Dead Space 2 is like 'Doom meets Half-Life meets Max Payne' and it is pretty awesome!
I want to start my review by making clear that DS2 is NOT the same as Dead Space (part one). Although the story of DS2 is a direct sequel to part one, the gameplay is not. Where you wanted to smash your controls with your forehead whilst playing DS-one because the mouse was reacting so !#$^! weird and slow, in DS2 you need a bib against drooling because of the sweet controls and movement. Anyway, brace yourself for a tasty sci-fi, horror, shooter-rush. If you enjoyed games like Doom and Half-Life then Dead Space 2 is gonna blow you away.
Gameplay: 9
Many reviewers start off by rating the graphics of a game. In my opinion nice graphics a nice-to-have not need-to-have. What a gamer expects of a game is that it does what the gamer tells it to do. In the case of Dead Space 2 the game just reacts the way you want it to, although the motion blur makes your fast turns appear not that fast. Turning off motion blur in the game options resolves this issue.
Story: 7
I have yet to finish the game so I don't have a 100 percent substantiated argument on this point, but the story is what you expect of a human-versus-alien (necromorph in this case) game. Like said earlier, the story is a direct sequel to DS-one but it is even 'darker' than the first one. Especially when you begin learning about the main-character's past. The heavy atmosphere somehow reminds me of Max Payne 2.
Difficulty: 8
Learning how to play this game is fairly easy. Each time your character is able to use a new ability it is displayed and explained in de HUD. If you somehow find yourself overpowered by a Necromorph the HUD tells you to press a certain button to free yourself from the alien's grasp. Battling the enemies isn't just straightforward pressing 'fire'. Although it may work fine, conserving ammo is key on higher difficulty levels than 'casual'. You are able to efficiently down your foes by shooting their limbs off.
Replay value: 8
When you happen to finish this game and find yourself wanting more, then DS2 has something for you. It is conveniently named 'New Game+'. You start over at a higher difficulty level AND you retain your previously acquired gear. This is especially useful when you have spend quite some time upgrading your gear in the bench and you don't want to see your powerful upgrades go to waste.
Graphics: 9
The graphics are drop-dead gorgeous, environments look stunning and terrifying at the same time. Face expressions are generally very lifelike and special effects like explosions and gunshots are almost over the top. The pullback of all the eye candy is that it demands a powerful PC to play. This is true for DS2 BUT it is fluently playable on 'high' settings on my 3 years old Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM with a GeForce 8800GTS 512MB on a 1680*1050 fullscreen resolution. I tested DS2 on an Acer Aspire 5742G laptop (Core i3 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, HD5470 graphics card) and found the game running smooth on custom settings without bloom, shadow and flare effects etcetera. But even then Dead Space 2 looks awesome.
Sound: 8
Great sounds. Suspense build-up is fantastic. Voice acting is pretty well done. Nothing more to it.
Conclusion: Excellent!
Dead Space 2 had to come a long way to recover from its predecessors flaws, but it did. The game plays smooth as butter. The story isn't special, but the darkness and wrongness of the main character's history makes it intriguing nonetheless. Players who are not accustomed to Dead Space games will quickly catch on with help of the useful HUD tooltips. The graphics are very good and you do not need to own a top of the bill computer system to fully enjoy this game. In my opinion DS2 is like 'doom meets half-life meets max payne' and GameSpot is spot-on rating it 8,5!