VG Chartz got to sit down with EA and Visceral games to get a first look at Dead Space 2. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures, but we got to see what will likely be the demo for the game.
You play in The Sprawl, a large city in space just outside the moon, Titan. Whereas the Ishimura from the first game was a singular, small vessel with the same design elements and looks throughout; The Sprawl is a vast city with changing architectural features and design styles.
The demo started off in a crypt of The Church of Unitology. Tight quarters, creepy lighting, and plenty of scares. They showed off the old, trusty plasma cutter against a new enemy, the puker. It looks like a pretty standard necromorph at first until it literally starts puking acidic spray on you. Wright Bagwell, creative director for Dead Space 2, made a nice offhand comment about how fun it was to research accurate-looking puke.
Next they came out of the crypt and into a chapel of the Church of Unitology. This looked WAY different from anything we saw in the first game. While still in space, the chapel recreated Gothic architecture with a science-fiction twist. Crashing down on Isaac was a "Tripod." This new necromorph has three legs, one of which more resembles the stinger on a scorpion. Isaac was pinned and had to shoot a weak point several time on that 'stinger' to get the huge beast to run away. Filling in the necro-vacuum the Tripod left were "The Pack." These are necromorph children, coming in groups to rend Isaac limb-from-limb. Here's where EA and Visceral showed off some of their other weapons. Returning were the assault rifle and buzz saw from the first game, but joining them is the javelin, which is a weapon that pins necromorphs to the walls and alternately sets them on fire.
Unlike the last game, Isaac Clarke now has a voice and shows his face on occasion. He will no longer be the silent and enigmatic protagonist, but rather a fundamental voice in the game. Visceral is also focusing more on his engineering background. Rather than running errands for everybody else in the game, Isaac focuses his talents on killing necromorphs and engineering. The demo showed him fiddling with a circuit board to bypass a firewall, then use his telekinesis on a complex puzzle ball to disengage gravity.
The zero-G section also showed off a new feature: guided flight. While zero-G sections in the original game were handled very well, Isaac's suits in Dead Space 2 allow him to use air vents to navigate the zero-G areas rather than pushing off in only straight lines.
Overall, the game looks just as awesome as the original and expands the Dead Space universe significantly, giving us varied areas and far more character. Again, sorry there are no pictures, we weren't allowed to take any. Dead Space 2 will release for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC on January 25, 2011.
