PixlBit

Dead Space 2 is looking great with plenty of familiar and new faces--most of which have been dismembered.

Behind closed doors, Dead Space 2 was demoed in a room modeled after a church. Moody candles (OK, they were electric, but faint enough to be atmospheric) and other lights dimly illuminated the room. Pews lined the viewing area with a big screen ready to show the game in action. Shortly after settling into my seat, the demonstration began.

We were introduced to the game by Dead Space 2’s art director (I’m pretty sure that was his position, or at least something close to it); he narrated throughout the demo. The demo was shown on the big screen, played by a man in the back of the room. We were told that the game was being played live with no preset anything. I also heard the art director say in response to a question that the PS3 version was being played.

NOTE: I am going to talk about the demo in a decent amount of detail, including new enemies and story locations. I don’t think they’re major spoilers, but just to warn you.

The demo began with Isaac in an array of cold storage corridors and rooms. We were told this was an area in a city (one set somewhere in space on another planet or asteroid or something, if I recall correctly). The city’s name is Sprawl. From what I saw, it looks like a pretty large city.

Isaac worked his way through the corridors. He eventually encountered necromorphs. The original necromorph was alive—well, you know—and kickin’. There was also a new necromorph that the art director called “The Puker” or something along those lines. It basically projectile puked a damaging liquid from its mouth. This brought up another highlight.

The man playing the game used stasis (which vastly slows down enemies and everything associated with them—including blood, puke, limbs dismembered while affected by stasis, etc.). This caused the projectile puke to come almost to a halt while traveling. Any blood from hitting the enemy hung in the air. Mainly, the new feature was just the sound speeding up from a suppressed state due to the stasis back to normal speed. It was just a cool design element that I don’t remember in the first Dead Space.

Eventually, Isaac ended up in a room where he had to solve a telekinetic puzzle of sorts using kinesis. He also had to rip out some cords from a console. These actions, like engineering skills, according to the art director, are going to become more involved and present in the game. To what degree was difficult to interpret as he mentioned it quickly.

Around this point in the demo, Isaac himself spoke. He actually has a voice in Dead Space 2. The art director said that Isaac will be taking more controls in this game than the last.

With the puzzle complete, the room acted as if it had minimal gravity. Either way, what followed was exciting: Isaac didn’t have to jump from surface to surface; he was maneuvered through the space via propulsion from his suit like a repositioning spacecraft. In other words, Isaac can fly. He could be moved in any direction in the air, it seemed. He didn’t fly very fast in the demo, it was more like directed and steady floating, but it looked controlled.

Next, Isaac ended up in a rather large room that looked like a church sanctuary. While creeping further into the room, a huge creature drops down in front of Isaac, causing several people in the audience to jump (the art director smiled—I don’t blame him one bit). After a survival sequence, the creature crawls away, and several child necromorphs appeared in the scene. These necromorphs were not the baby necromorphs like in the first Dead Space; these were more like young children around 7 years-old or so. The twist with these was that there was a lot of them. They swarmed Isaac, but eventually they were taken out.

As the demo progressed, we were introduced to a new weapon: the Javelin Gun. It’s basically a futuristic crossbow in terms of functionality. Its effects were very satisfying; it can pierce an enemy and drag it from the ground and pin it to the wall like a towel hanged to dry. The bolts themselves are at least a couple of feet long. One segment that the guy demoing the game deserved applause for was by using stasis on a strange looking necromorph that suddenly crawled over a banister and then using the Javelin Gun. The bolt caught the necromorph, and it slowly flew backward until regaining normal speed and slamming into the wall and onto the ground a story below. Very cool.

The last legs of the demo involved Isaac running from a large creature, possibly the one from the church sanctuary earlier. One thing lead to another, and Isaac was dragged out into space and continues fighting the large creature. Long story short (with as little story information as possible): Isaac pulls through, and the demo ends.

At some point during the demo, Isaac went into the store to get a new suit. I’ve read that Isaac can change suits at checkpoints and that some are better for different areas than others. I don’t recall hearing that being discussed, but I was very absorbed in the demonstration, so it may have been mentioned. The suit still looked like it was bought from the store, and I’m almost positive I saw a zero as the amount for the suit—meaning the suit was bought and paid for. The animation sequence was very similar to the upgrade animation from the first Dead Space: Isaac steps into the shop; it looks like the doors are being welded together, Alien style; and the shop menu comes back down. One major difference was when Isaac stepped out after the upgrade; he didn’t have a helmet, leaving his face visible. The helmet fastened itself from the suit shortly after. Regardless, the guy playing the game in the back of the room went through the shop menus really fast, though, so who knows.

I also noticed that Isaac could kick more quickly in succession at one point, and his arm swing may have been tighter and more responsive than before. These could have been event-specific, though, and not being able to play the game makes it difficult to be sure. The art director also mentioned that there will be many different areas to experience since the game takes place in a city. One thing I remember him mentioning in a list of locations was “churches” as a place to visit (meaning the plural of “church,” not a place to get fried chicken… maybe).

Although Dead Space 2 didn’t appear to be playable to the general media, the demo was very enlightening. It looks like the development team has enriched the Dead Space experience. The demo was exciting all the way through, and I had no reason to believe that the rest of the game couldn’t be just as exciting.