Most notably, the sequel focuses more on battles against hordes of necromorphs rather than resorting to monster-in-a-closet scares or set pieces featuring enormous, room-filling necromorphs and zero-gravity combat. While it's true "Dead Space 2" tells a better story than its predecessor, the first "Dead Space's" gameplay has a slight edge. As Isaac sets about uncovering what's been going on while he was away, and why there are necromorphs everywhere, he'll be using a familiar set of tools to slow down and strategically blast the limbs off of familiar enemies, with a few new wrinkles. The game begins with Isaac being taken out of a sort of hibernation, amidst a new necromorph outbreak on the Sprawl. "Dead Space 2" finds Isaac aboard a massive space station called the Sprawl, on the verge of insanity as he wrestles with the death of Nicole and probably the post-traumatic stress disorder induced by mowing down the hordes of lightning-fast, zombielike creatures called necromorphs from the first game. The handful of jokes he makes are appropriately sarcastic and witty, and his guilt over urging his girlfriend, Nicole, to accept an assignment on the ill-fated USG Ishimura in the first game helps him come off as empathetic and sensitive, rather than as the usual too-cool-for-school meathead. "Dead Space 2's" Isaac, however, is so well-written and easy to empathize with, he leaps straight to the top of an admittedly short list of great shooter protagonists.
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It's a risky move, as video gaming is littered with the carcasses of unlikable action heroes who deliver cornball, eye-rolling dialogue, and you don't want your brainy hero to turn into one of those guys. While "Dead Space," released in 2008, featured mute engineer Isaac Clarke, "Dead Space 2" gives him a voice and personality.
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With "Dead Space 2" (rated M, $60 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3), Visceral Games switches things up. One of the great debates among people who play a lot of shooters is whether we want our protagonists to be men of action and few words, so that we can project ourselves onto a relatively blank slate, or whether we want nuanced heroes with back story and dialogue.