Dead Space 2 Preview

But, Visceral Games reckons, in the midst of a particularly savage onslaught, what you really wanted to do was hack off their arms, bludgeon them to death, then pin them to a wall with their own murderous appendages. The key focus of the developer's offering at the EA Showcase in London this week was 'Strategic Dismemberment 2.0' and the many new ways there are to torture your aggressors in its forthcoming survival-horror sequel.

Skipping quickly over the routine claims about more intuitive controls, improved shooting and tweaks to make the TK and stasis systems a little more instant and fun, Dead Space 2 will be all about giving players maximum creativity in the way they approach a combat situation. "We let you take a bit more initiative," says a Visceral representative, before demonstrating the simple pleasures to be had by impaling your aggressors and nailing them to the wall.

It doesn't end there. "You can use alternative fire to electrocute or ignite them," he says, before creating an area effect on-screen by electrifying a javelin fired into the ground. "We have more interactive and reactive environments, and have gone out of our way to make sure Isaac can interact with many more things in the world." We're shown the vastly improved damage system that lets you "tear the s*** out of the place", and how a stray bullet can strike an item and create a weapon that you can use to your advantage.

That guy really needs to calm down.

In one section, we see how a bit of cunning and understanding of the environment allows you to take out a pack of five necromorphs with just two bullets. First you shoot out an external window to harness the powerful vacuum of space to suck out an entire group, but if you're not careful you then get dragged into the cold void yourself. On a second attempt, we see how you can save yourself by shooting the shutter activation right button before Isaac is dragged to his doom.

Plenty of nightmarish new necromorphs have been thrown into the sequel, including the sneaky Stalkers. Said to work in packs with their mates, these pointy-limbed freaks constantly try to outflank you and expose your weaknesses, but we soon show them the error of their ways by impaling them with their own slasher blade arms.

Elsewhere we catch a brief glimpse of the Crawlers, who can be turned against other necromorphs by shooting off their heads. Cysts, meanwhile, attach themselves to any surface and shoot out exploding pods whenever anyone gets close. "You have to look and listen so you can grab a pod in stasis to use it against them," apparently.

You hear a distinctive noise anytime you're in a Cyst's vicinity, so even when obscured it will be possible to tread carefully to avoid them. With careful timing you can also use them to detonate approaching necromorphs and save yourself precious ammo.

With the quickfire presentation rattling through only the topline information, the selection of conventional weapons on offer are largely glossed over, but we can expect a similar array of futuristic technology, with the alt-fire abilities, rotation and upgrade systems that proved so effective in the first game.

Visceral certainly won plenty of admirers for its technical composure last time around, and this week's demonstration suggests the sequel will live up to the lofty expectations placed upon it. It's set three years after the events of the original on one of Saturn's moons, and you get to explore the depths of a mining facility as well as a space city known as Sprawl.

Promising the requisite subtle tweaks and improvements, it's "more organic... a very different look, that's still distinctly Dead Space." The already-fantastic visual sheen is embellished further still by heat haze effects, improved lighting and the aforementioned greater interactivity, which lets you bust up just about anything, should you so wish.

As before, HUD elements will be beautifully integrated via holographic projections and details on your weapons and suit, making an already glorious spectacle less 'videogamey'. Gore is still as uncompromising as ever, with no opportunity passed up to make us wince at the brutality. Guts spill, torsos rip apart. It's wonderfully grisly.

Pregnant limbo dancing babies. All games should have them.

Once again Isaac Clarke will provide the focus of the storyline, but EA reckons he will be much less of an "errand boy" than previously - arguably the one main failing of the original. You also get to know Isaac a bit more in the sequel: "His helmet will retract and you'll get to hear what he says," we're told. "There will be interesting puzzles that relate to his engineer skills, and we'll let players take the initiative."

One of the new mini-games tasks you with overriding a door control system by yanking out the circuit that's controlling it. Delving into a complicated mass of wires, it isn't clear how you succeed, but Clarke gets a nasty electric shock that sends him recoiling in momentary agony when he messes it up, so we'll probably need to figure that one out.

Other plot details are notably sparse, with EA at pains to ensure everything's locked down and unspoiled. Suffice it to say though that "some interesting stuff has gone on", and we can expect narrative consistency and continuity with the other Dead Space properties. "Whether it's the comic books, animated feature, graphic novel, the fiction is completely intertwined."