, forced to make sense of where he is and what he's doing, using the words of people he's not sure he can trust. He sees things that aren't there, and even at the end we're left to ask ourselves what just happened. No matter what you think or believe about what the game shows you, you'll leave it knowing you had one hell of a ride.
There was concern that Dead Space 2 would ditch the horror of the first game and move to a more violent, action-oriented style. That worry will pass within the game's first hour, which presents scenes of dread and tension very effectively. If you're scared of not being scared, to put it one way, you have nothing to be afraid of.
One of the characters you meet early in the game leads to a disturbing conversation, drenched in direct threats of violence. "We're going to burn for what we did to you," he tells Isaac. The scene turns even darker after that. The game knocks you off-balance multiple times, and now Isaac will often remove his helmet to speak directly to other characters. This is for the better.
The game does a good job of balancing the big, loud "Boo!"-style scares with the quieter existential dread, keeping both sides of that argument happy. When Clarke enters a place where every nerve of his body screams at him to get out, the game wisely steps back and has nothing happen for a long stretch of time. You know things are going to get bad, you know you shouldn't be there, and you know—like the loud person in the movie theater during a horror film—you would never enter there yourself. But the game shows you no reason to be afraid, and then begins to slowly work on you with hints, sounds, and then... well, it pays off.
"Is this going to hurt?" Isaac asks someone before climbing into a machine that he doesn't understand. "Yes," comes the answer without any hesitation, but it's said in the same voice I used to speak to my daughter when she needed stitches. It's the voice of "this is going to be unpleasant, but we can get through it together." The eerie foreshadowing may make you think the game is all talk, but what happens inside that machine is horrible. I was playing with a friend, and he couldn't watch. Just to drive the point home, the game makes you participate.
You'll die multiple times in the game—the battles are not easy and the odds are often stacked against you—but the horrific ways you go make it almost worth popping back at the last save point. Fans of splatter will be just as happy as fans of the more psychological horror.
What has changed
In terms of mechanics, the game looks and feels very much like its predecessor. The environments are a little more detailed, the lighting effects a little more impressive, and you can tell the team had enough time to improve on the work done on the original, but don't expect a sea change in terms of game mechanics or graphics. This is not a bad thing.The game now sports zero-gravity sections where Isaac can fly around freely, and there tends to be some sort of small puzzle connected to these sections. A quick click of the analog stick orients you to the ground and causes you to land, but when you're using the jets located in your boots to fly around, you can expect some disorientation. You're now skulking around a huge space station called "The Sprawl," but the environments remain similar to what you saw in the first game (minus the very green hydroponics area). Even before the Necromorphs started ripping people to shreds, the Sprawl does not seem like it would be a happy place to hang your hat.
You still gain power nodes to upgrade your weapons and your suit, and there are a few new guns to try, although we still found the Plasma Cutter to be a fine weapon in 75 percent of the situations. Trying the different weapons feels satisfying and primal. Many of the weapons you use are re-purposed equipment, suited to other tasks, and as a result they can often feel powerful and dangerous. Each weapon has character, and it's worth being fiddly with the four weapons you can carry with you at any time; changing your loadout from time to time will be beneficial.
Another slightly jarring change is how funny the game can be in the last quarter. The dialog gets downright witty in places, even though it remains very dry. It's better in reality than it reads in this review, I'm sure.
Extraction
The PlayStation 3 version of the game comes with Dead Space: Extraction, a Move-compatible light gun game that details the events before the first Dead Space game. The game was originally released on the Nintendo Wii, but has since been updated to high-definition for the PlayStation 3. While you can use a standard controller, Move support allows the game to come alive.The majority of the following text comes from our review of the Wii original, but we've updated a few sections for this re-release. If you have both the 360 and the PlayStation 3, this is a bonus that should be enough to sway your decision; Extraction was worth your money when it was first released, and this version not only looks better, but takes advantage of the buttons on the PlayStation Move so you don't need to play with a Navigation controller.
Dead Space: Extraction plays with your expectations. It's the second game in the franchise, but EA decided to go the prequel route this time around to show gamers what happened before the events of the first game. Considering that game began with the main character landing on a derelict ship overrun by monsters, Extraction has a shaking, dire feel to it. In a very real way, you already know what happens to the "good guys": they lose.
The game features a stunning introductory level, and you'll quickly get the sense that EA did not take the safe way out with this game. The environments and characters look great, with recognizable monsters, environments, and weapons from the first game.
For an on-rails shooting title, you use an impressive number of buttons on the Move controller. You have to twist the controller on its side to activate secondary fire, which you'll use often if you want to survive, and you also have to point at items on the screen to grab them (this is how you upgrade weapons and gain ammo). You have a button that cycles through your weapons, and another that activates the Stasis shot and Kinesis.
The controller is used in other ways, as well; some sections force you to construct barricades by riveting steel onto a door—which looks and feels like the tense welding scenes from James Cameron's Aliens—and you'll have to "hack" into computer systems by tracing along circuit boards without touching the obstacles. This is little more than a science fiction version of the board game operation, but it's used sparingly enough that it's a nice twist, not an annoyance.
The PlayStation 3 version of Extraction shows its Wii roots, but the high-definition upgrade is impressive
The game's strategic dismemberment mechanic was also made for this sort of play. You can simply blast away at an enemy's main body mass, but you'll waste a ton of ammo that way. The best way to deal with enemies is to take out a limb or two, and then go for the head. Hit a charging mutant with a stasis blast and then pick off an arm or two at leisure. So much fun.
For the long haul
The game features ten chapters, and the story and progression make you actually want to see them all; this is the first light gun game that didn't make me feel like I'd be having more fun at the arcade. Co-op is supported, with the players actually having to work together in some sections, and you'll also unlock challenge maps as you compete for high scores.Since you're graded on your performance on every level, there's plenty of reason to go back and see if you can perform better. Multiple difficulty levels and the inability to carry more than four guns mean you can try levels again with a different loadout, making this a game that's easy to return to repeatedly.
When was the last time a light gun game pulled that off?
The on-rails shooter is one of the most cinematic genres, and this is one of the rare times it's used in a way that not only serves a greater story but is genuinely scary. The game even offers limited areas where you can look around at will, mostly to find items or to grab ammunition.
Dead Space as a light gun game feels natural, well thought out, and the game looks and sounds great. It's more than enough reason to choose the PS3 version over the 360.
This isn't over
While we weren't able to play Dead Space 2's multiplayer in time for the review's release, you can read our thoughts on the beta to get some idea of what to expect. With the ability to start a new game with all the upgrades you earned on the first playthrough, online play, and Extraction on the PlayStation 3 there is more than enough content to keep you content for multiple playthroughs and many hours of game time. It's hard to find much to complain about in terms of replayability, length, or the justification of the price.The game's ending feels a little too pat, and a few characters are given short shrift when it comes to finishing their story, but overall it does what it set out to do. The journey is more impressive than the destination, and as the credits roll it did seem like there were a few opportunities for exploration that were passed up; but detailing these would send us spiraling directly into spoiler territory. It may be worth revisiting this topic after everyone has had a chance to play the game.
The action is more satisfying, the battles are more intense, but the game retains the tension and fear that made the first title so effective. This is a sequel that has made everything bigger and better, while not getting rid of what people loved about the original. Go get your copy.
The Good
- Keeps the setting, horror, and unique weapons from the first game
- Retains the sense of isolation even though Isaac speaks and has a face
- Call-backs to the original game are well thought out and effective
- The addition of Dead Space: Extraction to the PS3 version adds to the value
- Gore fans are going to love this: the violence is disturbing and constant
- The use of sound is likewise strong, make sure to play with your system cranked
- Zero-G segments are a great diversion, don't overstay their welcome
- Multiplayer gives you another reason to keep playing
The Bad
- If you don't like tense games, you should probably leave this one
- The voice of a certain "character" can be too distorted / garbled to be understood
- The storytelling is linear, and many questions are still left unanswered
- The game leaves horror and goes into action during the final chapters
The Ugly
- Listen, damage to a certain body part freaks me out. And that part is mutilated during multiple scenes of this game. To make it worse, you control it happening during one gut-wrenching scene.
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