Dead Space 2

Posted:  Jan 15, 2023
SDHQ BUILD SCORE: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star

Review

Three years have passed since escaping the USG Ishimura and now Isaac must face his greatest nightmare again. Dead Space 2 will take you on a wild ride to discover the cause of this new Necromorph outbreak. Suit up, get your gear, and make your way across the Sprawl, a giant space station orbiting Saturn, while upgrading your rig and weapons to survive and hopefully put an end to this horrid nightmare. Will you be able to come out of this alive?

Dead Space 2 is the follow-up to one of my personal favorite games of all time. It leans more on the action side of things rather than horror, but it still makes for a scary experience worth remembering. With the remake of the original Dead Space coming out as well, this game is being provided as a free bonus for any pre-orders. So let's quickly dive in and see if surviving the Necromorph outbreak a second time is worth taking on-the-go!

Dead Space 2: Performance

In a turn of events I didn't expect, Dead Space 2 performs even better than its 2008 prequel! The game does start off in the wrong resolution, but going into your settings is essential here. First, you will encounter an option to sign into an EA account, but pressing B will allow you to play without needing to sign in. Than, I noticed the game was also running at 30 FPS, which I found weird. So, I went into the settings, changed the resolution, and turned V-sync off, which fixed everything.

On top of that, I did decide to try playing at the highest settings, which can be played incredibly well! All in all, I was able to play this game at max settings, 60 FPS, with no caps at all, and I got at most 9.5W battery drain. Even with the settings that need to be changed, I would consider this a Best on Deck game purely with how perfect it runs after those settings.

I thought it was interesting seeing the difference between having V-sync on and off in-game. Having it on means you are limited to 30 FPS, but oddly enough, it actually drains more battery than having it off and running at 60 FPS! In one area, I saw a .7W drop from 9.5W to 8.8W just by turning V-sync off and allowing the game to run at 60 FPS.

I did notice there was some very small stutters that occurred when going into new places, but this just one little stutter and not a plethora of them. I would consider them nearly non-existent due to them not happening often and not continuously stuttering. I didn't find any other issues in my play-through either and it felt amazing on the portable device.

Conclusion

I don't think there's anything more that needs to be said here. Dead Space 2 is a fantastic follow-up to the original game and while it leans on action more than horror at times, it feels like a great merging of the two genres that entertains with its story and gameplay. On top of that, it runs near-perfectly on the Steam Deck with minor changes. Once those changes are implemented, you will never have to change a thing again!

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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SDHQ's Build Score Breakdown

Dead Space 2 is an action-packed follow-up to the original horror game. It is entertaining, enjoyable, and is Best on Deck!

Build Score

Performance: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
VISUALS: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Stability: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Controls: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Battery: 
Full StarFull StarFull StarFull StarFull Star
Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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