14 DAY TRIAL // Dead Space 2 changes locations, taking the player to a space station instead of the Ishimura and initial reports suggested that the change would deliver more diversified spaces, larger combat arenas and a little relief from the gun metal gray and blue color scheme of the original.
While nobody can dispute the fact that Dead Space 2 is a better game than the original, the universe in which it takes place is still a pretty inconsistent one, with small bits and pieces here and there taking me, as a player, out of the experience.
Here are some of them:
- even though Clarke can project holographs ahead of him for conversational purposes all the images attached to the information sheets he finds are monochrome, with color photography missing in our future (maybe the degree of photo realism was too high and we all found out we were kind of ugly);
- the various sections of the Sprawl that the game visits seem to be there only to deliver some mildly different space, with no real world reason for them to be actually close in space to one another;
- much has been made about the way Dead Space projects information into the environment instead of delivering HUD, but Clarke still seems unable to hang inventory items outside his engineering suit, which is presumably designed for something like that;
- for all the holographics tech developed certain images and transmission are still blurry and too easy jammed by potential enemies.
These are in no way huge issues with Dead Space 2, but there's a sort of an “uncanny value” effect for video games which strive for top quality, with all small issues much easier to see for these high profile games than for smaller ones that could have graver problems.
Consistency is really important for any title that relies on a small cast of characters and its setting and a bit more attention to detail could have served Dead Space 2 well.