Dead Space 2/YMMV

• Accidental Innuendo: In a later level of the game (in which you revisit the Ishimura), there are ultraviolet floodlights set up to aid decontamination crews in scrubbing up bloodstains and such. Of course, most male gamers will read something different into white stains under black lights. (The fact that they are huge just makes it that much funnier.) (The stains. The stains are huge, not... Get your mind out of the gutter!)
• Artificial Brilliance: The Stalkers are programmed very well- they're capable of playing long hide-and-seek games and flanking effectively.
• Crosses the Line Twice: New Necromorph class the Pack, which are undead children. If Isaac is grappled by one and manages to shake it off, he'll punch the Pack's head off.
  • They managed to cross the line at least two more times in the sequel, now with a suicide bomber variant of the Lurker, the Crawler. Yes, folks: a dead baby actively tries to blow you up with an internal bomb. Its introduction? Isaac spying an obviously traumatized woman as he passes through the elementary school, that coo-cooes a crawler into her arms, and cradles it lovingly...which then goes kaboom.
• Cutscene Incompetence: When Isaac finally meets Daina face-to-face, he gets seized by two unarmed Unitologist staff. Hard to believe that he's unable to resist after dismembering and beheading monsters that took over the station a couple of hours ago.
  • This gets contested frequently, as Isaac has never demonstrated any kind of willingness to harm humans before (or after; you are unable to attack the security forces when they show up) that point. Isaac has also demonstrated sufficient intelligence to use it as a "Get my questions answered, then resist" situation.
  • Isaac also has a strange compulsion to remove his helmet any time someone's trying to stab him in the face, though this may just be a flaw in the design of his armour.
    • Supposedly, this is used to reflect upon his subconscious sucidal behavior. It makes sense; most other men would either kill themselves, go insane, or both after seeing the things Isaac has. Of course, he is kind of insane.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Stalkers, which are just about the cheapest enemies you'll ever find. They play hide-and-seek behind boxes (and there are always boxes), poking their head around corners just to see if you're still there. Then they charge at you with ridiculous speed, knock you down if you connect, then run away so fast that you need near-perfect reflexes to land a limb blow. Even if you do manage to blow away their legs, they get even cheaper. If you don't kill them quickly, they crawl at you (faster than most enemies can run) and swipe at you continuously until you die, which will be quickly. They also come in groups of 4 or 5, at least. Better have upgraded that stasis unit; you will need it.
  • Leapers (the two handed enemies with a spiked tail) were an annoyance in the first game, since their odd design makes getting a good limb hit in somewhat difficult but they weren't that quick or damaging. This game decided to rectify both those problems, turning Leapers into speedy little death-dealers that come out of nowhere. At least they're mercifully rarer than in the first game.
  • The Pukers, too, at least on higher difficulties. Probably the only Necros that dismemberment has no effect on (cutting the arms is pointless, and taking their head or legs off will only make them a little less dangerous), their vomit does a lot of damage, the vomit globs they shoot from a distance will slow you down a lot for at least 10 seconds, and when you cut the limbs off up close the puke goes everywhere and ends up splattering on you. Plus they do more damage than probably any other Necro, except maybe a Divider's head, when they grab you.
• Game Breaker: The Contact Beam is impractical for use on a regular basis against standard enemies, so it's not a total gamebreaker. It is, however, a boss breaker. Brutes go down in two hits if you target their limbs, and even the final boss on hardcore mode is no match for the Contact Beam. The true game-breaker is the Hand Cannon that unlocks for beating Hardcore Mode, but by then, you've already beaten the game every way it can be beaten, so no harm there.
  • Not entirely true. Zealot mode has more difficult enemies than Hardcore mode, whose enemies are on par with Survivalist difficulty, and it's not necessary to complete Zealot before Hardcore.
• Goddamned Bats: The Pack, depending on your surroundings. They're manageable most of the time, but there are occasions when you'll find them pouring out from several directions with no decent cover. Perhaps in acknowledgement of this, the final boss spawns endless waves of them to attack you (since she has a One Hit KO attack and you need the ammo).
• Hell Is That Noise: Worse than before!
  • The "incoming Necromorphs" Scare Chord.
  • The low-pitched screeching sound that you start hearing as soon as another Marker-Nicole hallucination appears.
  • The distorted screaming sound Nicole makes if she grabs you when you fight her.
• Memetic Mutation: The phrase "the screws go tight all around", which is part of a sequence in which Isaac has to stick a needle into his eye. If you miss, it goes straight into his skull.
• Misaimed Marketing: The Your Mom Will Hate It campaign, which appears to be directed at preteens for a game made for adults.
• Paranoia Fuel: So, the Red Marker is finally destroyed...and the Titan Marker, too. How many are left? At least eleven.
  • There's one scene where you see a familiar hole in a wall, and hear a familiar wail. No giant tentacle bursts out to grab you this time, but it definitely brings back bad memories...
  • Lampshaded when Isaac hallucinates another repeat attack near the beginning of that level.
• Rule of Symbolism: The final boss battle may be a reference to certain movie about a man driven to suicide by some demon kids, add haunting Nicole tempting Isaac into abandon all hope and you get some Fridge Horror bonus. Isaac is even pierces through his hand seconds earlier.
• Scenery Gorn: Titan Station is a beautiful place with lots of detailed environments, covered in blood and rubble and things on fire. The black-lit sections of hallway (to show biological matter on the Ishimura's medical decks) are gorgeous.
• Special Effect Failure: The in-game engine is pretty bad when it comes to rendering objects at a distance. One glaring example is during Chapter 7 if you look down at the station, where it is obviously just a 2D image.
• Tear Jerker: Invoked by the video chat between Isaac and Nicole in the intro. Seeing how happy Isaac was in that scene really highlights just how much he's lost as a result of the events in the first game. It's also implied throughout the game that Nicole was one of the only things in his life that actually made him happy.
  • The scene after Isaac destroys the Titan Marker. The whole facility is crashing down around him, and all he does is sit down with a look of complete hopelessness and despair, resigning himself to death.
    • Definitely YMMV, as the scene in question can also be interpreted as Isaac, having destroyed the Marker he created, sitting down with a look of distant satisfaction, as in "I did it. It's over."
• That One Level: The decontamination chamber in the Ishimura returns. The chamber itself will let you off without incident the first time. The hallway past that more than makes up for it. It's perpetually dark. There are Pukers and Stalkers (the latter at least missing legs, thankfully) in addition to normal enemies. There are Elite Mooks that blend in with the darkness. Enemies just spawn out of nowhere, often behind you. It's cramped, which makes it that much easier for them to hit you. Did I mention that it's dark? Because I can't stress that enough. Then you go back to the chamber, which starts up again so you can be properly ambushed like last time.
• The Woobie: Everyone with more than a few minutes of screentime has their moments. Isaac, Ellie, that guy that holds a knife to Isaac's neck in the beginning, hell even Stross before he goes really crazy and you're forced to kill him and even one right after that if you get the right audio tape.
  • He's not even really trying to kill Isaac or Ellie. He's just desperate for someone else to see what he's hallucinating so they'll be able to deal with it. The accusing stare of his dead wife is too much for him to handle; like Isaac says, in his mind, he's not attacking you, he's running from his own guilt.