Insurgent survival horror franchise ‘Dead Space’ has a sequel out, and it’s determined to go down as one of the most gruesomely violent Anti-Zombie games of all time, with a new special black mark for promoting violence against the most innocent and vulnerable Undead population, that of Zombie children:

Dead Space 2 is not just “zombies in space.” It is a space odyssey about the slow descent of one’s mind into madness and the visceral Lovecraftian monstrosities whose appearances boggle the mind.

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For the uninitiated, “Necros” aren’t like your average zombie. If Isaac shoots a Necro in the head, all he has done is made it angrier and faster. Cutting off both legs forces the Necro to adapt, crawling (very quickly) toward Isaac with bone blades protruding from its arms.

Only complete dismemberment will put one of these creatures down for good.

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Make no mistake, the horror in this game is unlike anything else experienced. It is not for the faint of heart.

You’ll witness packs of toddlers mutate before your very eyes. Hands that once held toys and crayons lust for nothing more than the drip of your blood between their fingers.

You’ll witness the desperation of a man as he fights to save his elderly mother from the undead threat, only to be dragged clawing and screaming into the darkness himself.

You’ll witness the relief of a mother embracing her young son, only for him to roar and tear out her loving heart.

Ghastly, repugnant, paranoid? Yes. But what’s worse is that we seem to be seeing an arms race in debasement in Anti-Zombie games. Whereas Anti-Zombie movies have moved in precisely the opposite direction, humanizing and studying their Zombie subjects more as the years go on, though not nearly enough, Anti-Zombie games have taken the opposite tack. Dead Rising and its sequel make murdering virtual Zombies into slapstick; Dead Space ups the gore to despicable levels and targets even more vulnerable Zombie populations.

Shocking, and unfortunate.

If you’re a brave soul and want to play this game, say, for us so that I can avoid the nausea, it’s available on Amazon.

Tags: Videogames

This entry was posted by John Sears on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.