Controls and combat have been tightened up too. Sound design is so good that it’s fundamental to the experience. Your first encounter with the new, highly intelligent raptor like necromorphs will rock you (clever girl). Monster design is varied and imaginative. Graphics, environments and lighting are thoughtfully detailed.

Smooth as: Every aspect of the production is excellent.

The final payoff is pant-shittingly good. Dead Space 2 is consistently atmospheric and action packed, but 1 chapter stands out about 2/3rds through the game that had me edging forward on the thumb sticks very gingerly as tension built. This has usually been due to heavy atmosphere which builds and sustains tension. F.E.A.R, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, and Silent Hill 2 have all had sequences which have left me filled with genuine dread at completing sections of the game. Almost every aspect of the gameplay has been scaled up since DS1.Ītmospheric Terror-forming (get it?): I like to gauge a good horror game by how little I want to go back and play it. While the focus has shifted toward the action end of the horror game scale, the major set pieces dotted throughout the story really bookend the chapters well. Space Race: The game starts with a gripping introduction and from there the action ebbs and flows with perfect rhythm. And thus Dead Space 2 continues, balancing Isaac’s struggle with guilt, grief and no doubt a little post traumatic stress, combined with the immediate threat of reanimated necrotic flesh which needs to be burnt, shot, frozen and stomped into submission. Isaac barely has time to mourn his corpse bride before those dastardly Necromorphs return and he has to engineer them all some new assholes.

Visceral has created Dead Space 2 as the direct follow-up to the original narrative, which sees mining engineer Isaac Clarke awaken safely on board a space station orbiting Saturn, albeit confined to a straight jacket and having his grasp on reality questioned by authorities. Through their support of an original, untested property and their unflinching acceptance of some seriously adult content, one of the best franchises of this generation was created which provided a combination of action, sci-fi horror atmosphere, great shooter mechanics and truly butt puckering gore.

The first Dead Space in 2008 defied the odds and, to me, signalled a return of faith from core gamers in EA’s reputation as video game publishers.

Dead space 3 mods nsfw