Isaac Clarke, the hero of the Dead Space series, began the first game as an engineer sent to rescue a ship that seemed to be having problems. Once there, he tangled with an ungodly strain of mutated humans and the mind of an eldritch relic that had inspired a Scientology-style religion. He escaped that situation with his life, but how much of his mind came with him? Like Ellen Ripley of the Alien films, he's now defined by his experience of fighting something he barely understands.

The second game picks up directly after the first... we think. We see everything through Clarke's eyes, the camera peering over his shoulder. He's an unreliable narrator, forced to make sense of where he is and what he's doing, using the words of people he's not sure he can trust. He sees things that aren't there, and even at the end we're left to ask ourselves what just happened. No matter what you think or believe about what the game shows you, you'll leave it knowing you had one hell of a ride.

Dead Space 2 ps3*, xbox, pc Release Date: now

now MSRP: $59.99 Official site * = platform reviewed

There was concern that Dead Space 2 would ditch the horror of the first game and move to a more violent, action-oriented style. That worry will pass within the game's first hour, which presents scenes of dread and tension very effectively. If you're scared of not being scared, to put it one way, you have nothing to be afraid of.

One of the characters you meet early in the game leads to a disturbing conversation, drenched in direct threats of violence. "We're going to burn for what we did to you," he tells Isaac. The scene turns even darker after that. The game knocks you off-balance multiple times, and now Isaac will often remove his helmet to speak directly to other characters. This is for the better.

The game does a good job of balancing the big, loud "Boo!"-style scares with the quieter existential dread, keeping both sides of that argument happy. When Clarke enters a place where every nerve of his body screams at him to get out, the game wisely steps back and has nothing happen for a long stretch of time. You know things are going to get bad, you know you shouldn't be there, and you know—like the loud person in the movie theater during a horror film—you would never enter there yourself. But the game shows you no reason to be afraid, and then begins to slowly work on you with hints, sounds, and then... well, it pays off.

While you hear yourself breathing and other sounds from your suit, there is no other sound during the few times you find yourself venturing into space. The game deftly juggles the intense, ear-splitting din of the action scenes with the otherworldly calm of space, creating set pieces that last until they're nearly unbearable before backing up. This is a game that understand pace and how to use it to the fullest.

"Is this going to hurt?" Isaac asks someone before climbing into a machine that he doesn't understand. "Yes," comes the answer without any hesitation, but it's said in the same voice I used to speak to my daughter when she needed stitches. It's the voice of "this is going to be unpleasant, but we can get through it together." The eerie foreshadowing may make you think the game is all talk, but what happens inside that machine is horrible. I was playing with a friend, and he couldn't watch. Just to drive the point home, the game makes you participate.

You'll die multiple times in the game—the battles are not easy and the odds are often stacked against you—but the horrific ways you go make it almost worth popping back at the last save point. Fans of splatter will be just as happy as fans of the more psychological horror.

What has changed

In terms of mechanics, the game looks and feels very much like its predecessor. The environments are a little more detailed, the lighting effects a little more impressive, and you can tell the team had enough time to improve on the work done on the original, but don't expect a sea change in terms of game mechanics or graphics. This is not a bad thing.

The game now sports zero-gravity sections where Isaac can fly around freely, and there tends to be some sort of small puzzle connected to these sections. A quick click of the analog stick orients you to the ground and causes you to land, but when you're using the jets located in your boots to fly around, you can expect some disorientation. You're now skulking around a huge space station called "The Sprawl," but the environments remain similar to what you saw in the first game (minus the very green hydroponics area). Even before the Necromorphs started ripping people to shreds, the Sprawl does not seem like it would be a happy place to hang your hat.

You still gain power nodes to upgrade your weapons and your suit, and there are a few new guns to try, although we still found the Plasma Cutter to be a fine weapon in 75 percent of the situations. Trying the different weapons feels satisfying and primal. Many of the weapons you use are re-purposed equipment, suited to other tasks, and as a result they can often feel powerful and dangerous. Each weapon has character, and it's worth being fiddly with the four weapons you can carry with you at any time; changing your loadout from time to time will be beneficial.

There are a few new enemies, and perhaps some new enemy behaviors—you'll have to find out. My personal favorite is a monstrous beast that hunts in packs, poking its insectile head out to track you every now and again before screaming and charging. These are used in completely unnerving ways a few times in the game, and if you're wondering what creature this enemy has been modeled on, the achievement for killing your first pack is called "Clever girl."

Another slightly jarring change is how funny the game can be in the last quarter. The dialog gets downright witty in places, even though it remains very dry. It's better in reality than it reads in this review, I'm sure.