Toss in some new disturbing enemies and surprises I won't ruin for you and you have a game that can feel like 'the same old thing' at times but becomes much more than that as a whole.

I know that 'linear' is a bad word in the video game industry, but the package is so well done here that I can't knock Dead Space 2 for taking me on a very specific ride that's marked by awesome moments, environments that range from a cheery schoolhouse to pitch black rooms, and sound that's so well done I'd find myself trying to figure out if it was a monster making its move or my dog rummaging in the living room. You're funneled down these halls and corridors on your way from Point A to Point B, and ghouls pop out for you to blast. Visceral stripped out the stuff that slowed down the original game (backtracking, getting disoriented, etc.) and ended up with a fast-paced game that's suspenseful and scary at the same time. Dead Space 2 is pretty much the best haunted house attraction ever. The cast is fleshed out, but Isaac steals the show. Slowing down a Necromorph, blowing off its arm, and using the severed limb to impale the foe on a wall is a thing of beauty that doesn't get old. You can stomp crates in a jiff and melee attack bodies for loot, grabbing things with your telekinesis is responsive, and mixing all of this together with the different weapons in the game is a blast. It's more satisfying than it was in the original. Right behind Isaac's struggle on my list of cool stuff is the combat. But I have lots of favorite parts to Dead Space 2. Isaac's internal conversations and hallucinations are among my favorite parts of this game. Isaac doesn't let anyone else in on the fact that he's coming unglued, so as a player I get to see who he really is and the facade he presents to the other characters. That's heavy stuff and it makes for a really engaging story. The guilt is tearing his very sanity apart. 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. 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. 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.

As Isaac, you'll pick up your plasma cutter, don an engineering suit and take the fight to the beasts out to kill you.

Dead space 2 story setting