in every way an improvement but instead of a slow metroid/re4 trawl through a haunted house ship of terrors dead space 2 opts for catapulting you through a series of literally facemelting science fiction space physics setpieces that feel much more at home with resident evil 6 or uncharted 2. yet here every single gameplay evolution is perfectly calibrated to ds2's blink and youre dead tone, a fast paced survival horror gameplay where you have to think on your feet to dodge horrible space industrial accidents and dismember the most amount of limbs in the shortest time possible. the leads have pretty tight chemistry for a videogame and isaac clarke's mentally fragile man on a mission makes his struggle compelling and believable, a homerun evolution from his initial silent characterization, making for a somewhat standard but (sneakily!) a genuinely affecting resolution. one of my favorite horror games