Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 straddles the action/horror boundary more successfully than any game since Resident Evil 4. While reactionary reports of its descent into shooterdom are greatly exaggerated, DS2 takes everything that made the first game great and scales it up to create a truly dynamic, cinematic experience. It’s still an aggressively atmospheric, savagely affecting sci-horror nightmare, but this time around Dead Space has a certain sweep, a certain sense of spectacle that makes its classic claustrophobic creep part of a more enriching whole.

In no small part responsible for the improvement are the big leaps forward in storytelling. While adding a voice to a previously silent protagonists can be disastrous, Dead Space 2’s conversion of Isaac from mute observer to active, fully-voiced participant works wonders. Emotionally involving way past simple scares, DS2 is the realization of the complete Dead Space package.