It’s a contained apocalypse, a preview of the devastation that would be wrought should the necromorphs make their way to Earth. While the Sprawl never becomes as coherent or identifiable of a space as the rusted, utilitarian halls of the Ishimura, Dead Space 2’s level design offer a chance to witness the necromorph infestation subvert the sanctity of many recognizable civilian locations: apartment complexes splattered with the blood of their occupants, a gothic church built by the Unitologist cult that orchestrated the outbreak, a school littered with shrieking monsters created from the bodies of children. The refurbishment also extends to the environments, with the Sprawl being a modern civilian station with government funding that offers a stark contrast to the beyond-its-time mining ship of the first game. Dead Space 2 | Visceral Games and Electronic Arts It’s a progression that makes sense after all, Isaac had no combat experience at the start of Dead Space 1, but having sliced his way through hundreds of necromorphs on the Ishimura, it stands to reason that he’d be more confident and skilled this time around.
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Instead of leaping through zero gravity with no way to change direction after he takes off, Isaac can now effectively fly through zero gravity areas with full 360 degree control. Isaac now moves faster, his aiming is smoother, and his melee attacks no longer feel useless. Dead Space 2 plays similarly to its predecessor, but with numerous refinements that iron out any previous clunkiness. This shift in focus pairs well with the tweaks to gameplay. The outbreak is already out of hand, and it’s only getting worse. With many of the secrets of the necromorphs and the Markers having already been revealed, Dead Space 2 opts instead to be a roller coaster, an experience driven less by atmosphere and more by impulse, the tension generated less by resource management and exploration but by a constant sense of escalation. The Ishimura was a haunted house in space: a confined, static location with mysteries to solve and horrors to uncover. While it’s decidedly more propulsive and action-heavy than its predecessor, it’s all in service of a deliberate change in focus. This is why there is no mistaking Dead Space 2 for anything but a survival horror game.
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The world of Dead Space 2 is gasping for breath, with the walls always closing in, the blood painting the windows not yet having had the chance to turn brown. The world of the first Dead Space was long dead, the Ishimura a graveyard floating through the stars. Fires rage, screams echo in the halls, explosions shake the floor beneath Isaac’s boots. Civilians flee in terror, many of them slaughtered by the creatures only moments before you could have stepped in to save them. Where before Isaac arrived at the starship Ishimura after almost all the crew are dead and the carnage is over, here the player gets to witness the outbreak take over the Sprawl first-hand. The first few chapters do an excellent job of situating the player in a very different headspace than that of the first game. The necromorph outbreak isn’t something Isaac can stop, or even really slow down. But the feeling of powerlessness the opening instills also plays into one of the game’s central conceits: that despite everything Isaac accomplishes, it’s never enough. The player is strapped in for the ride and has no effect on the outcome. As a linear single-player adventure, there is no way to go off the pre-set path the developers have designed. It’s an appropriate metaphor for the entire experience.
The first moment the player has any control of Isaac, they have to flee as the necromorphs ravage the hospital, with no ability to fight back yet because he’s still trapped in a straitjacket.
Franco, the man who has come to rescue Isaac, is attacked by an infector and transforms before Isaac’s eyes into a necromorph, the reanimated flesh-monsters that act as the franchise’s antagonists. In the opening moments of Dead Space 2, protagonist Isaac Clarke awakens in a mental hospital aboard the Sprawl, a city-sized space station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan.
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