Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 is a science-fiction-themed survival horror video game. Players control lead character Isaac Clarke from a third-person perspective through a level-based narrative campaign. Isaac navigates the Sprawl space station completing narrative-based missions, solving puzzles within the environment, and fighting monsters dubbed Necromorphs. Saving is done manually at crafting stations, and automatically at checkpoints.

The New Game Plus allows players to carry over all current items and equipment into a new campaign. There are four difficulty levels unlocked at the game's start; Casual, Normal, Survivalist, Zealot. A fifth difficulty level, Hard Core, is unlocked after the first playthrough; Hard Core restarts the player from their last save with each death and only allows three saves across the campaign.

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 by the Earth Government (EarthGov) 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 artifact by 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 seeks 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.

Pre-production on Dead Space 2 began in 2008 immediately following the release of Dead Space, which was released to critical praise. During this time, series publisher Electronic Arts rebranded the developer EA Redwood Shores as Visceral Games, restructuring it as a genre studio; it worked in parallel on Dead Space 2 and the hack and slash game Dante's Inferno. Describing their relationship with Electronic Arts, producer Shereif Fattouh said Visceral Games was given a large amount of autonomy as they had built up a lot of good will and internal support due to the success and quality of their projects. Executive producer Steve Papoutsis noted that the team felt under pressure, but described it as a self-imposed pressure to meet or surpass fan expectations and produce a quality product.

The game was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, later described as the series main platforms. A Wii port was in production, but was cancelled in 2011 so Electronic Arts could focus on other projects. There are different reports of the game's budget; level designer Zach Wilson reported a budget of $60 million and called Electronic Arts "merciless" with its allocation, while director Wright Bagwell described the budget as "pretty small" without specifying a figure. Production took roughly two and a half years.

Dead Space 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, while the Xbox 360 version received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Reviews gave general praise to the game for its atmosphere and design, with several critics calling it an improvement over the original. Both Thierry Nguyen of 1Up.com and Carolyn Petit of GameSpot noted the PS3 version as a more attractive version due to the inclusion of Extraction in early copies. The control scheme for the PC version was positively noted by Petit as providing an easier experience for aiming.

Nguyen gave minimal comment towards the story aside from noting its change in pacing and incorporating of cinematic setpieces as part of a general shift towards action. Andy Robinson, writing for Computer and Video Games, praised the more cinematic delivery. Gaming magazine Edge felt that Isaac's new voiced role improved him as a protagonist, praising his interactions with the cast and reactions to the environment. Simon Parkin of Eurogamer enjoyed Isaac's voiced role, and noted the use of Nicole to both scare the player and explore Isaac's mind.