Dead Space 2 Demo. *EDIT*

I've finally had a chance to complete the Dead Space 2 demo, so I wanted to give a little insight on EA's and Visceral Game's next big release.

*UPDATE* I saw this viral video while surfin' the web. What a great campaign! However, I'm pretty sure my mom would think Dead Space is pretty awesome.

Anyway, on with the demo!



The demo starts off with a little intro video summing up the story from the first game: Planetcracking, corruption, Religious cults, etc.. They also take the time to weave in some images from the Wii's entry into the Dead Space saga, Dead Space: Extraction. Extraction is a prequel, which details the adventures of a few people as the Marker finds it's way aboard the Ishimura. Isaac Clarke is sent down with an engineering team to investigate the Ishimura, but his true motive was to make sure his love interest, who works on the Ishimura, wasn't dead (Yeah, about that...). 




Three years after these events, Issac wakes up in a hospital on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The narrator tells you that the Marker changes all, and that Issac's mind is no longer the same, flashing grotesque images of Necromorphs. Then, the gameplay starts.

Isaac's main objective during the demo is to rendezvous with someone named Daina, who says she can cure his hallucinations. You start off in a dank, metallic hallway which I imagine means that shit already hit the fan on the space station.

The RIG menu pops up, a well-organized and integrated menu system that allows for quick selection while not taking you out of the action. This is a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it's very easy to use and navigate. On the other hand, you can't pause to access it. This adds a bit of realism and suspense to the game because Isaac doesn't freeze mid-battle to check his pockets. To help, the designers mapped auto-healing to the B button, and made drawing your weapon instantly take you out of the menu.

After a brief tutorial on how to smash corpses, you are taken through several alike rooms, which look like Cryogenic chambers. The first room is empty, with nothing but broken glass and creepy noises to keep you company. This allows you to really listen to the creaks and groans, drips and scrapes of the derelict station; This builds the suspense. Then bang! Necromorphs. Nope, just a hallucination. These will probably be common place in the game: The player isn't going to know what's physical or mental. The next room BANG! NECROMORPH from the broken pipe! Nope? Just some steam? Even Isaac is scared and lets out a scream.

 

As you approach the next door, you hear crashing and scraping beyond it, muffled. You're thinking, "That's gotta be an enemy," so you open the door and back up, drawing your weapon, either a Plasma Cutter, Line Gun, Machine Gun, and Javelin Gun. Nothing again, so you make your way though to the next door. Then, a Necromorph bursts out of a tube, giving you your first encounter. Now, the combat in dead space is this: You can't just shoot them in the head, you need to "Strategically Dismember" them to achieve total death.  Then, in the next room. You don't get just one enemy... you get SIX.

The next room is a brief intro to the short puzzle sections of Dead Space, using the game's hacking mini-game, stasis (time-slowing), and kinesis (tether grab) abilities. These are similar to the same game, minus some tweaking with the mini-game, which is a lot like Batman: Arkham Asylum's. After the puzzle, you are treated to a nice, revamped anti-gravity section. In the first game, you could only jump from surface to surface in a straight line. Not anymore! Now Isaac's suit is equipped with jet boosters, allowing free-roam anti-gravity movement. I think this will lead to a lot of interesting puzzles and enemy encounters.

And then... NEW, IMPROVED, BAD ASS SUIT! Which apparently was free. Then why the hell am I picking up coin from corpses in the demo?

 The last big area of the demo is a dramatic change in scenery: A church. Complete with candles, fancy carpets, and stained glass. Whether this is a secret church for the cultists or something else, I'm not sure but it'll be interesting to find out. You are grabbed by a tentacle monster, which happened a lot in the last game. I liked these parts because it was a brief change in gameplay style and a nice way to get a scare in since they happened at random. After chopping your way through some more Necromorphs a big, hulking mass of death confronts you, ending the demo.

 Phew, that was a lot more than I expected to write, but there is so much more I could say about this demo. EA did a good job of cramming in the basics to get players excited for the main course coming out next week. The environments are nicely done, the gameplay is varied and satisfying, it's scary, and the ambiance is spot-on. I just hope there is an anti-gravity basketball mini-game using the new physics, maybe with some Necromorphic Globetrotters.