What do you think of Dead Space, and do you think the second one can contend with it? I ask because I've bought it on amazon and heard great things about it from friends and people on the Interwebs, but I think one more opinion can't hurt.
Well thank you for the question my good sir.
Dead Space was one of those games I had heard about from various sources and decided that it was worth a playthrough. Dead Space stands with LIMBO and Amnesia: The Dark Descent as games that will totally engross the player into the experience.
Dead Space's choice to have the entire game (excluding pressing Start) to run in real-time, compounded with there being no traditional HUD, makes you really connect with Isaac Clarke, the protagonist.
Dead Space was a critical game that needed to come at the time it did, much like Bioshock and Crysis 2. Survival Horror was pretty much dead at that point, and with only Resident Evil 5 in the industry's sights, no scares were to be had, until Dead Space, a brand new IP from Visceral Games, came onto the scene, made us soil our pants, drool at the 2nd best (Crysis was out at this time) graphics out there, and sat around as a horror king until the aforementioned A:TDD came out last year.
That being said, Dead Space 2 was the second major game of 2011, and the first game of EA's "Year of EA", a title I call 2011 due to massive amounts of recent Electronic Arts Activity. It didn't change much from the first game, but ammo became easier to come by (hint: Stomp the bodies), the aesthetic changed from brown to blue-ish, Isaac was given more face-time and a pretty good voice-actor, and the game became a bit more action-oriented.
I applaud all of the above. Any movement away from the now-mainstream brownish colors of games is usually good (See Crysis 2, Halo Reach, Super Meat Boy, Child of Eden), and Dead Space 2's varying environments and varying scares are immensely satisfying.
The Orignal Dead Space was different from it's obvious comparison, Resident Evil 4, i.e. Isaac could move while aiming, and had ridiculously powerful weapons (THE RIPPER!). Dead Space 2 has a lot more bosses, and fleshes out a lot of its mechanics a lot more than in the first game. Stasis and Kinesis were interesting powers in Dead Space, but they were impractical most of the time, unless I was facing a Brute. Dead Space 2 makes the two powers more useful to the player, allowing them to make quick tactical decisions when bearing down in the more varied Necromorph Horde.
Isaac Clarke was included in Game Informer's 30 Most Important Game Characters article, but only as a sidebar, a character that was noticeable, but just missed the mark, much like Faith from Mirror's Edge and Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell. The Master Chief and Isaac were very comparable before Dead Space 2, both were quiet (the Chief spoke more, surprisingly), both wore full-body suits, and never showed there face. Well, Isaac showed his and the end of Dead Space, and you can turn the camera around in the opening cutscene of the game to get a good look at the engineer, but the rest of the game it's just the back of that fishbowl helmet and you.
Dead Space 2 gave Isaac a voice, a pretty **** good one at that, and when he took off his helmet, he didn't share the lack of detail he had in the original. He could finally show emotion, and the events of the previous game carried over onto Issac's face, he's scarred from his insanity, and many portions of Dead Space 2's most intense moments are all from Mr. Clarke's messed-up mojo.
Dead Space was one of the best games of this generation, a definite 9.5 in my books, (and the 20th greatest modern game to IGN.com) and Dead Space 2 is a fantastic sequel, a 9.75.
you'll enjoy all that Dead Space has to offer, and if you finish playing the first game, look around for the animated Dead Space movies, they're ridiculously good and shining gems for any fan of the franchise.
-Chillz
