Impressions: Dead Space 2 demo

PSN was updated with loads of new stuff for christmas and one of them was the Demo of Dead Space 2. I quickly downloaded it to see what the sequel has in store for us when it hits Jan 25 next year.

If you watched the latest gameplay footage of Dead Space 2 and their demo feeds, thats exactly what your getting in this demo. The Demo starts off with a recap of the events of the first Dead Space giving a brief history of the game's story and about the main Protagonist Isaac Clark. Dead Space 2 is set 3 years after the events of the first game and has Isaac Clark waking up in this inhabited moon with necromorphs everywhere. Again he has to survive.

I've seen this demo already in E3 but playing it hands-on gives a better impression than watching someone play it of course. When you get control of Isaac Clark for the first time, everything feels familiar. I grasp the controls of the game quickly and started exploring this narrow area surrounded with containers on the walls. You are given 4 weapons to play around with. the 3 weapons were known since they were in the first game. The famous plasma cutter, the plasma rifle(which btw has a nood tube alternate fire now, better than that crap alt in the first game ) and the line cutter.The fourth one though was some sort of weapon that shoots nails. It's pretty trippy since it can stick Necromorphs to walls and you can dismember them slowly as they struggle to get free.

During the course of the demo you are introduced with new enemies. Aside from the normal necromorphs shown at the start of the demo you get enemies that can slow you down and spit green stuff that hurts. Another new necromorph is this tripod-ish thing that in the middle of the demo grabs hold of your leg and just like the first game you must shoot his obvious shiny "weak spot" before he drags you somewhere. Another new necromorh introduced were these necromorph babies with fingers as claws. Freaky stuff. I hated the baby shooters in the first one, now they have these group of fast freak babies running straight at you.

There was a small easy puzzle involving you to hack a terminal(very easy mini game to hack through) then using your stasis to fix this device. You get introduced to the new feature which has you have free control of Isaac in zero gravity which is a good improvement. The demo was roughly 20 mins long and it ends with a huge necromorph appearing in front of isaac.

I enjoyed the demo and I liked the fact that everything felt familiar. The best part of Dead Space 2 for me was the fact that Isaac Clark can talk. I hated the fact that I was controlling a character that doesn't say anything. That's what lacked in the first game, the ability to see the personality of Isaac evolve as he progress and experience the horror. Giving voice to main characters can go a long way in improving the story, especially a horror game.

Sadly, though I may have enjoyed the demo and liked the new improvements just like the first game, it doesn't feel like a game to get on day one of release. With all the games coming out early next year, I can't grab all the new games and have been deciding which game to skip. This demo has made my decision. I think I'll be experiencing Dead Space 2 a few months after release.


Dead Space 2 Demenia trailer