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Dead Space 2; January 25th 2011
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Topic Started: Feb 25 2011, 05:16 AM (1,308 Views)
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Kire667
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Feb 25 2011, 05:16 AM
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On March 1st 2011 DOWNLOAD the expansion demo for a whole new campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWhpVoIR5cw
Title: Dead Space 2 Producer: Electronic Arts Developer: Visceral Studios Genre: Shooter, Action, Adventure Website: http://www.ea.com/games/dead-space-2 , http://deadspace.ea.com/ Video: Trailer 1, Trailer 2, Trailer 3, Lighting, Visual Effects, Multiplayer, Tutorial

Official review
Chaos Hits The Sprawl:
* Caught in the middle of a horrific infestation that’s decimating a massive space city, Isaac Clarke will dismember, impale, and stomp his way across the Sprawl. * Blast through the Church of Unitology, jet across the Solar Array, and infiltrate the CEC facility on the path to survival.
Master The Terror:
* Familiar as well as all-new grotesque creatures lurk around every corner. * Wield a set of devastating tools to bring the terror to space. Impale Necromorphs into the walls with the Javelin, use improved telekinesis to turn limbs into deadly weapons, plant powerful dismembering trip mines, or create a hull-breach to suck a group of monsters out into space.
Tear Through Space In Zero G:
* Fire up Isaac’s suit boosters to rocket around in zero gravity like never before. Explore the depths of the Sprawl and encounter new weightless combat and physics-based puzzles with full 360⁰ movement.
Online Multiplayer:
* For the first time, experience the horror of a Necromorph outbreak with others. Fight in skirmishes around the Sprawl and strategically dismember your friends.

Review by BrutalGamer http://brutalgamer.com/2011/02/04/dead-space-2-ps3-review/
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The first Dead Space put you in the shoes of Issac Clarke, an engineer sent to the planet cracker vessel Ishimura after all communication was lost with it. During the course of the teams investigation they are picked off one by one leaving just Issac to face the horror of the Necromorphs that inhabited the ship. One eight hour play through later you come face to face with a mad made Marker that has unleashed the Necromorphs on the universe.
The sequel picks up right after you escape from the planet at the end of the first game. It appears the blast from the explosion knocked you out cold and you were picked up drifting through space. You now appear to be on-board a medical facility and under the watchful eye of psychologists and experimental doctors. You suddenly snap to your senses as the base appears to be torn apart by marauding Necromorphs. A voice on the com system tells you to get the heck out of Dodge and you pelt down a corridor in your hospital finery whilst human and Necromorph alike explode around you.
Graphically EA and Visceral have really knocked it out of the park here. For a multi-platform title this game looks superb. Sure they can use shadows and ambient lighting to hide a multitude of sins but the game still looks flawless – even on close inspection. normally a game, no matter how good it looks, can get a little ropey if you happen to swing around and glimpse a wall texture or light switch up close. Not so in Dead Space 2. The detail that has been captured in each environment is stunning to behold and makes the whole environment so richly believable.
Frame rate too has seemed to stay absolutely rock solid. And if it ever did dip it must of been for such a fraction of the time that it didn’t impact the game in any significant way. The animations and lighting also compliment the look and texture work superbly and bring the entire package together beautifully. The glimpse of light bouncing off and object or throwing a shadow in the corner of a room serves to intensify the tension of the game exponentially. Couple this with some truly awe inspiring vistas that manage to convey just how vast your environment is and you have a truly spectacular graphical treat. Sure it borrows a LOT of beats from Bioshock, FEAR and Condemned but it makes them it’s own.
Talking of tension we would be only half way to our standard issue brown trousers if we didn’t have such impeccable sound design. As with the fist Dead Space title Dead Space 2 goes out of it’s way to capture some of the very best in foley work. From the incidental to the audacious Dead Space 2’s audioscape is sublime. Regardless of the visual ambiance on screen the sound work does an impeccable job of conveying just how deep in the **** you really are. The slow dripping of pipes, a slight jangle in the periphery of your hearing. It all builds an immense level of tension.
Like wise the audio cues really start to factor in to how you proceed through a given area. The slow gulching gloop of the spitter funnels that inhabit the walls and ceilings. Or the Squaking call of the Stalkers that peek around corners at you before moving in to a flanking position and charging you. The voice work is, once again, superb and all parts are well played, written and delivered. A lot of Dead Space 2 is ambiance and spot effects but when the music needs to be employed they do so with absolute precision and panache.
Well the game looks better & sounds better but how does it actually play? Well… better is the honest response. You see Dead Space was a great game, truly a solid first effort from Visceral Games. It had a slew of little ******** though that caused many a person to snub it’s gloomy offerings.
First and foremost the environments, although well crafted and atmospheric, become horrendously monotonous after a few hours of play. After all, a dank black corridor on a space ship is pretty much the same despite the window-dressing you place around it. Dead Space 2 addresses this in fine style with a large share of open areas, subterranean locations and even a nursery level – complete with infect exploding infants!
As you make your way through the game anyone who has played the first Dead Space will notice that things have been kicked up a notch in the speed department. Issac seems to move a lot more fluidly and respond to controls more rapidly. Reloading, stomping and even picking up objects all seem to have been tweaked to allow a slightly faster style of play. This title nicely straddles a third person shooter / survival horror divide with even greater success than Resident Evil 5.
Don’t expect the game to be all shooting though. There are a handful of logic puzzles that do little more than slow you down but at least make a nice break to the onslaught of Necromorphs coming at you. There is a much large emphasis placed on your ability to levitate objects in this update – this will be the main way you tackle a large majority of the puzzles mentioned. Be that sliding a bridge with telekinesis or using it to place rocket canisters on hatches to blow them open. Anyone familiar with the puzzles employed in Valve’s seminal Half Life 2 will have an idea of where things are at.
The in game shops are plentiful this time, as are the save points and upgrade benches. Collecting enough money to guy the latest suit or weapon can be a little frustrating near the start but as you get towards the latter parts of the game, say chapter nine onwards, you can collect cash fairly rapidly if you do a little exploring off the beaten path. The weapons on offer range from the awesome to the meh but which ones are which will depend on your personal taste. For me I loved and upgraded the hell out of the Plasma Cutter (the first weapon you get) and the Line Gun. I complimented those with the Plasma rifle, flamethrower, sniper rifle and pulse gun.
Collecting Power Nodes throughout the game will allow you to upgrade the weapons, suit (RIG) and statis ability (your ability to freeze objects and enemies). A neat addition is the ability to re-spec at any time and remove the power nodes from a upgraded item and then distribute them again. This gives you the chance to get out of some bad update decisions!
Longevity is NOT going to be a problem here. The game is a reasonable walk on easy and a solid enough challenge on Normal. All these pale in to the background when you take a stab at the Zealot difficulty or the Hardcore one. Zealot is hard, really hard but at least you can carry over your suits, weapons etc from previous play throughs thanks to a very well implemented New Game+ feature. Attempt Zealot without a pre-spec’d Issac and you will be made in to a Necromorph’s ***** in moments. All that seems like child’s play when you crank it on to Hardcore and find you have a handful of saves to last you the whole game and it’s all pretty much a one hit death.
Even discounting the varying difficulties, the New Game+ feature and the compulsion to play it straight through again at the end – there is plenty to be gotten out of Dead Space 2 thanks to the multiplayer element. Ok , EA have stepped in with their online pass trickery once again but this will only some in to affect if you plan to buy the game second hand. The multiplayer is a nice diversions for a few hours but it will be no replacement in any way for your staple COD/BFBC2 play sessions. What is there has been implimented well enough but the environments don;t necessary lend themselves to a large multiplayer experience.
Over the ten plus hours your first play through will take you I’ll wager you will fall in to one of two camps. You will either finish the game satisfied then put a few hours in to the multiplayer until you shelve the game, appetite for a great paced horror title sated. Or you will feel exactly the same and want to dive straight back in again. Repeated plays will offer slight monotony as the creatures tend to spawn in the same places, the same way, each time. That said it never gets old blasting a Necromorphs legs off and watching it still drag it’s bloodied carcass towards you – ending in a boot to the head. Many have said this game is “scary”. I have to agree on some level. This game made me the most jumpy and paranoid of any other title I’ve played. They do employ some very cheap jump scares but these are not the times things got unsettling for me. No, the real tension and dread came from the dimply lit corridors, the slow thud of Issac’s boots and then maybe the sudden sound of an object falling or scraping against something. The tension was palpable at times and keeps you paranoid and on your toes throughout. Perhaps if you played the game in daylight with stereo speakers you might not get this. Playing the game at night, in the pitch dark with the 5.1 cranked pretty much made me loose bowl control at times.
Final Thoughts Dead Space 2 is a superb example of a second generation title. It took all the things right with the first game refined them and then added a few things the fans wanted. The story is mediocre and has massive F.E.A.R and Condemned overtones but that really is irrelevant in the overall scheme. You get a superb amount of game for your money and a new king in the survival horror genre – such as it is. This is the definitive version of the game as you get the PS3 exclusive update to Dead Space Extraction bundled in it for free. There are a few ******* here and there but you won’t find a better game of this style on the market at this time. Do I want a Dead Space 3? Of that, I’m certain!
Edited by Kire667, Feb 25 2011, 06:19 AM.
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"When I came into the game they didn't do nothing but doubt me. Now the whole game's changed and it ain't nothing without me."
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Mitch
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Feb 25 2011, 05:51 AM
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NGoR Elder
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The first two games that came to mind when i saw this post were: Halo and Left4dead. lol
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Kire667
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Feb 25 2011, 06:13 AM
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Watch "Trailer 1" it is from middle year 2010 but does it the most justice until I finish my video of the opening scene for this game. The game is non stop running and dodging enemies from start to finish. You fight your way through so many necromorphs before you FINALLY get a weapon to fire back with.
I think this explains it best. I said it in clanchat at RuneScape and I'll say this again now. Most games start you off with no guns. This game starts your off in a straight jacket. Your only option is "Press left bumper to run." And good luck!
Mitch: Yeah but it's better than Halo because it wasn't scary and it was too colorful. Halo was made to be epic. Dead Space was made to be freaky.
It's more like Doom 3, F.E.A.R. 1 and 2, Silent Hill, Dead Island or Condemned. I wouldn't necessarily even list Dead Rising in there because yet again that game was made for a large scale epic game rather than a scared ****less experience fighting in dim lit areas or close quarters like Dead Space is famous for. Same I've seen only from F.E.A.R. titles.
They use the same method as Resident Evil 4 and 5 where you have to rapidly press the action button to survive for some cut scenes. Gives players more of an interaction rather than pause and come back later after the movie parts done. You never know if you're going to die in the very next second or you have to rapid fire at a horde of enemies busting through random walls and doors and even ceiling and floor too. So yeah.. reminds me more of Doom and F.E.A.R. than anything else.
Edited by Kire667, Feb 25 2011, 06:15 AM.
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"When I came into the game they didn't do nothing but doubt me. Now the whole game's changed and it ain't nothing without me."
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Sam
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Feb 25 2011, 06:24 AM
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MotM Oct'09
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu6tW4u9BOc
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Mitch
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Feb 25 2011, 06:36 AM
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NGoR Elder
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Ive only ever played Halo 1
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Kire667
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Jan 31 2013, 07:32 PM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EXhaO1IbXrE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAd6DIcI7U
2 years later and... It's Back!
Edited by Kire667, Jan 31 2013, 07:34 PM.
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"When I came into the game they didn't do nothing but doubt me. Now the whole game's changed and it ain't nothing without me."
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