A great sequel improved from its predecessor but I think there's still room for improvement (dead space 3?)
The game's visuals are incredible though not a great improvement over the first one. Also I thought there would be a lot more new weapons and abilities on this sequel however most of the weapons are similar to dead space 1 as well as stasis powers. Furthermore, there weren't too many suit choices and the power-nodes are very scarce not giving you a chance to upgrade your weapons much (again same story as dead space 1 so no improvement here).
I was expecting to see more 'boss' fights however I felt the few bosses were in this game (if any) which were easy to kill and I wasn't sure if I was killing a boss or just another BIGger necromorph.
Sound design is excellent being part of your every move, changing and throwing you off your focus adding to the thrill and adrenalin rush as you move your way along the creepy environments. Many new necromorphs make their debut like the little babies, and the dinosaur looking ones that hide around corners and then charge at you. However, bullets and money are scarce so you have to find other strategies to eliminate your enemies, as I found myself running out of ammo a few times during the game.
The game's environment is as claustrophobic as the first one and most of the time you just simply move through corridors to your next objective. I believe the environment could have been more 'open' and 'interactive'. Having said that, it is great to see the Zero-G environments improved, now you can freely float around and go anywhere you like unlike the first game where you had to aim from point-to-point. A new hacking skill has been added to the game, along with the many (easy) puzzles in the game give you a break from killing zombies, however they are too easy and could further improve (the hacking is ridiculously easy).
Lastly, most of the cut scenes are excellent with great visuals. The 2nd installment even though longer than the original (12 chapters as opposed to 15) feels shorter due to the added "repetitive'' level design. Some of the Chapters also feel shorter than the original sometimes I can go from one chapter to the next in less than 30min, however on dead space 1 the Ishimura chapters were just the right length.
There is more room for improvement and I am sure the developers know that, so I believe some of the sort comings of dead space 2 were deliberate, in order to prepare us for dead space 3, after all it is only logical in this competitive environment.