"Isaac and the Necromorphs: Take Two" - review
Let’s face it – the first Dead Space was a hit, an excellent action game with a great storyline. Electronic Arts truly released a bomb of a game, even if it was a bit derivative in places. Good in its gameplay, Dead Space mostly scared in blatantly clichéd ways: a necromorph would suddenly drop from the ceiling when Isaac Clarke crossed an invisible line, or the developers would intentionally turn off the lights at just the right moment, leaving Isaac to discover that he was far from alone in the room. Even the anemic (referring to the engine) Amnesia: The Dark Descent managed to scare better and in more sophisticated ways. In general, the guys at Visceral Games had a lot to ponder, as the sequel to 'Dead Space' was positioned as a comprehensive work addressing the mistakes of its predecessor. And of course, the development of this promising series.
Greed triumphed over caution. A thousand times warning himself about the dangers lurking in the darkness, a person still ventured into space. And paid for it... Moreover, humanity doesn’t learn from its mistakes. The artifact discovered by the beleaguered engineer on Aegis 7 was destroyed. All the abominations spawned by the mysterious 'Red Obelisk' went through the industrious engineer's trusty cutter and boots. One would think that while heading off into the horizon, Isaac was already plotting his own country home, a bunch of kids, and a gilded Rolls-Royce. But not so fast...
Don’t even try to figure out what this is
Such scenes usually make the player stop and wonder: should I shoot that sitting corpse a couple of times in the head?
Isaac is clearly losing his mind, and this is becoming more and more obvious
And how do people manage to write anything in a fit of fear and panic?
Just give him the suit already!
Regaining consciousness, Isaac, like the player, naturally does not perceive the situation. One of the doctors is desperately trying to remove the straitjacket from us, and the music begins to take on a sinister tone. As a result: something grotesque emerges from the doctor's head, which should, in theory, shock the poor patient. But no, Isaac confidently kicks the monster, something he has done before, and takes off running. A girl named Diane gets in touch with us, screaming that we need to get the hell out of there; arms are reaching for us from left and right - familiar necromorph tendrils from the 'Ishimura' - while the top of our head occasionally catches the warm breath of the dead creatures. And oh horror – the brutal engineer's suit is waiting for its time in the local store, and for now, we will need to watch not only our health but our own face more carefully. But noticing the commotion among the readers, I should clarify: the authors left their key 'cosmic spawn' for later. For now, the player needs to understand the situation, catch their breath, and finally get used to the various bloody scenes: suicides and dismemberments.
Just try to compare the new Clarke with the old one... Notice just his gaze!
This unpleasant character can actually be killed quite easily and effortlessly. The main thing is the distance, of course
Will our descendants really live in such awful places?
The problem with the original Dead Space was its monotonous environment. Visceral Games vowed to fix this error in the sequel, and it’s no wonder that the action took place on the space station 'Megalopolis', which orbits Saturn. The 'Ishimura' was, of course, a nice place for a horror action game, but the new 'Megalopolis' is undoubtedly one of the strongest aspects of Dead Space 2. While strolling through the mall, players will hear tunes from popular music, see a plethora of neon signs advertising local soda. And upon hearing our assistant's message about the need to navigate through the old engineering tunnel with the trash compactor for survival... Here, involuntarily, you might curse, a part of the game's integral process, I might add.
But 'Megalopolis' isn't just about commercial, industrial, and residential districts. The 'Ishimura' greeted Isaac with a pile of bodies and necromorphs, while in Dead Space 2, get ready to see crowds... of living people. Yes, they are terribly scared; many haven’t even processed what has happened, and remain seated on benches... Shouts of the still-living can be heard here and there, behind closed doors, a child's cry, and human shadows force Isaac to raise his cutter – you can't trust shadows. How long has the engineer gone without seeing a real person, with arms and legs, and this new chapter in his life forces the poor guy to pull himself together and hope for a bright future. After all, who else besides himself can manage to not lose their mind amid the ensuing chaos?
Civilians are in shock: they're being eaten and dismembered
In a few seconds, a necromorph will favor our back
The advertised weightlessness level: Isaac in a trash container
And that child's cry... It will haunt the player in nightmares, rest assured. Your first encounter with mutated first-graders will turn into sheer hell for the hefty Isaac, who, ignoring his trusty yet slow cutter, pulls out a formidable automatic gun and starts firing wildly. You don't think about the remaining ammo – just get the protagonist out of this mess. But there's also an alternate solution: using stasis to slow the unruly little one and snipe their head off with a precise shot. In combating larger, yet less mobile necromorphs, telekinesis is recommended. When low on ammo for the automatic, you can simply lift something particularly heavy with this ability (in extreme cases, a limb from the monster itself) and throw it at the enemy. At standard difficulty, there are hardly any issues with ammo, so if your nerves exceed the norm, I suggest picking a more challenging difficulty.
The father assures the child that mom has already been saved. Not quite – in a minute we’ll disturb her in the private quarters
This little creature turns simple corpses into walking corpses
No, we are not dead. Just Isaac is trying to catch up to a high-speed train with his suit
Just like at a children's morning play, isn’t it?
As I mentioned in my preview, Isaac Clarke transformed from a hostage of circumstances into something of a 'detective-meat grinder'. And while the phrase 'What the fuck' slips by just as often (earlier, Isaac couldn’t speak due to sheer shock and stress, but believe me, had our protagonist been able to move his lips, the volume of the speakers would have to be turned down to a minimum), the imprint of previous years is evident: seasoned by his stay on the nightmarish 'Ishimura', the engineer now shows no fear towards the decomposing spawn, instead confidently stomping and swinging his fists, bewildered. What has happened on the station, who is Taydman, what does the government want, why does the stranger wish to help poor Isaac, what are the true motives of the purported psycho (in fact, I don’t know yet either) Nolan Stroud, and lastly, is what is occurring merely a figment of the sick brain of a mentally ill engineer? The protagonist simply has no choice but to seek a way out of the situation. The law of the Dead Space series is simple as ever – either you are them, or they are you. There’s no third option.
New levels will come with new skins for characters
"Minimorphs" gave us trouble in the campaign, so prepare to experience the same online
Isaac Vs. Isaac: A brawl of Isaac's
Undoubtedly, a fan of great games didn't just walk into the store for Dead Space 2 because of the amazing campaign but also for the game's main innovation for the sequel – multiplayer. There weren't any problems connecting to EA servers (and the fact that I started panicking prematurely in the chat... in this case, that's normal), and without thinking long, I chose 'Quick Game'. After all, I have no idea about the gameplay mechanics here, only a couple of nuances were known. It turned out everything was pretty predictable: four Isaac Clarks face off against four monsters, and vice versa. The human objective is described in the briefing, in my case, I needed to upload coordinates of some sort of target into the computers. A small map, eight players, step-by-step movement of engineers toward a specific goal. Completing a stage grants a new respawn point because the fallen Isaac needs to find a way back to the living team.
The necromorphs, disregarding the death count, must do everything in their power to hinder the movement of the tough guys in heavy suits. The options include: the Pack (those same kids who have high mobility), Lurker (a weak creature in close combat but capable of causing a lot of trouble by shooting spikes from afar), as well as Spitter and Puker. To be honest, I haven’t noticed much difference between the last two yet – the dynamics of the fights were too high.
Lobby
At first glance, a regular 4 vs. 4 scheme turns out to be... for now, just an ordinary game. The first few battles weren’t a revelation, but I'm sure the situation will change with experience. Quite literally: by winning rounds, killing, and assisting, our subject gains invaluable experience. Over time, we’ll be able to change the appearance (the four Isaac clones look a bit caricatured), and the weapons. But for now, prepare for a meager arsenal and a bunch of engineer doubles – hardly anyone has had a chance to really level up in the recently released Dead Space 2.
It's abysmally interesting
It may sound cliché, but the second part of Dead Space is a prime example of a correct sequel in every sense. Graphically, the game meets modern standards and doesn’t hesitate to demand high hardware performance (as in, it doesn't lag), and the sound design is beyond praise. From a gameplay perspective, everything is also in its place: instilling fear and panic in the gamer, a sudden attack from one necromorph, a brief respite, and then an encounter with a crowd of terrifying creatures. And then a walk through a beautifully crafted location, stunning views of the space station, and new shocks. EA definitely struck gold with Visceral Games, a team whose potential is now comparable to the leading game development studios on the planet. There are dozens of comics on the horizon, a pair of novellas, and a film, of which there hasn’t been news for quite a while. But the undeniable success of Dead Space 2 in the gaming market should give Hollywood directors and producers a kick, because what kind of fool would not try to make a movie based on one of the main horror titles of the twentieth century? A big one, I guess.
