Soundtrack Review: Dead Space 2 (2011)

Dead Space 2 Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the video game score Dead Space 2 by Jason Graves.

"If you enjoy action horror where strings feels all over the place, a psychotic coctail like this will quench your thirst."

The horror game genre is one very exciting are where there are far too few games. Luckily there are games like Dead Space and Dead Space 2 to fill the void. These are excellent games that shows how it could and should be done. To add to the tension, a very good soundtrack is needed. Like in the first Dead Space, Jason Graves is composing for the sequel. The Necromorphs are back for a second time and Isaac Clarke has to find out why. Get ready for some chills with Graves score.

Track List

You Know What To Expect

If you have heard the first score, then you immediately knows what to expect, more chills. There's no denying it's a very scary score to listen to even outside the context of what it was meant to complement, the game itself. Inside the game, like any horror movie, the soundtrack has to be incredibly effective and luckily it is.

'Welcome To The Sprawl' is a great example of what can be found on Dead Space 2. It sets the tone with a very moody and dark cello. 'Canonical Aside' follows the same pattern, kind of like quite before the storm. It soon returns to what I like to call typical horror music. You know what I mean, the all over the place strings created just for one purpose, to scare the living s*** out of you. It works, it really does, but you have to be really into it and of course it's 100 times better when you actually play the game.

The listening experience highly relies on whether you like horror music or not, the stereotypical kind. For me, I prefer the style of for example Alan Wake who went on from the dark and mysterious cello to evolve into real themes and heartfelt music. It still was scary, but Petri Alanko went another way about it. That's modern horror scoring while Dead Space 2 continues the "old school" of horror scoring. Cues like 'The Cassini Towers' work very well and is the scariest track on the album. The whispering voices is something I wish was used more as it really gives me the creeps.

Conclusion

Whether you will like it or not relies on your affinity for the game and your taste in horror music. If you enjoy action horror where strings feels all over the place, a psychotic cocktail like this will quench your thirst. If on the other hand you enjoy a horror score like Alan Wake you might want to look elsewhere. I appreciate this score, it is creepy, but it's still feels a little stale to me. It doesn't quite take me where I want to be.

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