We had the enormous pleasure of seeing a demo of Dead Space 2 at the EA Spring Showcase, where as many of our readers will be glad to know, Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis ensures the fans that Dead Space 2 is still very much focused on horror and terror at the core of the game, and rather than completely turn around the game, it is sticking to its roots of survival horror action, and remaining faithful to the original by relying heavily on dynamic lighting and sound to create a terrifying atmosphere, ammo is still not a commodity that you can readily waste on enemies, and the Necromorphs are as bloodcurdlingly-run-away-and-turn-off-the-game as ever.

In Dead Space 2 you will be introduced to Isaac 2.0, as some may have noticed in the recent ‘Dementia’ trailer, Isaac’s suit is now quite different, they have tried to make him more relatable as a character by allowing him to talk, as well as having the retractable helmet. Rather than the errand boy he was in Dead Space, Isaac is now in more command having had experience with the Necromorphs previously, and the controls are now more responsive than ever, don’t expect the hefty slow paced melee attacks of Dead Space, now Isaac stomps with lightning speed, making the attacks far more effective against the raging hordes, as well as this the stasis and kinesis modules will work faster and more responsive than before.

Alongside Isaac 2.0, you will also experience Dismemberment 2.0, you will no longer be confined to dismembering limbs, now with the new Javelin gun, you can send a charged javelin through your enemies, impaling them to the nearest wall, then use the alternate fire to fry your enemies, which like many aspects of the original, can be used tactically to your advantage, as well as impaling enemies with the javelin gun you will also be able to use debris just as broken glass, or even the blades from a Slasher to impale Necromorphs against walls with the powers of your Kinesis module.

Whereas in Dead Space which was set on the claustrophobic confines of a large ship; the Ishimura, Dead Space 2 is set 3 years later on the city of The Sprawl, that is set into the moon of Saturn; Titan, so expect far different level design, and it’s apparently a large city, so expect much variation.

What is perhaps the most impressive new feature of Dead Space 2 is the interactive and reactive environments; expect to be able to shoot anything in the game, if there’s glass it will shatter, objects will fly, and it will work both to your advantage and disadvantage, if you can’t see down a hallway, knock a light off the wall so it will dynamically light the hallway, acting gung-ho will get you killed, and this is still true especially in regards to your environment; so be careful what you shoot at.

We were also introduced to four new varieties of Necromorphs; the Stalker, which work in small groups flanking you with their swift sprinting, the Crawler, a dangerously suicidal walking explosive Necromorph, the Cyst, an environmental hazard of sorts and the Pack, a small group of Necromorphs that alone are harmless but together can pack quite a punch, you can see most of them in the screenshots, I’d look out for the Crawler; there’s nothing creepier than what looks like a dead baby creeping its way towards you.

Dead Space 2 has definitely gone down the route that we were all hoping; it remains consistent to the original and is introducing more features to simply make the game far more terrifying, and as soon as we saw the ways that the new interactive environments can work to both your advantage and disadvantage, we were sold! Unfortunately Steve Papoutsis could not give us a date for Dead Space 2, although thankfully he has stated that it will be done, when it’s done; they are not rushing the release for any reason, and we cannot wait to see what Dead Space 2 has to offer when it sees the light of day, hopefully it will make us feel alive with terror just as Dead Space did.