Electronic Arts  Dead Space 2 for PS3

First things first, you buy Dead Space because you want to be scared, or at least as scared as you can get with an interactive video game. You're going to be isolated most of the game, stuck in tight corridors battling out-of-this-world monsters, and encountering strange characters you don't know if you can trust along the way, so if you like "survival horror" games you'll love Dead Space.

You play as Isaac Clarke, an engineer living in the distant future, where horrifying aliens are on the loose inside your space station. Adding to the basic plot is a mysterious alien artifact, a dead girlfriend, and Isaac himself losing his touch of reality. (Dead Space 2 does not assume you played the original game or have any knowledge of the previous story, before starting the game there is an option to watch a video recap of the events in Dead Space 1).

The gritty sci-fi space station is an awesome playground to explore. You will travel through all kinds of different, mostly abandoned places, under a carefully scripted event system where scary sequences and big set piece battles are laid out in front of you. The benefit of this straightforward approach is of course a streamlined, tightly paced story where everything happens for a reason in the context of the action. You'll get one remarkable playthrough but beyond that there's no alternate paths, at least that I'm aware of. In fact the game is so linear there's even a button you can click to have the game show you the direction of the next objective. I personally like this feature because it guarantees you can skim the opposite surroundings to find any hidden items, ammo, or money before you move forward.

Most importantly underneath the great visuals and atmosphere you will find a fun game. This is an intense, jump out of your seat, experience that focuses on cheap thrills, e.g. after just enough time has passed walking in silence, an alien will suddenly burst in from a hidden corridor to make your heart skip a beat. Mechanically Dead Space 2 is not all that dissimilar to later games in the Resident Evil series -- it's a third person, over the shoulder camera, action game where your primary goal is to fight off enemies, collect new weapons, upgrade said weapons with more firepower, and progress the narrative to its natural conclusion. The guns themselves are unique in Dead Space and add a cool strategic element to the experience; each weapon has a primary and alternate fire option, so not only can you use these in tandem but you can also try and combine the effects of a couple of guns by switching guns in the midst of battle. For instance, you could set a proximity mine with the detonator gun and then fire the javelin gun's spear into the alien to send it flying towards the explosive. You also have a couple of telekinetic-like powers at your disposal, one puts your enemies into slow motion, the other is used for grabbing objects (or alien body parts) in the room and throwing them as projectiles. My personal favorite thing to do was freeze enemies with my super powers, then tear them apart limb by limb with the ripper blade gun.

The only problem with Dead Space 2 is the story bridging the action. In my opinion the narrative is overly minimalistic, and considering the length of the game -- it's long by action game standards -- there are very few big story moments to break the monotomy of moving from room to room, fight to fight (although what's there is very cool to witness in real-time). Consequently this makes the gruesome encounters feel repetitive because there is little change to the types of enemies you're facing, given the story surrounding the aliens isn't evolving. I played through the game because everything else is so awesome, not because I wanted to see the ending.

Issues aside, I'd like to think if you wanted to capture the horror of the "Aliens" movies (Sigourney Weaver sci-fi movies of yesteryear) in video game form, without actually making an Aliens: The Video Game, this would be it. And for that reason alone I'd recommend Dead Space 2. If you're too scared to play it alone, invite a friend over to watch. It's that good of a standalone action game experience.

I can go on and on about how great the game itself is, including the fact there's an online multiplayer game waiting for you afterwards -- with team-based gameplay and an experience point system for unlocking new goodies. Needless to say there's a lot of bang for your buck in this package. Plus if you're lucky enough to snag a copy of the Limited Edition (I did months after release at my Kmart) it even comes with an HD version of the previously Wii-exclusive video game, Dead Space: Extraction. The limited edition is not a collector's edtion and does not come in an oversized box with extra merchandise. The cover art will mention "Limited Edition" on the front and on the back it will say it comes with "Dead Space: Extraction". Note, the bonus game is on the same blu-ray disc so you will need to keep your copy of Dead Space 2 in your collection to play it.

For those familiar with Dead Space 1, it's pretty much the same game. There are a couple of times in this game where i jumped out of my seat due to some loud noise sudden;y happening, or an alarm clock going off that i actually got out of my chair to see if the alarm was going off. A fun horror game... not for kids, only MA