Developer : Electronic Arts
Release date : January 28, 2011
Synopsis :
Dead Space 2 is a 2011 survival horror game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in January. The second mainline entry in the Dead Space series, set on the Titan-based Sprawl space station, the story follows series protagonist Isaac Clarke as he fights against both an outbreak of the monstrous Necromorphs and debilitating mental illness induced by the alien Markers. Gameplay features Isaac exploring a series of levels, solving puzzles to progress, and finding resources while fighting off Necromorphs. The game included a competitive multiplayer, with the Sprawl’s security forces fighting teams of Necromorphs.
Pre-production began in 2008, immediately following the release of the original Dead Space. The storyline, alongside building upon and expanding the series lore, focused on Isaac’s deteriorating mental state, with classic nursery rhymes being used as motifs playing into the narrative and Isaac’s visions. The gameplay was adjusted based on feedback from players and the team’s experience, in addition to making it faster-paced and having more overt action elements. Multiplayer was included as a separate mode based on both fan feedback and requests from Electronic Arts.
Announced in 2010, Dead Space 2 saw an extensive marketing campaign from its publisher. It was supplemented by several other multimedia projects including the novel Dead Space: Martyr, the animated movie Dead Space: Aftermath, the spin-off game Dead Space Ignition, and a mobile prequel. A downloadable content expansion, subtitled Severed, was released in March 2011 and followed characters from the spin-off Dead Space: Extraction.
Dead Space 2 received critical acclaim. Reviews of the game praised its gameplay, narrative, atmosphere, graphics, and audio and level design, with many calling it superior to the original Dead Space. The game sold two million copies during its opening week, but according to later developer interviews Electronic Arts was disappointed in its commercial performance. A direct sequel, Dead Space 3, was released in 2013.
Dead Space 2 takes place in the year 2511, three years after the events of Dead Space. The action takes place on the Sprawl, a space station built in the remains of Saturn’s moon Titan in a period where humanity survived near-extinction due to resource depletion by mining other planets. During the previous game’s events on the planet Aegis VII, an artifact called the Red Marker−copied from an alien artefact by the Earth Government (EarthGov) during a disastrous attempt to harvest its energy−was uncovered during an illegal mining operation. The mining colony was funded by the Church of Unitology, a group that worships the Markers as divine and seek an event of physical and spiritual union called Convergence. The Marker’s influence triggered crippling mental illness in the colony, then the outbreak of a virus-like organism that reanimates corpses and turns them into Necromorphs, which overwhelmed the colony and the mining ship USG Ishimura. By the events of Dead Space 2, the Aegis VII incident has been covered up, and new Marker experiments begun on the Sprawl.
The main protagonist is Isaac Clarke, a Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) engineer who was sent with a team to the Ishimura and narrowly survived the infestation while destroying the Marker and the Necromorphs. The incident left him with crippling mental illness and an imprint of the Marker’s design on his mind. Captured by EarthGov, he is confined to an asylum on the Sprawl and tortured for the Marker plans. Other characters Isaac interacts with are Ellie Langford, a CEC heavy machinery pilot; Hans Tiedemann, the Sprawl’s administrative director; Nolan Stross, a fellow patient of Isaac whose exposure to the Aegis VII Marker has left him insane; and Daina le Guin, who initially provides aid to Isaac. An early character is Frank Delille, who was sent to rescue Isaac from the EarthGov asylum. Isaac is also periodically tormented by visions of Nicole Brennan, his girlfriend who died on the Ishimura. The downloadable content scenario Severed follows Gabe Weller and Lexine Murdoch, two lead characters in the spin-off Dead Space: Extraction.
Isaac, suffering from Marker-induced dementia and violent hallucinations, is freed from the asylum by Delille, who is immediately killed and turned into a Necromorph. Isaac escapes, finding the Sprawl overrun by Necromorphs and its survivors either being killed or committing suicide due to the Marker’s influence. Guin reveals that Tiedemann recreated a Marker using the data in Isaac’s mind, using memory blocking drugs on Isaac to prevent that data from destroying his mind. During his escape, Isaac runs into Stross, whose mental state is far worse than Isaac’s but also knows how to access the Marker data and destroy the new Marker. Guin is revealed to be a Unitologist sent to capture Isaac, but an EarthGov ambush kills her and Isaac narrowly escapes. He soon allies with Ellie, who reluctantly guards Stross as they navigate the Sprawl, fighting both the Necromorphs and Tiedemann’s attempts to contain them. Isaac is regularly tormented by visions of Nicole, who keeps asking Isaac to make them “whole”. To reach the Sprawl’s government sector where Tiedemann is holding up with the Marker, Isaac is forced to navigate the remains of the Ishimura, triggering more hallucinations.
Stross’s mental state worsens to the point of attacking Ellie, gouging out her right eye with a screwdriver, then attacking Isaac later and being killed in self-defence. Ellie helps Isaac get into the government sector, then he tricks her aboard a shuttle and sends her away, having grown attached to her and not wanting her to share Nicole’s fate. Guided by a passive version of Nicole, he gets inside the government sector, letting the Necromorphs inside to distract Tiedemann’s security. The Necromorphs gather at the Marker, starting off Convergence, and Isaac uses a machine to unlock the Marker data in his mind. He kills Tiedemann, but is then forced to fight off a final hallucination of Nicole as she was used by the Marker to fulfil its wish of completing Convergence by merging with its creator, Isaac. As the Sprawl begins collapsing from the damage caused by the Marker, Ellie flies in and rescues Isaac. In a post-credits audio conversation, two EarthGov agents discuss further Marker sites.
Source : Wikipedia
