Dead Space 2 gives you a Bioshock feel especially early on. Whereas the Ishimura just gave the feeling of a functional ship, the environments in 2 feel like the sum of their parts. The sense of loss and the confusion of “what the heck happened here?” like Bioshock is present in Dead Space 2. Games like this can easily fall into a cliché story, but Dead Space 2 does a nice job of being more original than falling into the same story arcs of other horror stories. Nothing is too overplayed: music, enemies popping out of nowhere, etc.
Very linear. Might’ve been moreso than the original. Another negative is that as the game progresses, you’ll figure out what enemies and how many will be coming based on the room layout and size. There’s also the occasional problem with the story where it’s the usual “Oh man! Item A broke down, I’ll go fix Item B, so we can progress”. It is not as noticeable as other games, but it gets tiresome in the later chapters. Despite the linearity, the pace is differentiated by varying elements. You’ll have the usual flying in zero gravity as well as feet on the ground sequences. The game is not too long and not too short.
Like the original, it is completely up to you how you make your way through. This is welcomed freedom. You can upgrade any weapon, or not even use a weapon at all. In fact, the gameplay is basically a carbon copy of the first. Whereas in other games I’d find this a significant issue, I did not mind. For a price of around $10, this game is definitely worth picking up.