It was excellent. I played through blindly with no assistance from any external sources (save for verifying that the Ubermorph at the end of the game was, in fact, invincible and I should stop shooting it), and on Survivalist difficulty, where health and ammo drops are very rare. It was a challenge and finally a game kicked my ass by being genuinely difficult as opposed to cheap AI tactics or blind fire and I truly enjoyed the game, though it was a bit short. For a 2 disc game I was expecting more than then 8 hours, 15 minutes it took me to complete it; it was only about 30 minutes longer than my first playthrough of the single-disc original game.

It was visually intriguing and, unlike the first game, there were a few scenes that cause my heart to skip a beat. A few times they were due to my stupidity (forgetting a necromorph was still around, turning a corner after doing a puzzle and being greeted by a talon to the face), a few times due to doors taking their damn time to open (ubermorph chasing me, death imminent, no health, no ammo, no stasis, door not opening. Door not opening. Ubermorph breathing down my neck. Door not opening. DOOR NOT OPENING. DOOOOOR NOT OPENINGGGGGGGGGGGG. Breath smells like dead people. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR.), and one particular point where I was expecting to be attacked while traversing the maintenance tunnels, which, SPOILER, you are never attacked in the crawlspaces. I exited and was greeted by a woman with a needle in my face, one of my biggest fears (needles, not women). Also, the school was freaky. The kind of freaky that reminded me of Condemned: CO's school level. Crying babies that explode, school bells, a school play, all terrifying.

Since I was playing on an elevated difficulty- my friend, John, who lent me his copy of the game described it as the only way for a survival horror fan to play, where [nearly] no ammo drops, heath is rare, and 90% of your item acquisitions are from the store. Anyone unfamiliar with the Dead Space series should not that the only times you are safe in-game is while the game is saving (not AT the save station but while the ACTION of saving is being performed), while in the console menu, and while changing game options. This means that while getting that 90% of my items, I'm vulnerable to getting an involuntary lobotomy. Awesome.

So I finished the game, was greeted by a lengthy credit sequence, an a OMG DEAD SPACE 3 COULD HAPPEN moment and then I was shown what I had unlocked. I received a new suit (or two, I wasn't sure), apparently 2 versions of New Game +, and Hardcore Difficulty. Hardcore Difficulty, sounds badass. I read the description (I will paraphrase):

• Cannot start from New Game + (Ok, so I have to start from scratch. I prefer that, anyway. I like a challenge)
• Enemies have more health and do more damage, you do less damage (Ok, I can deal with that)
• Decreased item drops (...decreased from 1 in 10? Ok, it's going to be a little tricky but I'm game)
• Cannot restart from checkpoints, must restart from savepoints (So it's Resident Evil in space. I've got this in the bag)

Here's the kicker:

• Can only save 3 times.

...

0_0

Awesome. Let's do this. Wish me luck.