In 2008, Dead Space was released to great critical and commercial success. The seamless blend of survival-horror, action, and cinematic beauty offered an experience that many games before it attempted to create, and many after attempted to emulate. Fast forward to 2011, and the release of the long awaited Dead Space 2. Eager to prove the series has staying power, does Dead Space 2 hit its Marker, or will it be torn apart by its inner demons?
Though not as meaty as Shadows of the Damned's Halloween trailer, Dead Space 2 reminds you that its roots lie in the blood-soaked dirt of the horror genre. The trailer also reminds you to preorder nao, as the title releases January 25th, 2011.
We had a chance to sit down with Dead Space 2 producer Zach Mumbach and ask him a little about what makes his game tick. In true developer fashion, he doesn't reveal too much, but we get enough out of Zach to make it interesting.
Before watching him play, I was able to log 10 minutes or so with the demo on the floor, which is "very close" to being an end product. I liked what I saw and enjoyed what I played, the build was polished and handled tightly. The graphics are sharp and detailed, and the environments seem to exist to haunt the player. The sterile and cramped confines of the stage I tried really messed with my head. Blood and severed limbs strewn around the floor panels should have really alerted me, but I was still rightly spooked when a necromorph burst through a panel from behind and forced me into a gruesome retirement.
The experience was topped off by entering an eerily beautiful cathedral area where I fought a boss who has a stinger with a fetus growing on it. Dead Space 2's art designers are sick sons of bitches, I love it. The stinger makes for one of the sickest death animations we saw, and you will too in the video below.
I'm very excited for Dead Space 2, which for a player should be all about ambiance. It's all fun and laughs on the Comic Con show floor, with plenty of lights and a flood of people around, but when the game releases, and it's just you in a dimly lit room with no one home, that's where the real fun begins.
Monday, February 14, 2011 at 11:20AM 
