How many people have gotten this and gone through it?
I personally think it's better than the first Dead Space in terms of action/combat but did not have as many real "oh ****" moments as the first game. Dead Space 2 still has some excellent parts in it (Chapter 10...) and the storyline feels a bit more dimensional now that Issac has dialogue, watching him go through hell in his head is really powerful.
Some of the new Necromorphs are downright freaky and scary, i'm not sure what's more terrifying... being attacked by a horde of alien/zombie children as they screech and scream at you, being hunted down by stalkers that reminded me so much of Jurassic Park (points if you got the achievement and got the reference...) or killing a bunch of infected babies morphed into crawling explosives.
Positives
1. Storyline is developed more and does keep you guessing a little bit, the story is linear but not to an extreme and it is balanced by vastly improved gameplay and speed.
2. Some of the sequences are insanely ******* intense. Battle on top of the Church of Unitology, if that does not get your heart racing you need to see a doctor.
3. Issac's internal battle, the dementia moments are freaky.
4. New weapons are seriously epic, Seeker Rifle being my favourite with the Javelin Gun a close second.
5. Necromorphs are scary as hell, first time you encounter some of the new faces you'll almost freeze with fear.
6. Longer than the first Dead Space, took me a good 10+ hours to get through first time.
7. Hardcore Mode will come to define insanity through a game, if you make it through that you deserve the achievement.
8. Extremely atmospheric. (See below)
WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILER >> Chapter 10 sees Issac forced to re-board the USG Ishimura which has been docked at the Sprawl for 3 years, he needs to re-activate the gravity centrifuge to pull a part of the Sprawl closer. Issac re-boards the Ishimura to find it being renovated as part of a government cover-up of what really happened during the first Dead Space. It's deathly quiet as you head towards the engineering deck on foot, then... all hell breaks loose as Necromorphs invade the ship (again). Dementia sequences on the Ishimura are timed perfectly and a unresolved issue is brought up... "what happened to Nicole's body...?".
Negatives
1. Main antagonist is a bit weak. (Depends which one...)
2. Does feel like bits of the game have been re-hashed and recycled, but the game sucks you in so much you barely notice it.
3. There is still some backtracking, which was a gripe i had with the first Dead Space but there is not as much of it this time around.
4. You're going to lose a few nights sleep over some of the things you see.
Score: 9.5/10
Dead Space 2 is what Aliens was to the Alien franchise, it takes an established setting and pumps it up a lot with more action, more intensity, more scares and a deeper development of the main character.
I look forward to Dead Space 3. Which, given the ending might be a co-op game like Resident Evil 5.
What did you all think of it if you've played it?