The place is the Sprawl, a long-established mining colony built on the Rings of Saturn that’s now become a bustling metropolis and popular spaceport. The time is three years after the events of Dead Space, when the USG Ishimura succumbed to a devastating necromorph attack and became a floating tomb for thousands of humans. And the man, despite the futuristic facelift, is still very much Isaac Clarke. Three years of soul-searching have given him an attitude (not to mention a voice) and a thirst for taking down necromorphs. Which is pretty handy, really, because the bite-happy buggers are back in an invasion so large it threatens to wipe out the Sprawl in days.

Dead Space 2 has been in the pipeline for a very long time. We know this not just because executive producer Steve Papoutsis says so, but also because it’s fully playable. Sadly, our demo of the game was hands-off, yet it was probably good that Papoutsis showed us around the Sprawl because left to our own devices, we would’ve dropped the controller in shock.

What a difference a year makes. Though Dead Space was a gorgeous game — well, as gorgeous as rooms filled with festering corpses and eviscerated aliens could ever be — the largely static environments’ only roles were to act as geometric funnels for the alien floods. Now the locations are all fully interactive. Almost anything and everything can be manipulated with telekinesis or destroyed with weapons fire. Even items such as ATMs and vending machines are hackable, BioShock-style.

Wading in Corpses

Papoutsis demos three playable areas in total. The first is the brilliant-blue Church of Unitology, eerily lit with hundreds of Gothic candles. Here, Steve battles a swarm of necromorphs with the new javelin gun, capable of pinning enemies like Gordon Freeman pegs Combine to walls with his crossbow bolts, splaying the disemboweled alien bodies against surfaces for easy dismemberment. Occasionally he uses the weapon’s secondary fire mode, which shoots an electrically charged javelin into necromorphs, pinning them against a wall as usual but then frying them until the monsters burst into flame and collapse into smoking embers. Isaac handles these enemy hordes almost effortlessly: a new Gears of War–ish center-screen aiming mechanic aiding the frantic multi-necromorph slaying, and more generous telekinesis ranges allowing Isaac to fling severed necromorph body parts back at the advancing drones.

When the area is clear, Isaac moves into a side-room and joins a group of NPCs. It seems our quiet engineer is no longer a whipping boy, and Isaac is now always happy to issue orders to civilians willing to join his cause. Visceral Games is still deciding exactly how much of a role the NPCs will play (at a fundamental level, Papoutsis explains, Dead Space 2 is mainly about Isaac battling monsters on his own), but you’ll have company for at least part of the adventure.

Skipping ahead to another area, we see this company in action. Isaac and friend step into a giant octagonal lift, door on one side, windows on the other seven. The lift is in what appears to be a giant spacecraft hangar, and when it whirs into life, the duo ascend and a beautiful vista of the enormous city appears just below their eye line.

The calm doesn’t last, and neither does our buddy. A giant necromorph bursts through one window without warning, tearing our companion to bits. As the lift continues to rise, Isaac is forced into a fight. The beast can smash through windows at any time, and Steve, with a glint in his eye, puts down the pad and smiles as the monster grows tired of playing, senses no response from Isaac, and slices off our protagonist’s arms before tossing him out of the lift. The scene is rounded off by a ceremonious roar into the camera. Pleasant.

This Part Sucks

The final area we’re shown is a brightly lit corridor, which Papooutsis decimates with plasma-rifle fire. Suddenly a group of necromorphs attacks, and as he turns to hold them off, a wayward shot catches the window at the far end of the corridor, smashing it to pieces. The entire area decompresses instantly, flushing its contents out into space. That goes for Isaac, too. As he’s dragged into the void, you can shoot a glowing red button to activate a safety shutter and survive. Again, Steve deliberately doesn’t intervene, and the shutter slams shut just as Isaac’s halfway through the window, cutting him in two.

If that sounds like overkill, it’s really not. Simply ejecting Isaac from the Sprawl isn’t threatening thanks to the inclusion of a jetpack and jet-boots. Zero-G moments no longer involve jumping from surface to surface; Isaac can now navigate through space with his suit’s nozzles, rounding corners and dodging obstacles as he does so.

The space “flying” allows Isaac to traverse the Sprawl and its surroundings with relative ease, and because his journeys no longer rely on a tram system, the locations he visits are much more varied than before. From spacewalks on walkways and solar arrays to the surface of planet-cracked moons (and, of course, the various different and relatively colorful locations inside the city itself), each area should be a treat to behold. We also spied the word “zoo” in one chapter menu, although whether this refers to an actual zoo or is just a coincidental line of coding remains to be seen.

With the pre-production phase in its closing days, Visceral has the entire game mapped out from start to finish. But they’re making changes daily, and the team is fervently scouting forums and relying on focus testers’ feedback to shape the game into something that’ll please fans. Melee — perhaps one of the original’s weakest aspects — is currently under debate, as is the option to manually initiate the close-quarters-combat moments that previously triggered when you were attacked. Scare moments have taken a backseat this time, too: Steve insists Dead Space 2 will still unsettle people, but that it should now satisfy those seeking a slice of empowerment with their shakes, allowing them to blow the crap out of anything and everything on a regular basis.

Against all odds, Dead Space managed to keep pace with the Resident Evil games, and the opening saga of the space series comfortably sits among the upper echelons of this generation’s gaming library. When the sequel arrives in just under a year, we fully expect it to better the original in every way conceivable. Start clearing your escape routes to the back of the sofa...