Most games: Let's make sure the player has a nice safe intro area to learn the controls - we don't want to overwhelm them. Dead Space 2:

"Okay team, we need some new necromorphs for our sequel. What we got?" "How about one that just pukes on everyone and everything. The... Puker!" "Done. It's perfect, it's in the game - ship it."

Getting out of that stray jacket and getting me some Engineering drip.

Ah yes, the first tripod fight. I just have to stay far away from him as he can destroy me on survivalist/zealot if he gets too close. I've got this! ...

I've always been more a Dead Space 1 person because naturally it leans more on the survival horror side (esp with the remake's additions), but I also like how mechanical the Ishimura feels/sounds. Dead Space 2 is not that. The tone of the Sprawl is a bit wacky to behold.

The Pack, or "well, there goes all my ammo!"

"perfect sleep"

mmmm dat light cookie

Ah yes, the Unitology apartments. Lots of good things happening here!

Church of Unitology entrance hall

Easily the best enemy addition in Dead Space 2: the Stalkers.

Got that Titan Security Suit drip

Unitology Church aesthetic going hard

Ah, the Event Horizon room: a staple of any space ship or station!

Ripper, my beloved.

They knew everyone would be too busy ogling how rad this room looks

Not the most ammo efficient for this encounter, but I just got my Ripper and I'm going to use it, damn it! Also that unitology necromorph was real late to the party pfft

This room is probably my favorite visually in the whole game, though.

Light cookie appreciation post #2 (the stain glass windows baked into the carpet/floor)

Now that I've finished my NG run of Dead Space, back to playing Dead Space 2 while waiting for performance patches for my Impossible/NG+ runs 😔 Sorry for everyone who has to watch Franco die another 500 times.

Handsome guy

Dillon very quickly gets bodied because he's used to Dead Space 1 combat pacing and has to re-adjust back to how incredibly fast everything moves in Dead Space 2 😔 Goddamn Leapers are *murder* in the second game lol

I totally forgot these zit monsters existed

Ladies - he's 0'9'', full of tiny angry sounds and available!

Ah, the elementary school - a fairly common locale of horror games. Silent Hill, FEAR 2, Dead Space 2, Condemned, Outlast 2. Not quite up there with Asylums, but not far behind, either.

lmao. god. This shit is so funny. I remember this being a big deal in 2011. People going "oh my god, they have zombie babies and children! So disturbing" and now it's just like - pfffft. Now this doesn't even register on the "shocking" scale.

I remember playing Dead Space 2 in early 2011, starting college that fall, and then playing Skyrim that winter in my dorm, and the big controversy with Skyrim was that “killable kids” mod. Pete Hines had a big fight on Twitter about it. 2011 games industry was so quaint.

Doom 3 “am I joke to you?”

Even though this is just a key/door puzzle, the presentation makes it way more memorable. It's morbidly funny, which suits this game well.

The next room requires a verbal access code, which I always had hoped would be solvable by playing one of the station keeper's audio logs, but unfortunately not. The answer is to just throw stuff into these beams. Can't always turn the imsim brain off hah