DeaD space 2, Fallout: New Vegas, splatterhouse, reD DeaD reDemptioN: uNDeaD Nightmare
DEAD SPACE 2 Xbox 360, PS3, PC
EA Dead Space first terri-
fied gamers in 2008 with its survival horror adven- ture, set on a deep space mining vessel overrun by alien mutations known as Necromorphs. Now, Dead Space 2 (out January 25)
puts players back in the role of systems engineer Isaac Clarke, who’s suffering from a deadly form of dementia after coming into contact with the creatures. All that’s left is to try to save yourself from impending insanity, while also getting to the bottom of the sinister goings-on at The Sprawl space station and, hopefully, stopping them. DS2 producer Rich Briggs issues a warning about what new abominations await us in orbit.
How have you made this installment even scarier? The things that are happening to Isaac, whether it is his
relationship with Nicole, his girlfriend, the way the de- mentia is affecting him or some of the things that he’s seeing, they’re all tied more into the story, instead of being one-off moments that you walk around and see. ... The horror moments are even more disgusting because we’ve gone even further with the blood, the guts, the way Isaac kills enemies, the ways that Isaac can be killed. We’ve still got you going through areas where it’s literally your imagination that’s providing most of the scares because it’s dark or a spot where you feel vulnerable. Or it’s a spot, like a school, where something terrible has happened and we’ve taken the environment and twisted it.
What improvements to gameplay can we ex- pect? A place where we made some drastic moves
was in respect to zero gravity. Originally, it was a point-to-point jump. In Dead Space 2 we’ve com- pletely overhauled it, so you lift off and now you can move backwards, forwards, up, down, you can boost, you can use your locator, you can use your weapons, your stasis, your telekinesis. ... Isaac [also] felt a little like an errand boy in the first Dead Space. We really didn’t want that to be the experience in Dead Space 2, we wanted the player to feel very empowered, especially since we’ve given Isaac a voice. When some- thing needs to be said, he can actually take con- trol of the situation, react to it and tell others what to do.
How about new weaponry? One of the key ones is the javelin gun, which
is a mining tool that Isaac has, using his engi- neering background, taken the safety valves off of and misappropriated it into a weapon of de- struction. So this is a tool that would launch sur- vey rods into mining sites, but he has changed it so it shoots out these spears that can pin en- emies to walls. In Dead Space you really have to rip the enemies limb from limb in order to make sure they’re down, because they’ll just keep coming at you. So we still have strategic dismemberment, but now we have strategic im- palement, too.
RM66
Are there any new Necromorphs hunting us? The Pack – they are very short, pale creatures.
They are bigger than the Lurkers, the tentacled babies that are crawling around [in the first game]. They are very weak on their own, but they attack in a pack and they can very, very quickly overwhelm you. We also have enemies called The Stalkers. They will peer around cor- ners, they will try to flank you, they will talk to each other and try to divert your attention while one sneaks up from behind. They have armoured heads that they charge at you with, which makes it very difficult to dismember them because they tuck their limbs behind them as they run. We also have The Tripod, which is a huge creature. It’s tough to describe, but let’s just say it’s a very twisted female form that has a huge spike that comes out of its mouth and there’s a little baby hanging on that spike. It’s one of our boss char- acters and people are usually pretty horrified when they see that.
In the game’s new multi-player component, what sorts of challenges will players face? It positions you as a security team of humans
or as a team of Necromorphs trying to stop them. ... It was critical to us that we delivered an online experience that could only be delivered in Dead Space and that’s why we immediately said, “Okay, you are going to be able to go online and strategically dismember your friends.” 0 MONICA S. KUEBLER
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72