14 DAY TRIAL // Dead Space 2 was one of the titles presented at Electronic Arts' press conference earlier today, where a gameplay video was shown and a release date was announced. The survival horror action game will be launched on the 25th of January in North America and on the 28th of January in Europe on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC.
Dead Space 2 will be set in the Sprawl, a futuristic urban location where the protagonist, Isaac Clarke, will have to stop a massive necromorph invasion. He will have to navigate through the city's abandoned buildings to find a way to defeat the monsters, while also trying to battle his emerging dementia that will haunt him more and more as the game progresses.
“The story of Isaac, the necromorphs and the whole Dead Space fiction has much more to reveal. Dead Space 2 adds another dimension to the complex world and characters that inhabit this universe,” Steve Papoutsis, the executive producer of the game, said. “We were honored and humbled by the response to Dead Space and Dead Space Extraction, and we could not be more excited to add another chapter to the annals of the horror genre.”
The live demonstration during EA's briefing did a good job at showing the new features of the game. The sound design is still excellent, with the screeching of the necromorphs and the noise of the weapons having delivered a haunting experience even to those who were watching the webcast from their homes. The dismembering mechanic is back and expanded, along with the time-slowing powers from the first Dead Space title.
The graphics also seem better and the developer is using a wider color palette for the title's locations this time around. The Unitarian church that was seen in the gameplay video looked like an unlikely place for combat, extending the eerie feeling of Dead Space 2. More footage like this will be seen in the coming days at Sony's press conference.