Review: Dead Space 2

If you're a fan of old-school science fiction like me, you'd probably agree that Aliens was the last great movie of the genre.

The 1986 film, directed by James Cameron before he became king of the world, relied on great sets, costumes and atmosphere design to create a believable — and scary — world of space horror. Released shortly before the mainstream advent of computer animation, Aliens was thus a new high in filmmaking ingenuity.

The game is played slowly and cautiously since alien baddies can pop out of seemingly anywhere.

Today's sci-fi blockbusters, while full of CG wizardry, are decidedly less impressive now that anything is possible with the simple click of a mouse. They also often lack the important things that Aliens did so well: imagination, creativity and ambiance.

The legacy of Aliens does continue — but in the form of a video game. In 2008, Electronic Arts got those three key ingredients right with Dead Space, a third-person shooter game with a plot not unlike that of Cameron's film. While it was, of course, a digitally created video game, it adhered to same fundamental principles that made the film so good.

In Dead Space, players were put in the shoes of Isaac Clarke — named for iconic sci-fi writers Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke — an engineer sent to investigate a distress signal from the space ship Ishimura. On his arrival, Isaac and his team found the ship had been taken over by Necromorphs, or human corpses mutated by alien organisms.

Isaac, the silent protagonist, found himself battling through the ship using engineering tools, such as a cutting laser and a rotary saw, as improvised weapons while trying to get to the bottom of what happened.

Dead Space won numerous accolades for its terrific atmosphere. The Ishimura was a dark and foreboding ship, with horrific Necromorphs popping out from every air vent and storage locker. Excellent sound design in particular, with distant screams and unsettling rattlings all around, also contributed to the frighteningly immersive experience.

The sequel, out Tuesday for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC, delivers more of the same — and then some.

Players are once again in control of Isaac, though he does a lot more talking this time around. The story picks up three years after the first game and is set on the Sprawl, a huge city built on the remains of the Saturnian moon Titan, largely destroyed after being pillaged for natural resources.

The Sprawl is rapidly invaded by Necromorphs, and for Isaac, it's a case of "here we go again." Along the way, he must escape the crumbling city, return to the Ishimura and, ultimately, learn the secret of the Marker, a mysterious artifact at the centre of the Necromorph plague.

As in the first game, players must find different weapons and armour to survive the alien onslaught. Most can be bought at various kiosks and upgraded at workbenches, both of which litter the Sprawl and other locales.

All of the old favourites are back, including the pulse rifle and force cannon. Each weapon has a secondary firing function — the rifle, for example, also features a grenade launcher. Players can choose how to upgrade the weapons, opting to improve their respective reload times, damage capability and so on.

Isaac's armour also gives him a couple of superpowers, including the telekinetic ability to lift and hurl objects, which comes in handy when he runs out of ammunition. He can also fire a stasis beam that slows enemies and objects down to a crawl for a short time.

The game is necessarily played slowly and cautiously since alien baddies can pop out of seemingly anywhere. Ammunition for the weapons is also relatively sparse, so players must investigate every nook and cranny to find it, as well as the power nodes needed to upgrade their arsenal.

This is actually the best part of Dead Space 2, in that you'll inevitably crank up the volume in order to hear everything going on around you to avoid being surprised by the Necromorphs. The aliens themselves come in various shapes and sizes, such as the "pukers," who spit paralyzing bile, or the annoying child-like monsters that run at Isaac and try to claw him to death.

Aside from the exploring and fighting, the game also features some amazing zero-gravity sequences. In one particular section, Isaac must exit the Sprawl to reorient the panels on a giant solar array, all while his oxygen supply ticks away. 

Designed by EA's California-based Visceral Games with lots of help from EA Montreal, Dead Space 2 also improves on its predecessor with an insanely fun online multiplayer mode. Players alternate teams — one round they control gun-toting humans, and the next they're Necromorphs. When you're on the alien side, you can choose from the various types, such as pukers and spitters, as well as which air vent to spawn from, which allows you to sneak up on unsuspecting humans.

As in most multiplayer games now, players gain new weapons and armour as they advance in level. All in all, it's crazy and manic fun, especially when you're on the alien side.

Ultimately, Dead Space 2 is about as flawless a game as there is — there just isn't much to complain about here. It is rather gory and violent so it's not for everyone, but otherwise, it perfectly combines stunning visuals, amazing sound and intense gameplay into one engrossing and imaginative package. It's a worthy heir to Aliens.

Dead Space 2 is in stores Jan. 25.

Peter Nowak is a writer based in Toronto.