Last time I was really scared playing a video game it when I played Clock Tower on the original PlayStation back in the day.  I remember the frustration of trying to run away from the Scissor Man only to have my character fall and then impaled by those enormous scissors.  There hasn’t been a game that has given me the same type of scare like that one until I played Dead Space on the PlayStation 3.

Now if you haven’t played Dead Space you are missing out on some good scares.  This game literally made me jump a few times as I played it.  Keep in mind, that I played this game when the wife and baby were asleep and with the lights off and sound low.  The game got progressively hard and it was well worth the many deaths to get to the end.

Now Dead Space 2 has arrived and even though it was released last week, I’ve been playing it to give it a proper review and all I can say is “Holy ish is this game good!”  The game takes place 3 years after the events in the first game and Issac Clarke suffers from dementia.  He is now on a ship called the Sprawl after being released by a guy named Franco. (Franco’s story is told in Dead Space: Ignition, which serves as a link between the two games.)  Once released Issac must find his way out and this is where the fun begins.

The scares this time are a bit more spaced out and the action is a little more intense than the first game.  The game play has not changed much this time around. Although there are a few changes, especially when it comes to the zero gravity parts of the game.  This time Issac’s suit has built in rockets, so traveling in zero gravity is a little easier to maneuver.  There are not that many puzzles to solve like in the first one, but there are still sections where you must use your brain over brawn to figure out where to go next. 

Another addition to the game is 8 person multiplayer.  In the multiplayer mode two teams of four battle it out, one team consists of humans while the other team consists of necromorphs.  This is reminiscent to the multiplayer mode in Left 4 Dead.  A cool component of multiplayer is the human players start off with only 2 weapons and gain more in their arsenal as their level and experience increases. 

Not to give much away about the game, Dead Space 2 is a must get.  The game is available on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.  PlayStation 3 owners get a bonus game: Dead Space Extraction, which was previously available on the Wii.  Dead Space 2 is a good scare and you definitely need to play this game in the dark with the volume high to get the full effect.