DEAD SPACE 2

PLATFORMS: PS3, XBOX 360 AND PC

GENRE: THIRD-PERSON ACTION ADVENTURE

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:  

OS: Windows XP (SP2), Windows Vista, Windows 7
CPU: 2.8 GHz processor or equivalent (any Pentium 4 2.8 GHz or better, AMD Athlon64 3000+ or better, any Athlon64 X2 or Core Duo processor)
RAM: 1 GB (XP), 2 GB (Vista or Win7) or more
DISC DRIVE: 8x speed or faster CD/DVD drive
HARD DRIVE: At least 10 GB of free space
VIDEO: 256 MB Video Card and Shader Model 3.0 required. NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or better (7300, 7600 GS, and 8500 are below minimum system requirements) ATI X1600 Pro or better (X1300, X1300 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)
SOUND: Direct 9.0c compatible sound card

 Dead Space 2 is an amazing game. I'm going to write about its scary moments, cool kills, and how much I dig the main character's internal struggle, but Dead Space 2 is about more than this. When I beat it for the first time, I sat on the couch with my heart racing and dissected the journey I had just taken. Then, I started my second playthrough, and when that was done, I jumped into a new game for the third time. Dead Space 2 is just that good.

 It's been three years since the events of the first game, but protagonist Isaac Clarke still can't catch a break. At the beginning of Dead Space 2, he wakes on a space station known as the Sprawl and finds the place is overwhelmed by an outbreak of reanimated corpses called Necromorphs. From the very first moment of the game, Isaac's fighting for his life.

         

  This is where you come in. As Isaac, you'll pick up your plasma cutter, don an engineering suit and take the fight to the beasts out to kill you. The overarching goal is to find and destroy the religious idol (known as the Marker) causing all of this, but the story that makes Dead Space 2 great is the internal war Isaac's fighting. Unlike Uncharted's Nathan Drake who can kill a few hundred pirates and never seem worn down by it, Isaac is totally ruined by the events of the original Dead Space. He saw things no man should have to during his time on the spaceship USG Ishimura, but it's the fact that Isaac's girlfriend died on the vessel after he encouraged her to work there that really haunts him.

My desire to jump back in really speaks to the shift in Isaac's perspective this time around. Some fans threw hissy fits when Visceral said that there'd be more action in Dead Space 2, but it works and I love it. Isaac feels like a badass here, and he should. He's fought these monsters before and he's used these weapons before. The first game was a scared engineer tossed into hell. The second game is a guy who's lost everything to these monsters and really has nothing left to lose so hell yes he'll put his life on the line and shoot out an airlock if it means killing seven Necromorphs at once. Isaac is stronger here and I feel stronger playing as him

Dead Space 2 is more than just an action game and it's more than a survival horror game -- it's a game that tells a really personal story about a guy who has been seriously scarred by the events around him. That premise alone makes it interesting, but Visceral Games melds it with rewarding combat, shocking enemies, and huge set pieces before tossing it into a world that's truly creepy and scary. I didn't find multiplayer that interesting and would've liked to have seen Isaac stop being an errand boy, but none of that spoils what you're getting here. The shocking moments, the gruesome deaths, and the fun of playing through this experience again and again are what I took away from this one.

 Dead Space 2 is an excellent game, and it's well worth your time and money.