I actually really enjoyed the original Dead Space game.  I thought it was a really pretty intense, and had a ton of great action and scares.  I really had only two main gripes about it – one, that the story seemed to rely too much on reading documents or watching other things (like the animated prequel) to really get more than “guy in space station kills monsters.”  And two, some of the scenes went from challenging (which is good) to frustrating (which is, quite obviously, bad).

Playing the demo for Dead Space 2, released last week on Xbox Live and Playstation Network, I get much the same impression for Dead Space 2.  The demo shows impressive visuals and new models for the characters, but I don’t see a huge leap forward in gameplay.  Of course, not that there was much wrong with gameplay in the original.

The demo for Dead Space 2 isn’t very long, but you do get a pretty fantastic sequence (which appears to be set in some kind of church) where you fight all sorts of creatures with minimal ammo.  It’s relentless, action packed, and suspenseful.  Not only that, it’s sure to whet your appetite for the new game.  A video at the beginning of the demo brings you up to speed, telling the story of the original better than the original game actually did.  It gives me high hopes that the new game will focus on story more than the original.

The promise of Dead Space 2 is that we’re going to get more action and less focus on horror.  While I don’t see that in the demo, video footage of the new game does show plenty of action, including some  cool looking jetpack action.  Dead Space 2 is due out on Xbox 360 and PS3 on January 25th, 2011.  Read more at the official site.