Dead Space 2 Diary - Giving Voice to Isaac Clarke

Dead Space 2 has been launched for almost a week now, and by far one of the biggest changes the game brings as opposed to the first one is the fact that its hero, space engineer Isaac Clarke, now has a voice and a face.

The original Dead Space broke out onto the scene with its intense survival horror gameplay and intricate story, in which the main protagonist Isaac Clarke, was one of the most important, yet overlooked pieces.

He searched the bowels of the Ishimura space ship for his lover, but, after surviving hundreds of deadly encounters, realized that she was already lost when he began his quest.

In all that time, Isaac didn't say a word, limiting himself to just groaning from inside his space suit when the necromorphs attacked him.

Now, for Dead Space 2, Isaac takes center stage, and is now the real center of the story, so developer Visceral Games decided to really flesh him out, giving him a voice and a face.

There were and still are quite a few games that prefer to keep their heroes silent, so that players can really identify with them, and Isaac Clarke seemed to hold his own with the likes of other protagonists like Half Life's Gordon Freeman.

That's why people started worrying that once the space engineer gets a voice and becomes more human, the illusion would break and they'll be forced to control someone completely the opposite of themselves.

Luckily, Visceral Games made no mistakes, and Dead Space 2's Isaac Clarke is one of the most human-like characters in the gaming landscape.

In the game, he battles the trauma that ensued after the final events of the first game, as well as the visions he has of Nicole, his former lover.

In between fighting legions of necromorphs, just like in the first game, Isaac shows that he is more than just an alien killing machine in a space suit, and behaves as naturally as possible for a guy faced with an almost insurmountable obstacle but who just wants to be left alone and grieve for his loss.

The ending segments of Dead Space 2 drive the point home, but that's something everyone needs to experience without any spoilers.

Suffice to say, after the events of this new game, Isaac Clarke will definitely become a fan favorite.