The original Dead Space was a massive surprise from EA and the then named EA Redwood Shores (now Visceral Games). It reignited the survival horror genre as arguably the true successor to Resident Evil 4; expanding on that game's gameplay tool-set, action and horror - more so even than Resident Evil 5 (which lacked any true progression or innovation from RE4). We also gave it a pretty decent score here at AusGamers for all of the above.

At this year's E3, my first glimpse of the game in action was at Sony's pre-show Media Briefing, which was brief but breathtaking, so I couldn't wait to get in to see the game during our allotted time with EA on the third day. By then, the booth was covered in countless nominations for Best of Show E3 Awards, and the line was equally massive; full of people anxious to see what all the show-floor buzz was about.



Inside the behind-closed-doors booth, designed like a mini church replete with pews and propaganda (a booklet in the back of each pew, offered answers at the Church of Unitology), hung a massive 102" LED with Isaac standing in his signature poise; hunched at the ready for any necromorph action. The game looked even better than the original, with familiar and welcome art-direction. Isaac was still in his engineering rig, plasma cutter in-hand and moved with the same weight and deliberation that made his initial journey so engaging.

We saw just under 20 minutes of live gameplay, which encompassed new combat, new abilities, new necromorphs and new environments. The good news is this is a pure sequel with the only major change from the direction of the first game being that Visceral have given Isaac both a face and a voice (I'm still on the fence about this). Otherwise, it's very much the same sort of progressive fare we know and love from the first outing.

The demo kicked off with Isaac moving through a series of labs with empty chambers. Of course, as this is a horror game, a few of the chambers were literally empty in that they'd been smashed from the inside. Not too far in and we came across our first necromorph and also saw the first update to combat. You can now cut off the razor talons of any necromorph sporting them, and use them via telekinesis to spear them against any flat surface - do this in conjunction with stasis and the game's combat combination system really starts to shine. It's also a bit of a kick in the teeth to the enemy to be able to utilise their own deformity against them - especially given you actually have to "cut off their limbs" anyway.



All of this was claustrophobic, and confined to narrow corridors. The lighting was fantastic, while the containment chambers spewed atmospheric cold into sterile white illumination. It's obviously hard to stand back and admire the attention to detail when deformed space creatures are trying to pierce your skull, but the entire environmental element of the game has been revamped and re-detailed this time around, and it really stands out.

Beyond the necromorph-occupied lab, Isaac came to a store and changed to the new Mining Rig (you can now change suits at stores throughout, and each will have functional abilities to help you tackle various impediments, puzzles, environments and enemies). We were about to find out the use for the Mining Rig (which is a tighter fitting number, I might add) with Isaac moving into a room with a Zero-G station that couldn't be automatically switched off. The idea here was to shut down the system manually to turn the gravity off via a simple, but lengthy puzzle. We saw plenty of this in the first game, but timing and challenge have been tweaked here with multiple ability uses again coming into play.

Once the system was off, even a puddle on the ground immediately turned into tightly packed globules of water floating about the zero-g - everything lifted from its surface and began moving in its own true physics-driven momentum, except Isaac. The new Mining Rig is equipped with propulsion boosters to allow for full 3D movement in zero-g. It was an awesome display, and a welcome addition. I'm hoping you won't always be forced to use the suit, and can still navigate zero-g with wall jumps, but this definitely opens up movement, exploration and zero-g combat in a big way.



Once all of this was navigated, it was time to move to the next part of the demo, which found us in a massive Unitology Church. Apparently we're down on The Sprawl situated on a moon around Saturn. A quick glimpse a little later on revealed the sheer size of the new game-setting, and it's massive. Where Isaac was once confined to lurking the corridors of the U.S.G. Ishimura, he now has a whole planet-side colony to explore. It also means the art team have been given a new lease on creative life, and getting back to the church is a great place to reiterate this.

If you could marry modern Star Trek design with ancient catholic religion, you'd be somewhere close to what the Church of Unitology looks like. Stain-glassed windows, sleek seating and architecture all combine in a futuristic, minimalist way - it looks the part, and with Isaac's sleek new Mining Rig - the game immediately set itself apart from Dead Space. But not for too long as we were immediately reminded as to what he's fighting, when a giant spider-shaped necromorph dropped from the ceiling, knocking Isaac to the ground (you can see this guy in the gameplay video). Combat against him was that awesome mix of cinematic and interactive, as aiming at his weak-spot would knock him back and give you breathing room, bit not before being accosted again - damn pushy religious types.

We also encountered in the church another enemy type, which continues Visceral Games' sick fascination with throwing under-aged and deformed enemies at you. These 'tween' necromorphs were more pesky than menacing, but creepy nonetheless, while we saw the return of some favourites, including Exploders. The great thing about this was we saw some creative gameplay that included impaling our exploder to a wall with the talon of a Slasher, then rounding up a posse of various necromorphs in hot pursuit so that when they ran past the hanging Exploder, we just shot his explosive sac and took them all out.



The demo ended on one of the most thrilling cinematic teasers I've ever seen in a videogame, only like so much of Dead Space's cinematics - it was all interactive. Coming into a large room overlooking the colony, a ship outside shot at Isaac, smashing through the glass, thus creating a vacuum. Clamouring to find a grip and not be sucked out into deadly space, Isaac fights his way along the floor with tiles and plates ripping up as he grabs them. He manages to find a hatch in the floor and drops himself into it; falling unceremoniously along its bends and turns, landing on a floor below. Breathless and clearly in pain, he pants with relief, only to be interrupted by the presence of an even bigger, and uglier necromorph. He turns to run away as it gives chase, causing the area around him to crash and fall - beams topple down and block the path, while Isaac turns to face the monster at every saving opportunity, before he makes good an escape to another floor similar to the one mentioned above.

The scene repeats as the ship once again shoots out the safe glass, only this time the necromorph collides with Isaac and sends them both hurtling into space. Where once the intense action inside echoed wildly with noise, outside everything goes silent barring the reverberation of collision in Isaac's suit - he collides with the side of the ship that was shooting at him, and you can slightly hear the clunking of metal on metal as he struggles to find a hand-hold. The necromorph makes things worse, and though Isaac finds a second to leap from the side of the ship, the monster grabs him and reels him back in. And, end scene.

According to our Visceral guides, all of this takes place only a short while into the game, offering a tantalising vision of the intense action and thrills to come. Collectively AusGamers picked Portal 2 as our game of the show, but personally Dead Space 2 stole my heart. Absolutely brilliant.