Dead Space 2 Review: Not Family Friendly

Are you considering purchasing Dead Space 2? Please read this review carefully before you spend the money.

Summary

Dead Space 2 is an action/horror/survival game. It is a 3rd person shooter set in space in a huge city known as the sprawl. The main difference in the first Dead Space was that you were confined to the spaceship USG Ushimura, which did get tedious because you were always going back to the ship to take you to the next area. In the sequel you play in the open world. You don’t have to keep going back, which makes for a much linear gameplay. You travel through many different areas including a unitology church, a school, apartment buildings and also space. You play as an engineer named Isaac Clarke. He is also the same character that you play in the first as well. Isaac is fighting for his life as wave after wave of necromorphs come to kill him. Necromorphs are reanimated, mutated corpses of humans that have been infected because of an artifact known as the marker.

Gameplay

This game is for the horror enthusiast. It is full of gore and blood everywhere. Plus it is just plain creepy and disturbing at times. This is not your normal horror game. This is a game of dismemberment. Necromorphs must have their limbs severed off in order to die. Every battle is bloody and gory. When you shoot off the arms, legs, and even heads off these nasty guys, blood spews out all over. There is a wide array of weapons to choose to destroy them. You can use your handy plasma cutter to sever one limb at a time. If you’re in a crunch, break out the line gun and sever multiple parts at once. The line gun has a 2nd fire that has a grenade that detonates, destroying many necromorphs at once. There is also a flamethrower, a ripper(I think you already understand) and others to choose. It is an over-the-top mutilation festival.

Other elements include the environments you go through. Every area is creepy. One hallway will be fine and the next will have necromorphs breaking through the walls and ceiling to seal your doom. Some necromorphs move quickly, while others do not. Some are huge and some are small. These combinations make for many different decisions on what arsenal you want to use.

Pros

Each area has its own feel to it. You don’t feel like you are walking through the same scene over and over again. The workbenches are back that allow you to boost up weapon stats and your suit too. You can make guns have more ammo or more damage. With your suit you can choose to give yourself more health and defense and some other cool things. Some of the boss battles take place in space, some in buildings, and some in elevators which is cool environmentally, but they still have completely unnecessary morbidly, grotesque death scenes for Isaac. Most of the bosses in this game are huge too.

Cons

This is not a family game by any means. It is rated M for good reason. The dismembered appendages of the necromorphs fly all over as blood covers the walls and floor. You can use the arms of dead necromorphs to spear other living ones. The environments are extremely disturbing at times. One scene involves you going into an apartment complex and hearing the sweet melodies of a music box from a little girl’s room, while you stare at her dead parents on their bed and the little girl is nowhere to be found. Another scene involves hearing something living in a dryer that is running, while it is screaming in pain (you find out later). Another scene involves a man slitting his own throat. You will see humans running for their lives as they are mutilated by necromorphs. Some areas you hear moms and their babies crying behind closed doors. This game is extremely graphic. This game crosses so many lines and there is a fine line that, in my opinion, has been crossed where you are killing children necromorphs. That is quite disturbing shooting a little necromorph and curb stomping them also. The game will give you extra items when you curb stomp already dead necromorphs. You will become desensitized while playing this game. The language is also extremely graphic. All of the four letter swear words are in this game, especially the “F-word” seems to stand out. The Lord’s name is also taken in vain in this game. Also, there is some nudity where you see the breasts of one of the necromorphs. As a Christian, I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone at all. There is really nothing at all in this game with redeeming qualities when it comes to the Christian faith.

Overall

The language, violence, blood, gore, nudity and disturbing images all warrant the “M” rating for good reason. This game is completely desensitizing and has taken gore and mutilation to an extremely new level. I strongly suggest not playing this game no matter what age you are. There are way better things you can do with your time.

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Photo Credit: Flickr image by Forrestal_PL