• Summary: Hero Isaac Clarke returns for another heart-pounding adventure, taking the fight to the Necromorphs in this thrilling action-horror experience. New tools to gruesomely slice and dismember the Necromorphs complement Isaac's signature Plasma Cutter, empowering him as he meets new characters, explores epic Zero-G environments, and fights against a relentless necromorph onslaught. Survival isn't the only thing on Isaac's mind in Dead Space 2 – this time, he calls the shots. [Electronic Arts] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 28
  2. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. Jan 25, 2011
    95
    Many horror games are able to deliver shocks during play, but none does it as well as Dead Space 2. Isaac's inner struggle in the tense setting of "Sprawl" provides an unforgettable atomsphere, making Dead Space 2 one of the most terrifying and unmissable horror games this generation and the benchmark for others to follow.
  2. Jan 25, 2011
    95
    Dead Space 2 is the best Survival Horror of this generation.
  3. Feb 24, 2011
    70
    If you loved the first Dead Space, you'll like this one. Just not as much. [Mar 2011, p.64]

See all 28 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 84 out of 101
  2. Negative: 12 out of 101
  1. The game is amazing. The graphics is quit low end, but it is wrapped up so well that you will NEVER notice it, except for those brief moments when you have to observe the save station or some corpses. This is clearly the scariest series in history. After playing the first part, not a single horror movie will scare you. After playing both... At least I forgot what fear means... It is incredibly sick and sadistic and well, everything you would expect from a game made my maniacs... Great game. Scary, beautiful, dynamic, tense, sadistic. Ultimate challenge for your nerves... and your sanity. 10/10 Expand
    • 4 of 4 users said yes
  2. GOOD: They [Visceral] fixed mouse acceleration so the mouse movement is now much more crisp. Isaac is also slightly more agile, and melee is semi-effective now. Weapon selection now shows total ammo for weapons. The new weapons are useful and powerful. There is more variation in armor appearance now. The art assets are professional and polished, as usual, and the faces of the characters look more alive. BAD: Encountered several bugs within the first few hours, including sudden crashes to desktop and inability to access menus (therefore being unable to save also). The game is extremely linear, like one long Mass Effect 2 side mission - even more linear than first person shooters from the 90s. The new music is completely forgettable. They have really overdone it with the babies. There are literally like 5 different types of baby/child enemies in this game, not including ones attached to larger enemies. They probably thought this was scary but instead these enemies just took the form of annoying pests as evil babies always do in video games. In graphics, there were no visible improvements from Dead Space 1 - no performance increase, no more detail, and some of the textures were even more noticeably low-res. This is because the game was targeted for a console release on hardware that is about 6 years old now. The game is, of course, a brief PC port of a console game. The story could have been predicted without even playing the game, and it wasn't that original to begin with in the first one, so that's nothing new. Trying to characterize Isaac was a noble attempt, but they just ended up turning him into another generic hero guy with a generic hero guy voice and attitude. The other characters were extremely typical of survival horror and especially of this series. This would not be so bad if the gameplay were generally original, but it essentially went from Resident Evil 4/System Shock 2 to Doom 3/God of War. The entire game is one long high-tech corridor with intermittent space walks inserted in. Power node conservation is no longer an important game element as all the emergency rooms are within a few feet of a power node. Conserving stasis energy is no longer an important game element as it recharges. Thinking is no longer an important game element as the most difficult puzzles in the game generally involve moving an object from point A to point B, and if stasis is required there is a tank right there. Oxygen conservation is no longer an important game element (they even took out oxygen tanks as items) as each outdoor area is littered with oxygen stations. The game is even less scary than the first, if that's possible, relying mostly on poorly lit (read: badly lit) rooms and monster closets for scares, much like Doom 3. The game also makes Isaac out to be some incredible killing machine, able to take down huge waves of enemies, break people's arms with his bare hands (yes), fly hundreds of miles through space while dodging debris wearing only a layer of protection, and punch people's heads off, which dampens any sort of frightening atmosphere, as you might imagine. To top it off, there's even a malevolent force (the hallucination of Isaac's dead girlfriend, Nicole) which completely falls flat 100% of the time in the scare department, mostly resorting to taunting you and cackling while twirling its proverbial moustache or ripping off that Scarecrow gas effect from Batman Begins. The game is roughly 3/4 as long as the original Dead Space, although they try to hide this by putting about 6 incredibly short chapters in (bringing the total to 15) in the hopes that you might not realize that it's several hours shorter than an already fairly short game. Overall the game was a bit of a disappointment and I wouldn't say it's worth $60. Knowing what I know now, I'd pick it up at about $20. Expand
    • 14 of 29 users said yes
  3. 4
    At least they fixed the controls. The first game was hardly ground breaking, but was kinda original, a little scary and fun. This is just Dead Space 1.1, could have been released as DLC. Few new weapons, same old engine and much more linear gameplay. At least in the first game they had a semi-valid reason hey were holding you in a room to fight a few waves of necro's (bio quarantine), now they just expect you to believe that there are numerous coincidentally timed power outages to vital doors. Not new, not different, very one dimensional, overuse of quicktime events and far too easy and short. Expand
    • 4 of 7 users said yes

See all 101 User Reviews