4.5/5

I've recently played the Dead Space Remake and I had to come back to this. And you know what - I still like Dead Space 2 more. I won't really compare it to the original Dead Space because this game was an upgrade on many levels technologically, so I will compare it to the more recent Dead Space Remake.
Fun fact - original Dead Space was a sleeper, this game was the first Dead Space game for many people. That is an important factor when it comes to Dead Space 2's ratings years later.

It's kind of like comparing Resident Evil 2 to Resident Evil 4 for me. Like RE2 does on the RPD Station, Dead Space 1 completely relies on the Ishimura. Those levels are meant to be explored and backtracked many times, and that level design is so nerve-wrackingly effective - you've explored those locations tons of times, you know them like the back of your hand, but it never gets you prepared for what could happen next. On the other hand, Dead Space 2, just like RE4, goes out for an adventure, with a ton of stuff going around, with more lore to it and with more characters to it. People complain that the level design is not as rememberable as the one in DS1, and they're generally right, but is it really supposed to be as etched in your mind as the Ichimura to have a great experience? I personally find this game to have more memorable experiences, especially with that iconic eye surgery scene being one of them. This game "replicated the cinematic voice and breakneck pacing" of many of it's influences, but not for one moment did it lose it's unsettling factors and it's survival item management that the original one was notorious for.
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413895123
If I had to compare the stories, DSR probably does have a stronger story on it's hands now that Isaac Clarke has lines of his own. Side characters, I feel like they've never been that strong in Dead Space games. So, they're kind of okay. We get more of Nicole here (not really Nicole of course), but in these games you generally lack interaction with other characters, so Ellie was a welcoming character. I also do think that the dialogue here was underwhelming compared to the new dialogue in DSR. It's more like Isaac Clarke is Tom Cruise in a movie about being lost in space fighting monsters, if you get where I'm going with this. DSR hit the sweet spot with the protagonist lines, even though I didn't have a high affection for the writing of the side characters' dialogues. Scrapping the text and audio logs in DS1 and pieceing them together was a far more immersive way of storytelling compared to what we have in DS2.
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413887913
Original Dead Space was also very slow at introducing enemies, it really took it sweet time. First chapter, you get some typical necromorphs, some slashers, then let's get you some leapers, then here's one brute, then let's make that one chapter with some twitchers. Not in Dead Space 2 - here, you've been dropped right into damn hell, with a ton of them swarming from all around and you get like almost all types of enemies thrown at you before Chapter 4 even starts. I've played all of these games on max difficulty, and trust me, this one is marginally harder. DS1 made enemies the ultimate bullet sponges, you could sink tons of bullets into the damn things and you could not kill them, but they were not fast and many of them were really not agile either, so your strategy was to manipulate them and just get by them with as little damage as possible. Dead Space 2? Boy, this game is the definition of "kill or get killed". The enemies are crazy fast and agile as hell. But what is even more important is that it holds this combat fast, tense and fun throughout the whole game. And all of that is just a culmination to that ending sequence which is literally a damn nightmare (I've googled and most people turned down their difficulty for this one).
So, Dead Space 2 goes out and adds more enemy types as well. And they're very effective, it's one of the reasons I like this game more as well. Those Stalkers that run all over the damn place, that you catch a glimpse of and then they disappear, and then they start peeking at you one by one from all these different covers - for me, that is like peak horror. And man, someone had to be incredibly stressed out adding all these kids and babies you're supposed to shoot at. It's so over the top for today's standards. It's horrifying but I found it really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ funny at times. That daycare scene was completely out of pocket.

Now onto one thing that made me wish for more in Dead Space Remake. It's the sound design. Yes, the sound design is crazy good, but I personally thought the game didn't have as much ambient sound queues as I would like and as I felt that it would make it a more immersive experience. DSR is really quiet and toned down compared to DS2. In DSR, an enemy breaks the vent in the distance and I know that I have a couple of chill seconds to get prepared mentally. In DS2 there's constantly stuff going on. Disturbances, chatters, baby cries, literally everything is going on around you, and all of that makes you much more unprepared - especially considering that at times there are monsters literally waiting to jump out at you directly from inside the walls. I also like how this game did quite areas too, breaking off the silence with the damn pipes going off or something. Yes, it's cliché at this point and it's more kind of cheeky than scary, but it's just effective. For me, it was a scarier experience than DSR. And that's most thanks to the differences in enemy behaviour, they're just out there to really destroy you. I've already mentioned Stalkers before, but those scenes when there's a ton of them are just great. You're visually limited, catching only glimpses of the creatures, but they're all around you making these wheezing and screeching sounds, and even though you hear it all, you can barely tell their direction or their distance. That is one of the examples why I find this game much more spine-chillingly immersive.
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413895368
Visually, Dead Space 2 is really eye-poking at times. The textures are low resolution and the texture filtering itself is not really good. BUT, I've recently started using some shaders off of Nexus, and man do they bring this game up visually. It's like a completely different game, it does not feel like the game came out in 2011 at all. So, big hats off to modders for that one. I would recommend you to get RIG - Reshade Integrated Graphics mod on Nexus before you even start the game, and to turn on that beautiful smart DoF effect.

Even though it seems like I might be devaluing DSR at this point, you shouldn't get me wrong, Dead Space Remake really is great, but damn that game seems really slow after I've replayed this. Just like my preference of RE4 over RE2 due to their playstyle, it's something really subjective when it comes to these two games.

For the final say, Dead Space 2 is a game that should have stood on it's predecessor's shoulders, but it has proven to be worthy of a shoulder-to-shoulder stand, and not many franchises can say they're proud of that. To each it's own taste, no matter which one of these two games you go for, I assure you that you will have the time of your life.