History VideoGame / DeadSpace2

''Dead Space 2'' was released on January 2011 for the PC, UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation3}}S3. The first trailer can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEEa4PU7ok here]]. Exclusively for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3]], ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'', originally a UsefulNotes/NintendoWii release, was also bundled with the collector's edition of ''Dead Space 2''. In March 2011, a [=DLC=] was released called ''Dead Space 2: Severed''. It follows Gabe Weller and Lexine Murdoch, two returning characters from ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' as they try to get off the Sprawl. It is only available for the console versions of the game.

* BagOfSpilling: Three years after [[Videogame/DeadSpace escaping the Ishimura]], Isaac wakes up on the mental ward of the medical bay of the colony on Titan (one of Saturn's moons), and has to gather and upgrade new equipment to to stop this new Necromorph infestation.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Isaac can equip a "Vintage Suit". Like its name says, the suit is very antiquated. The suit design is possibly hundreds of years old, as it appears less advanced and bulkier than even the S.C.A.F. suits in Dead Space 3 (and the S.C.A.F. suits are around 200 years old!). Bonus points due to acquiring the "elite" version of this suit by breaking the suit's display case in the front window of a museum, literally breaking out the museum piece!

* CoverDrop: There is one for both Dead Space 2 ''and'' VideoGame/DeadSpace1:

** After buying the Advanced Suit, there will be a close-Up of Isaac's helmet, as on the cover of Dead Space 2.

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: A variation. Titan Station was built Levittown-style; you travel through two or three apartment blocks and mall strips that look very similar in general layout, but have different damage, graffiti, bodies and other clutter in the area to differentiate them. For the most part, in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', there is no backtracking. Two of the mall strips ARE the same. They are the ones before the Unitology Church. You go through them after a lot more damage has occurred so it's hard to tell, but you can tell the Unitology entrance is the same. The best way to tell is that the statue of the Space Cadet is the same both times if you travel through there. If you didn't destroy it the first time through, it will be intact. If you did destroy it, it WON'T be intact.

** The hair salon in the mall area features pictures of various hairstyle models out front, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to Dead Space 2's executive producer, Steve Papoutsis. It's fairly hilarious.

* GaidenGame: One was released for the iPhone[=/=]iPad system, simply titled ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' (usually referred to as "VideoGame/DeadSpaceMobile"). It features a backdrop to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', where a mysterious protagonist codenamed "Vandal" is tricked into releasing Necromorphs into the Sprawl at large by the Church of Unitology, and struggles to correct it. Some of Vandal's logs can be found in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', minus the voice filter disguising [[spoiler:[[SamusIsAGirl the fact that she's a woman]]]].

* HeroicBSOD: Isaac [[spoiler: has a very angry outburst when Marker!Nicole gloats about him having to kill Stross. Isaac blames the Marker for making him kill him. It's left ambiguous if he's referring to the Marker manipulating him, Stross, or both. He then has his worst hallucination soon after because his mind is in such disarray over the event. In fact, it's the only hallucination where Marker!Nicole can DIRECTLY kill Isaac instead of forcing him to commit suicide... [[MindScrew Maybe.]]]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Isaac is convinced that RedemptionEqualsDeath when it comes to making up for causing Nicole's death, and thus forces Ellie to escape while he goes after the BigBad and be a {{BigDamnHero|es}}]]

* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Just as varied as the original. There's all the PressXToNotDie sections, plus failure to hit the switch on blown-out decompression windows causes Isaac to be smushed messily by the pressure door when it automatically closes. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGbPlTnipCg See all of them here.]] (Warning:Contains spoilers... and {{Squick}})

* SequelEscalation: Actual play time may vary, but unlike in ''Dead Space'' there is virtually no backtracking, so there's a lot more new-content-per-time. [[spoiler:Apart from [[CutAndPasteEnvironments reusing maps from the first game on the Ishimura]]. A sneaky move on behalf of the game designers, seeing as reviewers can't point this out on without spoiling the plot. However, this is more of a deliberate NostalgiaLevel, and most of the areas have undergone changes (unsettling plastic sheeting everywhere, for starters)]].

** The triple-ringed gravity drive from Film/EventHorizon, the inspiration for the style and tone of the first game, makes an appearance.

* SuddenlyVoiced: Isaac goes from a HeroicMime who had nothing more than VoiceGrunting and a FacePalm to express himself to a full on character this time, complete with {{ClusterFBomb}}s when the moment calls for it.

* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity:

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: The Javelin Gun impales Necromorphs upon walls for its primary attack. Its secondary attack electrocutes the target, and then '''explodes''' inside it with the correct upgrades. The Rivet Gun fires explosive bolts into the enemy, and its secondary fires rivets that ricochet wildly, damaging all nearby Necromorphs.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: Most of the returning weapons in the game have completely identical stats compared to the original game. The flamethrower is the exception, as it has been rebalanced to address complaints that it was completely useless in the first game. It now does quadruple damage compared to the first game, making it more useful for bringing down Necromorphs. It still chews through ammo at an insane rate, though.

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding]]: [[spoiler:Gabe dies and his corpse is taken for research, and Lexine is now a fugitive.]]

* [[spoiler:HeroicSacrifice]]: [[spoiler:After losing his leg, Gabe stays behind to open the hangar bay doors and allow Lexine and their unborn child to escape.]]
* [[JumpingOnAGrenade Thrown On A Grenade]]: [[spoiler: After a quick fight, Gabe manages to take Vic's grenade and throw him onto it. It doesn't help much.]]

* [[spoiler: LastStand]]: [[spoiler: Gabe gets one of his legs blown off, and must hold off Necromorphs while shooting the safeties off an airlock, so his wife can escape.]]

* POVSequel

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to Nathan?]]: The only other survivor from ''Extraction'' isn't seen, or even mentioned. WordOfGod states he [[spoiler:was the Necromorph that attacked Lexine at the end of ''Extraction'']].

** [[spoiler: [[Film/DeadSpaceAftermath Isabel Cho]]]] was mentioned in an audio log in Chapter 10, where [[spoiler: she was the {{Scapegoat}} for the incident at the O’Bannon ''and'' the Ishimura]].

Gameplay was largely unchanged from the first ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'', though weapons were tweaked so they are all useful in some capacity this time.

* EpiphanicPrison: In a way. [[spoiler: Isaac is unable to accept and come to terms with Nicole's death, so her specter hounds him throughout the game. Only when he finally comes to terms with it, does she become normal. And even that is a subversion (The Marker was using him all along). And then by the end, he's finally accepted and come to terms with her death and is free of it.]]

* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler: Serves as TheStinger to possibly set up another installment]].

** [[spoiler: Marker-Nicole indicates that this is what Stross' "Steps" are, as well as a Build Your Own Cthulhu construction kit.]]
** Bit of an odd case, though. [[spoiler: Marker-Nicole]] states that "Step Four is Acceptance", indicating that Bargaining was skipped entirely. Also, since [[spoiler:Stross' Step Three was to gouge people's eyes out with a screwdriver]], Anger and Depression seem to have switched places.

* GaidenGame: One was released for the iPhone[=/=]iPad system, simply titled ''VideoGame/DeadSpace1'' (usually referred to as "Dead Space: Mobile"). It features a backdrop to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', where a mysterious protagonist codenamed "Vandal" is tricked into releasing Necromorphs into the Sprawl at large by the Church of Unitology, and struggles to correct it. Some of Vandal's logs can be found in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', minus the voice filter disguising [[spoiler: [[SamusIsAGirl the fact that she's a woman]]]].

** Early on, Isaac gets a message from [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Daina]] reminding him to kill Necromorphs by dismemberment. His response is simply, "[[VideoGame/DeadSpace1 I know: I've had a lot of practice]]."

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: Gabe dies and his corpse is taken for research, and Lexine is now a fugitive.]]
* FaceHeelTurn: Gabe's teamate, Vic, betrays him and attempts to kill him. [[spoiler: He succeeds.]]
* [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]]: [[spoiler: After losing his leg, Gabe stays behind to open the hangar bay doors and allow Lexine and their unborn child to escape.]]

* OfficialCouple: Gabe and Lexine are married now. [[spoiler: He even got her pregnant]].
* PairTheSpares: [[spoiler: For ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'', Lexine and Weller got married.]] Very much a case of this trope, since in ''Dead Space: Extraction'' there was basically no indication of any romantic interest between the two of them, if anything any romantic buildup in ''Extraction'' was between [[spoiler: Nathan and Lexine. It seems Nathan didn't survive the ending of ''Extraction'', however.]]
* RedShirt: [[spoiler: Colin Price, the last surviving member of Gabe's security team, is brutally killed by an infector minutes into the game and transformed into the game's first Twitcher. Somewhat justified as he was heavily wounded as seen by his RIG meter at the beginning.]]
* RedShirtArmy: All regular members of Gabe's and Victor's security teams barring Colin Price perished in the outbreak before the game even starts. [[spoiler: Colin Price meets the same fate some 5 minutes into the game.]]

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to Nathan?]]: The only other survivor from ''Extraction'' isn't seen, or even mentioned. WordOfGod states he [[spoiler: was the Necromorph that attacked Lexine at the end of ''Extraction''.]]

* Isaac manages to survive a confrontation with both an [=EarthGov=] gunship ''and'' the Tormentor at the same time, effectively using explosive canisters to take care of both threats in one shot. This only occurs after he has been shot at by the gunship, slides several metres down through an emergency hatch, gets chased through a collapsing tunnel by said Tormentor, blown out into the open sky by the gunship's attacks, then blown back ''into'' the station by the resulting explosion. He simply carries on like nothing happened.

** Several of the ApocalypticLog entries recorded by survivors on the station also reference the gameplay tactics the player can use, with several specifically reminding anyone who will listen to "Cut off their limbs!" and another outright showing how to use spikes off Necromorphs (pulled with Stasis) to dispatch other enemies.

** At one point, Isaac unleashes hundreds of Necromorphs on 200+ military personnel. They slaughter enough of each other to make Isaac's journey to destroy the Marker EXTREMELY difficult instead of downright impossible.

** Hardcore Mode, which must be unlocked, grants you minimal ammo and med packs, and only allows you to save ''three times''. If you die, you do not continue from the last checkpoint, but from the last time you saved (so make sure you save when you need to!) You'll need to play ''very'' carefully and make full use of the Stasis and Kinesis Modules' abilities to impale enemies to save yourself. The reward? [[spoiler: The ultimate LethalJokeItem: a red foam hand you put over Isaac's hand. It doesn't shoot bullets: instead, he makes "Bang! Bang!" and "Pew! Pew!" noises with it. It's a guaranteed OneHitKill on Necromorphs]].

** There is also the reward for beating [[HarderThanHard hardcore mode.]] It can kill any Necro in one hit, has infinite ammo [[spoiler:[[LethalJokeItem and just happens to be a red foam finger.]]]]

* LethalJokeItem: Your reward for beating the dreaded Hardcore Mode is the Handcannon, a ridiculous foam finger...that just happens to completely decimate whatever it "shoots".
-->[[spoiler: "Pull Right Trigger/R2 to go [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Bang Bang]], Press Right Bumper/R1 to go [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Pew Pew Pew]]."]]

* ArtifactOfDoom: Subverted by the Marker, which is revealed to be [[spoiler:man-made!]]. This ambiguity probably started as a vanilla {{Retcon}}, but by now, the devs at Visceral had to be feeding it on purpose...
** Not much of a surprise when you remember that the Marker from the first game was also [[spoiler:man-made]].

* AnyoneCanDie: Par for the course for this series.

''Dead Space 2'' is the sequel to the well-received ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' and the second game in the ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' series. The game continues the story of Isaac Clarke, the only surviving member of the team sent to the planet-cracker [[GhostShip USG Ishimura]]. In search of his girlfriend [[DistressedDamsel Nicole]], Isaac quickly discovered that there was more to the outbreak than meets the eye, and was thrust into a life-or-death struggle against the undead creatures known as the [[BodyHorror Necromorphs]].

Gameplay was largely unchanged from the first ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', though weapons were tweaked so they are all useful in some capacity this time.

''Dead Space 2'' was released on January 2011 for the PC, UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3.]] The first trailer can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtEEa4PU7ok here]]. Exclusively for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 PS3]], ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'', originally a UsefulNotes/NintendoWii release, was also bundled with the collector's edition of ''Dead Space 2''. In March 2011, a [=DLC=] was released called ''Dead Space 2: Severed''. It follows Gabe Weller and Lexine Murdoch, two returning characters from ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' as they try to get off the Sprawl. It is only available for the console versions of the game.

* AuthorAppeal: This is the third Visceral game in a row to feature UndeadChildren. The first was the original ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' and the second was ''VideoGame/DantesInferno''.

* CoverDrop: There is one for both Dead Space 2 ''and'' VideoGame/DeadSpace:

* GaidenGame: One was released for the iPhone[=/=]iPad system, simply titled ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' (usually referred to as "Dead Space: Mobile"). It features a backdrop to ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', where a mysterious protagonist codenamed "Vandal" is tricked into releasing Necromorphs into the Sprawl at large by the Church of Unitology, and struggles to correct it. Some of Vandal's logs can be found in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'', minus the voice filter disguising [[spoiler: [[SamusIsAGirl the fact that she's a woman]]]].

** Early on, Isaac gets a message from [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Daina]] reminding him to kill Necromorphs by dismemberment. His response is simply, "[[VideoGame/DeadSpace I know: I've had a lot of practice]]."

** Also counts as a PrecisionFStrike (and two of only three times the word is used in the game, not counting the ClusterFBomb above).

* [[spoiler: EarnYourHappyEnding: After all the horrible things Isaac had to go through over the past few three years and the events of this game, he finally manages to defeat the EldritchAbomination masquerading as his dead girlfriend. He simply sits down and waits to die when Ellie comes in on an awesome BigDamnHeroes moment. Is it over? Not by a long shot: Isaac's likely a fugitive, and while there are still other Markers, or whatever that thing that wants to be "reborn" is, Isaac finally seems to have a semblance of peace and has come to terms with Nicole's death. Out of ALL current ''Dead Space'' multimedia, this game probably grants the happiest ending to be seen in the story so far]].

** Dead Space 3, subverts all of this. He did get to live in peace for a few years.

* FakeDifficulty: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hardcore Mode]], only unlocked after beating the game once, is genuinely tough due to severely limited ammo/health and highly lethal enemies. The "Fake" part comes from [[SaveGameLimits only allowing you to save a grand total of three times in a 15-chapter game]] and [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous deleting all checkpoints]]. If you die, you're kicked back to your last save. But since you're only allowed three, this means that one death could cost you literally hours of progress. [[SarcasmMode Thank you, Visceral]].

* SequelDifficultySpike: Isaac's abilities are slightly better than they were in the first game. This is to make up for the fact that everything else is a lot tougher, too. Enemies only drop items when they take postmortem damage instead of dropping them instantly, which means that the game despawning corpses after a particularly long battle actually robs you of needed supplies. This, coupled with enemies dropping less ammo on higher difficulties, means that no matter how well you hoard you'll always be a bit short on ammo and using kinesis a lot. Certain weapons were nerfed slightly and alongside the larger variety of enemies, old enemies have been given noticeable boosts in speed and strength.

* CompetitiveMultiplayer: ''Dead Space 2'' features a new multiplayer mode, a first for the series; it takes the form of team-based gameplay, with one side playing as the human engineers, and the other side playing as different types of Necromorphs: [[FragileSpeedster The Pack]], [[CombatTentacles The Lurker]], [[PersonalSpaceInvader The Puker]] and [[PoisonIsCorrosive The Spitter]]. The humans will be tasked with completing a specific goal, and will be armed with the same kinds of weapons and tools Isaac uses, while the Necromorphs have to stop the humans from completing that goal, and will receive help from several Necromorph [=NPCs=] spawned to assist them. It plays much like ''VideoGame/{{Singularity}}'' with [[UpToEleven even more gratuitous]] BodyHorror.

* TheFaceless: Now that Isaac's [[SuddenlyVoiced got a voice]], he also has a face to go with it: one of the last images of the first trailer was a shot of Isaac's face before his helmet covered it. Naturally, the game uses this to notch the death scenes UpToEleven. For example, Isaac getting his helmet ripped off and a Necromorph Tripod's spike ''shoved down his throat''.