Poor Isaac Clarke, just seems like yesterday he survived the nightmare onboard the Ishimura and now he has to face another one. This time the necromorph horror has struck a space station in orbit around Saturn, a huge multi faceted installation known as The Sprawl. If dealing with the necromorph horde wasn't bad enough it looks like Earth Gov authorities also want Isaac dead. With the help of some new found found allies maybe Isaac will be able to escape to refuge before it's too late but in the world of Dead Space, no person or thing is usually what it appears to be....

Much of what made the original such a quality game has returned and they've also included some new tweaks to try and inject a degree of originality into the franchise. We get to see Isaac crawling through interconnecting tubes to get from one location to another. Whilst i wouldn't say this introduces much in terms of gameplay (nothing at all really) it does do something to increase the claustrophobic feel of the game. Also they've added this little puzzle mini-game type thing where you have to hack a device using a circular interface with blue and red lights. Hit 3 blue lights in the required time and you move forward, fail and you lose a little bit of life. At first i wasn't sure what to think of this new addition but after a while i found that it became more of a drag than anything else to be honest, especially in the later stages of the game. Not game breaking, just somewhat irksome.

So what's new with the necromorphs? Well some of the old 'faces' are back and they've also put in some new additions as well. The stalkers are such new addition. They basically track you to one location, when they 'think' the time is right they will run at you at full speed knocking you to the ground. At first i found them a little bit tricky to deal with, the AI is pretty clever here but once you realise that using your suits handy stasis weapon makes them sitting ducks, they're dead easy to take out.

The new environment of The Sprawl is a massive one, it just seems to go on and on and on. There's more variety in the locales than Dead Space 1 that's for sure. You'll find yourself in a Unitologists Church, living quarters and a few other places that you might not expect to be visiting either ;)

To put it plainly if you liked the original Dead Space then you're almost certainly going to like this one. For those of you that haven't played the original then best get your gamepad ready cause it truly is the best way to experience the awesomeness that is Dead Space. I should also note that frame rates were smooth here at 1080P res with all the eye candy turned up, there were very few dips in FPS.

I strongly recommend Dead Space 2, obviously being a sequel its not going to be as original as it's predecessor but it does have a better cinematic quality and strong re-playability. It has a load of shocks too, in fact it's scarier than a lot of movies that i watch these days. Best watched in a dark room on your own. Strongly recommended.

Related Links: Amazon.com --- Amazon.co.uk --- http://www.ea.com/games/dead-space-2

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