Isaac Clarke is having a bad day. How bad? His girlfriend committed suicide on-board a ship overrun with necromorphs.  She then turned into a necromorph and tried to kill Isaac. It doesn’t help that it was Isaac’s idea that she take the job on-board that ship in the first place. 3 years after the events of the first Dead Space which took place in the USG Ishimura, Isaac wakes up in a mental institute with no memory of how he got there. It turns out that the Sprawl (a huge civilian area on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons) is suffering from it’s own necromorph outbreak. The icing on the cake? He’s suffering from frequent hallucinations, is having trouble determining reality from his visions and has an unstoppable urge to find and destroy the Marker, the source of the infection.

With a setup like that, you might be expecting a rather grim game. You’d be right. Isaac’s journey takes him into the heart of despair and back. Ultimately, what makes the tale so compelling is Isaac. His journey looking for answers for the source of the necromorph outbreak while dealing with the psychological problems of living through the terrible events aboard the Ishimura create a character that by all means should be broken. Yet despite it all, Isaac never lets anyone else in on his personal demons. While it may be a stereotype as old as time itself, the writing is superb, and the story takes some very unexpected twists all the way through. It’s also nice that it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, which is somewhat common in the second game of a franchise.

It never hurts to look really cool as you shoot things.

In addition to the massive improvements in storytelling and character development over the first Dead Space, the gameplay has been streamlined and polished to a fine sheen. Back on the Ishimura, Isaac was an ill prepared engineer with no combat experience and it played like it. Controls were clunky, movement was stiff, and it was almost impossible to hit anything with a melee attack (which is kind of a problem in a game that primarily throws melee-type enemies at you). Now, Isaac is ready for the fight. Aiming is smoother, melee attacks are actually useful, and you just get a better feeling of control. The strong selection of weapons from Dead Space 1 return, with a few excellent improvements. The upgrade system is largely the same, but with little tweaks to make it even better, like upgrades that completely change a weapon’s secondary function instead of just increasing damage. Add in a strong selection of suits of armor, and you’ve got a highly customizable experience.

The customization is also good in the brand new multiplayer component that is somewhat completely similar to Left 4 Dead 2’s versus mode. You have two teams of four, with the humans fighting against a team of necromorphs (whose numbers are bolstered by basic AI necromorphs). The necromorphs have 4 different types to choose from, each with it’s own strengths and weaknesses, while the humans get to pick secondary weapons and suit type. Interestingly enough, leveling up often nets you passive bonuses instead of cosmetic improvements and weapons. However, the matchmaking is good enough that you will rarely get pinned against a team with a better arsenal than you. Even when it does, balance never gets too out of whack if you’ll actually work together as a team. All those gun upgrades won’t mean a whole lot when you’ve got 4 space zombies chewing on various extremities all at once. Add in a decent variety of maps each with a different selection of objectives for the humans to complete and you’ve got a very fun experience.

Ultimately, this is one of the great games that takes what made its predecessor special while improving the crap. The longevity of the experience has been extended with a fantastic multiplayer component, the art style is the same as the first but largely improved on a technical level, and the little things like a complete lack of a traditional HUD return to make a unique, intense experience you can’t get anywhere else.

Pros: Excellent singleplayer component with lots of reasons to play through it multiple times, awesome multiplayer, a superb graphics engine, chilling audio effects, and the whole sequence with the brute in the Unitology building. Seriously.

Cons: In all seriousness though, the high level of intensity and gore may scare off a few people. This is not a game for the weak stomached. Or those who like a lot of ketchup on their hotdogs (please don’t do that to yourself). Also, the high level of difficulty may be further deterrent for those on the fence about a purchase.

Bottom Line: Those with the capability to deal with the content will find an amazing journey into insanity and back, and you’ll even be able to keep playing it over the long term due to the excellent multiplayer.