Having barely survived the slaughter aboard the Ishimura, Isaac Clarke faces even greater horrors in Dead Space 2 — and a prospect scarier than all the necromorphs in the universe…

“Dana, I think I've found the exit but it’s way above me. Gravity controls are locked out. Dana!”

It’s just a few words, nothing too important, but…wow. Hearing Isaac Clarke speak for the first time affects us more than we’d anticipated. Part of it’s that we played through an entire game — the first Dead Space — without hearing a single word from the determined engineer. Part of it’s the voice: it’s not deep and surly like Master Chief or Marcus Fenix, so much as average-guy — what you’d expect from a friend or coworker.

And then it hits us, the subtle but unmistakable truth of it: Isaac sounds…scared. Can you blame him? He’s fighting for his life against an enemy whose brutal nature and grisly appearance he’s seen firsthand. And we’re right there with him, hands on controller, in a thrilling taste of this terrifying sequel. Let the screams begin…

BY ALL THAT'S HOLY

For the first of two playable segments, executive producer Steve Papoutsis drops us into an area beneath a church of Unitology, the religion established in Dead Space whose members worship the giant alien Markers. We’re actually on The Sprawl, a space station on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons (and site of humanity’s first planet-cracking). Not that you’d know it from this claustrophobic indoor area, its walls lined with creepy bodies interred in purple cryo tubes.

We peek at one, hoping for a closer look at what’s inside, when we’re rushed by a Slasher, who swings for us with his razor-sharp limbs. Like the rest of the necromorphs — dead humans who’ve been resurrected as hideous abominations by an alien virus — he wants to rip us to bits. Thankfully, we’re well-armed: we take him down with the Plasma Cutter (your starting weapon from Dead Space) and move on.

As we wander past more cryo body tubes, we use Dead Space’s Line Gun and Pulse Rifle to dismember some necromorphs, and also try out the returning Stasis and Kinesis abilities. Stasis, which temporarily freezes foes in place, now recharges over time; Kinesis (i.e., telekinesis) remains unlimited. Using the latter, we pick up a severed Slasher claw and fling it at one of his comrades, impaling him in the chest. That’s right, ugly! Seeking more stab-isfaction, we switch to the Javelin Gun, a new weapon that — like BioShock 2’s Spear Gun — lets you immobilize baddies by spearing ’em to a wall. Its alt-fire sets your previous projectile ablaze with a nifty area effect, so you can nail a guy and then light him up, burning any other monsters nearby.

It’s a nice touch — just like the new forms certain necromorphs take this time around. We encounter one of them, the Puker, just in time for him to hurl some alien barf our way. Blowing his head clean off solves that problem, but we’ve got a new one: we reach a chamber with an exit, only it’s way above us. (Cue Isaac’s aforementioned dialogue.) Solution: use his engineering skills to shut off a gravity machine and float on up there!

First we must access the machine, so we hack it with a new mini-game that involves slooowly sweeping the left thumbstick until an on-screen square turns cyan, then quickly hitting B before the color vanishes. (Would we have preferred no mini-game? Yeah, but fortunately, it’s not too hard or annoying.) After accessing the gravity machine, we use Stasis to freeze its central core, then quickly yank down six metal arms with Kinesis. Bam! Gravity gone, letting us fire up the thrusters in Isaac’s new suit. No more point-to-point jumping this time: with thrusters and a slight boost ability, you can actually maneuver a bit in zero-G.

Stasis-ing the enormous fan above us, we try to thrust between two blades, but we’re still getting the hang of this, so before we make it halfway through, the fan resumes spinning and slices us in half, drenching the screen with blood. Our second try is successful: we boost our way to the top of the room, where we freeze a hatch and jet through it.

FACE OF A HERO

Thrusting through zero-G is definitely empowering, and we’re feeling good. Up top, we visit a store to put on another new suit, and are treated to a cool “Iron Man”–style image of the armor closing up around our hero. Now we really feel cool. All the while, Isaac’s talking to Dana, who Papoutsis would describe only as “a mysterious woman” who guides you via your comm link. (For how long, we’re not sure.) Overall, Isaac won’t be chatty or bursting with zany one-liners, we’re told, so much as a normal, talking person we can better relate to.

At this point, we step into the actual church — and a swell of eerie dynamic music accompanies an awesomely scary necromorph leaping right at us. Gah! Dubbed the Tripod for his three tentacles, one of which hangs disturbingly from his massive mouth, he’s big, freaky, and poised to attack. As he slams us to the ground, we aim for the bright yellow sack on his arm and burst it — and him — before being pulverized. After the tussle, The Pack — a flock of blue babies with Wolverine-size claws — don’t seem so menacing. A little backpedaling spray-and-pray with the Pulse Rifle takes care of most of them, and when one gets close enough, it triggers a quicktime-event grappling moment. Slamming the X button, we decapitate him with the butt of our gun.

Finally catching our breath, we look around at the church — a towering, open area unlike most of Dead Space’s close confines. It’s beautiful, with stained-glass windows, haunting lighting, and a humble, de-limbed statue of Unitology’s founder. A few rooms later, we get an even more arresting sight — glass walls presenting an absolutely gorgeous view of The Sprawl. Peace, as always, is fleeting: suddenly, a ship flies into our field of view, its guns shattering the window. Oh no...we’re being sucked out!

In an electrifying sequence, we hit X (when prompted) to grab a nearby beam, and with great effort, Isaac lifts a hatch in the floor and tumbles through. Hitting bottom, we’re safe…ROARRRRR! Another monster, right in our face, and he seems extra-necro-pissed. Shoot the sack! we think as he flings us around, and when he finally drops us, we race down the hallway, through a door…to another window and the ship! When it blasts this window, we fly out — us, the creature, and a bunch of debris — and the quiet is deafening. Tumbling through the air, we spy what look like red barrels near our undead enemy. We need to shoot them, Papoutsis tells us…and part one of our demo ends with that cruel cliffhanger.

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD

For our next taste of Dead Space 2, Papoutsis warps us a bit deeper into the game, to a spot right outside one of Titan’s mines. Breaking some ammo boxes, we see that your big, heavy stomp has been replaced with the option to do faster, smaller stomps. That quicker, sleeker movement seems like a general tweak: Isaac feels faster, more fluid as we amble about. We approve.

Taking in another sweet view of The Sprawl, we walk toward the mine and begin our descent. Damn you, Dead Space 2: about three steps later, we’re already approached by a new enemy, the Stalker. A few of them, in fact. Darting behind beams, they try to flank us, so we scramble around until our back’s in a corner and they have to rush us. While plugging away with various guns, we eye another new adversary: the Crawler. Like little moving mines, they’ll shuffle up next to you and detonate — sneaky bastards — though you can shoot off their heads (we’re sensing a theme here?), then use Kinesis to chuck their carcass at other necros, where it’ll explode on contact. Instead, we pull out another new weapon — the Detonator —and shoot its tripmine-like wires into a nearby wall. Hitting it, the Crawler explodes in a pulpy mess. Nasty!

The mine walls are moist, almost organic; in a way, they feel more alive than the creatures around us. As we round a corner, we hear a gross gurgling sound. It’s coming from a Cyst — a rounded baddie who, when you get close, ejects a bomb-like pod at you. It’s another opportunity to use necromorph against necromorph, notes Papoutsis: if you’re quick enough, you can snag the pod in mid-air with Kinesis, then fling it at the Cyst or another opponent. We can’t quite pull it off the first time out, but it becomes doable with practice. Alternately, we could’ve taken the easier route and lured other necros near the Cyst, coaxing it to launch a pod at them, pitting monster against monster.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Our time with Dead Space 2 end here, at which point we segue into bombarding Papoutsis and his team with questions. They’re a tight-lipped bunch, but it’s clear what their goals are for the sequel. For one, you won’t mistake “Isaac as errand boy” this time out (one of our main gripes with the first game) — in Dead Space 2, you’re given more varied mission objectives and a better sense of Isaac controlling his destiny. Of course, he won’t be your typical action hero: at times he’ll be vulnerable and nervous, while in other spots he’ll be in charge, even ordering other characters around.

The most intriguing point of all, though, comes when we ask about Isaac’s mental state. After the hellish turmoil of the first game, is he traumatized? Is he sane? Did he imagine Nicole’s appearance at the very end of Dead Space, or was she really there? “How much can we talk about this?” one developer asks another, hesitantly. “Time will tell,” Papoutsis replies. We’ve clearly hit on something — but what, exactly, we’ll have to wait to find out. Which is okay: it’s all part of the suspense leading up to the game’s January 2011 release.

And after our tense, nerve-fraying good time with Dead Space 2, we’ve had about all the thrills and excitement we can handle for one day.