Bought Dead Space 2 the other day, played about 3.5 hours last night...
The game is very slick, some of the scare sequences are muuuuch cooler than the first. Not sure I quite like the pacing of the fights, though - the first game was very good at alternating terrifying, edge of your seat combat with tense moments, whereas things seem to be muuuuch more lethal in this game, and the numbers of enemies tend to be dramatically higher.
I'm just short of halfway through the game already, which is a little sad, because the first game had a bit more time spent in its' levels, but I've reached a sort of turning point in the story, so maybe things will slow down a bit and go for more of the cool setpiece battles from the first game, instead of the constant rain of enemies in the same few damn corridors.
My main complaint is the plot so far - I really, truly liked the plot of Dead Space. It was simple, no absolutely crazy 'they did what' moments, their portrayal of insanity and dementia was, as far as I am aware, relatively consistent. There were a few times you got to 'interact' with other members of the cast directly, and you occasionally had a place to catch your breath and, y'know, be in human contact. So far in Dead Space 2 every single person I've come into contact with has immediately died, and only one or two of the individuals contacting me by radio have recurred. There're plenty of necromorphs all the fuck over the place, but no explanation (thus far) of how they've gotten in, none of the indications of a concerted defense that a solitary mining ship was able to put up in a few hours (and this looks more like it's been days). I suppose it's not a spoiler to say that there are plot twists and varying levels of betrayal, but I would appreciate something of what was described in the initial interviews about the game, that you'd be interacting with survivors and maybe not directly benefiting from their aid, but certainly having them involved in the game.
As I said, roughly half way through. I hope to be pleasantly surprised. I haven't been able to afford any of the new weapons, maybe they completely revolutionize the combat in ways that make up for the above... We'll see.
In unrelated news, I own Left 4 Dead I & II on XBox 360. Does anyone else here play those in a medium that is not Steam-based?
