Two further abilities are Kinesis, which can move or pull objects in the environment including using Necromorph limbs as makeshift projectile weapons, and Stasis, which slows a target's movement for a limited time.

The action takes place on the Sprawl, a space station built by the Earth Government in the remains of Saturn's moon Titan in a period where humanity survived near-extinction due to resource depletion by mining other planets.

The mining colony was funded by the Church of Unitology, a group that worships the Markers as divine and seek an event of physical and spiritual union called Convergence.

[16][17][18] The protagonist is once again Isaac Clarke (Gunner Wright), a Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) engineer who was sent with a team to the Ishimura and narrowly survived the infestation while destroying the Marker and the Necromorphs.

[19] Director Hans Tiedeman (Lester Purry) is an Earth Gov administrator in charge of the Sprawl who initiates a project to build another Marker in an attempt to control its power and opposes Isaac.

Minor characters include Franco Delille, a hacker sent by Daina to rescue Isaac; and Foster Edgars (Rick Cramer), an Earth Gov scientist driven insane by the Marker.

[19] The downloadable content (DLC) story Dead Space: Severed follows Sergeant Gabe Weller, a Sprawl security officer who races to save his wife Lexine Murdoch from both the Necromorphs and EarthGov.

[23] Describing their relationship with Electronic Arts, producer Shereif Fattouh said Visceral Games was given a large amount of autonomy as they had built up a lot of good will and internal support due to the success and quality of their projects.

[20] The team's aim was to create a more polished version of Dead Space which would appeal to a larger audience; this included incorporating action elements, and making controlling Isaac easier.

The main additions were destructible environments, included to offer gameplay variety and increase the realism, and launching objects at enemies, which allowed for players to fight when out of ammunition.

[24] The decision was also driven by the wish for Isaac to be a sympathetic character, to be able to interact properly with the game's larger cast, and to show more independence and agency compared to the original where he was generally following orders.

[52] During the script drafting, an extensive subplot surrounding Tiedmann was planned; as an unwilling participant in the Marker project, he would have suffered from Marker-driven hallucinations involving survivors revealed to be long dead, giving his arc a tragic conclusion.

[20] Unitology remained a core part of the story, with Beaver describing its portrayal as both a general commentary on how organised religion and cults could cause harm, and adding detail for players about its role in the game's universe.

[66] The trauma created by the transformations were selected to play into common fears people had around something happening to a body part, alongside fractures and bodily warping being more realistic and disturbing than something like wounds from a laser gun.

[69] Boyd highlighted the importance of sound design in evoking horror, citing a section where Isaac travels through a residential area and hears noises from inside the sealed apartments.

Dead Space 2 was both her first role in a video game, and her first time using motion capture, which Henry found odd at first due to the lack of visible props and the need to imagine the scenes she was filming with Wright.

He drew inspiration from classical music from the first half of the 20th century, citing Krzysztof Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima as a point of comparison for the game's focus on strings.

[29] As part of the marketing, Electronic Arts partnered with the design group Renegade Effects to create a real-life version of Isaac's RIG suit, which had become an icon of the series.

[77] A notable and controversial campaign was a video series using the slogan "Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2"; a group of women were selected based on their conservative attitudes and recorded seeing some of the more violent parts of the game.

[103][104][105] A prequel novel Dead Space: Martyr, written by B. K. Evenson, was released on July 20, 2010, by Tor Books; it focuses on the original Black Marker and the role of Michael Altman in Unitology's foundation.

[2][121] GameTrailers noted a lack of development in the cast and found the visions of Nicole wore thin over time, calling the overall plot forgettable until the final section of the game.

[7] IGN's Greg Miller praised the more personal focus of the narrative also noting the rest of the cast as enjoyable but found the mission structure lacking and central plot surrounding the Marker fairly weak.

[3] Francesca Reyes, writing for the United States edition of Official Xbox Magazine, enjoyed the story's presentation and Isaac's interactions with the cast, though she felt the later narrative and the handling of Nicole's appearances bogged down the experience.

[122] Nguyen enjoyed the improvements to Isaac's movement and found the gameplay solid, but faulted the later sections for repetitive combat scenarios and having generic mission objectives.

[118] Parkin enjoyed the increased pace of Isaac's character growth and the tension created by the aggressive enemy types, with his main complaint being the number of quick time events used during some sections.

[3] Reyes called the gameplay the real star of the experience, praising its improved pacing and mechanics while noting Necromorph spawn points growing predictable over time.

[126] Petit praised the pace of gameplay and felt the sound and graphics were equal to the original, but disliked the recycling of environments from the main game and found the story uninteresting.

As Isaac starts to display anxiety, the player retakes control of the protagonist and is required to carefully lower the needle into his eye by lining up the laser in the correct position.

[131] Carlos Zotomayor of Game Rant considered the scene one of the tensest series moments, highlighting the lack of in-game music and heartbeat monitor for Isaac Clarke as increasing the player's tension to succeed in their task.

[137][138] Speaking in 2017, Wilson said the game ultimately sold four million units worldwide, but the combined marketing and production budget together with fees to Microsoft and Sony meant Electronic Arts considered it a commercial failure.