Top 5 Places Human's Have Visited In Space... In Videogames.

I'm fascinated by space. It's beauty and mystery captivate me and yet it's a place that by and large, we live within completely unaware of. Our own little worlds are our main concern, we wouldn't know if a meteor flew by Earth, narrowly missing a fatal impact or if a Gamma Ray Burst was heading towards us. Stars are exploding all around us, hundreds of light years away and yet if you take the occasional glance at the sky at night, all we can see is the twinkling of stars.
Recently I was gifted a telescope and I've since learned that several of those nighttime "stars" are actually our neighbors. Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all easily spotted in my Telescope. If you didn't know they were there before you certainly will once you clasp eyes on Venus, the brightest of the Planets in the sky.
But I digress, space is so out of reach for us at the moment. As a species and especially as individuals, but in the world of science fiction we've been able to explore the cosmos at our leisure and I'm going to rundown my top five locations Humans have visited in videogames.

Foreword, I wanted to keep this list somewhat grounded in reality and so I will only be listing locations that Human's from Earth have visited. So sorry Star Wars and your Galaxy from far, far away. Also, no fantasy worlds either as there is no information that such a world has links to Humans from Earth.
So, without further ado, let's get into it:

EUROPA - CALL OF DUTY INFINITE WARFARE

We're going to start close to home, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar systems. It's often regarded as Earth's protector; it's large gravitational pull drags debris such as meteors into itself, though this may be an undeserving title as Jupiter is more than capable of knocking other objects off their orbital paths and directly into Earth!

But Jupiter is a beautiful planet, it's surface hidden beneath a sea of copper and cream clouds, swirling endlessly and how could we forget it's infamous Red Spot, a storm that has been ongoing for hundreds of years!

Jupiter has many Moons in it's orbit, most are rather small but five are often cited. One of it's most interesting Moons is Europa, an icy ball that has a liquid water core. Europa is often noted as the most likely place to find extraterrestial life in our Solar System. But we're talking micro-organisms not E.T. sadly.
In Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, events begin on Europa; a weapons black site attacked by the SDF. UNSC special forces land on Europa and attempt to secure the site. It's a breath taking opener of a mission. Descending through the icy ammonia clouds of Europa, the soldiers crash against it's icy mantle and there looming in the distance is the ominous Jupiter, occupying almost the entire sky. 

There's a wealth of inaccuracies in Infinite Warfare regarding what it'd be like to go to Europa, not mentioning the obscene amount of radiation you'd be basking in, so close to Jupiter but it's certainly a gorgeous and satisfying entry.

THE SPHERE - PREY (2006)

It's been a long time since I played this old gem, sadly it's almost unmentioned thanks to the successful reboot of the franchise. The original game was a thoroughly enjoyable adventure about a Cherokee man named Tommy who one night, along with his girlfriend Jen and Uncle is beamed up to an alien spacecraft called The Sphere, a biological spaceship that harvests planet's life forms. I won't go in to too many details, save the spoilers and all that but needless to say, Prey had some interesting narrative arcs.

The spaceship itself was roughly the size of a moon, but is a hollow structure that's more like a network of parts assembled together. It processes organic life into ship parts, sustaining itself for future intergalactic harvesting. 
One of the most interesting aspects of the ship is the portals employed to connect different parts of the ship together. This was one of the first games to show working ingame Portals and employed them to great effect.

If you haven't played Prey from 2006, I seriously suggest you hunt down a copy and play it. It was an absolute gem when it came out way back when and is still worth your time today.

MARS - DOOM (2016)

Not to sound arrogant or ignorant, but Mars is the planet I am the least interested in. It's a barren rock with virtually no atmosphere. Aside from having the largest mountain in the solar system (the Olympus Mons) it has no other notable features. Sure there are plans to have Humans begin colonisation in as early as 2060 but really, there's not a lot there that captivates my interest.

Then comes Doom 2016, it has had the most interesting iteration of Mars to date. (Lets be honest, the original Doom 1 is a fun game but it could've been based anywhere). Doom 3 let players explore a fair bit of the martian landscape and the hidden alien catacombs deep within but the Doom reboot makes it for me. 
Firstly, the Mars base is now fully realised and is a massive, mega-structure that reaches all over the red planet, right up to it's icy poles. I loved how the AI processor needed to be cooled so much that it had to be installed at one of Mar's pole. For the first time someone shows us Mars in more than one colour. 

COLLECTOR BASE, GALACTIC CENTRE - MASS EFFECT 2

I did "um" and "ah" as to whether include a Mass Effect planet in this list as to be honest, most of the planets that it introduces aren't especially exciting. Much like Star Wars, the series that inspired it, Mass Effects planets have that 'I'm one type of terrain/environment' all over sort of style. No place is varied and each planet is a derivitave of some Earth like environment. Mass Effect 2 however, had some balls. Throughout the game Shepherd and his crew are investigating the disappearance of humans from colonies all over the galaxy and his search ends when he discovers the location of the Collector Ship, a brain washed species that has been rounding up Humans for a nefarious intergalactic plot I won't divulge here.

The most exciting part about this is the location of the Collector base, the Galatic Centre! We are completely unable to view into the galactic centre. It's a dense region of the Galaxy where super massive stars reside, their huge mass has made them sink to the centre where a super massive black hole lurks, Sagitarius A*. 
Life must be pretty impossible here, the largest stars have incredibly short life spans, burning through their hydrogen reserves with shocking speed and then exploding into super novas, releasing gases and particles the star fused in it's short time. These gases, with so much collective mass collapse in on themselves and ignite into more stars. All the while, Sagitarius A* is ripping apart stars that get too close to it's core and releases huge jets of Gamma radiation, powerful enough to destroy life millions of light years away...

With all that in mind, why would you make your base of operations here? It would be unlivable, the constant super novas, the ridiculous amounts of radiation and the sheer gravitational forces exerted on space time here alone would make this a deadly place.
In Mass Effect 2, the Galactic centre is cloudy looking place, and does actually seem further from the centre than what one would think but needless to say, going anywhere near the galactic centre is an exciting proposition and whilst I would have liked to have seen a more interesting take on what things would be like so close to all this star and black hole activity, I applaud Bioware's enthusiasm for showing us a place we will never, ever see.

THE SPRAWL, THE MOON TITAN - DEAD SPACE 2

Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons. It is also the only other locale in our solar system that has an atmosphere rich in nitrogen, in fact Titan has a weather system that works very similar to Earth. Titan has regions like Earth also, however, instead of having oceans of water, Titan has oceans of liquid methane that have carved it's rocky structure just as Earth's oceans have done to our own blue little planet.

Interestingly, in the Dead Space lore; Titan was the first place to be "planet cracked" and by the events of Dead Space 2 all that is left of Titan is a final shard, the moon almost wiped out from the existence of space. An amazing and chilling thought, planets and moons refined into nothingness. 

Much of Dead Space 2 takes place on The Sprawl, the colony come refinement chewing up the last of the moon. However, this is all just a front for the Earth Government who've been recreating Markers by mapping Isaac Clarke's brain. Sadly, the facility has been intercepted by the insidious Unitologists that attack the colony, commit mass murders and suicides and all for the aim of feeding the Necromorphs with fresh corpses. 

In the end Isaac Clarke destroys the last remnants of Titan along with the Sprawl and all the Necromorphs on it. All for the best really as all those corpses were being fused into a brethren moon! 

DISHONORABLE MENTION: VENUS - WOLFENSTEIN THE NEW COLOSSUS 

In Wolfenstein The New Colossus, about 80% into the game you're sent on a mission to get some codes for a Nazi airship. The codes are located at a central base on the planet Venus... Freaking Venus.

If you're not too up on your astronomy, let me give you a couple of points of info about Venus: it is the hottest planet in the solar system with a temperature of at least 462 degrees Celsius and that temperature doesn't particularly change from day to night because it's atmosphere is so dense from a runaway greenhouse effect that it acts like a blanket, trapping all the heat it absorbs from the Sun. 

Oh, and this thick atmosphere by the way, it's incredibly dense; about 90 BAR or 1305 Pounds Per Square Inch. You gloss the internet and you'll learn that a measly 100 PSI of pressure is more than able to force air through your skin and into your bloodstream with lethal implications. Imagine trying to build anything in that? The stress to any machine or even human it would be impossible to build any infrastructure.
Lastly, the clouds are made up of sulfuric acid and it even rains acid on a regular basis so why in The New Colossus do I see vulcanised tyres being stored outside the Nazi base? Hmm.

I'm sorry Wolfenstein, you're a fun game with some great story telling but you are taking some huge liberties when it comes to your depiction of Venus. Naughty Wolfenstein!

CONCLUSION

Space is a fantastic place that holds so many secrets and wonders and I'll probably not live long enough to see them. Thankfully I live in an age of cinema and videogames and can vicariously voyage through space, exploring planets and galaxies and that's great.

We're rather short sighted, all this majesty floating above us in all directions, until I started looking into space and astronomy six months ago, I couldn't remember the last time I looked at the sky in wonder. I took it all for granted, we all do. But one day when the last star dies and all that is left is blackholes slowly radiating away, there will be no wonders. Just an emptiness, never to be filled again.

Gaming Franchises I want revived!

I don't know about you, but I hate it when a beloved franchise suddenly disappears. It happens all too often these days. With tighter budgets, fewer publishers are keen to try and push a new franchise, especially if the initial game doesn't sell huge numbers even though it's well received. Triple A gaming has changed a huge aspect of the gaming industry, some publishers try to make games a "service" a continually supported product that goes on years, similar to MMO games.  

What really baffles me though, is when a game is so successful, or has a stream of successes  just suddenly just disappears! Seeing a franchise vanish into memory is a saddening experience and one I've dealt with too often. 

I can get quite passionate about games these days, I'm an old, nostalgic guy now and the memories I have of these games warms my heart and reminds me of carefree, younger days where I'd play a game all day long and never go out the house. I know it sounds terrible anti-social but when you're hungover on a Sunday it's quite pleasant to vegetate on a videogame and not worry about anything!

Anyhow, without further ado, here is my list of games I'd like to see revived:  

Grandia

The Grandia series was most active in the early 2000's, most people were introduced to the second game that debut on the ill-fated Dreamcast and then was ported to the PS2 where it found a bigger audience.
Grandia's USP is it's unique battle system, a spin on the ATB system where all participants in battle utilise the same ATB bar and can perform actions to delay or even cancel enemy actions. It's a fast paced, strategic battle system and the games are really fun to play. 

Sadly, Grandia didn't seem to survive well once the PS2 era came to an end. It never saw the same success as Final Fantasy or Shin Megami, but they're still great games. 
The last time the world saw an original Grandia game was the Japanese exclusive MMORPG they released back in 2009 and subsequently shut down in 2012. 

It's shocking that this IP has pretty much gone to waste, all we've had since 2009 is the well polished HD port for PC in 2015, but where's the news of a sequel? There was enough demand and great support for the re-release you'd think Game Arts and Gung-Ho would get together and make something new! There're renewed homes for JRPG's now with the PS4, Switch and 3DS embracing the genre. So come on Game Arts, breath life back into the Grandia!

Vanquish

A re-release of this fantastic shooter this year, is criminal. The original game came out back in 2010! It was a hit! You did a Bayonetta 2, Platinum so why no Vanquish sequel?

Vanquish is a game in it's essence. The plot is paper thin and complete nonsense, the characters are over-the-top archetypes but where it shines is the gameplay! It was simply amazing! 
Cover based shooting with a twist, you can slide boost (like Megaman X!) from cover to cover in slow-mo and it absolutely nailed the thrill and speed. It was a highly addictive and fun game to play - the only issue was it was such a short experience! I finished the whole game in one sitting on a Sunday. (with a broken wrist believe it or not.) 

I'm beside myself why Platinum haven't done a sequel to be honest, surely it would be a massive hit? It's got a huge following and people are still discovering it to this day and say to me "how did I miss this game?" The audience is here and waiting Platinum, bring back Vanquish!

Final Fantasy Tactics

Can you believe it's been over ten years since Final Fantasy Tactics A2? Hands down I really enjoyed Tactics Advance 1 and 2, the original is a bit too dated for me these days but I can still reap a ton of fun on the GBA and DS games. The closest I got to a fix for my FFT desires was discovering the brilliant Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together!

With Final Fantasy's rich job class pool to pick from and memorable beasties it's a great world to make SRPGs in and I'm so gutted this sub-series has disappeared. The SRPG genre in general has receded so it was nice to see a Disgaea game get released on the Switch recently, letting the world know there still is an interest in the genre.

Come on Square, dust off Montblanc and get him back to recruiting adventurers! Ivalice is a big place and I look forward to seeing more of it.

Parasite Eve

I have a little confession with this one; I have never finished the first Parasite Eve game. It's because I actually don't find it a particularly good game to play, but I would say it's got more to do with when I played it, than the game itself. Time has not been kind, the first PE game has aged and it's now just a very stiff, repetitive and slightly boring game, in my opinion. 


However, what I yearn for is a true sequel to the second game. I actually replayed PE2 not long ago and had a real good time with it. Yeah, it's aged as well but it's still totally playable. The change of gameplay to a more Resident Evil like style, was a good choice and it's very well balanced with the RPG elements. 

The last PE game released is the 3rd Birthday which came out back in 2010 in Japan and a year later in Europe and America. It's barely recognisable as a PE game. It wasn't what I wanted at all, it changed the story, it overhauled the gameplay so it played more like a twitchy arcade shooter sort of game. It was just such a bizarre design choice.

I'd really like to see Square bring back PE and actually have it connect to the first two games on the Playstation 1. The odds of this ever happening though, I imagine is zero. But hey, a man can dream. 

Dead Space

I love, love, love Dead Space! It's sci-fi, it's horror. It's The Thing meets Alien really, and it's worked almost flawlessly. (Grrr! EA diluted the final game with forced co-op design and universal ammo!) The worst part is, it ended on a complete cliff hanger! The Brethren Moons have awoken and they're at Earth! It's doomsday on a galactic scale!


There has been rumors and mutterings of a reboot and it's all very tantalising, but I'm not so confidant they're going to amount to anything and what a shame, horror games are at the peak of their return. Imagine how great a Dead Space game would look on current gen systems? We could have a superbly, detailed, atmospheric and gross game but alas it doesn't look like these rumors are going to amount to anything. 

Sure Dead Space 3 released back in 2013, so it's still fresher than any other game on this list but with no real sign of fourth entry and the original studio now dismembered, I'm not hopeful we'll ever see another Dead Space.

Megaman X

There are many sub-series in the whole Megaman franchise but for me the best of them all is the X series. It's the one I have the most memories with, having played every entry even the awful seven and the enjoyably cheesy RPG Command Mission.

The Blue Bomber Megaman received some love, but besides that the series has virtually vanished! However, could we see the series continued? X and Sigma appear in the new Marvel VS Capcom game which does mean Megaman is in Capcom's mind, but is he to be relegated to minor appearances in all-star games? Or will X get his own revival? Who knows!

Sadly, like pretty much all titles in this list, I'm not hopeful. Capcom has shown us that's it not bothered much by the Megaman series and rather just port the old collections every now and again. It's like they're sweeping the old scraps off the table and us Megaman fans scamper about gathering them up.

Shame on you Capcom. No more ports, give us Megaman X9!

Half Life

Well, this list would not be complete if I didn't include Half Life on it. Half Life 2 was followed year on year with additional content and has seemingly concluded with Episode 2, that came out over a decade ago! 
Valve these days, seems to spend all it's time on DOTA, Counter Strike and their game selling platform Steam. Half Life it seems, has disappeared into thin air.


It's quite strange, normally game companies milk a successful franchise until it's just a husk of it's former self, but they literally just stuck Half Life on the shelf and forgot about it. 
There are quite a few people who live in hope, that one day they will announce Half Life 3, but lets be real. We will never see Half Life again. 



It's a shame as it's another series that ends on a cliff hanger and people like closure. Game devs, you gotta give us some closure! Even it's crap just wrap it up? 

Well, Gordon's journey may not be over for me and many more, but for Valve, it unfortunately is. 

Farewell, Mr Freeman.

Condemned 

In case you don't remember, Condemned (Criminal Origins) was a brutal FPS brawler for the Xbox 360 back in 2005 and published by Sega. It was a short but compelling game in which you play as a Detective looking for a serial killer with a distinct MO. 

You're investigation takes some very strange turns as you experience hallucinations and encounter crazed psychopaths. The combat was incredibly tense and visceral, guns are sparse and ammo even more so. Instead you're primary weapons are anything lying around you could swing about, like a 2x4 or a sledgehammer. Weapons also had durability properties, forcing the player to constantly scavenge new weapons or face being caught with their pants down.

The sequel was just as dark and violent as the first and introduced some interesting plot twists (secret societies etc), but instead of taking the series any further they just upped and left it. 

Monolith now are more well now for making Lord of The Rings games, but these guys cut their teeth in the mid naughties with FPS horror games Condemned and F.E.A.R. 
However with the new Shadow Of Mordor being released and no sign of the Rings games and media disappearing, it looks like we won't be seeing a follow up to this forgotten and overlooked game.

And that's a damned shame. Condemned is like RE7 and Outlast had a horrific baby, one that really scares the hell out of you. That's a good thing sometimes, right?

Sleeping Dogs

They say let sleeping dogs, but here's one I'd want to kick up the arse and get barking again. Sleeping Dogs is what happens when you mix John Woo with GTA and boy does it work beautifully. 
Sure some of the dialogue and voice work is questionable but you can't beat this game's insane car chases (hopping from car to car is great fun), enjoyable beat'em up sections and solid shooting. The characters were on the basic side but likable and the story was thoroughly enjoyable too. 

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person whose hopeful that we'll see a second game appear, but it's none too hopeful now that United Game Fronts is shutdown. Square still hold the IP and they haven't dropped Tomb Raider or Hitman (which are both great series that like Sleeping Dogs, didn't sell the numbers Square wanted). So who knows? Perhaps some other developer will get the chance?

But the way the industry moves these days, I think Sleeping Dogs will sadly fade away.

Breath of Fire

Let me say first and foremost: I am ignoring BoF6. It's a Japanese exclusive MMO that is in no way spiritually connected to previous games, beside having a character called Ryu and some Dragons. It's also an MMO that was shutdown within a year because of poor ratings and micro transaction sales.

To be honest I should also disregard Dragon Quarter, as that too seemed like a completely different game with the Breath of Fire title slapped on it.

So, really the last true Breath of Fire game came out all the way back in 2000. Seventeen years ago. I have no idea why Capcom chose to destroy this series the way they have, the games were very popular back in the late 90's and JRPG popularity was sky rocketing into the PS2 era. It's positively head scratching how they handled the move to PS2. Dragon Quarter was such a bad game that it literally killed the franchise! 

Breath of Fire games are linear, plot-centric titles with a familiar battle system between the four main titles. It's was winning combo for this JRPG series and they could have done some really great things with new hardware. 

I can't think about it any more it's giving me a headache to be honest, all I know is that the series should get some real good treatment. You don't even have to go mad, BoF would be a perfect fitment for Switch or the 3DS or even the PS4 if they wanted to go all out. But this is Capcom which has a history of abusing it's franchises and then abandoning them, as we'll see.

Onimusha

Oh what? Another Capcom game on this list? Par for the course I suppose.
The Onimusha series had four games through the PS2 lifetime and the first game was a roaring success! Mixing Resident Evil exploration elements with melee combat was a great mix. The first game is still the best iteration of the whole series and has surprisingly aged really well. 

The second title is probably the weakest one in my opinion but I did enjoy the third game which had an interesting idea of mixing feudal Japan and modern France and actually pulled it off well. The final game, Dawn of Souls abandoned the exploration aspect of the first and third game and instead went all out action. It just didn't really feel like an Onimusha title and you could tell Capcom were wavering with a series it suddenly didn't know what to do with.
Aside from the four PS2 games there was oddly enough a SRPG title released on GBA that's so, so and Capcom was going to release a mobile game but that didn't take off.

You see, I think Capcom are really missing a trick here because I think, if you'd make an Onimusha game today, it would work really well as Souls game. Onimusha does play quite slowly, and the combat focuses primarily on evasion, defense and parrying attacks. 

The closest it looks like we'll get to playing anything like a souls Onimusha game is obviously going to be Team Ninja's Nioh. Well, it would sate my appetite if I could beat the second boss...

So you have it, my list of woes and dreams. It was a cathartic experience writing them down, but it hasn't dampened my longing for more Necromorph slaying, Genma slicing, head crab bashing and reploid blasting. Perhaps I'll be surprised and one day one of these franchises will see the light of day again and I'll be forcing my cash into the bosom of some retailer, blinded by nostalgia. But until that day, I'll just have my collection to come back to.

If there are any franchises you miss, feel free to share you pain in the comment section below. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a great weekend everybody!


This blog was written with the aid of Wikipedia and it's contributors, to help me discover the release dates of games and also if any sneaky releases evaded my radar. (Breath of Fire MMO?) It's a great resource we all know and love and so if you're interested, here is a link to their contribution page.

Wikipedia Donation Page

The Playoff! Dead Space 1 vs Dead Space 2!

I'm a massive fan of Dead Space! I genuinely miss the series and every now and again I get teased with hints of an elusive fourth title. It's been over four years since Dead Space 3 was released and with the horror genre regaining it's former popularity, surely it won't be long before we get to grasp that plasma cutter and dismember some more Necromorphs?

But I digress, I want to spar off Dead Space 1 with it's direct sequel Dead Space 2 and decide which is the superior game of the two? Will it be a case of getting stronger or just a reskinning of the original? Let's find out!

I'm going to choose three categories I feel are relevant to the two Dead Space games. I will be omitting plot as DS1 is actually quite light on having it's own unique plot and is more a sort of amalgamation of homages to other sci-fi and horror titles.

It's only from DS2 that the series begins to develop it's own story and brings the Unitology organisation into the forefront.
DS1 is tentative with it's story and gives little in the way of plot other than Isaac needs to get off the Ishimura. So without further ado I will start with perhaps one of the most essential ingredients of a horror game.

ROUND ONE - SCARES!

It cannot be a horror game and not be scary and atmospheric. Dead Space would seem to have the advantage from the off if we look at things from memory. Wandering the cold, desolate halls of the Ishimura for the first time is a nerve racking experience. When Dead Space 2 rolls along we're prepared, we know the score and we know what to expect. The enemy is no longer unknown.

But I'm going to be as objective as I can. DS1 is a slower paced game, it urges caution as you delve deeper into the ever degrading Ishimura.
Necromorphs can be heard clambering through the vents before bursting out and attacking and a lot of the time you'll hear them but you won't see them, until it's too late.
Many Necros play possum and appear dead until you step too close and they spring into attack. That's right, Dead Space was doing this long before The Evil Within.

DS2 on the other hand is a more action and story related affair. Unlike in DS1 Isaac isn't actually primarily concerned with surviving. When he learns there is a Marker on the Sprawl he commits to destroying it.
The Necromorphs become more obstacle and are presented to you in cinematic ways or spawn into well crafted combat environments.

When I play DS2 I don't feel tense throughout, sure there are moments. (Hate those charging Necros that peek around corners, eesh!) But playing through DS1 is a generally unnerving game. Necros often flank you in any given combat scenario and the sense of claustrophobia is palpable. Blood written scrawling on the walls begging for help and nothing is more creepy than when you exit the transit and there are pearly white body bags littered all over the place, surrounded by dimming candles and a chilling rendition of twinkle twinkle little star starts up. It's creepy as hell!

DS2 doesn't really do this, I mean the creepiest location in DS2 is the Unitology centre and that's due to those creepy Stalker Necros as mentioned before. The rest of the game has more in common with Resident Evil 4 in how it plays than DS1.

Ultimately, I always tell people; "Dead Space 2 is to Dead Space 1, as Aliens is to Alien."
The creepy creatures are still there but the atmosphere is less isolated survivor and more one man army blasting through the hordes.
It's not even a bad thing, it's just not scary so...

WINNER - DEAD SPACE 1!

Next on my list is weapons! Dead Space has quite an interesting array of weapons, unlike say Resident Evil or Silent Hill or any other horror game of the time. Isaac primarily utilises engineering equipment to destroy Necromorphs.
Unlike zombies and the whatnot, Necros vulnerability lies in their limbs. Severing them apart is how you ultimately destroy them. Blasting ones head off is little more than an irritant to the monstrous creature!

WEAPONS

Unlike the previous segment which, lets be honest. Is relative, this a direct blow to blow. Who has more and who has the best/most satisfying to use.

Dead Space 1 has seven weapons. Starting with the humble but deceptively overpowered Plasma Cutter all the way up to Necro eradicating contact beam.

Some highlights of the arsenal are the Ripper, which in it's primary firing mode levitates a rotating saw blade in the air for a set amount of time. It's a gory weapon as you walk the destructive blade into Necromorphs and watch their limbs blast off in visceral beauty!
It's secondary is a more cautionary attack which simple blasts a blade at full speed across the room and isn't nearly as satisfying!

I'm also a big fan of this game's shotgun - The force gun! It fires out a kinetic blast that literally rips enemies apart and even if it doesn't outright kill an enemy, it'll at least knock them down for followup attacks. It's secondary attack launches a grenade that detonates a powerful kinetic blast with similarly great results!

There are a couple of turkeys in the mix here and one is the plasma rifle. You'll be punished for relying on shooter favourites here. The plasma rifle eats ammo and isn't as useful in dismembering limbs as other weapons.

The last lame duck is the flamethrower that seems to do next to no damage and doesn't even cause Necros to flinch! You're completely vulnerable whilst using it! Not very good for Necro slaying.

Dead Space 2 has a grand total of twelve weapons, if you include the secret handgun weapon. (which is a foam hand that destroys anything you point it at... told you DS2 isn't as scary).
Most weapons return from DS1 with balancing, but a couple of the new guns are very delectable when it comes to Necro hunting!

Of the new guns, I really like the javelin gun. It's quite strong and it's secondary function is an AOE attack of chain lightning that effects surrounding Necros. It's good for dealing extra damage against larger Necromorphs also. It does takes some skill and practise to optimise it for limb detachment though.

Something that requires less skill is the detonator, which fires proximity mines that do devastating damage. It's the perfect weapon for slow Necros or the Stalkers, specially on higher difficulty settings. As a bonus it's secondary function is it disarms all placed mines for retrieval!

There are still some turkeys unfortunately, the pulse rifle is buffed up and now enjoys a secondary function as a grenade launcher but unfortunately the flamethrower is still pretty meh. The new addition the rivet gun is pretty underpowered  however and is just surpassed by so much else available.

The plasma cutter is still beastly and more than capable of being your sole weapon through the main game. But then again, would that really be much fun?
Having extra weapons adds to the variety and therefore fun factor. Coupled with the weapon balancing of all the existing weapons returning from DS1 prove that DS2 has the superior arsenal with even more ways to rip Necros apart!

WINNER - DEAD SPACE 2!!!

We're on to the third category now and it's the real stars of the show; the Necromorphs!

The hideously mutated humans and animals of the Dead Space universe are collectively known as Necromorphs and they come in various forms with differing methods of killing.
Stalkers are your most standard Necro and attempt to flank Isaac at every opportunity, either by sneaking up behind him or bursting from nearby vents.

Other notable Necromorphs are the twisted Lurkers, infected toddlers really, that sprout three tendrils and fire barbs at you. Dead Space 2 introduced Pukers that well... puke at you! And did I mention their gastric insides have sunken down into their left leg! Last but not least, we have the Regenerator and it's DS2 equivalent the Uber Morph! Nothing is more terrifying than a Necro that regrows it's limbs!

One of my personal favourite Necromorphs is found in DS2 and it's the Tormentor!
This Necromorph is encountered several times in Dead Space 2 and it has one of the best intros of all the games bosses in my opinion!
Isaac falls into one of the Sprawls many maintenance tunnels and is immediately set upon by the Tormentor! It chases you up the tunnel as you blast open the maintenance doors and then bam! The Earth Gov attack craft appears and blows a hole through the colony! Isaac and the Tormentor get sucked out into the vacuum of space! It becomes almost silent, only the sounds from within Isaac's suit can be heard.
They crash into the craft, the Tormentor's powerful claws grasping for Isaac! It begins inadvertently pulling missiles off the craft and Isaac cunningly shoots one point blank in the Necros face destroying the creature and the Earth Gov forces in one blow.

What a buzz! What a thrill! DS2 is full of these heart pumping set pieces but that's not what we're here about. We have to decide who has the best roster of Necromorphs. It's undoubtedly going to be Dead Space 2. There's more bang for your back here, the Puker alone is a major boost for both disgust and horror. The chilling macabre children that chase Isaac on mass, I mean DS2 showed some truly grisly iterations of the Necromorph species. So thus...

WINNER - DEAD SPACE 2!!!

So Dead Space 2 looks the clear winner but I'm giving Dead Space 1 a chance with the wildcard category:

WILDCARD - IS IT REALLY SURVIVAL HORROR?

Here's a strange one and you may be thinking "huh"? But both games are listed as Survival Horror, which is a broad term to say the least. One of the biggest criticisms for either game is that in standard difficulty they're both pretty easy. Ammo is quite plentiful, both games challenge you to finish them using the one gun and it's quite easy!

Health pickups are also prevalent in both games and by the end I had shed loads of surplus items stored up.
It's evident we're not going to find survival in either game's default difficulty so it must lay in the harder modes. Both offer a hard mode but it's actually not that big a difference! Damage received is higher sure, but it doesn't take much more ammo to obliterate your foes and some guns are so overpowered you can laugh in the face of Necros.

However, DS2 sports a fourth mode: Hardcore. It's a perma-death mode, one fatality and it's back to the start and also affords you only three saves! It's pretty tough, in the easier modes death is virtually weightless with so many checkpoints saving you from repeating long sections.
Hardcore mode is the closest the Dead Space series gets to survival horror, truly upping the stakes. And so without further ado...

WINNER ALL ROUND - DEAD SPACE 2!!!

Sequel syndrome is a miss here, Dead Space 2 truly expands on the original and takes the series further. More and better weapons, more Necros, tighter gameplay controls and better combat scenarios all add up for one amazing rollercoaster ride that is damn near perfection. At least in my opinion any way.

Both games are worth your time and if you've never played them I urge you do. They're not as intense as other horror games like say, Resident Evil 7 or some of the Silent Hill games but definitely a joy. If you like Alien and The Thing then this is the game for you!

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Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!