The preview started with a rather familiar setting - Isaac is once again in the metallic belly of a huge space station devoid of light. We're slowly trekking through tight, claustrophobic corridors with the knowledge that something is going to jump out from the darkness at some point. And jump out it does - yet even though we knew it was coming, it still scares the shit out of us. Like with the majority of scare-factor games, Dead Space 2 employs jump-out-of-your-chair tactics to make the action incredibly tense.
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| Taking out an alien's legs isn't enough to kill them completely |
So far, so Dead Space - and yet there's something far more atmospheric - and even cinematic - this time around. As vile-looking beasties burst out of the walls to eat your face, the camera pans back to make you aware of just how huge this monster is, and the protagonist stumbles as if also shocked by proceedings.
It's also very noticeable that Dead Space 2 is incredibly gorgeous. You'd think that there's only so much you can do with a string of gray and brown corridors, but it quickly becomes more of a question of what Visceral Games can't do with the setting. There are plenty of live action cutscenes and button-mashing sections to break up the main shooting action, and they all work wonderfully to keep the atmosphere brimming with excitement.
The first five minutes of the preview build allowed us to get back in sync with the Dead Space world, and try out the different weapons and powers available. One weapon in particular had us smiling like loons - a sort of laser crossbow that inserts a powerful force into enemies, throwing them backwards and pinning their dead bodies against the wall. Everytime this happened you'd see the faces of everyone watching all nodding approvingly, as if saying 'This is the weapon of my dreams'.
Of course, you've got your old faithful laser too, which can be rotated 90 degrees depending on which limb you're planning to cut off. Aim for the beastly legs of an alien and they'll eventually come away, knocking the creature to the ground. You're still not done here, though - if they've still got arms, they can still dig into the floor and pull themselves towards you, which is even more spine-chilling than when they had legs! A laser to the face should finish them off.
Eventually after gunning our way through several nasties, we reached a large room with a huge spinning set of rings in the centre. The idea here is to activate the anti-gravity by pulling mechanical arms down with your electromagnetic abilities. Once all the arms are in place, a simple tap on the console stops the rings in motion, and suddenly everything around Isaac begins to float. A tap of the left trigger deactivates his gravity boots, and up into the air he goes too.
Floating around feels so much more out-of-this-world this time around. You can rotate Isaac in any direction, allowing him to hover around upside down or at any angle you fancy. Spinning blades and cargo hatches need to be traversed before we can reach the top of the chamber and switch gravity back on.
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| Come out little fella, I'm not gonna hurt you... |
Jumping into the nearest elevator, Isaac is contacted by HQ, allowing us to catch a glimpse of that gorgeous interface effect we loved so much in the first Dead Space. A video transmission is beamed out of his suit, creating a thin layer of pixelated video in the air. You'll probably be spinning the camera around the video to see it from all angles rather than actually listening to what HQ has to say.
As the elevator opens, we're treated to a rather different sight in a Dead Space game - a medieval church-like interior, complete with sweeping staircases and lengthy pillars. There's not much time to admire your surroundings, however, as a dozen miniature bastards attack, biting at your ankles and generally not being very friendly. There's no need to take these guys out cleverly with limb-extraction - simply blast your laser in their faces and it's a job well done.
Up the staircase, and the setting changes dramatically once again - we're now looking at some sort of apartment or office room, with wide windows showing off some pretty incredible scenes of the rest of the space station. We found ourselves looking out of the windows for far too long, simply admiring the view. Come on Isaac, focus! There are nasties to blast.
Moving into the next room, and things go horribly wrong. A space gunner appears at the windows, and begins to fill the room with laser fire. The cracked glass changes the atmosphere in the room, and we're sucked towards oblivion. Hammering the X button, we help Isaac grab a hatch in the floor, open it and fall back into the depths of the space station.
As if the fall wasn't enough, you're greeting at the bottom by a rather nasty-looking beast which clearly has some sort of digestive agenda - hence, it is time to run very quickly in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, the next room is a rather familiar scene - a wall-spanning window with your space gunner friend waiting right outside for you. You're once again left to grab hold of the floor as the glass smashes and everything is sucked outside.
This is where it gets really interesting. Your alien predator enters the room and is immediately sucked out into space, colliding with the gunner and destroying it. Sounds like a job well done, but Isaac can't hold on much longer and eventually lets go, shooting out into the nothingness of space.
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| Here's the beastie who just doesn't know when to die |
What happens next is an epic scene of events that could easily have been lifted straight from the latest sci-fi blockbuster. These set-pieces are real mind-blowers, and you could see everyone crowded around the monitor all mouthing the word 'whoa' at the same time. It's an intense rollercoaster ride, with interactive events allowing you to blow holes in the alien creature which just doesn't seem to want to let you go.
Dead Space 2 has excited us more than we thought it would. Visceral Games has built on the tension of the original, and produced some incredibly cinematic results. We can't wait to turn off the lights and scare ourselves silly all over again. Dead Space 2 will be released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on January 25th 2011.
Most Anticipated Feature: Catching a glimpse of more set-pieces and epic cutscenes.
