Dead Space 2 Demo Impressions

Note: This was originally written as a writing sample for a gaming site. Thought I would post it here for those looking for an opinion on the Dead Space 2 demo.

After recently playing through the first Dead Space, I was eager to play the next chapter in Isaac Clarke’s slowly crumbling mind. Right from the start of the demo, a narrator describes a summarization of the events of the first game. This summarization promptly gets thrown out the window as you are thrown into the middle of the story of Dead Space 2.

It appears that the story element s have been taken out of the demo, and for good reason, as I would not have wanted any of the story spoiled for me. They do however give you a nice sampling of what is to come. Some new enemies, a new weapon, and some changes to the how the zero-gravity sections play.

Right from the start the demo goes over the controls quickly with a series of popups telling you how to play. I was already at home with the controls and so, I just made my way through the series of rooms rather quickly until I came up on an enemy.

I cycled through the guns until I got to one of the new ones. The Rail Spiker, as the game calls it, shoots single spikes that can pin enemies to a wall, with a secondary fire that can electrify the corpse and other things around it. The other weapons in the demo include the trusty Plasma Cutter, Pulse Rifle, and Line Gun. All of those guns function the same, except for the Pulse Rifle. The alternate fire was changed to make it a grenade launcher. I found no use for the secondary fire on the Pulse Rifle because most of the demo takes place in tight corridors.

Visually speaking, the demo looks almost the same as the first Dead Space. The only difference being that the game now takes place on a space station as opposed to a lone ship. The demo didn’t give any context as to why Isaac was there other than he woke up in a mental facility. The station itself is pretty to look at, and the first time you come across a window, you get to look out across a city space. It appears that game has not gone through many changes, the textures look a little sharper, and the engine appears to have been enhanced a little, a higher frame rate and such.

There were a couple new enemies in the demo, one of them being what appears to be these infant like beings that attack you in groups, making for a bit more panic in the mayhem. I found myself frantically shooting just to keep the creatures off me. The only other new monster in the demo was a rather large being that it did not seem like you could kill, just rather keep it from killing you by shooting its weak spot.

The last noticeable thing about the demo that stood out to me was the zero gravity environments. Isaac’s suit now has some thrusters on him, allowing for full 3-D movement in a zero-g space. In the first Dead Space, there zero gravity environments, but all you could really do was jump from point A to point B. While in these zero-g moments in the demo, you can also aim and shoot your weapon if need be. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter any enemies while doing this.

All in all, the demo left me craving more. January 25, 2011 can’t come soon enough. I am going be spending a great deal of time playing that game.