@Meanlucario
Dead Space 2 improved on DS1 on practically everything, yet without the solid successful entry that was Dead Space, there wouldn’t be anything to build on.
Dead Space was a breakthrough. All of it was novel. Dead Space 2 just expanded upon and polished it. That novelty carried the bulk of the whole experience, but ofc once it wears off you’ll find a game that has some issues and
could be better, which DS2 became.
Reason why I have a real soft spot and put Dead Space as
somewhat superior to the objectively superior Dead Space 2 was exactly that combo of novelty and familiarity. Novel because it’s a new IP with new gameplay mechanics and elements, familiar because it plays most space-alien-zombie tropes kinda straight and it doesn’t stray too much from the 3rd person shooter popularized by RE4.
No doubt DS2 was the better of the two, but I really think highly of Dead Space for being a solid, memorable first entry to the IP.
Even little things that is the NICOLEISDEAD twist was such a “holy shit” moment. Not because we didn’t expect her to have been dead, it was that many of us realized too late that it’s being spelled out for us through the title of each chapter. It felt
smart. I felt smart for finally figuring it out.