Game Review: Dead Space 2

Hitting a personal best in time through a new game, I finished Dead Space 2 after 18 days - now I know that compared to the really dedicated gamers, who finish these types of things in about 18 hours, it's not that fast, but for me it was pretty impressive.

After the pretty massive spoiler of the first game, Isaac spends a lot of the second game questioning his sanity.  The game has really impressive graphics, all sorts of eerie settings, and a really interesting story.  Like the first game you build your weapons as you go - unlike the first game, you actually get to see Isaac's face.  Also, instead of being set in a large spaceship, the second game is set in (and on) a vast space station.

The game still did give my kids the creeps (in fact my youngest refused to come into the room while I was playing at all - strange, as she was the one who gave me the game), but on the positive side, the version of the game she got me included the additional game Dead Space: Extraction - which I'll get totally obsessed with in about a month, when I'm finished my classes for the term.

Overall, and a few years late, I think the game is pretty impressive, lots of fun, and I cant wait for the next game in the series after the price drops to where I'm willing to pay for it.

Dead Space 2: First Impressions

Having finally finished up Grand Theft Auto IV, I moved on to the game Dead Space 2 this weekend, and with two Chapters (levels) under my belt, here are my first impressions

The Opening segment is amazing!  Dealing with the Necromorphs (alien zombies) throughout the first game was pretty darn terrifying.  Spending the first level of the sequel running away from these creatures while drugged and in a straight-jacked was one of the more intense gaming experiences I’ve had.

Like another of my favourite PS3 Franchises, the Uncharted series, the game does an excellent job of giving you tutorials on how to play while moving the story forward.

Unlike the first game where everything is pretty straightforward, the second game starts by informing you that the protagonist is crazy – you literally don’t know if what you’re seeing actual monsters or not throughout the early stages of the game.

Overall the game is a lot of fun – pretty darn scary, and has just the right level of space suit/engineering mixed with survival horror to keep me coming back for more.  Unfortunately it creeps out the majority of the people in my house, so I have to play it quietly, and in the dark.

Things I've Noticed: Me and Nico Bellic

So after a few months, my time with Eastern European gangster Nico Bellic (pictured above) is coming to an end.  I'm down to the final 15 missions on Grand Theft Auto IV and honestly, I think we've been drifting apart for a while now.

I think the problem comes down to the fact that I loved Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - whether it was the '80s time period, or the great music, I just really loved playing through the crazy Miami Vice-style mayhem of that earlier game, and have just found (with the exception of the Europop music playing throughout) GTA4 to be a weaker game.

The missions are definitely challenging, but honestly sometimes I'm just finding them to be too challenging, and a lot of the time I feel that it's just random chance when I finish a mission one time versus another.

Sorry GTA4 - but I'm not really gonna miss you when we're done - after all, my next game is Dead Space 2.