Losing my dignity to Dead Space 2
Written by Aaron Bressler Staff Writer | 
The horror genre of video games contains some of the best games and some of the worst games ever made. Just like in film, a good horror experience is a difficult and fragile balance of various components. Dead Space 2 is not a perfect horror experience, but it comes fairly close.
The story of Dead Space 2 continues from the first and begins the game with a recap of the first. The story is decent; an enigmatic artifact can be used to create “necromorphs, who have an unusual fondness for human flesh—yours in particular. The main character, Bland McBoringson, is wandering around trying to kill off monsters, after escaping from the hospital. The only noticeable difference is that McBoringson is supposed to be going insane. His insanity ends up looking like he was suffering from some sort of monster-induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
One thing Dead Space 2 gets right is the visuals. Along with the good quality of the graphics, Dead Space 2 remembers one of the oldest rules of horror: the monsters are scarier when you don’t see them. Plenty of them are shown, but the game makes you wait and doesn’t let you know when or where the monsters will show up. Dead Space 2 also uses lighting excellently. Games that are well lit tend to lose any tension. Games that are too dark are just frustrating. This game balances light and dark well, giving you just enough to have a general idea of the situation, but still leaves enough unanswered details to let your imagination run wild. The insanity is manifested through flashbacks and hallucinations. Normally, this feature would give the player headaches, but in the case of Dead Space 2, this works pretty well. The flashbacks and hallucinations don’t feel random and in one case I wasted half of my meager ammo supply. I used up all of my dignity screaming like a little girl.
The mechanics are very good at creating the horror experience, but also make the game a lot of fun. The Dead Space 2 menu is a hologram that appears in-game. Many games pause for the menu, which breaks the tension, but the Dead Space 2 menu makes scrambling through your inventory that more stressful. Unlike other games, you have to organize your inventory ahead of time so you can find what you want, or you are forced to waste time fumbling for your next gun while the necromorphs chew on your face. The game also foregoes the standard HUD, which helps with immersion, but never makes you guess about important information. The scarcity of ammo and health packs make sure that you can’t blast your way through and causes you to think before you act. The physics are good, even if the guns feel weightless. The dismemberment mechanic lets you maximize your ammo and works well with the physics engine, especially with the electric javelin gun. The gore isn’t much to write home about, but isn’t as bad or overused like many games.
Overall, Dead Space 2 is a solid shooter and a great horror game. While not the best in its genre, this is a very good game to buy and well worth the price. This could use a PvP mode, but overall I was satisfied with the amount of content. Dead Space 2 is a good quality game that could provide plenty of entertainment.
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