Home » Games

Dead Space 2 News

0 Comments

0 Like

Like 0

Pin It

Ranked #15,956 in Games, #877,693 overall

Dead Space 2

Dead Space, a surprise hit game from developer Visceral games, is getting a sequel. That sequel is titled Dead Space 2, and it will once again give players control of engineer turned hero Isaac Clarke on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Dead Space 2 will release on January 25th, 2011. Prior to that, players will be able to play a prologue to the game titled Dead Space Ignition. That prologue is available on Xbox Live, PSN, and on PCs and will bridge the gap between Dead Space 1 and Dead Space 2 and introduce players to the events leading up to the start of Dead Space 2. Ignition will cost $5, but will also be given away for free with preorders of Dead Space 2.

Dead Space 2 is a horror/third person shooter game, giving players control of a character in the third person viewpoint and asking him to navigate dark hallways and creaky corridors while disposing of scary aliens by blowing off their limbs. The game's atmosphere is similar to that of Bioshock, and it's not coincidence that the original Dead Space shared similar success to the original Bioshock at around the same time. Survival horror games are traditionally mired by poor controls and bad stories, but like Bioshock, Dead Space broke through those stereotypes and delivered a great game in a great atmosphere. Dead Space 2 looks to follow up on that success.

Buy Dead Space 2

The Online Multiplayer Controversy

The biggest controversy surround Dead Space 2 is the decision by Visceral Games to include a Dead Space 2 online multiplayer component. The original Dead Space was very strictly a single player game, and the type of gameplay involved does not seem like it lends itself well to online multiplayer. Many fans are concerned that the online multiplayer will be tacked on, and will detract from the single player experience of the game.

The games executive producer, Steve Papoustis, assures fans that that won't happen. He claims that the multiplayer is not just tacked on, and has been in the plans from the beginning as the team was very excited about giving players the opportunity to play as Necromorphs, which is something they do not get to do in the single player campaign. He also assures fans that a separate section of the team has been siphoned off specifically to work on the multiplayer, and as such the developers working on the single player campaign will not be affected.

Personally, I'm not buying what he's saying. It seems pretty clear to me that the multiplayer is there to be able to throw another feature onto the box to sell more copies. EA recently backed this up, saying that the days of strictly single player games are over and that games going forward will have to have multiplayer components to convince more gamers to part with their hard earned money. With single player, the amount of play time a gamer can put into a game is finite and often short. Multiplayer adds lots of play time to a game, which is something EA is looking to capitalize on with Dead Space 2.

Who knows, maybe it will work out. People were saying the same thing about multiplayer in Uncharted 2 and it turned out pretty good. Perhaps Dead Space 2 can do the same.