KillerOfCereal
March 25th, 2011, 04:01 PM
http://spawnkill.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/dead-space-2-logo.jpg
“Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye” Well I can safely say that is what I did while playing Dead Space 2. Dead Space 2 is a game that has too many words to describe, so I’ll stick with the first two that come in mind; Scary and Addictive. Through out the entire course of my Dead Space adventure, I had two things in mind. One was to stay alive and Two was to find some freaking ammo. Many times you’ll find yourself with very few bullets left or plentiful amount of bullets and virtually no health! This is where balancing is a key factor in surviving this Sprawl infestation. Let’s say that you already beat the story and no longer have interest in playing the game through again. Luckily, there is multiplayer! Multiplayer in Dead Space is way too fun for to only play for two days. Too bad that’s what I had to do because I got the game used. A good tip is too buy the game new, unless you have a spare 800 MSP to spend, because you need an online pass to play. That’s EA for ya’! Other than that the game is near perfect! Dead Space 2 is a must for all of you thrill/horror seekers!
Story Mode: I never really played Dead Space 1 entirely and some people asked if me if I needed to play the first one to understand the story, I was pretty confident that I had the story and it shouldn’t be too confusing for me. To my amazement, there was a feature in the Story menu that allows you to see what previously happened in Dead Space 1. So if you haven’t played the first game, have no fear, “Previously on Dead Space 1” is here! When you begin playing the game you are in a strafe jacket in some sort of mental asylum answering questions coming from a psychologist. While trying to collect your memory, everything begins to turn red and you are haunted by “The Marker” and a misfigured Nicole Brennan talking in a demonic voice. Eventually Isaac passes out and is woken up by Franco, the Dead Space: Ignition protagonist, who is trying to help you out of there. I immediately knew that sh*t was going down because of the blood painted walls and screaming from people running in fear. While Franco is helping you out one of the Sprawl comes out of nowhere and kills good ole’ Franco and turns him into a Necromorph! When this happened, I began to question if buying this game was a good decision. Francomorph begins to attack you, but you shove him off and are contacted by Daina, Franco’s sister, and are told to run for your life. So here you are running through a mental hospital with no weapon, because of the straight-jacket, while everyone around you is being brutally murdered and infected. Within the first 5 minutes of the game, I already felt helpless. I was hoping that later on in the game that that would change, but I was wrong. This game has taught me how to balance between ammo and health. Early in the game you won’t have a lot of inventory slots to keep in game necessities, so you have to conserve. It all depends on how of a great shot you are when it comes to 3rd person shooters on which item you should have more of. I didn’t have great aim when it came down to shooting the arms/tentacles of the Sprawl, so I took more bullets than health.
You can still do pretty well with more health packs than bullets if you know how to use Stasis pretty well. Stasis really comes in handy when you are being rushed by enemies and you don’t have a great reaction time because Stasis slows down the enemy or object you aim at and hit. Unfortunately, you can’t spam Stasis since It doesn’t come with an infinite supply. This where leaving more space in your inventory will be handy. If you are an avid user of Stasis you need have, at minimum, of 3 slots to hold Stasis Packs. I only needed two because I sometimes forgot I had that power at my disposal. Balance is just one of the hardest things to accomplish in this game because of the limited space you have. It gets better though later on because of new armor suits you unlock that bring roughly 5 more slots. I forgot to mention that you can increase the effectiveness of your weapons. To upgrade them you need to find Power Nodes. Power Nodes don’t only upgrade your weapons or your suit, but they open engineer rooms too. In the engineer rooms you can find schematics to new things you can buy in the shop, ammo, & health. I advise you to open every engineer door you find because they may carry schematics to new armor. To find Power Nodes, you need to pay close attention to places away from the main objective. Taking a detour may help you find nifty items that are very helpful, but BEWARE! Many cases when I was taking a detour, I encountered more enemies than normal, so I wouldn’t advise it if you are low on health unless you are certain that there is a health pack somewhere in the path. Now I don’t want to make it seem like you are useless when it comes to your inventory so I want to shed some light on that. When you unlock new armors via schematics, they come with special abilites and a higher inventory slot count usually. The earliest armor you unlock is the Engineering Suit. It has no special abilites, but it has a 10 slot inventory count. Later on you find better armor like the Vintage Suit, which reminds me of the Big Daddy Suit from Bioshock, that comes with a 20 slot inventory count and a special ability where everything in the store is 10% off. Earning credits in the game is fairly easy. All you need is to kill enemies, open a crate, or check an emergency cabinet and you have some money to spend. I know for a fact the first thing you will buy is ammo and health packs. Reaching a safe zone in the game is very rewarding, especially torward the end! I mean after fighting countless Sprawl that are various sizes, from the size of a baby to the size of the Tank from Left 4 Dead, spending all your well earned cash toward supplies and saving is a great feeling. The feeling that you know you can relax for a shortwhile and not suffer a heart attack from scary scenes.
I used to play Fatal Frame III a lot and I thought after that game, that no other game will scare me. Ooooh was I wrong again! There were 3 occasions where I began to scream like a girl because explosive babies dropped from the ceiling or I grabbed a glowstick to lighten the path only to find 5 Necromorphs charging me. Apart from being scary, this game has Its frustrating parts. A lot of times I would end up screaming in anger because I missed a shot or I had very low health and I needed to get through a door to survive. One moment I remember the most was the zero gravity area and I had to fly through these grinder drill things while being attacked by projectile Sprawl. Dead Space 2’s Story Mode, for me, was like a book. When I started playing, I couldn’t switch to another game until I beat it.
http://www.gamezart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/dead-space-2-limited-edition-20110119060324183.jpg
Multiplayer: I don’t have a lot to say about Multiplayer because of the short time I had to play it, but I found it a lot of fun. It reminded me of Left 4 Dead, but don’t think It’s a copy of it! The multiplayer is very different than Left 4 Dead’s just because it wasn’t a Point A to Point B for the Survivors. The Survivors had to do a series of tasks like destroying Markers or getting a battery to a core to blow up a mine while the Sprawl has to stop them. Playing as the survivor’s is very fun because of the time limit you have to complete the task at hand. This promotes a lot of teamwork, which I enjoy very much in a Multiplayer game. Playing as the Sprawl is just as fun because of the scare you can put on the enemy team. Playing as the Sprawl doesn’t require as much teamwork as playing as the Survivors, but it is there. It’s best to have coordinated attacks instead of one after another because of the reaction time the opposing team may have. If I had to choose which side was my favorite, it would be the Survivors. I just enjoy being rushed by teamates to come and help them because they fell behind and being the hero!
http://cdn.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/dead-space-2.jpg
In conclusion, Dead Space 2 is a game that you need buy/rent/borrow because of its pure awesomeness. This game made my list of “Must have Games of 2011” and I hope it will make yours.
Final Score:
9.5/10
“Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye” Well I can safely say that is what I did while playing Dead Space 2. Dead Space 2 is a game that has too many words to describe, so I’ll stick with the first two that come in mind; Scary and Addictive. Through out the entire course of my Dead Space adventure, I had two things in mind. One was to stay alive and Two was to find some freaking ammo. Many times you’ll find yourself with very few bullets left or plentiful amount of bullets and virtually no health! This is where balancing is a key factor in surviving this Sprawl infestation. Let’s say that you already beat the story and no longer have interest in playing the game through again. Luckily, there is multiplayer! Multiplayer in Dead Space is way too fun for to only play for two days. Too bad that’s what I had to do because I got the game used. A good tip is too buy the game new, unless you have a spare 800 MSP to spend, because you need an online pass to play. That’s EA for ya’! Other than that the game is near perfect! Dead Space 2 is a must for all of you thrill/horror seekers!
Story Mode: I never really played Dead Space 1 entirely and some people asked if me if I needed to play the first one to understand the story, I was pretty confident that I had the story and it shouldn’t be too confusing for me. To my amazement, there was a feature in the Story menu that allows you to see what previously happened in Dead Space 1. So if you haven’t played the first game, have no fear, “Previously on Dead Space 1” is here! When you begin playing the game you are in a strafe jacket in some sort of mental asylum answering questions coming from a psychologist. While trying to collect your memory, everything begins to turn red and you are haunted by “The Marker” and a misfigured Nicole Brennan talking in a demonic voice. Eventually Isaac passes out and is woken up by Franco, the Dead Space: Ignition protagonist, who is trying to help you out of there. I immediately knew that sh*t was going down because of the blood painted walls and screaming from people running in fear. While Franco is helping you out one of the Sprawl comes out of nowhere and kills good ole’ Franco and turns him into a Necromorph! When this happened, I began to question if buying this game was a good decision. Francomorph begins to attack you, but you shove him off and are contacted by Daina, Franco’s sister, and are told to run for your life. So here you are running through a mental hospital with no weapon, because of the straight-jacket, while everyone around you is being brutally murdered and infected. Within the first 5 minutes of the game, I already felt helpless. I was hoping that later on in the game that that would change, but I was wrong. This game has taught me how to balance between ammo and health. Early in the game you won’t have a lot of inventory slots to keep in game necessities, so you have to conserve. It all depends on how of a great shot you are when it comes to 3rd person shooters on which item you should have more of. I didn’t have great aim when it came down to shooting the arms/tentacles of the Sprawl, so I took more bullets than health.
You can still do pretty well with more health packs than bullets if you know how to use Stasis pretty well. Stasis really comes in handy when you are being rushed by enemies and you don’t have a great reaction time because Stasis slows down the enemy or object you aim at and hit. Unfortunately, you can’t spam Stasis since It doesn’t come with an infinite supply. This where leaving more space in your inventory will be handy. If you are an avid user of Stasis you need have, at minimum, of 3 slots to hold Stasis Packs. I only needed two because I sometimes forgot I had that power at my disposal. Balance is just one of the hardest things to accomplish in this game because of the limited space you have. It gets better though later on because of new armor suits you unlock that bring roughly 5 more slots. I forgot to mention that you can increase the effectiveness of your weapons. To upgrade them you need to find Power Nodes. Power Nodes don’t only upgrade your weapons or your suit, but they open engineer rooms too. In the engineer rooms you can find schematics to new things you can buy in the shop, ammo, & health. I advise you to open every engineer door you find because they may carry schematics to new armor. To find Power Nodes, you need to pay close attention to places away from the main objective. Taking a detour may help you find nifty items that are very helpful, but BEWARE! Many cases when I was taking a detour, I encountered more enemies than normal, so I wouldn’t advise it if you are low on health unless you are certain that there is a health pack somewhere in the path. Now I don’t want to make it seem like you are useless when it comes to your inventory so I want to shed some light on that. When you unlock new armors via schematics, they come with special abilites and a higher inventory slot count usually. The earliest armor you unlock is the Engineering Suit. It has no special abilites, but it has a 10 slot inventory count. Later on you find better armor like the Vintage Suit, which reminds me of the Big Daddy Suit from Bioshock, that comes with a 20 slot inventory count and a special ability where everything in the store is 10% off. Earning credits in the game is fairly easy. All you need is to kill enemies, open a crate, or check an emergency cabinet and you have some money to spend. I know for a fact the first thing you will buy is ammo and health packs. Reaching a safe zone in the game is very rewarding, especially torward the end! I mean after fighting countless Sprawl that are various sizes, from the size of a baby to the size of the Tank from Left 4 Dead, spending all your well earned cash toward supplies and saving is a great feeling. The feeling that you know you can relax for a shortwhile and not suffer a heart attack from scary scenes.
I used to play Fatal Frame III a lot and I thought after that game, that no other game will scare me. Ooooh was I wrong again! There were 3 occasions where I began to scream like a girl because explosive babies dropped from the ceiling or I grabbed a glowstick to lighten the path only to find 5 Necromorphs charging me. Apart from being scary, this game has Its frustrating parts. A lot of times I would end up screaming in anger because I missed a shot or I had very low health and I needed to get through a door to survive. One moment I remember the most was the zero gravity area and I had to fly through these grinder drill things while being attacked by projectile Sprawl. Dead Space 2’s Story Mode, for me, was like a book. When I started playing, I couldn’t switch to another game until I beat it.
http://www.gamezart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/dead-space-2-limited-edition-20110119060324183.jpg
Multiplayer: I don’t have a lot to say about Multiplayer because of the short time I had to play it, but I found it a lot of fun. It reminded me of Left 4 Dead, but don’t think It’s a copy of it! The multiplayer is very different than Left 4 Dead’s just because it wasn’t a Point A to Point B for the Survivors. The Survivors had to do a series of tasks like destroying Markers or getting a battery to a core to blow up a mine while the Sprawl has to stop them. Playing as the survivor’s is very fun because of the time limit you have to complete the task at hand. This promotes a lot of teamwork, which I enjoy very much in a Multiplayer game. Playing as the Sprawl is just as fun because of the scare you can put on the enemy team. Playing as the Sprawl doesn’t require as much teamwork as playing as the Survivors, but it is there. It’s best to have coordinated attacks instead of one after another because of the reaction time the opposing team may have. If I had to choose which side was my favorite, it would be the Survivors. I just enjoy being rushed by teamates to come and help them because they fell behind and being the hero!
http://cdn.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/dead-space-2.jpg
In conclusion, Dead Space 2 is a game that you need buy/rent/borrow because of its pure awesomeness. This game made my list of “Must have Games of 2011” and I hope it will make yours.
Final Score:
9.5/10