Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2

Developers
	Visceral Games
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Visceral Engine
Release dates
Windows	January 25, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	87
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC, Cross-game bonus
Microtransactions	Time-limited
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter, Survival horror
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Horror, Sci-fi, Space
Series	Dead Space

Dead Space
Dead Space	2008
Dead Space 2	2011
Dead Space 3	2013
Dead Space (2023)	2023

Key points

In-game Vsync option caps frame rate at 30 FPS.

Suffers from poor mouse input. See Raw mouse input fix.

Game may crash at start-up if CPU has Logical Processors above 8. Disable SMT Mode / Hyper-Threading in BIOS.^{[citation needed]}

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Released on 2 DVDs. TAGES Solidshield v2.0.3.0 DRM. All retail versions require signing into an EA account in-game. This unlocks a copy of the game on Origin for that EA account.
Origin		Included with EA Play. Manual link for EA App purchase.
Steam		Included with EA Play (Steam). TAGES Solidshield DRM. EA account sign-in can be skipped in the Steam version for singleplayer but is still required for multiplayer.
Amazon.com
(unavailable)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Humble Store (unavailable)

All digital versions activate on Origin.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Cross-game bonus	A savefile from Dead Space 1 unlocks the Refurbished Plasma Cutter.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Hazard Pack	Integrated in Update 1.
Martial Law Pack	Integrated in Update 1.
Supernova Pack	Integrated in Update 1.
Collector's Edition	Includes: Zealot Suit and Zealot Force Gun.
Ignition Rewards	Reward for completing console exclusive Dead Space - Ignition. Can be unofficially unlocked on PC, see Conduit rooms not accessible.
Refurbished Plasma Cutter	Reward for having a Dead Space save file.
Preorder bonus	Allows to use Rivet Gun both in singleplayer or multiplayer. Unavailable to purchase. Was a bonus for preordering at GameStop.

Buying this Zealot Suit would cause the Elite Security Suit to disappear from the Safe (Can not retain 2 suits together). See Save game editor

The Dead Space 2: Severed story and Outbreak multiplayer maps package DLC are not available on the PC.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

May cause the main menu to become glitched and unusable.

Delete/rename video
Go to <path-to-game>\movies\ followed by your language's folder. Delete or rename Trio_FrontEnd.vp6, or replace with an empty VP6 video.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\EA Games\Dead Space 2\settings.txt
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47780/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\Dead Space 2\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47780/pfx/

20 save slots available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Visuals settings.

Custom Render Settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD			Subtitles scales poorly with resolution larger than 1280 pixels wide, making them too small in very high resolution. Untested Cheat Engine table for subtitle scaling.
Field of view (FOV)		Use Widescreen Fixer. Changing FOV inhibits selecting things in menus.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		On/off toggle.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		In-game Vsync limits frame rate to 30 FPS for all refresh rates. See the glossary page for proper Vsync.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Very high frame-rate (+30 FPS)potentially causes problems with QTEs, physics (specifically ragdoll), and animations.[citation needed]
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Use GeDoSaTo Tool to force enable vsync

Download and Install GeDoSaTo Tool. Select Edit Settings. Set PresentHz to your monitor's refresh rate i.e PresentHz 60. Set PresentInterval to 1 for single interval vsync. Start the game with GeDoSaTo Tool running in the background. Disable in-game Vsync for the GeDoSaTo Tool to take effect. GeDoSaTo Tool may occasionally fail to work as intended. When that happens, simply restart the game for the Vsync to take effect.

Input

Control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Unable to assign "Aim Mode (Toggle)" function to any mouse button.
Mouse acceleration		See Raw mouse input fix to disable negative mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity		See Raw mouse input fix to fix multiple issues.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Rapidly changes button prompts

Raw mouse input fix

Dead Space 2 suffers from negative mouse acceleration by default.

Mouse sensitivity is dependent on the frame rate, which can lead to inconsistent movement when the performance is not stable. Horizontal sensitivity is also much higher than vertical sensitivity.

Use Dead Space 2 Mouse Fix[citation needed]
This fix will cause the game to crash when playing as a Necromorph in multiplayer. This fix disables the right analog stick when using a controller.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 5.0 output.
Subtitles		Fixed size, does not scale up with resolution
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Fan translation, donwload
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation: download (GGames)
Russian				Retail only. Patch for digital release here. Fan (audio) localization by CGInfo
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		8	Versus 4v4

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		Very poor native support; see Nvidia 3D Vision to fix.
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Devices
3RD Space Gaming Vest

Nvidia 3D Vision

Dead Space 2 has mediocre Nvidia 3D Vision support out of the box.

It has however been modded by HeliX to the point where it can be considered a 3D Vision showcase game. You can play with any convergence and depth.

Use Helix Mod[citation needed]
Install Dead Space 2 3D Vision Fix. If you're playing through Steam or Origin, disable the overlay.

Issues fixed

No suit unlocks for higher difficulty completion

Riot Police Security Suit is unlocked after beating the game at any difficulty.

Normally upon completing the game on Hardcore or Zealot difficulty, you would unlock Soldier Suit^(Hardcore) and Arctic Security Suit^(Zealot). These unlocks do not work properly unless you happen to complete the game in a single playthrough.

This fix can also be used to unlock Hardcore difficulty early without beating the game once prior, by modifying Controls.AcL.X.

Unlock suits and Hardcore difficulty[1]

Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\EA Games\Dead Space 2\. Edit the settings.txt file. Look for the lines containing Controls.AcL.X and Controls.AcL.Y, which dictate achievement progress. These values are shown in hexadecimal. Temporarily convert them into binary (a string of length 32 containing 1s and 0s) to start working on them. Flip bit 17 of Controls.AcL.X to 1 to unlock the Mission Impossible achievement (beat the game on Zealot) and the Arctic Security Suit. Flip bit 14 of Controls.AcL.Y to 1 to unlock the Hard to the Core achievement (beat the game on Hardcore), Soldier Suit, and Hand Cannon. Don't forget to convert the binary back into hexadecimal before saving the settings file. There is no need to apply this fix to the "Made Us Whole" achievement since that one works as intended.

Game won't boot when running CPUs with 10+ cores

Define a custom CPU topology
Has no side effects on the game. This fix is only applicable to linux users, since it depends on functionality present in the proton compatibility layer. Set the WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY environment variable. Configure the steam launch arguments as exemplified: WINE_CPU_TOPOLOGY="4:0,1,2,3" %command%

Use SpecialK to limit the core count

This section may require cleanup to meet basic quality standards. The specific problem is: Some steps are very unclear, some notes are not clear on how to do it, can't the whole ini file lines be skipped and the file just be filled with the OverrideCPUCoreCount line? So, isn't a lot of it superfluous? Also, not linked to SpecialK download (only as the source?) and no actual source provided.. You can help by modifying the article. The discussion page may contain useful suggestions. Has no side effects on the game. The provided configuration file has been tested and is compatible with both Linux and Windows. Set the OverrideCPUCoreCount configuration option to a lower value. This can also be used to enable raw mouse input. Install the latest SpecialK standalone release, and make sure to create a file called default_d3d9.ini in <path-to-game>, with the following contents: [SpecialK.System] ShowEULA=false EnableCEGUI=false GlobalInjectDelay=0.0 Silent=true LogLevel=0 GameOutput=false TraceLoadLibrary=false UseCrashHandler=true [API.Hook] d3d9=true d3d9ex=false d3d11=false OpenGL=false d3d12=false Vulkan=true LastKnown=8 ddraw=false d3d8=false [AMD.ADL] Disable=true [NVIDIA.API] DisableHDR=false Disable=true [Steam.Log] Silent=true [Input.XInput] Enable=false [Input.Gamepad] EnableDirectInput7=false EnableDirectInput8=false EnableHID=false EnableNativePS4=false AllowHapticUI=false [Input.Keyboard] CatchAltF4=false BypassAltF4Handler=false [Compatibility.General] UsingWINE=true AutoLargeAddressPatch=false [FrameRate.Control] OverrideCPUCoreCount=6 [FrameRate.LatentSync] AdaptiveSync=false [Window.System] Borderless=true [Display.Monitor] RememberPreference=false RememberResolution=false [Render.FrameRate] EnableETWTracing=false

On Systems with CPUs that 10+ cores, the game won't start and will show a black screen upon launching and then quit. Affects both AMD and Intel.

Limit Dead Space 2 to one CPU core manually by using the Task Manager[citation needed]
This would need to be done every time the game is launched.

Set Windows to automatically limit the game to one CPU core (for Windows 10 and 11)

This section may require cleanup to meet basic quality standards. The specific problem is: Some steps are very unclear, like launching the 32-bit version instruction in the ADK instructions.. You can help by modifying the article. The discussion page may contain useful suggestions. Download and install the Windows ADK. During installation Windows ADK gives the option to select multiple tools, the only one needed is Compatibility Administrator. Launch the 32-bit version and select the new database under custom databases. Click the database menu > Create New > Application Fix. Provide the full path of the DS2.exe and give it a name of choosing. Skip past the compatibility mode options. In compatibility fixes select ProcessorCountLieForHybridCPU. Save the database from the Database menu and give it a name when prompted. Select File > Install. Now the fix will automatically be applied whenever the game is launched.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	RwAudioCore

Activation limits

EA limits Dead Space 2 to being authorized on a maximum of five computers at a time. The games must be authorized on a computer before you can play it. De-authorizing the game on a computer does not uninstall it.

To reauthorize the game on a given computer, simply launch the game on that computer while being connected to the Internet.

See Solidshield

De-authorize game (Windows Vista and Windows 7)
Click on the Windows button on the Windows Taskbar. Select All Programs. Click on Games. Click on Games Explorer. Right-click on the Dead Space 2 icon. Click on Dead Space 2 - Deauthorize this machine.

De-authorize game (Windows XP)
Click on the Start menu on the Windows Taskbar. Select All Programs Find the EA Games folder. Roll over the Dead Space 2 folder. Click on the Dead Space 2 - Deauthorize this machine option.

Uninstall the game[citation needed]

Save game editor

A tool by VakhtinAndrey that allows players to modify their Dead Space 2 game save data. Backing up the original save files is recommended before using this tool. Can be downloaded here.

Can unlock access to items in the PC version that were previously exclusive to the console versions, which are the Hacker Suit and Hacker Contact Beam (required a save file from Dead Space: Ignition, which is not on PC), the Zealot Suit and Zealot Force Gun (exclusive to Collector's Edition owners), Rivet Gun (Pre-order bonus).

Conduit rooms not accessible

There are four special rooms in the game that are unlocked by completing the Dead Space Ignition tie-in, which is not available for Windows.

In order to make this workaround effective, you must have beaten the game at least once.^{[citation needed]}

Buying this Hacker Suit would cause the Elite Advanced Suit to disappear from the Safe (cannot retain 2 suits together).

If need to intall any fanmade translation patchs which modify DS2DAT3.DAT packed file, replace before installing localization.

Use unlocker (batch method)
Download Dead Space 2 Conduit for PC (PCGW mirror) Extract the contents to the installation folder. Run DS2Patcher.bat to apply the fix.

Use unlocker (manual method)
Go to the installation folder. If you have a DS2DAT0.DAT, you'll need to rename all existing DS2DAT#.DAT to one number higher. For example: DS2DAT0.DAT → DS2DAT1.DAT, DS2DAT6.DAT → DS2DAT7.DAT, etc. Download Dead Space 2 Conduit for PC (PCGW mirror). Extract DS2DAT0_CONDUIT4PC.DAT to the installation folder, and rename it to DS2DAT0.DAT. Start the game and load any save file.

Weapons/Armor unlocked at start

In the latest Dead Space 2 version most of DLC items are available for free in the shop, thereby negating the need to find schematics and decreasing the difficulty. The simplest workaround is either to ignore them, or buy all and store in safe. The methods below remove them entirely.

The Elite Engineering Suit will not unlock for subsequent play-throughs, Save games will not be recorded, and deducted, properly when playing the Single Player Campaign in Hardcore mode.

Remove the DLC (universal)
For Steam/Origin: turn automatic game updates off. Download executable from EA site here. Make a backup copy of the currently installed executable and copy the downloaded .exe into the Dead Space 2 folder. Reset the keybindings to default. Notes Compatibility with fixes is unknown.

Remove the DLC (Steam)[citation needed]

Download the original executable here. Make a backup copy of the currently installed executable and copy the downloaded .exe into the Dead Space 2 folder. Reset the keybindings to default. Notes It recommended that you use the newer .exe for subsequent play-throughs, as it properly unlocks some bonus items that you normally get for completing the game. The Origin version includes the DLC, and the above fix no longer works. This exe is not compatible with Dead Space 2 Mouse Fix and Widescreen Fixer.

Remove the DLC (for Origin version)

Make progress to first savepoint and save. Turn automatic game updates off in Origin. Download the Dead Space 2 v1.0 FairLight Fixed EXE here. Make a backup copy of the currently installed executable and copy the downloaded .exe into the Dead Space 2 folder. Delete AppData\Local\EA Games\Dead Space 2\controls.rmp or reset keybindings to default. Notes If you are experiencing "Solar Array Elevator Glitch", just exit to main menu and then hit continue. It recommended that you use the newer .exe for subsequent play-throughs, as it properly unlocks some bonus items that you normally get for completing the game. Works with Dead Space 2 Mouse Fix. Makes the game crash when having WidescreenFixer running and engaging its hotkey.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP2, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 4000+	Intel Core 2 Duo AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB (XP) 2 GB (Vista, 7)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	10 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0c compatible