Dead Space 2

18 cert, EA, PS3 (also Xbox 360, PC) *****

GAME OF THE WEEK: Dead Space 2is everything you hoped for and more – eerie and fast-paced, it sucks you right in from the start.

Picking up a few years after the original, Isaac Clarke is alive and in the medical wing of the Sprawl, a colony on Titan. But the alien organism that created the necromorphs is back and spread throughout the colony, mutating dead humans into monsters.

As Isaac escapes through the facility with the help of the mysterious Daina, you get to see just what the necromorphs have wrought. There are abandoned suitcases left behind by fleeing colonists, a perfect snapshot of life interrupted – if it wasn’t for the dead bodies and blood everywhere, and necromorphs that have a habit of bursting out of walls and seemingly abandoned shops, that is.

Isaac is also slowly losing his mind, which means lots of hallucinations at unexpected moments. Just when you think your nerves can’t take any more stretching, the lift stops, plunging you into darkness and a horrified Isaac’s dead girlfriend appears.

Luckily he has weapons on hand. The stasis power is great for slowing down enemies, although you have to be quick. It also provides a handy way to get through motion-activated doors.

Telekinesis, meanwhile, works for everything from removing panels from your escape route to picking up the dismembered necromorph limbs and impaling the rampaging monsters with them. And you can upgrade weapons and powers with power nodes found throughout the levels.

The soundtrack and sound effects add to the atmosphere. The residential levels of Titan Towers are home to a cacophony of panicked screams and shouts of survivors fleeing, the sounds of an abandoned metropolis and the terrifying screams of the necromorphs as they hunt down the remaining humans and kill them.

Add to this the fact that graphics are so good that it's sometimes difficult to tell when a cut scene has taken over, and you have all the makings of an excellent game. Dead Space 2doesn't disappoint.

• Read more at irishtimes. com/blogs/minibyte/dead-space-2